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Tammy's Example and a Party
California, USA
Click on pictures for enlargements.
Arwen's Requiem Gown
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| Partying with a hobbit |
Dana, Greg, Tammy, Ed |
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| Elves and Hobbits |
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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