Elizabeth I from Day of the Doctor- The Skirts

I announced this on Tumblr, but I was lazy about making a post about my 2014 Renaissance Festival costume here. I try to make a new one each year, but I usually don’t wear them because I’m scared I’ll get it dirty, I wanted to wear comfy clothes instead of an elaborate dress, and/or I didn’t finish them in time. (Remember the Thor-inspired Valkyrie? That didn’t get finished in time. And I’m still working on it, but that’s another story.) This year, I decided to make Elizabeth I from Day of the Doctor….

I always wanted a yellow-colored dress but I could have one because my skin clashes with yellow BADLY. When I saw this dress, I knew I wanted one. Maybe not exactly an Elizabeth dress, but one in that color. After pouring through my patterns, I found an Elizabeth dress pattern that I wanted to use but never did. I also liked Elizabeth in the Day of the Doctor, so I thought “Why not make my own Elizabeth I dress for the Renaissance Festival?”

So far it’s less than three weeks away from the start of the festival and I’ve officially finished the skirts for the dress!!! I made two skirts, one inner and one outer, using Simplicity 3782. I’m also using the pattern for the bodice of the dress, but unlike what the pattern says, I did not attach the outer skirt to the bodice. Instead, I made it a separate skirt. I did this for several reasons, but mostly because it was easier for me to sew.This is what the skirts look like together and without a petticoat….

And from the back…

And the underskirt alone…

The outer skirt and front panel of the inner skirt are made out of pin tucked gold taffeta with white seed beads sewn onto each point of the diamond. I sewed the beads using my sewing machine and this tutorial. It was time consuming, but it was a lot faster than hand sewing each bead! The down side is that I used about four spools of thread sewing the beads.

The rest of the underskirt is made out of yellow broadcloth while the trim on the front of the outer skirt was made out of some gold/red upholstery fabric I’ve had for years but never had a use for.

Well, I think that’s about it. I don’t have much to talk about when it comes to modifying patterns with this costume because the only modification was to make a waistband for the outer skirt, and that wasn’t very hard. The next part of the costume is to make the bodice. I’ve already ran into snags with it because of sizing problems. (Growth spurts strike again!) I do plan on making some jewelry for the costume, but I’m hesitant about making it. It’s simple to do, but it’s been years since I made jewelry so I’m really rusty. Ugh. Well, as long as the jewelry doesn’t fall apart while I wear it I’ll be find, right? 🙂

That’s all for now!