Arwen

Arwen from Lord of the Rings is one of my all time favorite movie characters (I’m not as big a fan of hers in the books, though I still love her). Read on to see why I did not make her screen-accurate.

Her original dress has incredible drape, but is also made of silk velvet – a fabric that can be prohibitively expensive when you’re looking at 15 yards. Add that to the fact that I plan to wear this to Ren Faire, I decided to go with a materials that would do well with washings and some wear and tear. I also raised the hem of the skirt and removed some of the bulk of the lower sleeves.

All the gold trim you see is actually one ribbon cut up in multiple ways and then tacked down by hand onto the red brocade. I should make note, I have had 4 yards of that red brocade since 2012 that was supposed to become a Christmas dress, that never transpired. So here we have a repurposed use for it!

All in all, this costume came together pretty quickly once I got back into the swing of things (she was my first costume after I had taken a 2 month break from all sewing for mental health and sanity in the time of Covid).