If you follow me, you probably know dyeing is my least favorite task. It's messy, inconsistent (even when I try so hard to document and replicate!), and if you push the fabric too far, you ruin your fabric. Add in polyester fabric to the mix (all three seen here...., and all three dye differently) and getting the colors you want are very tricky. Not to mention, your dye bath is limited to your largest stainless steel pot. You have to stir and agitate the fabric constantly over an almost-boiling pot. When you're dyeing about 20 various yards, you have to chop them into batches. And each time, the formula of the dye bath changes a little when you pull some fabric out of it and start another batch. Or, you have to create a brand new dye bath and use more dye. You have to thoroughly rinse and wash each batch and make sure the dye doesn't sit too long and create marks on the creases before you've thoroughly laundered it. You can't squeeze the fabric or use your hands because your skin will burn. Multiply it all by three different poly fabrics behaving differently. I think between testing numerous swatches, drying them, comparing them together, trying new combos, repeat repeat repeat because the final batches didn't come out as dark as I wanted.... I've probably got 15 hours into just getting this fabric right. This costume is harder to match colors than you think. Many replicas I've seen are either too bright yellow or too light/pale. I really wanted to try to get close to the reference images but not have it too muddy - there's still subtle differences in the fabrics. When it was all said and done, I realized the banana chiffon had to get dyed as well (I thought I was going to get away with just using it as is!). It's probably not 100%, but I'm confident I got it very close and it's going to be a beautiful replica for my client. PHOTO #1: reference images & fabric. PHOTO #2: all the poly dye I went through! @ritdye #dyemore synthetic dye in daffodil & sandstone. PHOTO #3: top row is final dye, bottom row is the original fabrics. Not shown: 20 yards of various fabrics hung around the basement drying! #padme #padmeamidala #starwars #starwarscosplay