The Last Jedi Premiere - Daisy Ridley's Monse Blue Sequin Star Gown

 I started this post back in December, but due to the holiday rush, it's been delayed. There were so many options for outfits to wear for The Last Jedi opening night. My friend and I had discussed doing the different costumes for Rey and eventually settled on doing Porg onesies since that would be the most comfortable option for settling in to enjoy the movie. The Sunday before our opening night showing, my facebook feed became flooded with pictures from the LA premiere for The Last Jedi the night before and I immediately fell in love with Daisy's Monse Sequin Star Dress.
 Anyone who was going to dress up for this was going to be wearing a costume or a Disneybound type outfit, but who would be insane enough to try to throw together the dress worn by the actress only a few days prior? With a new found determination (or rather a temporary lapse of judgment), I started planning it out. The design seemed simple enough, it was a simple cut and had simple embellishments.
I swear that mindset is going to be the death me.

So with only a few days left before the event at Disney Springs, optimism and confidence through the roof, I dragged my ever patient and understanding husband with me to Jo-Ann Fabrics and we started our search for the fabric. Considering we were up against an $8,600 dress, I was a bit anxious about whether we were actually going to find something close to the original material. As luck would have it, we found a reversible sequin material with the special occasion fabric. One side was navy blue, the other was silver. Since we were working on a small budget I figured we would use the other side for making the star embellishments.

We bought 3 yards (thank goodness for Jo-Ann coupons!) and ended up only needing about 1.5 yards after all was said and done. I threw together a mock-up dress that would serve as the lining and went to work  Because of the direction the sequins were sewn, the pattern pieces ran selvage to selvage which worked out perfectly with my height. 

  

If I ever have to cut out material that involves sequins again in my lifetime, it will be too soon. Prepare to be cleaning up sequins for a long time afterward, I'm still finding them around the house. I'd put them a little lower than glitter on the scale of worst crafting materials to clean up. As I very quickly learned sequined fabric is hard to cut let alone cut straight lines. My scissors are a bit dull from use so learn from my mistake, get a sharp pair of scissors before tackling this kind of project. 

However, cutting this was a cakewalk compared to sewing it. This material was a nightmare and I can now see why the original dress is over $8k. The fabric had a stretch to it, which shouldn't have been that big of a deal. I have sewn stretch material before without dealing with the same headaches. I was careful to set the stitch and the tension on my machine, test out a few scrap pieces until I was satisfied, and then proceeded with the main dress. What my test runs didn't take into account was the weight. Due to how heavy the material was, it pulled the seams while I was sewing it. The result of was an embarrassing corkscrew effect around the dress.

It's a bit hard to distinguish in the photo, but you can kind of tell on the left side where the seams are pulling around to the front. Having misplaced my seam ripper somewhere in the move, I very carefully took my scissors and cut out the seams and tried again. I had to do this four times before it would finally lay right! But I was very happy with the end result.

 Once the lining was in and everything fit as well as it could (I regrettably skipped the boning due to the budget constraints but I will rectify that as soon as I can), I assumed the worst was over and the rest was going to be smooth sailing.
Oh, my sweet summer child.

The stars on the original dress look like strands of sequins formed into stars that were directly stitched on to the dress. I decided to go on what I thought to be a simpler route and cut the star shapes out of felt. Once I had my 30+ pieces assembled I used a spray adhesive to baste them to the wrong side of the material.

 It was now the Wednesday before the movie and we were getting ready to make the long drive down to Orlando. My hands were still protesting from the cramping they endured from cutting the dress in the first place but the stars still had to be handstitched and then cut out individually. This was a time-consuming mess, but seeing as a friend of mine is hand sewing all of the individual sequins to the petals on the Wicked Bubble Dress, I'm not going to complain too much. All in all the results were better than I had hoped, though certainly not as beautiful as the stars on the Monse gown. After the bottom of the dress was cut into 1.5" wide strands, there was now only one thing left to do.

I handstitched a couple of the stars to the dress, but it was Thursday and time was running out. I hate resorting to this kind of thing and I am a bit ashamed to admit it, but the remainder of the stars were attached with a strong hot glue while the dress was on me. I quickly threw my hair into a bun and my friend Amelia was kind enough to do my make-up for me. After that was done, there was nothing left to do but go to Disney Springs and enjoy the movie.

I felt like a princess. A few people knew the reference but overall I received a lot of compliments on the dress. I am so glad this came together, but God forbid I ever attempt something like this again... At least until the next time I fall in love with a dress before an event.

Original Dress: $8,600

My Dress: $45

Thanks for reading and I hope to post more regularly in the new year. Cheers!

-DS

BONUS: Remember early I mentioned something about Porg Onesies? 

Check out this link to see what Amelia and I ended up doing with them!

 http://deathstarlet.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-last-jedi-premiere-bonus-porg.html#more