Anne Boleyn – Anne of the Thousand Days

Made for: Dragoncon 2014

Background: One of my favourite Anne Boleyn movies – I thought this would be a fun project.

Journal Entries: Read more at my Anne of the 1000 Days tag

Related Costumes: Anne Boleyn Green Gown

Patterns Used:
Simplicity 2589 and Simplicity 2621 with Jean Hunnisett’s Period Costumes for Stage and Screen

Under-things:

Initially, I was going to use all of my under-things I’d made for my 2009 Anne Boleyn costume – but I ended up only using part of them: the petticoat, bum roll, and hoopskirt. I decided to make new stays , as my 2009 stays were uncomfortable. I made new stays using the same pattern as the 2009 version, and they are so much better and more comfortable than the old ones! (using my leftover Haunted Mansion fabric!)

Dress:

It was a comedy of errors with the fabric for this dress – I picked out something I liked at Joann’s, since I had a gift card to use. Each bolt only had 8 yards on it (and only 45″ wide), so I got 5 yards from one store and 5 from another. I asked if they could order more in, which they did. That took a long time, so long I finally had to call. They couldn’t find it. So my husband (who works closer to the store) went in… and they said they DID have it, but it had arrived dirty and covered in tiny ink marks so they didn’t think I’d want it. I DO! They damaged it out and I got the whole bolt, all 8 yards for $20 total. Good deal LOL. It cleaned up fine (I couldn’t find any ink marks, it was just a little dusty?) and ended up being a lifesaver – I thought I’d only need part of it, I ended up using every bit of it except tiny scraps.

Anyway, I used the above Simplicity pattern pieces as a basis. I lengthened the sleeves a little, and added length to the skirt as well as two additional panels because I wanted it to be very very full. The skirt is cartridge pleated and hand-sewn onto the bodice. (I tried to machine sew it but it was too thick to go through the machine!) The underskirt is made of a gold taffeta – I’d rather have found a high-quality gold-lamé, but searches were fruitless. I made the underskirt using the same Simplicity pattern and lined the front panel in felt – that was great and really helped the skirt look nice, thick and full with no hoops peeking through.

The neckline trim I made out of the gold taffeta – Initially I was going to use some gold appliques I had leftover from my 2012 Belle ballgown, but they just did not look right, too chunky. I did a base of the gold taffeta from my underskirt, and then a layer of another gold ribbon I found. That worked much better, it looked rich without the chunky look of the appliques, especially once I got all the jewelry added.

Sleeves:

The undersleeves are made of the gold taffeta as well. They were an adventure. I used the Simplicity pattern piece, enlarging it and changing the shape a bit. I interfaced them for some support, cut each slash out and faced it, and then added the pearl trim around each one. They were the most work-intensive part of the whole costume – especially since I finished the pearl trim on one sleeve, decided I didn’t like the pearls and removed them and had to redo the whole sleeve with smaller pearls! (The first draft I used loose, large pearls and it just looked too heavy. So I found some smaller light pearls and that worked so much better.) The interior is a silk gauze, which I dyed to be slightly blueish-silvery-grey. Originally I was going to make them removable, but decided I had no reason to ever need to unsnap them, so they are lightly sewn into place in the dress. They could easily be removed for cleaning or if I wanted to replace them – but don’t know why I would want to replace them after all that work LOL.

Jewelry:

The neckline jewelry was a pain in the butt. It’s all found metal pieces that I altered and/or painted. They are all sewn in place and my fingers are still sore from doing that, haha. The sleeve pieces were bought, and I made the two necklaces. The “B” I made out of sculpey. It’s a little fragile and I’ve had to repair it a couple of times, but I like the look way more than my 2009 necklace.

The girdle belt I made out of trim, with some added beading and a found jewelry piece on the end. It snaps closed at the waist.

Crown:

I decided I wanted the crown she has in this scene instead of the hood she wears earlier – my husband created a pattern for it, and had a laser template cut out of ABS plastic. The crown was formed, decorated, painted and I glued the jewels and pearls on lastly.

French Hood:

IN 2015, I dug up my fabric scraps and used the hood pattern that came with the Simplicity pattern above to make a new hood! As much as I love my crown, I wanted to make a hood to go with it, too. I made it slightly larger than the pattern called for but not by much. Everything on this hood was leftover from last year, with the exception of the veil fabric, which was just a silver netting I bought online. Not super happy with that silver netting but it was the closest thing I could find to the movie costume; but mine is just too stiff. I’d love to replace it one day.

History:

This is one of my favourites I have done! I’m just so pleased with how it turned out! As of 2025 it’s still one of my all time favs. I love to just get her out, put her on a dressform and let her be decoration in the background of my sewing room 🙂

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