The Game is ON!

Day 2 of Supanova. I decided to wear my brand new Game of Thrones costume - Sansa Stark. When my girl Wendy said that she was planning to make a Catlyn Stark costume, I knew that I wanted to make a Game of Thrones costume as well. And I looked to Sansa, in particular, a gown that she wears throughout a number of episodes in Season 2.

I had been busting myself silly trying to get it ready to wear in time to fly down to Sydney. While I was unemployed, I made a fantastic start on getting my costume done. I started with the inside. A recent episode of GOT showed in fantastic detail the stays that Sansa wears under her Kings Landing gowns - which reinforced my choice of stays. I chose to make a set that are patterned in Jill Saleen's Corsets book. They are from the 1750s. I omitted the straps. Thankfully, once the pattern was enlarged, it was actually a pretty decent size for me, meaning that I only need the one mock up to get it to the correct size. They are a lovely set of stays that I would really like to wear again for historical purposes. I made them out of purple linen, and 2 layers of cotton. They are completely boned with cable ties except for the centre front which has sprung steel. They lace up half at the front and fully at the back, and they give a really great shape. On top of that, they are VERY comfortable.

 Once the stays were complete, I made the underskirt. I made it in a Georigan style with separate front and back waistbands that tie around at the waist. It is actually worn underneath the stays.

Then came the dress. Patterning was the simple part. I used two different medieval style costume gown patterns to get the shape and the sleeves. I eliminated the front princess seam and extended the centre front so that the gown wraps. It has a gore in each side seam which reaches from the hem to the waist - this is made of a embroidered sheer flat lined over the pink gown fabric. The dress closes with a couple hooks and eyes and ties. The most time consuming part was binding the front and neck in the green bias binding and completing all the freaking embroidery. Though, I love how effective it looks. The gown is then held together with the belt. I made mine out of a heavy piece of buckram (because I forgot about it until the last minute and it's all I had that would work on short notice) and held together with chains at the back. I need to re-think the belt for the next time I wear the costume.

I finished the ensemble with tights, a pair of grey boots ($12 at K-Mart) and the wig. I did the wig up using two (stitched together) and then styled. I love how it turned out and adore wearing it. In fact, it and the stays are my favourite part of the entire costume.

Oh, and I made sure to get a great number of photos of other Game of Thrones costumers as well...