Cersei Lannister's Red Dress

Game of Thrones has fabulous costumes. They are beautifully designed and lavishly embroidered. I fell in love with Cersei Lannister's red dress, generously embroidered with gold, and decided to make an attempt at recreating it. 

I used Simplicity pattern #1487 and tweaked it a bit. 

I made the dress using three colors of  linen- red, flax, and gold. I used my embroidery machine to create most of the embroidery, since I have arthritis in my hands. The designs are a little different than the ones on the original dress for that reason. To make the designs curve around the neckline properly, I embroidered them on gold silk organza, cutting the extra organza away and clipping where necessary to make them curve. This technique also gave the designs more loft. I sewed them in place with large, widely spaced machine zigzag stitches of the same thread. I was able to embroider the lions directly onto the dress. These amazing designs come from Urban Threads. You should check them out.

I finished the basic dress and gold embroidery nearly a year ago. We took some photos, and then I set it aside until I had time to finish it.

I started working on the dress again in August 2015 and completed it later that month. I made the birds and flower buds using free motion embroidery on my regular sewing machine. The beading was done by hand. The tail feathers are real.

I also added a belt that I made. I think it turned out pretty well. 

Many thanks to my friend Katie Bernier for once again being my model.

If you are interested in owning this dress, it is available at: Cersei Lannister's Red Dress