Padme's Pearl Headdress Kimono-style Gown

Inspired by the spectacular costume worn by Padme in Star Wars Episode I, I made my little version for my 40cm Tonner Tyler doll from two different shades of iridescent silk taffeta, golden silk and crinkled silk. This outfit was quite difficult to scale down to doll size! I had to imagine how the underdress might look, and fashioned this from ivory silk dupion and silver crinkle silk.  I hand embroidered the half-moon sleeves of the outer coat with golden thread in a swirl pattern, both front and back, accented with tiny faux pearls. The most difficult part, as usual, was creating the elaborate headdress.  For the 'hair' fan I used dark chocolate brown fabric cut into a crescent shape, lightly padded.  The side pieces are of almond-shaped wood tightly covered and stitched in the same gold silk as the cumberband. These were securely sewn to the gold silk 'frame' beneath the hair section, and then in turn sewn to the maltese silk lace cap which I made to fit Tyler comfortably.  Then came the adornment of the thin golden band with helix-style embroidery, tiny glass seed beads and then hand-strung braids of faux pearls in their hundreds, draping and twisting from the main headdress.