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Again,
these are replicas of the original costumes made by myself. Unfortunately,
I cannot trace the originals. |
| Overview |
 
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The bodice and sleeves of the black dress are made from black silk dupion, with the underskirt being made from black polycotton. The overskirts and puff sleeves of both dresses are made from nylon net and tulle embroidered with metallic stars. The stars are silver in the purple dress and gold in the black dress, the latter not being screen accurate, but I found that the tulle has now been discontinued, so I couldn't get enough silver to do both. Also, the tulle used here is different in that the stars are much smaller and there are more of them.
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| Purple Star Dress Bodice and Sleeves |
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The pictures above show the purple dress from the front and the back. The bodice is made up of nine individually cut panels of silk dupion. The centre front of the bodice is the red silk, the front side extension along the princess line is blue/red silk, the front sides of the bodice are the purple/cerise, the back sides are red silk again, and the centre back panels are the purple/cerise. You have no idea how many times I had to watch "Revenge" to figure this out. The bodice is lined with white polycotton curtain lining. To prove that I haven't cheated and stuck strips of fabric onto the bodice and sleeves, here is a picture of the dress inside out showing all the seams.
| Dress inside out |
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The front (and back when I have time) of the bodice is decorated with navy blue sequin appliques of small and large stars, with a sequin moon being present on the right of the bust. These stars carry on to the back of the bodice, although I haven't managed to make these ones yet.
The sleeves are made from five panels of fabric each. The sleeve fronts are red silk, the sides are blue/red shot, and the two back panels are purple/cerise shot. The puff sleeves are made from two layers each of red and purple net, with the star tulle over the top.
The neckline and cuff of the purple dress are trimmed with diamante. The picture below shows this, and also dramatically shows the shot effect of the red/blue silk. The bodice fastens with a zip, with a hook and eye closure on the neckline.
| Diamante detail on neckline |
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The black dress's bodice is identical in construction (in fact, it was made from the same pattern as its sister), except that the seam at the side front (where the blue meets the purple) has been removed, since it was not needed, instead being drafted into one panel. The puff sleeves are also constructed from five layers of fabric, but they are bigger in the black dress, perhaps to make T-Bag appear bigger and more menacing when she put it on.
| The Purple Dress Skirt |
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The skirt of the purple dress is a remarkable beast. It took me ages to figure it out. Initially, I thought that the two-tone effect was brought about by the fabric underneath being some sort of shot sheer fabric, so I tried organza in shot blue/red. It was very wrong. I had to watch the series millions of times before I realised that it was just a series of nets in different colours with a red underskirt. The skirt comprises a layer of star tulle, two layers of purple gathered net, two layers of red gathered net, and a red silk underskirt. the photos above show the details. When all of these are layered up, the skirt is massive (there are seventeen metres of fabric in it!), but the whole costume is incredibly light.
| The Black Dress Skirt |
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The skirt of the black dress has a similar story to tell. It comprises the tulle overlay, two layers of black gathered net and a black polycotton underskirt. The reason that this skirt has fewer layers is because I had noticed from footage and various photographs that the skirt on this dress was far less dense than that of its sister.
Trivia: The black star dress had its own range of accessories, including its own tiara in "Turn on to T-Bag", which was not used in "Revenge", instead being replaced by the more elaborate purple dress tiara. It also had a cloak with an elaborate stand up collar in "Revenge of the T-Set" made from the same tulle as the overlay, although this was not used for its original appearance in "Turn on to T-Bag". Those of you with a keen eye will also notice the lack of the silver star on the neckline. This was a brooch according to Raymond, and was not actually part of the dress, although we never saw the dress without it. The brooch also has matching earrings which were used in both series, and also the black ribbon choker.
Another interesting pience of trivia is that the cloak for the black star dress was cannibalised for "Sunstones of Montezuma". If you look closely at Tabatha's red satin cloak during the battle with Kit Bag in the last episode, you will notice that its collar is none other than that of the star dress's cloak.
| The Original Black Star Dress |
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