Eowyn's
Shieldmaiden dress
I enlarged and modified patterns from Patterns for Theatrical
Costumes by Katherine S. Holkebauer. The cream chemise is a combination
of a mid 12th c. bliaut and an early 16th c. sleeve (both modified) and
the vest is somewhat based on the one that went with the bliaut.
What fabric did you use? The dress is made of an off-white muslin
(too broke for the nice silk), and the vest is brown suedecloth. I had
trouble finding good trim, so what I ended up with is more metallic than
I'd like but I like the design.
I probably would have used a modified commercial pattern if I was
doing it again, because I had trouble getting the dress to look and fit
right. I gave up on the vest and used a t-shirt similar to the fit I
wanted to make the pattern. I made the sleeves in two pieces, the
puffier top part and the open lower part, and put elastic where I joined
them to help them keep their shape better. (The top part of the sleeve
and the cords help hide it.) The cap sleeves in the vest weren't really
sewn in- my pattern ended up having a cap sleeve look to it, so after I
sewed the trim on, I put in a little seam to make it look more like they
had been set in and to hide the ends of the trim.
