Game of Thrones Daenerys Targaryen Costume

It’s officially Halloween week! I absolutely love dressing in costume, so I’m pretty darn excited! Since I don’t have Mardi Gras to dress up and celebrate anymore, I have to make Halloween count.

This is the first year since I’ve been sewing steadily that I’ve made my costume. I was originally thinking of being Ariel from the Little Mermaid, but changed gears when I saw McCall’s come out with their Game of Thrones pattern. I then switched gears to Daenerys Targaryen. Sorry, Ariel, maybe next year?

I immediately bought the pattern once Joann’s had their $1 sale. Then Simplicity came out with their own version (including Dothraki Daenerys ) and I was totally confused. So I bought the Simplicity pattern, too. 3 Daenerys ‘ to choose from. Oh my.

I couldn’t make up my mind so I did what everyone would do… turn to Facebook for help. I had a mix of feedback but fell in love when my friend (hi, Katy!) posted this beautiful version:

I’ve only seen the first season of Game of Thrones, so I’m guessing this is from season 3. How beautiful! The McCall’s pattern was the closest to this, but it needed some tweaking. I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge so I figured I’d let the fabric do the talking. I went to Joann’s to see what I could find that was closest to either the McCall’s version or Simplicity version. And look what beauty I stumbled upon!

How flippin’ close is that texture?! The fabric is some sort of weird stretch-plasticy fabric (I’m guessing some kind of taffeta…polyester….? Gosh I’m so bad at telling which fabric is what, how embarrassing!).

So my mind was made up right then and there. I’ll dive in and attempt to tweak the heck out of this pattern.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought. The “tabard” piece wasn’t quite right, so I extended the 4 side pieces to the full length of the front and back piece.

This is before the front and back were sewn together. I then sketched a curve from the side seam down across the front and hacked it off.

Getting closer to the TV version

The lonely, unwanted piece… or is it?

I was going to chuck the cut piece, but then figure it may be of some use! I realized I could make a mock-wrap-tunic by just shaping and sewing it to the area I just cut.

GENIUS

I thought about doing the same to the back to be true to the real costume, but honestly I ran out of time in between having to leave town for my family emergency and having to go out of state for work training. You’ll forgive me, right? Now on to the finished product, complete with licensed GoT wig and my attempt at Daenerys makeup-face!

Don’t think I can pull off this blonde thing.

DD and I went down into the wash next to our house. Oooooh, nature!

Details

I hand-stitched the gold bits and added gold beads. The original looks like it had bronze “scales” so this is as close as I could get. Let’s call it artistic freedom, shall we? DD was kind enough to make the necklace for me. I bought the horn at Joann’s and had the silver chain left over from another project. Thanks, DD!

I’m loving the back and may even consider making this pattern again for a normal dress. Does anyone ever do that? Use a costume pattern for normal clothes? This may have to be a thing…

WHERE MY DRAGONS AT

Getting awkward as cars start passing by

And what’s Daenerys without her 3 dragon babies?

Mother of dragons chickens

Close enough

I also attempted to mess with makeup to try to look like the actress using the Michelle Phan tutorial and the Jellyfish Soup tutorial. This is my second attempt. On my first attempt, I asked DD what he thought and he said I looked like her brother. Woops, I guess a little too drag?

The hardest part is getting those darn eyebrows right. It may help if I actually had eyebrow pencils instead of just eyeliner and eyeshadow.

Looking at it now, I should probably nix the eye liner. Maybe version 3 for upcoming Halloween parties will look better!

Anyhoo, I spent about as much as a costume at Spirit or Party City would cost and this is wayyy better quality. Win!

360 Degree View:

More close-ups:

It’s also half-lined! I didn’t have enough lining fabric to line the whole tunic, so I stopped at the waist. Hey, it worked!

Front lining

Back lining

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for sticking around with all of the pictures I’ve thrown at you! For good measure, here’s an outtake:

Boogie down

What will you be for Halloween? Did you make your own costume? Please tell and share!

Have a happy and safe Halloween, everyone!

-RED

*EDIT* Holy macaroni, look at what Simplicity came out with just as I was finished with my costume! GAAAAAHHHHHH WHYYYYYYYYYY?!?!

The world is so cruel