This page describes a costume that is based on the elf extra costumes from the “Fellowship of the Ring” movie.
Image Gallery - The Credits – The Pattern – The Fabric – The Sleeve Embroidery - Finishing Touches - Wearing It
Click on an image below to view it at its full size. Pictures were taken at Western Springs Park in Auckland, a wildlife refuge.
The Credits
I don’t have a sewing machine right now, so I didn’t sew most of this. I was a good shopper; I told an expert what I wanted; I designed the sleeve embroidery; and I sewed the bottom hem by hand. A friend recommended an expert historical costumer, Helen, who revealed her skill adjusting the pattern and creating the dress. I learned a lot by watching her and asking her questions, so hopefully the next costume project I do will be sewn by me. She also brought Trish into the project, the lady who hand-embroidered the sleeves. If these artists in fabric are representative of the local talent supporting Ngila Dickson, it is no wonder that the costumes in the LOTR film are so gorgeous. I’m not worthy!
The Pattern
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This dress is based on a pattern very popular among LOTR costumers, Simplicity 9891, a pattern for a long quasi-Pre-Raphaelite dress. The sleeves have been altered so that the drop is
wider and longer. The join of the sleeve arm and sleeve bell was moved above the elbow. The
sleeve bell is based on the size of the brocade lining, which was 112
centimetres wide. Each expanded sleeve bell runs 39 centimetres from the
back of my hand to above my elbow and drops about 50 centimetres (half a
meter). The
hem was altered to give the dress a short train. |
Helen noted that the long princess seaming in 9891 is “very medieval”. The skirt was cut with the maximum fullness that the pattern allowed, with unexpected results.
The Fabric: Bliss and Bane
"My blysse and my bane, ye have been
both, yet much the bigger was my moan..." From J.R.R. Tolkien's
translation of the poem The Pearl
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I live in Auckland. Through trying to match a length of fabric I already had, I wound up stumbling across one of the fabric suppliers for the LOTR film production, Velvet Fabrics Ltd. I visited their small warehouse and, as costumers do, fell head over heels in love with the Denholme velvets they supplied. Lush, shimmering, silky, subtly colored – I was worse than Gollum with the Ring. I succumbed to the mad desire to have a dress made of the same velvet that had been used for some of the film costumes, and went for a color called Smokey Red (shown to the left). I chose this fabric before the extended DVD came out, but it’s similar to two elf extra robes shown on the extended DVD; one is in Ngila Dickson’s costume-related interview. |
Ngila Dickson mentioned that working with the silk velvet drove the costume team crazy, and we learned why. The fabric showed any seam very clearly – hence the side-seamed designs developed by the movie costumers. The fabric liked to unravel, so all the raw edges had to be overlocked. Even a pin-hole showed permanently. We shied away from including a belt because of this, not wanting to “bruise” the fabric. Helen wound up sewing the zipper in by hand, and she recommended that the lower hem be handstitched. At last, something I could do! I took the nearly-finished dress home and handstitched the 5-meter hem. The velvet fabric’s weight and softness meant that any fullness not supported with an arm or a bouffant garment underneath just…fell. The skirt of my dress was cut very full, but it falls into the lines of a nearly straight skirt. This explains why most of the velvet dresses in the LOTR movies have slim-lined, columnar bodies and/or underdresses, and the elf-men’s velvet robes often have their drape supported by the arms.
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I managed to find not one, but two, silk suppliers for the movie. Inspired by Elrond’s council-robe sleeve, I bought silk brocade for sleeve lining from one of them (shown to the left). The size of the piece of this fabric that I could afford (a 1-meter length that was 112 centimeters wide) limited the size of the sleeve bells. The brocade was a medium-weight fabric. "Looks like the design has stylized elephants in it," said Helen. The silk brocade against the silk velvet was a slippery combination that called for yet more hand-sewing. We now wonder how many of the LOTR film costumes had a lot of hand-sewing involved. |
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I'm not worthy! I’m not worthy! This was made into the silvery vision adorning my biceps using cord embroidery. Silver thread was gathered and stitched into the
shape by affixing the cord to the fabric. According to Trish, who did the
embroidery, this is usually a quick and simple way to place a large design on a
substantial area. In this case, the velvet fabric made it more difficult than
usual. The upper sleeve is lined to protect the embroidery. |
Finishing Touches
With the dress that was created, I wore:
Artificial latex pointed ear tips manufactured by Woochie, affixed with spirit gum
Comfortable shoes with a 1 ˝ inch heel
Enough makeup to make a Nazgűl look good
A plum brocade tote bag
Wearing
It
“You don’t wear dresses like this very often, do you?” asked my friends at the photo session, watching me trip over the
train and sit on the sleeve bells. After about an hour in the dress, I had the hang of it (most of the time) and found the dress easy and comfortable to wear. The wide neckline of the dress tended to slump off my shoulders, so we added shoulder-strap holders to the upper neckline inside the dress. These connect the dress to my bra straps, eliminating the shoulder-slip problem, and I recommend them.
You can get these at your local sewing supply shop.
I
did notice a tendency to clasp my hands in front of me as I walked or stood -
the big bell sleeves made this the most comfortable and natural way to hold my
arms. I was very, very glad that we had made the bell sleeves so that their
length along my arm placed them over the back of my hand, down to where my thumb
begins. This was long enough to be dramatic, and to fold the sleeves back for a
cuff if I wanted, but not long enough to be really awkward.
I wore this costume to join the crowds at the Wellington, New Zealand premiere
of the movie of The Two Towers, and to the midnight showing of this movie
at the Embassy Theatre. Going in costume was a great icebreaker. I had a wonderful time, talking to interesting people and hamming it up for the cameras. When I returned to Auckland, my friends told me I had made the news on Channel 1.
Image Gallery - The Credits – The Pattern – The Fabric – The Sleeve Embroidery - Finishing Touches - Wearing It
Thanks for visiting this page! If you have any comments or questions, feel free to get in touch at cunningvixen1@xtra.co.nz . For serious information about the costumes in the Lord of the Rings movies, the most comprehensive online source of information is the website http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr . I am greatly appreciative of the information that site and its associated mailing list have provided.
