Heather's Office

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Heather - Utah, USA

The small company where I work has been meaning for years to do an organized office-wide Halloween. Since many of us are LotR fans, we decided that this was the year, and I took it upon myself to make costumes for those that wanted them. They paid for the materials, and I sewed the costumes. We wound up with ten costumes, though I was only able to get pictures of eight. They were:

bulletArwen's Angel Dress
bulletArwen's Mourning Dress
bulletArwen's Rivendell Farewell Dress
bulletElrond's robes
bulletEowyn's Travel Dress with Brown Coat
bulletFrodo
bulletGaladriel's Mirror Dress
bulletGandalf the White
bulletLegolas
bulletRosie Cotton

For lunch that day, we did a Middle Earth Feast, with foods to represent each of the peoples of Middle Earth. We had lembas and miruvor for the Elves; tide-me-overs for the Dwarves; seed cakes and scones (among items Bilbo served the Dwarves in "An Unexpected Party") as well as chicken stew (hear it tastes just like rabbit...) for the Hobbits; and mulled punch and salad (needed a couple of normal foods for those of unadventurous digestive tracts) for the Humans. For desert, we had spice-berry cake with yellow pudding frosting, baked in a tube pan so it looked a little bit like the One Ring. I'd be happy to email recipes, if anyone wants them. All things considered, the whole occasion came off quite well.

Arwen's Angel Dress (worn by Debbie)

This was one of the last costumes I made for the project. By this point, I was getting pretty darn good at making princess-seamed costumes, so I just took Debbie's measurements and started cutting. The underdress is white polyester crepe from Hancock Fabrics. The overdress is blue Silk Essence from JoAnn Fabrics. I used iridescent rayon thread for a bit of machine embroidery along the front and sleeve edges. Both layers are stitched together at the neckline, with ties in back for adjusting the fit. The neckline trim is actually three different trims, sewn down one layer at a time to create a textured, shimmery look. All three trims were white with an iridescent finish. I used leftover trim from the dress and leftover double-knit white crepe from Gandalf's costume (see below) for a long cape to complete the outfit.

Arwen's Mourning Dress (worn by me)

It's a good thing I started this one early, because the details took forever. The dress is just a basic princess-seamed dress, lengthened, with the neckline altered, the front seam added, and the sleeves changed. I used machine embroidery to trim the sleeve edges and the hemline. It doesn't show in the pictures, but up-close it adds a nice touch against the low-pile fabric. I made the dress of washable navy velvet--cotton-poly mix. The trim on the neckline and the upper arms started out as wired red paisley holiday ribbon. I took out the wires, added gold lamé bias tape at the edges, did the beading and embroidery  by hand, and hand-basted it in place. The buttons on the front are just decorative. There's an invisible zipper in back. The neckline insert and the sash are both red Silk Essence. The veil is poly-blend chiffon,  hemmed with corners rounded.

The crown I made from brass tooling foil from www.dickblick.com . The wooden tooling tools don't yield fine enough detail, so I used a ball point pen for most of the detail work. The crown isn't quite as narrow or smooth as I'd like, and the fit is a bit  tight. I might redo it for the RotK opening. Other than that, though, I'm really very pleased with the end result of my labors.

Arwen's Rivendell Farewell Dress (not shown)

This one was a bit challenging, as I had to make a short, rather top-heavy, older woman with a hobbitishly buoyant personality look elvish. That's what she wanted, though, so I gave it my best shot. I used long lines, a fitted bodice, simplified layers, and wavy or vertical fabric patterns to create more-or-less the desired effect. I used a glossy, pale mauve cotton moire for the overdress, then lavender chiffon and dark purple moire for the underskirt (front only, from where the skirt split to the side seams, so as not to add bulk in back). I used the same purple moire for the undersleeves. Machine embroidery in darker purple thread lines the sleeve edges, collar, and hems on the mauve layer. I did the patterns on the belt and collar with silver fabric paint. It looked a lot nicer than I'd thought it would and was a whole lot faster and easier than embroidery. The moire I found on clearance at a Home Fabrics store ($2/yd! Yes!!). The chiffon was from Hancock Fabrics. There's an invisible zipper in the back.

Elrond's Robes (not shown)

This costume was made relatively early on in the project. From it I learned that costumes for guys need to be BAGGY. The fitted thing does not fly unless the intended wearers are either extremely thin or extremely patient. I didn't use a pattern here, really, just measured and cut. Anyway, this one combined the lines of Elrond's Two Towers robes with the more open, stand-up collar of his Fellowship robes. The outer drape was heavy, textured, dark blue crepe with a velvety drape to it. Inner sleeves of the drape were blue Silk Essence. A black frog clasp holds the drape together at chest-level. The tunic was a terrific, drapey grey diamond moleskin print, with a black and white beaded knit forming the underlayer. Trousers (very loose and flowing) were made of more blue Silk Essence.

Eowyn's Travel Dress with Brown Coat (worn by Meredith)

This costume is just two more princess-seam dresses layered one over the other. I fiddled with the necklines on both (raised underdress's and shifted overdress's to a rounded V) and added ties in the back for a customizable fit. Meredith was on a tight budget, and the brown overdress fabric was about a yard shy of what I really needed, so the sleeves aren't as full as I would've liked. Such is life. The underdress is medium weight grey wool crepe, with some delicate machine embroidery at the collar and sleeve edges. The overdress is a fairly heavy, textured poly-blend, trimmed with brown fleece that I cut in 3" strips and sewed in place. The sleeves have thick, brown, wool-blend yarn (basted in place for convenience) for ties. I sewed dark brown bias tape along both sides of the front, then stitched the two pieces together from top to about hip-level. Below hip-level, it's open. I stitched round gold-tone buttons in place on the sewn-together part. Both layers slip on over the head and tighten with aforementioned ties.

Frodo (worn by Jim)

Another lesson in baggy-ness--I had to completely redo the trousers. The shirt is unbleached muslin--nothing fancy. The pants are medium-weight brown poly-cotton blend, pleated for fullness, with a well-disguised elastic waistband. The jacket started out as burnt orange denim (really ugly stuff!), but the underside was a lovely, warm light-reddish-brown, so I used it inside-out. I trimmed it with the same brown fleece used in the Eowyn costume. There was a vest as well, of medium-weight dark brown upholstery velvet, but the office was too hot for Jim to wear it, and that thick velvet added more than he liked to his girth. The cloak is grey-green robe velour, found on clearance for $1.50/yd. It's just a standard half-circle cloak with a deep rectangular hood. In retrospect, I wish I'd made it about six inches longer. Live and learn.

Rosie Cotton (worn by Wanita)

This one was kind of a collaborative effort, as Wanita also likes to sew. I did the bodice, skirt, and apron, and she did the chemise and furry feet. The bodice is different types of blue cotton calico, with the teardrop-shaped cutout in front, navy bias tape on all the edges,  and ties in back for a customizable fit. I used lightweight interfacing and a full lining to give it the sturdiness that proper bodices need. 

The skirt is double-layered, with light blue cotton broadcloth forming the longer layer and navy flannel forming the shorter layer. The apron is the same broadcloth as the longer skirt layer. I trimmed it and the navy layer of the skirt with a bit of machine embroidery and some light blue lace. Wanita made her chemise of bleached muslin. The furry feet are knee-high nylons with slipper-soles on bottom and doll hair glued on top. We hit some last-minute problems, though. Wanita was so busy with her daughters' costumes that she couldn't start her chemise until the night before Halloween. She didn't discover until much too late that the chemise pattern was several sizes too small. There wasn't time or fabric to redo it, so she just slit it down the front and, for modesty's sake, wore the bodice on backwards. This resulted in a rather bunchy-looking front, as the ties weren't designed to work on a person's front, but it beats wandering around the office with one's dainty unmentionables visible through that teardrop-shaped cutout.

Wanita's hobbit-feet turned out really well, though--I'd recommend the method to anyone needing quick, inexpensive hobbit-feet.

Galadriel's Mirror Dress (worn by Kristen)

This dress is one of my favorites. It looks great but was really cheap to make. (Let's hear it for after-Christmas clearance sales!) The underlayer is white satin with a metallic silver Christmas tree pattern. Turned upside-down, though, the Christmas trees look like kind of thistle-ish flowers. This is exactly what I did for the underlayer. 

It's just a simple, sleeveless, slip-over-the-head dress. The overdress is flocked velvet with a white, glittery snowflake pattern. I used a single layer of it for the main overdress, so that the silver-thistle pattern of the underdress would show through a bit. On the sleeves, I used a double layer, for a bit more opacity and to keep the hems tucked unobtrusively between layers. Kristen made some neckline modifications for modesty and added her own silvery brooch. The overall effect was quite nice. I also made a matching cloak from white fleece. It's not shown, as the office was much too warm for a full-length fleece cloak .

It looks like the cloak Galadriel wears to bid the Fellowship farewell.  added some hand-beading for embellishment, so that the cloak would  have the same shimmery look as the rest of the costume.

Gandalf the White (worn by Deloy)

You can't see the tunic very well on account of the cloak and fake beard, but if you could see it, you'd see a nice Mandarin-style collar, an invisible zipper, and a top part of ivory home-dec textured jacquard in a properly manly-looking pattern. The bottom part was double-layered, with the inner layer being the same double-knit white crepe that I used for the cloak, and the outer layer being white naugahide (lots cheaper than leather, and again, I was on a budget).

The cloak is another basic half-circle with rectangular hood. The cloak clasp is a cheap silver-tone one, with silver fabric paint added to create the basic appearance (from a distance) of Gandalf's brooch. As aforementioned, it's made of white double-knit crepe. The loose trousers under the tunic are white Silk Essence. The staff was fun to make. I hadn't the tools to make a properly accurate reproduction, but instead went for something that creates more-or-less the right impression. I took a 6' wooden pole, then drilled, carved, and sanded enough of a hole in the top to fit in a store-bought finial. I took a narrower, square dowel, cut off three pieces at fairly steep angles, then filed and sanded those pieces until they looked more-or-less like the three pieces protruding from the top of Gandalf's staff. I wasn't clever enough to figure a way to make them curve back around, so they just go out. Anyway, once the smaller wooden pieces were done, I thoroughly glued everything in place, let it dry outside for a full day, then spray-painted everything a glossy white.

Legolas (worn by Ian)

Debbie's little boy wanted a Legolas costume for Halloween, and was quite excited that his "friend Heather" was going to make him one. Adorable kid! Since Ian is quite an active little fellow, I decided this one needed to be simple and easy to get in and out of. Since he was going trick-or-treating in it and the weather forecast said snow, it needed to be warm as well. For simplicity, I combined Legolas's shirt and jerkin into one garment. I followed the basic lines of the patterns, just made it child-size. I used a silvery-grey, leaf-patterned, lightweight-but-fairly-stiff damask for what was supposed to look like the shirt (really, just collar, yoke, and sleeves). The dark green parts are suedecloth left over from another project. The lighter green is that robe velour from Frodo's cloak. Two small, silver-tone cloak-clasps hold it shut. I didn't do the jerkin decorations, as Ian didn't want anything "girlish." The cloak is charcoal-grey fleece (half circle cloak, rectangular hood), with a different, darker clasp to hold it shut. We didn't bother with the mallorn leaf pin, as that might've been a bit much for Ian to put on and take off by himself. The quiver is a double layer of brown naugahide, trimmed with the last scraps of the brown fleece. Dark jeans, comfortable dark shoes, and an inexpensive blond wig (provided by Debbie) completed the outfit.

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This page was last updated 11/21/09