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Tammy's Example and a Party

California, USA

Click on pictures for enlargements.

Arwen's Requiem Gown

Partying with a hobbit Dana, Greg, Tammy, Ed
 
Elves and Hobbits  

Making the gown

The materials I used were blue/grey silk velvet (unlined) for the over gown and blue Chinese silk for the chemise. I found that since the chemise material is so light (rumor is the production used silk chiffon...which is a little lighter still than what I used) that it will want to ride up where the velvet will pull down, making the gap in between the dresses look off from the film version of the dress.

The trim - finding it. Anything CLOSE to the original. A pain in the proverbial ass. I gave up trying to match the trim and instead went for the same antique beaded silver look.  Mine is made from three different types of Sari trim, sewed together, then beaded, and then hand stitched onto the sleeves and neckline. This took the longest time to do because its all hand work.

Beaded trim at the neckline


The sleeves were also hand beaded. I laid the fabric in an embroidery hoop and then freehanded the design onto the sleeve. For those of you who don't want to freehand, get tracing paper, print off the design from alleyctascratch and trace it that way. It will work.   (There is a pic to go with this)

The chemise is beaded the same as the sleeves, at least the top portion. This will give the chemise enough weight to pull down at the same rate as the velvet, so you will (if you've cut the dress correctly) have the right amount of distance between the narrow trim and the wider trim of the two dresses.

The floor length sleeves are watermarked sari silk which is changeable from purple to blue to grey depending on the light. Instead of joining this material at the beaded trim line, it is a set in sleeve at the shoulder, reinforcing the beaded sleeve. There is approx. 2 and a half yards per sleeve here cut in a petal shape.

   

I'm fairly lucky. I live in Los Angeles and live close to a huge garment district where you can find just about any kind of material you want - sometimes very inexpensive. The studios shop down there and, if you're lucky, you can match fabric's exactly, depending on what you are making.

Since the LOTR production was made in New Zealand, it will be luck to find any material exactly unless you purchase it from the same distributor the production did.


 

Check out Tammy's Legolas <here>   and visit her web site for more construction costume building details.