Description: The dress is non-standard size 12. It is scarlet in colour for the most part, with some wine and burnt orange fabric in the flares of the skirt. Again, it is made of shot silk dupion. The warp (vertical threads) of the scarlet fabric making up most of the dress is gold or ochre in colour, which again gives the fabric a very lustrous look on film when in reality it is quite flat. The wine fabric has a darker burgundy warp which gives the same effect. The third colour is also used in the flares of the skirt and is a burnt orange with a red warp.

The length of the dress is approximately 4'5" (135cm) from shoulder to the floor.

The dress is worn off the shoulders and the neckline is trimmed with a spectacularly bejewelled trim 4" wide (more on this later!). The upper part of the dress is overlayed with black nylon dress net with fine gold thread running through it in a seemingly random pattern (although the pattern does repeat, but not obviously so!). The sleeves of the dress are also overlayed with this net. The sleeves taper to a point at the back of the hand. Because the sleeves need to be fairly fitted, the fabric is cut on the bias (the pattern is cut so that the grain of the weave is running diagonally). The bias of a woven fabric runs diagonally across the weave, and this is the only direction in which a woven fabric will stretch. This allows the tight fitting sleeves to flex over the elbow, etc., without rucking up.

The inside of the bodice is lined with white linen. It is composed of ten pieces - four front panels, four back panels, and the two sleeves. From the shoulders hang drapes of black and gold dress net which run the length of the dress.

The skirt is made of twenty panels - the larger ones made from the scarlet shot silk, the smaller panels used for the godets (triangly bits between the red bits) of the skirt are made from the burnt orange and wine. There are five panels of each colour. There is also an overskirt of the black and gold dress net.

The dress fastens with a lapped scarlet zip that runs down the centre of the back from the neckline to about quarter of the way down the skirt. There is also a hook and eye directly above the zip on the gold edging of the trim

Trivia:

The Fancy Dress shop had altered the armpits of the dress. The dress has gussets under the arms to help strengthen them and give more freedom of movement, and these had been slit at the seam and opened. This is because Georgina Hale is very small around the arms, so nobody else would have been able to move their arms if the dress was left how it used to be. There was a lot of damage around the underarm area where the fabric had stretched and given around the seams through careless wear.

Further damage had occurred around the hem of the skirt at the back. The fabric had been worn through here also, and the dress had obviously been worn outside in wet weather at some point because there were muddy splash marks around the hem of the skirt and also some dried grass had become entangled in the frayed fabric. It had therefore taken quite a battering whilst being a rental costume.

I have had all the damage professionally repaired (thanks Wilf!).

The detailing of the trim and the belt had also suffered. Glue can only remain sticky for so long before it starts to break down, and a lot of the gold cord was starting to come away. I wrestled with my conscience and decided that rather than leaving well alone, I would hand sew all of the cord onto the trim and belt to prevent it from falling off. This has proven beneficial in that the cord can't go anywhere now! Also, the gold lurex ribbon trimming the neckline was underwired, and the wire had snapped somewhere along the line. It was poking out and catching on the dressnet, so rather than leave it there to tear the net, I pulled all of the wire out. Thankfully, the ribbon didn't fall to pieces, and the net is no longer in peril.

The bottom two jewels of the belt near the base of the skirt had gone missing, but I have managed to track down some replacements for these at creativebeadcraft.co.uk.

The base of the trim and the belt is a sort of woven lame and possibly acetate type affair. This fabric is composed of a double warp of red acetate(?) and flat metallic gold threads and a weft of black threads. The overall effect gives a shimmering orange colour to the base.

The trim and belt are then decorated with metallic, rust coloured leaves. These leaves are made of four layers:

The first layer is machined onto the lamé base with a zig-zag stitch. This layer is bright red tissue lamé.

The second layer dulls the red lamé. It is a covering of orange, transparent sparkle organza. This layer completely covers the red lamé beneath.

The third layer is a small leaf shaped piece of black fishnet.

The fourth layer is a piece of the fine black and gold dress net (the same as that used on the dress) that completely covers the leaf.

These layers are glued(!) together and then a piece of gold 3mm cord is glued(!) around it.

On the trim, the leaf at the centre front of the dress is decorated with a large (30mm) circular red jewel (Siam, if you plan on making a replica and need to know the precise colour) . Below this is an oval 30mm red jewel.

The other leaves around the trim are decorated with yellow 20mm jewels (again, for those seamstresses amongst you, you should order Topaz). On the trim as a whole, there are sixteen yellow jewels and two red jewels.

The trim itself is edged along the bottom with a wavy gold metallic trim, and along the edge of this is a string of pearl droplets. Each point on the scalloped edge of the trim is decorated with a large pearl droplet which is held in place by means of a small silver bead.

The upper edge is trimmed with a flat gold lurex ribbon. This is underwired and is a real pain because the wire has broken and bits of it poke out through the trim and catch on the dress net, causing the risk of tearing it.

The belt is decorated similarly to the trim. At the bottom of the dangly bit at the front, there is a treble leaf. This motif is decorated with a 30mm oval red jewel at the bottom with two red 20mm jewels either side of this. Directly above these there is a 30mm diameter round yellow jewel with a row of three 20mm yellow jewels above it. Phew! This motif of jewels and leaves is repeated five times up the centre of the dangly bit.

In the very centre of the belt is the largest jewel on the costume. It is a 40x30mm octagonal Siam acrylicpointed back foiled stone set in a gold tone metal filigree setting. The leaf and jewel motif is repeated again around the waistline ten times. On the belt, there are 16 red (Siam) jewels in total and 12 yellow (Topaz). The top edge of the belt is edged with the same flat gold ribbon as the trim of the neckline. The scalloped edges and the dangly bit are edged with gold lurex cord, pearl droplets and the pearl trim.

The belt fastens at the back by means of black velcro(!).

Both the trim and the belt are lined on the back with red felt.

Accessories:

This is just a basic metal hairband that has been covered in gold paper. The reverse of the tiara is lined with red felt and foam rubber has been applied to areas that would be uncomfortable to wear (at both ends and in the centre across where the forehead would go).

The edge of the tiara is trimmed with gold lurex cord like that on the belt. The lower edge is trimmed with the pearl trim. In the centre at the front is a single pearl droplet. This was missing when I received the costume, but I have found a replacement.

The decoration on the tiara comprises twelve leaves (one of which is missing). These leaves are made as follows:

Layer 1: Red felt (to form the back)

Layer 2: Rigid compressed fibre board (if you are making this at home, you could use thick card).

Layer 3: Red and gold lamé (as in the base of the trim and belt).

Layer 4: Bright Red lamé (as in the base of the leaves on the belt and trim) cut to leaf shape half the size of the rest of the leaf.

Layer 5: Orange crystal organza

Layer 6: Fishnet.

Layer 7: Black and gold dress net (as in the rest of the dress).

Layer 8: Very shiny gold card(!).

These layers are all glued together. The leaves are arranged on the headband like a crown of laurels.

The Choker:

The choker is 20mm wide and is made of gold lamé faced with black and gold dress net. It is lined with red felt on the back. There is a line of the wavy trim used on the trim for the dress (confusing or what?) running along the centre of the choker. In the centre of the choker is a large (1 inch diameter) cluster of gems consisting of a large ruby set in two concentric rings, the inner ring being composed of fourteen diamonds and the out ring is composed of fourteen rubies.

The Earrings:

These are not the original earrings, but they are very similar. They are made from two rhinestone buttons with the shanks removed and replaced by sieve brooch backs with clip-on earring findings attached. The dangly bits are made from a silver bead, red faceted glass bead, silver bead, large pearl drop (same size as on the belt) and finally a silver bead to hold everything in place.

Do you fancy making one of these costumes for yourself? Click here for details about how I made a copy.