Behind the Stitches: the making of Padmé's Bun covers
- Purls & Top Knots
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
I recently made Padmé's crocheted bun covers from the picnic scene in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and now I'm letting you in on all the secrets of creating a project and pattern like this! From beginning inspiration to final product, I'm taking you behind the scenes of it all.
Inspiration strikes
By now, it should come as no surprise that if I see a crochet item in a movie, I’m going to make it. When my love of crochet overlaps with my love of all things pop culture, it is hard to resist and this was no exception.
Like many people, I grew up watching Star Wars, specifically the prequels. I always loved Padmé’s style but it wasn't until recently that I realized my favorite fashion queen/senator was also sporting some crochet bun covers in one of her iconic looks.
In Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones during a picnic on Naboo with Anakin, Padmé wears a gorgeous yellow/gold flowy dress and embroidered corset that gives all the romantic vibes. But the real show stopper of the look is her hairstyle. Beautiful curls weaved around an olive green headband across her forehead and buns reminiscent of Princess Leia’s covered in crocheted gold bun covers.
From the moment I saw them, all those months ago, not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought of them. (Yes that’s a Star Wars pun 🫣)
While I have a full tutorial for these bun covers on my YouTube channel (You can view that here!)
And a PDF Pattern on my Etsy if you prefer that. (That one can be found here!)
I wanted to take you behind the scenes of some of my process of creating a pattern such as this one. From the initial reference photos and sketches to the finished product.
gathering materials
Like most projects, I hastily buy the materials *I think* I need before doing any research on the matter. For this one, it ended up working in my favor.
I could tell that the “yarn” used was quite small which meant using a very small hook. Only one yarn came to mind when looking at these bun covers and it was actually crochet thread. Aunt Lydia’s Metallic 10 Crochet Thread in the color Gold to be exact. Lucky for me, I went through a bit of a phase of using crochet thread a year ago so I already had any hook size I would need and some experience using the thinner material.
Still, there were a few things to figure out. Like how I would make the bun covers secure around an actual bun and exactly which hook size would be the right one for the project.
I started with the recommended hook size for the thread and ended up going from there, doing my best to compare the finished product to Padmé’s. In total, I think I made well over 5 bun covers (or the beginnings of) before fully settling on a hook size.
The lucky winner: 1.0mm
However, I knew this seemed like a daunting hook for people that haven’t used crochet thread before. I noticed only the slightest of a size difference between the bun covers made with hooks 1.0mm - 1.25mm and while this hook may not seem any better, I wanted to give people an option that didn’t feel so small.
As for the issue of securing the bun cover around the bun, hair ties seemed like the best bet. They could stretch over the bun but also keep the shape so that the bun cover looked like it fully encased the hair.
With my materials set, it was time to solidify a pattern.
Shop materials here: Everything You Need to Make Padmé's Bun Covers
first Trials
There is no lack of reference photos when it comes to any Star Wars costume from the prequels. From set photos and behind the scenes footage to books and exhibits, the costumes had their (deserved) moment in the spotlight which was incredibly helpful for this process.
The Padawan’s Guide has every prequels outfit perfectly categorized with reference photos, exhibit photos, and construction details. It really was a godsend for finding good reference photos.
Here were a few really helpful photos:
Right off the bat I could tell that the bun covers were primarily made up of chain loops. It almost looked like a variation of the diamond mesh chain stitch but in the round.
It took a few tries of playing around with the amount of chains used for each loop, the amount of loops used, and the dispersion of the increases, but I finally landed on something I was happy with.
I tried a few methods of attaching the hair tie but landed on this one. It allowed the bun cover to be stretched over a bun and still keep its shape.
If you want the pattern, I will link both below.
trials and errors
As I mentioned earlier, I went through many different trials of this pattern before settling on the final one. I used a total of 5 different crochet hook sizes, 4 different patterns and sizes, 2 different methods of joining the bun cover to the hair tie, and landed on 1 final design.
While to a lot of people these all probably look the same or at least very similar, I always want to make sure I get it as close to perfect as possible. (Unfortunately I do not have the “eh it’s good enough” gene). And for this one, I was also trying to get it as close to screen accurate as possible.
While some of these trials ended up making this project take way longer than originally anticipated, I am really proud of the final product.
finished Product
Overall, I am very pleased with how these turned out. I think these are about as close as I could possibly get them to the ones Padmé wears in the movie without having the exact pattern used.
Of course I had to do Padmé’s hairstyle from the scene to really try out the bun covers and make sure they looked right.
These may or may not have spurred me on to make the full cosplay for Phoenix Fan Fusion this year… but more on that later 😉
links
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. If you want to make these bun covers for yourself, I will link the tutorial and pattern one more time as well as all my social media links if you want to follow along to see what I’m going to make next!
May the yarn be with you!
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