River's Maidenhead Dress
POSTED BY: shameless
UPDATED: Sunday, March 22, 2009 22:48
VIEWED: 11988
PAGE 2 of 3
Artcat...
Hiya! I'm actually the one who bought the size 8... All right, so it's silk, and based on looking at TONS AND TONS of pictures of both THE dress and different fabrics online, I'm inclined to believe that the movie dress was actually a custom made dress made out of sheer silk. And it's a good theory, the ICE dress thing, especially since the green River kickin' Reaver ass dress is Donna Karan and a skirt that Kaylee wears for two seconds in the background is Diesel and River's funeral dress is BCBG... but the underdress drives me nuts! It's polyester and CLINGS LIKE MAD, and is completely wrong for the look. Especially with the lace. Plus, there are some very small seams in the front that aren't in the movie (there are the sideways pretty seams that kind of define the dress, but these are different). Basically, I bought it because it's so darn hard to find a sheer silk dress that is only attached to the underdress at the sleeves (by a little bit of thread - really easy to remove), especially one that is really plain without annoying details like an empire waist seam or whatever... so I'm planning on eventually either buying or making my own underdress out of some sort of knit fabric (definitely agree on that one, no idea how it stayed in place while she was fighting, and if you look really closely at the screencaps, she's definitely still wearing it while fighting in the Maidenhead).
Anyways, it's a tiny bit too long, but the hem and the flow is PERFECT! I took it in to get it professionally altered (I was told several times to NOT EVEN TRY to alter sheer silk myself - apparently it's extraordinarily difficult to work with that kind of really thin and fine and delicate material). I'm not sure they really understood exactly what I wanted with the neckline, but the way they pinned it was close enough, so I'll find out tomorrow. I'll then be taking it in to a shop where they sell dyes to get the color matched to make it a darker blue.
The boots - ordered the Wanted Trail ones in black from shoe pavillion - here: http://www.shoepavillion.com/wanted-trail.html
The shrug - I'm knitting one on my own, and I chose this pattern - http://www.modadea.com/patterns/LM0229.htm
I'm making some slight modifications (ex - don't like the yarn type, so had to go up to a medium since I'm using a yarn and needle size that made for a slightly smaller (larger? However you describe when there are more stitches per inch), and so far it's working... plus I didn't like how they made a sort of cuff by using garter stitch then switching to stockinette stitch after five rows at the beginning of each sleeve, so I just started out with stockinette stitch. The measurements for the part across the back seem a bit small, but... we'll see how that turns out.
I'll post lots of pictures and details for anybody interested when I'm done... just say the word, and I'll share!
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RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless
"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd
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well i know what DarkFly wants for Xmas...
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Pictures please. I just ordered the same dress in ivory. It'll be nice to see how your alterations came out. How are you handling the dying? Are you doing it yourself or having someone else do it?
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Actually, I'm taking it to a shop where they will help me find the right color, then I'm dying it myself. They said that dying sheer silk is not tricky. But I'm opting for the boiling in pot method versus the washing machine method just to be safe (of course, that's also because our machine is slightly broken and therefore has some sharp bits. You never know).
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RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless
"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd
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Quote:
Originally posted by shameless:
Actually, I'm taking it to a shop where they will help me find the right color, then I'm dying it myself. They said that dying sheer silk is not tricky. But I'm opting for the boiling in pot method versus the washing machine method just to be safe (of course, that's also because our machine is slightly broken and therefore has some sharp bits. You never know).
Sheer silk = not hard at all
Polyester on the other hand... not so fun.
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Really? Hmmmm.... I might either have to deal with a different colored underdress or find another one super fast.
------------------------------------------
RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless
"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd
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Silk is a natural fiber so the dye is really just attaching itself to what is essentially protein.
Polyester is synthetic and made of plastic so changing colors is harder.
I don't think it would be that hard to whip up a new under dress but I guess it's more a matter of what you can live with.
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Yeah, agreed, but... I have three days before a party. Oh well! ::grins::
------------------------------------------
RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless
"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I had the very good fortune to be able to see the real Maidenhead dress up close at a costume and prop exhibit at the convention SiliCon last month. Universal Archives brought their Serenity costumes for display in the exhibit, and their wonderful archivist was so very nice and endlessly patient with all my questions, picture-taking and gawking. She volunteered information she knew about the costumes, was willing to check details on River's dress and even demonstrated how Inara's skirt was constructed and wrapped. ( Her dress from the fight scene with the Operative at the training house.) I really can't say enough about how nice and helpful she was!
Anyway, regarding the Maidenhead dress, here's some of what I found out:
1. The archivist checked for tags, but was unable to find any. She didn't know for sure, but she was of the opinion that the overdress dress at least was probably custom-made. (see below)
2. It appears that the underdress, where ever it came from, did not originally go with the overdress. Have you noticed how the front neckline of the underdress doesn't look even everywhere? The archivist pulled down the overdress to give me a good look at it - the fabric of the underdress was actually ripped to match the pattern of the overdress. And I mean ripped, as in ripped, not just cut neatly for whatever reason. There's actually a jagged, ripped edge in some sections. It seems the original underdress neckline was higher and they ripped it to go with the overdress.
3. There are more panels making up the pattern of the dress than I at least had been able to make out from the Propstore pictures. For example, there is another seam right down the front of the skirt that I'd never realized was there; it's hidden by the folds of the skirt. I got a picture while the archivist was pulling the skirt to its full width to illustrate this.
4. The dress is more than just bias-cut ... the different panels have the bias laid out in totally different directions. I did my best to sketch the location of all the panels and to note the bias directions as well as I could on my sketch, at least for the front of the dress.
5. The underdress has a built-in bra.
6. The boots were off the rack. She said the name of the brand, but it wasn't a name I was familiar with. I'm sure I have the spelling wrong, but it sounded something like "capishi"...?
7. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell by looking whether the overdress fabric was silk or polyester chiffon, and I didn't think to ask the archivist. However, I did note that the material had a slight crinkle pattern to it.
I hope that my observations and research are useful to some of you! I don't have time immediately, but at some point I hope to get my (many!) pictures and the sketch up online. When I do, I'll post back here with a link.
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HAVE MY BABIES. IGNORE MY FEMININITY.
So... capishi? Is that a hard "k" sound, or a soft "s" sound? Is it pronounced "kahpeeshee"? I'm going nuts trying to find this!!! Any idea what her name was? I'd like to email her...
Update on my version of the dress... So, when you dye the fabric, instead of just making everything a darker blue so that the flowers would still be visible, just not as dark as the rest - it just made the entire dress blue. So no floral pattern. 
But hey, still looks nice! Pictures coming VERY VERY soon... tomorrow, in fact! I'll post them in the blue sun room and put a link here.
------------------------------------------
RPG launcher bought in third world country illegally - $10
Landmines - $50 per
Attack/track dogs bred 1st class - $250-500 per
Highpowered assault rifles - $600 per
The look on your face when I show up on your doorstep with a bigfoot - ... Priceless
"You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
Can't stop the signal."
-reavers_ate_my_dvd
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME