I made this for Halloween but just put the finishing touches on it recently. I wanted to make a "royal" medieval costume that had some Asian influences. I also used the color scheme of the Lannisters from Game of Thrones. It's sort of a interpretation of Cersei Lannister's red and gold dress.
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| This fabric is sooo pretty |
The pattern is based on a Ghawazee coat, typically worn by tribal belly dancers. Since I do a bit of belly dancing myself, this coat does double duty as a Halloween costume and dance attire.
It's the most expensive costume I've ever sewn, thanks to my boyfriend spoiling me with an entire bolt of beautiful red brocade fabric. Personally, I'm usually a very frugal shopper, buying fabric only when it's on sale.
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| Unfortunately I never got around to adding the closures |
I love the neckline on this coat. I used a black leather braided trim to outline the collar and a gold and black ribbon for the center front. I used the same ribbon on the sleeve cuffs.
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| Here's a close up of the sleeve. |
Would have never thought to make an over bust Ghawazee coat if not for this pattern. I was heading to a family-friendly function and didn't want to flash any children. Plus I'm just not crazy about underbust coats without sufficiently pretty underthings.
The skirt is from the sister pattern Simplicity 2158. It's a six gored skirt with 2 tiers of ruffles at the edge, but instead of adding individual ruffles I found a pre-ruffled fabric instead. The skirt itself is made from stretch crushed velvet.
The only downside to the fabric I used was that it got caught on everything as I walked. The next day I was pulling all sorts of twigs and leaves out of the ruffle hem.
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| Wheee!!! It Spins!!! |
The only adjustments I did for the coat were a much needed FBA (I'm a DDD-H), taking in the waist, and lengthening the sleeve flares. The french seam FBA required reading a bunch of tutorials and sewing a couple of muslins before it made sense. If I ever become a good enough dancer to need multiple coats, I would definitely reuse this pattern.
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| Always starts with a sketch! |
