Construction Details:

This costume had a lot of hidden details that aren't really apparent upon first glance.

There is an actual under dress that I didn't know was there until Entertainement Weekly came out with their "Dame of Thrones" spread. I used a low V-cut, slim dress pattern from New Look for the dress. After cutting out the base of the dress in a rayon lining fabric, I ripped up 4 yards of black satin fabric into 1-2" strips and frayed one edge of each strip, then ironed them all. The, I hand painted the frayed edge in a mixture of blue/white/silver acrylic and fabric paint. When the strips were dry, I pinned them to the the dress base and sewed them all on (this took a while). Once done, I finished the bodice and back of the dress using black satin and lining, sewed them to the skirt base, and installed an invisible zipper.

Then I moved onto the feathered collar. I used cotton twill and interfacing for the base, then sewed on Velcro strips at the shoulders so it can affix to the coat. I then cut and shaped lots of iridescent black rooster tail feathers and glued each one on.

The main fabric of the overcoat in the show is the white/blue leaf-woven fabric used in Margaery Tyrell's first wedding dress. The costume designers simply dyed the fabric black, but it still retains its white/blue color at the fringed edges. I decided to use a black cotton twill and emboss the fabric with a heat tool to get the look of the woven leaves. First, I brushed 5 and 1/2 yards of twill with steel wool pads to get a softer texture for the fabric, and then I embossed the leaves on using a mini-iron. I then brushed the fabric again to soften the lines and get more texture. I used the GoT Simplicity pattern for the body of the overcoat, but altered it to be two large pieces with a center back seam and slimmer skirt (less flare). All the fitted sections for the top of the coat are essentially very long darts. The side bust pieces are separate and sewn in 4 pieces, per the original costume. The top portion of the coat is lined in the same fabric, as are the front center pieces, which go all the way down to the hem.

Before lining the coat, I ripped up more black satin fabric into 1-2" strips and frayed one edge of each strip, ironed them, then hand painted the frayed edge in a mixture of blue/white/silver acrylic and fabric paint. When the strips were dry, I pinned them to the coat bust and back and sewed them on, then glued on iridescent black cut-and-shaped feather pieces (I glued instead of sewed them to prevent any loss of feathers). I also sewed on strips of Velcro to secure the feathered collar. Once the feathers where fixed, I sewed on the lining and front facing.
n
nAt this point, I made the sleeves, using the embossed twill and some black rayon lining fabric. I used a two-part sleeve pattern and opened up the sleeve underside to allow for lacing. Satin strips and feathers were sewed/glued onto the sleeve ends at the wrist and the lining hand stitched to the sleeve. I also hand stitched 28 eyelets at the sleeve opening and laced it with satin ribbon, then glued feathers onto the ribbon ends and knotted the connections with gold embroidery thread. Once the sleeves were finished, I sewed those onto the coat. Once done, I hand stitched 10 hooks and eyes onto the front center of the coat for closure.

After the coat was finished, I set about weathering it. I used an X-acto blade and steel wool pads to simulate the weathering on the original costume, burned some spots and made some discolorations, and then walked around in the tall, rain covered grass and mud to dirty up the hem. And then it was done!

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!