I'm the one
wearing Arwen's Blood Red gown, and my sister is wearing Eowyn's Green
dress. I also attached one of us with two other girls we met at the 2004
Maryland Renaissance Festival
These were basically my first "full size" costume attempts, but I was
also working on two 16th century Renaissance costumes simultaneously,
and have worked with doll patterns before. The pattern I used for both
costumes was Simplicity 4940, and each one was slightly modified.
For the Arwen gown, I used a stretch blue velvet that appeared almost
black when the nap was reversed, and a red velveteen for the sleeves
(which I simply hemmed because the underside of the material had a satin
appearance and worked fine for lining). Around the neckline was where I
modified the pattern because it didn't include the cap sleeves or the
thin red border that lines the trim.
For the Eowyn dress, I used a stretch green crushed velvet and a
green brocade for the yolk, sleeve lining, and skirt center. The center
of the dress was where this one was modified because the pattern didn't
include the inset, so I cut panels out of both types of material, hemmed
the crushed green panel from the waist down, basted it to the brocade
from the waist up, and finally sewed the entire panel into the rest of
the dress- while keeping the hemmed section free so that it could later
be pinned to the side to reveal the brocade in the center.
