Get My Stitch On: I will do what Queens do, I will Rule! My Daenerys Targaryen Halloween Costume

This summer my husband and I binge-watched Game of Thrones. It is a great show with amazing costumes. Out of all of the seemingly zillions of characters on the show, Daenerys Targaryen has the best outfits. When I saw her blue dress I actually said aloud to my husband "Wow, she has amazing costumes." I rarely am so moved by costuming.

The color is gorgeous, and the wrap skirt and contrast details on the bodice are all amazing.

Simplicity has come out with some impressive costume patterns lately and having a pattern for this dress made me jump at the chance to make it. It was #1246, and then was re-issued as #1008 (so weird!) What's even weirder is that the color of the dress changed; on my pattern (#1246) the dress was blue, on #1008, the dress has changed to green!

Simplicity 1008/1246

I had some adventures in purchasing fabric for this costume. I was in New York City at the end of August, and had a little bit of time to myself, and I headed to Mood Fabrics! It was my first visit, and wow, it was huge! and awesome! I quickly found some beautiful blue textured fabric that I thought would work well. I pulled out the roll and had 2 yards cut. (At the time, I had only planned on making the dress, not the cape). After cutting, I said "how much is that?" (I couldn't pull the price tag out from the center of the roll...can you guess where this is heading?) It is $25/yard. GULP!! Oh Crap! I am going to spend $50 on fabric for a costume!! That is the most expensive fabric I have ever purchased! (Facepalm) Had I known beforehand, I would have kept looking for something else to use.

Because of its cost, that beautiful blue fabric became much to valuable to use for a Halloween costume; I simply couldn't degrade it by making it into a costume (even a cool costume like this one). It has been regaled to the "save it for something special" pile, and I began my search for another option. Fast forward to the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo I attended in Fredericksburg, VA. I found some blue suede-like fabric at the Vogue Fabric booth and bought 2 yards for my costume. I was happy for a while, but then I thought...I should really make the cape too; it will be chilly on Halloween and I won't be happy outdoors in short sleeves. Besides, Daenerys has a cape, so I need a cape too. Of course, I didn't buy enough fabric at the Expo to make the cape, only enough for the dress. So...I went to Jo-Anns looking for fabric for the cape, or at worst case, the dress & cape. Sure enough, I found the perfect color blue fabric in a mysterious cotton/poly blend called "Sportswear." It was about $4/yard, and I bought 6 yards. I spent a small fortune on fabric only to have most of it still sitting in my stash...Sigh...

Enough about the issues, let's check out the final outfit!

I made the bodice in a size 14 with a 1.25" FBA. This added a side bust dart, but I was fine with that; I'd much rather have it fit well than be precisely like the original.

The original dress had handsewn dragonscale to add texture. (Check out this site for this and some other amazing costume work on GoT) That was simply not an option for me to do. I did want to add some sort of subtle embellishment. The bodice bands and sleeves got some texture by using a fancy stitch on my new Pfaff. Here is a closeup of the sleeves:

I did row after row after row of the design on both the sleeves and the front bodice bands (#65 on my Pfaff Expression 3.5 if you are curious) using navy blue thread to provide contrast. I love how it came out.

The bodice bands gave me some headaches. I knew that by doing an FBA the front bands would lay differently on the bodice. I cut them extra long to make sure they could reach the side seams. Unfortunately, they needed more curvature as well. I had a heck of a time trying to get the bands to follow the curved bottom edge of the bodice. I initially attached the bands in the location where they wanted to naturally fall. DON'T DO THIS! It looks stupid. Seriously, seriously stupid. I won't hurt your eyes by showing you the photos.

Here are some more details:

The bands continue around the back of the dress and are tied together using either grommets or eyelets. I didn't have any grommets so I used the cool eyelet feature on my machine. I used thin leather jewelry making cord for the ties.

Back view:

Another front view:

Here is the cape:

The lining of the cape was a textured off white "value" suiting fabric from Hancock Fabrics. It was under $5/yard. Making the cape was very straightforward and simple. I made a size 14.

I love how this costume came out. The gray pants were RTW running tights and I made boot covers/gaiters using this tutorial and finishing them with invisible zippers and some elastic under the arch of my shoe. For the necklace, I bought a coat toggle in the button section of Joanns, drilled a small hole near the thick end, and threaded my thin leather jewelry cord through it.

I had such a great Halloween, I felt fabulously glamorous and Queen-like!