Elf costume
July 2016
improvements May 2017 and May 2018
inspired by Eowyn
medieval dress used as a base for my elf costume
This project is a fantasy costume I created for a medieval/fantasy event in May 2017, that takes place every year in Andilly.
At first, this was supposed to be more of a medieval dress, but I bought these really cool elf ears for another project and decided to incorporate them in this project as well. You don’t get to wear elf ears every day, so why not ;-)
This costume is also loosely inspired by one of Eowyn’s dresses in the "Lord of the Rings” film.
Warner Bros "Lord of the Rings"
I made a first version of this dress in the summer of 2016, which I wore at the event in may 2017, but when my friend and I decided to return to the event in may 2018, I made some changes to it. For the first version of this dress I used the Butterick pattern 6196 as a base, although I did end up changing the blouse pattern quite a lot, to make them look a bit more like Eowyn’s. My friend and I also made capes to go with our costumes, and they looked quite good but unfortunately they were just made out of cotton (NOT waterproof) and since it rained at the end of the day, we ended up totally drenched. I also had a bit of a hard time with the skirt because it wouldn't stay up so I always stepped on it.
Grandes Médiévales d'Andilly 2017
We decided to return the next year. Two weeks before the event, I had the brilliant idea of changing my costume completely AND adding hand sewn embroidery. I added suspenders that could be fixed to the shoulder straps of the bodice to prevent the skirt from slipping down,. I did that to make sure the suspenders would stay invisible, also because the shoulder straps of the bodice sometimes slipped of my shoulders, and the suspenders prevented them from doing that. After I had done this, the costume was already way more wearable and comfortable. But then something needed to be done about the non waterproof cape. But since the problem lay with the fabric, the only way to solve it was to remake the cape entirely. So that’s what I did, and this time I used a thick, velvet fabric that was a lot more waterproof. I also added some elf inspired embroidery on the top and front of the cape.
hand sewn embroidery
Once the cape was done, I wanted to make the sleeves a bit more elfish. I took some inspiration from both Eowyn and Galadriel from “Lord of the Rings” and in the end I decided to make some kind of sleeve straps, that I could strap over the blouse I already had, with a large piece of white voile/organza added to the bottom to give the sleeves an extra layer and make them more wavy and elfish. Finally, the last thing I did was adding some elfish hand sewn embroidery to the bodice and sleeve straps.
I still had some time left to make a few accessories. I made a small purse with a decorative button that has the first lettre of my name on it. I also made two potion bottles, a small one with orange water and white stones, and a big one with blue water and blue beads. I decorated the large bottle with some fimo clay and painted a dragon design on top of it. These were all attached to a belt.
