Old versus new: Khaleesi Daenerys vs Astapor Daenerys

My first Daenerys costume was well constructed, even if I didn't have the correct leggings, and my wig wasn't the right colour. In hindsight, platinum blonde looks so much nicer than white for this costume.

I also managed to get much nicer photos of my costume this time around. I didn't have the problem of my hair peeking out from under the wig, because I didn't braid the fringe (also, my hair is significantly shorte0.

 Getting better shoes also helped. Those Uggs just didn't look right. I'm still very pleased iwth the construction of the top and skirt of the Khaleesi costume.

Daenerys Season 3 Blue Dress Part 2

Once the mockup was done, I cut out the lining pieces from a linen-type of material, then pinned them over a dress form to see what they looked like. I borrowed this form from my mum, and it was vital for this project. I then cut out the pieces from the shiny blue material (some polyester material, as I found it in the furnishing section). 

I overlocked all the pieces together, except for the back. This was because I wanted to make the back circle very smooth so there would be no raw edges. I used Addie Marie's tutorial and it worked brilliantly.

The next step was adding the decorative stitches on the dress skirt. In the photos they look like running stitches, but it was hard to be certain. I used a longer stitch on my sewing machine and sewed many straight lines in a darker blue thread. This technique also had the benefit of firmly attaching the lining and outer layer together, and creating a nice texture. Pippa cat helped by looking pretty.

 I then covered the hem with bias tape, and also turned over the top edge of the skirt pieces and sewed it down. One skirt piece is attached to the bodice, and the other is completely separate, and is held round my waist with snaps. 

 The next step was sewing the darts. The darts I initially drafted were not accurate, so instead I pinched the darts and pinned them until they looked right, then basted and sewed them. There are no darts in the back, only in the front.

 Once the main dress was finished, I had to make the cross over straps in the front. This meant a lot of smocking. It took about 2 or 3 days to finish all the smocking just for these pieces. I followed Michelle Carragher's tutorial, and it worked beautifully
http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com/How-to-create-dragonscale(2880143).htm

I cut out 4 cross over pieces. I added interfacing to 2 of them, but I didn't need to, as the smocking makes the fabric stiffer. I hand-sewed the smocking to the non interfaced pieces, then faced them right sides together with the interfaced pieces, sewed, and turned them right sides out. I actually advise not adding smocking near the seam allowance, as this is bulky and it will be difficult to close if you use an invisible zip.

My cats "helped".

I then added the sleeves. They stick out  bit too much and are a little too stuff, but look quite nice.

I made two versions of Daenerys' dragon claw necklace. One was made from a random pendant I had. I painted the top with gold acrylic, then blended the gold into the black.

 The other was made from a shell. I painted it, and filled the middle hollow with hot glue and pushed a loop of cord into the glue. This is quite fragile and a bit too small, but still looks good.

Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons.

So Game of Thrones is back and Daenerys is still awesome. I like A Song of Ice and Fire; I finished all the books up to Dance of Dragons. At the rate the TV series is going, we'll probably see Season 6 before we get book six. 

Regardless of the media, Daenerys is one of my favourite characters (along with Arya, Sansa, Tyrion, Brienne, and DAVOS ). The series did make some changes with her character that I didn't like (why pray tell, change her wedding night scene with Khal Drogo from how it was in the book? WHY? Whine whine), but I think Emilia Clarke is superb in her role. 

And the costumes. Oh wow, the costumes. Daenerys gets some of the best (though Sansa's black dress and wedding dress are damn stunning). My favourites are her Season 3 and 4 "dragon" dresses, which all have a dragon-like scale texture, created with smocking, beading, and embroidery. 

For more information, I recommend looking at Michelle Carragher's website http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com/Game-of-Thrones-Gallery%282829575%29.htm

I love all of these costumes, and would love to replicate them. I have a few metres of a white silky material, which sadly seems to be synthetic. I will test it to see if it can be dyed. If not, it might work for one of these pleated underskirts, though I found some promising pleated material in a local shop.

I'm thinking of using a material called India Cloth for the blue parts of the dress, as it has a slight sheen to it. I also found it in just the right colour for Dany's first dress.

I really like this midriff baring one, but not sure if I am confident enough for it. Still, I keep meaning to get fitter, so maybe this should be my incentive.

I have no idea what the material here is; some kind of amazing cutwork stuff with beading on the shoulders, as far as I can tell. I sort of want to make all these outfits, but be lazy and make only one pleated skirt and use it for the two long blue dresses (the white midriff outfit would need it's own skirt, because there's a little v-shape cut into the front of the skirt).

Theories about making the pleated skirt:

Daenerys often wears pleated skirts like this one. As far as I can tell, these are sunray or sunburst pleats, which look like this:

This would be very difficult to do at home. I did some reading, and you need a pleating board to make these pleats. Due to the length of the skirt, the board has to be absolutely enormous. It would be a big hassle to make at home. Theoretically I could create a pleating board from card, but it would be very tedious due to the circular shape. 

There are companies that will pleat for you, but that would be a little expensive for me, mostly because of shipping costs. There are a few cosplayers who have used pleating services and gotten lovely results, such as stephwallsz 

One idea I had for the skirt is to save myself time, hassle and money by buying a pleated maxi skirt, like the ones below. 

This might not be so good if you are tall, as most of these skirts aren't even a metre long. I need at least a metre of material to reach from my waist to the ground.

If you are willing to sacrifice a bit of accuracy, you can buy pre-pleated material and make a gathered skirt instead.