Éowyn's Shieldmaiden Dress Tutorial

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan

“The woman turned and went slowly into the house. As she passed the doors she turned and looked back. Grave and thoughtful was her glance, as she looked on the king with cool pity in her eyes. Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Since I first read the Lord of the Rings, I've always wanted to be Eowyn. She was blonde, rode horses, was basically a princess, yet was strong and brave and totally amazing. In fact, making a thrifted version of Eowyn's dress with my friends was what got me back into sewing (after my brief stint with Home Ec in 8th grade).

Back in 2011, a local theater was doing a Lord of the Rings marathon, and since we never got to dress up for the midnight premieres, myself and my two geekiest friends decided to seize the opportunity to made costumes and go for a photoshoot before sitting through the hours of awesomeness. After some serious thrifting, my awesome friend Melaine showed Amanda and I how to made sleeves out of pillowcases, and using a brown stretchy tank top and a white boho skirt, I added ribbon and trim for my own cheap version of Eowyn's iconic Shieldmaiden dress.

An elf, a shieldmaiden, and a princess walk in a forest... wait, it this some kind of joke?

(joke and pictures stolen shamelessly from Amanda)

So, when the Denver Comic-Con started to loom near, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to remake my Eowyn dress to as close to screen-accurate as I could get it. After creating a Pinterest board and combing several tutorials and research sites (best of which was Alleycatscratch.com and CostumersGuide.com), off to Joann's I went, in search of the right fabric. After finding some nice suede that would work for Eowyn's bodice, I couldn't quite find any fabric with the right feel to it - until I happened upon some white crepe suiting that worked wonderfully.

I used Simplicity 4940, version B, but made several modifications to make it more accurate. I eventually tacked the end of the sleeves underneath so they weren't so long.

Aiiee! It looks so professional!

One of the main alterations was adding pintucks along the collar, a feat I only accomplished by following the lovely tutorial over at STC Crafts. I drew a straight line with tailor's chalk from the point of the collar to the dress seam, then drew parallel lines about 5/8" apart (or whatever measurement works for dividing your yoke into 5 equal lines). In case none of that made sense, here's a diagram:

I think they add depth and nice detail, don't you think? 

The other main alteration I made to make it more accurate was to change the bodice. Eowyn's bodice is technically in two pieces, a brown brocade vest and a quilted lower corset.

Did I mention how much I love Aimee Major and CostumersGuide.com? They're amazing.

However, even in the high quality production photos, you can't really tell it's two pieces, so I decided to only quilt the lower half. Since the idea of quilting kind of scared me, I found out that the best way to make it was to cheat trace over pre-quilted batting, which also gives the lower half extra stability.

See how I attached the side pieces before adding batting to them? Yeah, pretend I didn't do that.

For the front piece, adding the batting was easy enough, since it's all its own pattern piece. For the sides, I (should have) first attached the batting in line with the notches on the edge, then sewed the sides to the front. Don't worry too much about making it perfectly straight, since we'll be covering the edge with decorative trim.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Next we'll talk about bias tape!

Bias tape is a long strip of fabric often used to finish raw edges. You can buy it at any fabric store, but you can also make your own! I wanted to match the fabric exactly, so I made my bias tape out of the leftover suede I had. There are fancy bias tape maker gadgets out there, but I just used what I had lying around.

I cut my fabric 2" thick, then cut out a 1" strip of thin cardboard and pressed the fabric on either side of the cardboard in to make single-fold bias tape.

I then added the bias tape to my raw edges and armholes, and it made everything look so pretty and professional! There are plenty of tutorials out there on how to add bias tape (my favorite is here), but basically, you pin the tape to your fabric right sides together, then sew along the crease. 

Pictured: How much suede changes color in different light

Fold the tape over, then sew as close to the folded edge as possible on the other side. 

There are also lots of tutorials on how to use bias tape on corners (here), if you need them. Once done, it looks like you totally knew what you were doing the whole time!

Nearly done! Here have a Judgey Cat wondering why I keep stealing her seat.

The chair is mine! My own! My... Precious!

There were only two things left to finish my beautiful Eowyn dress! I added two different types of trim to mimic the embroidery that's on Eowyn's bodice. There's a thinner version for the neckline, then thicker below the bust and around the edges.

Technically, there are three rows of embroidery on the edge, but proportionally, just one looked best for my bodice. After finishing the trim, all that was left was to add grommets to the back. The pattern has you add an invisible zipper, but grommets are more accurate and way easier in my opinion.

Pictured: Hand grommeter/ grip strengthener

After that, I just added some leather laces I already had around, and voila! My Eowyn dress was finished!

Eeek! It's so pretty!

Pepper was less than thrilled about being recruited as a dress form head

Once I added some white and gold braid to my sleeves (secured with safety pins, just in case), I was ready to head out the door on a new adventure!

A Shieldmaiden is always ready for another adventure...

Jim reprised his role as Steampunk Commander Riker, especially fitting since we both got to attend the Star Trek: The Next Generation Reunion panel, and saw Jonathan Frakes himself!

 

Ah, waiting in line, such a glamorous part of attending cons

Anyway, that's my tutorial! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below, and thanks for reading!

Updated to add: I went on a photoshoot with my nerdiest friends after Christmas, and the wonderful Bruce Jenkins took some amazing pictures of me!

Beautiful pictures by Bruce Jenkins Photography

Dwarf Costume Tutorial

So the time has come! The Hobbit is here! 

Let all nerds rejoice and cheer!

There are more reasons to read, and let your geekiness show!

And if you want to make a Dwarf costume, I'll help make it so!

Well, now that my rhyming is done, I'll show you how I put together Jim's dwarf costume that he wore to the Hobbit midnight premiere! (By the way, if you were wondering, it was AMAZING!! I'm slightly biased, but still - I loved it.)

First, I have to credit Pinterest for helping me keep track of everything. My board for these costumes can be found here, where I kept all of the resources I knew I'd be needing.

Dwarven Chainmaille:

(No fowarding before midnight for luck required)

I was very inspired by this tutorial for chainmaille from soda tabs, posted by quixotiCfluX on instructables.com. He takes you through the process step by step with great pictures.

Here is what you will need:

So, to start, you'll need soda tabs. Lots and lots and lots of soda tabs.

I started a bowl of them early on, and asked all my friends to contribute, while scavenging as much as I could. You'll also want a staple remover in order to bend the tabs so they all fit nicely together. Then a wire cutter, to cut the top part of the soda tab so you can weave them together.

Stick the tab in the staple remover and push down on it, so it bends in the middle.

This helps them lay next to each other and to connect neatly together.

Then, use your wire cutter to snip the middle bit of the top, and slide the top of one tab into a side of the bottom hole. Then keep adding until you start to get shapes to them.

I knew I wanted to have chainmaille along Jim's arms, so I measured around his arm and left a few inches gap along the opposite side of the sleeve so it would stretch a bit.

After a while of watching MythBusters and working at it, I had a pretty good amount done!

I'm sure the kittens thought they were helping.

 I knew that I wanted it to cover half his hand and go around his thumb, so I made thumb holes!

After some consideration, I realized that I wanted some on his hand, and some on his upper arm. So I split them in half, and using the sleeves from a long thrift store t-shirt (cutting thumb-holes in them as well), I taped them into place in order to sew them on. I hand stitched with black thread, and peeled away the tape as I made my way around.

Sewing around the wrist was a little more complicated, as I need to shape it to his hand, so he had to wear it while I sewed. I was very careful and only stabbed him a few times - no matter what he says.

The best way to make sure the tabs stayed attached to the sleeve was to bring the needle up right next to the edge, then bridge the gap with the needle and go back down right next to the other edge.

Leather Bracer:

A 'bracer' is basically an arm-guard, and with all the leather scraps I picked up at a thrift store for $5, I knew I could easily whip up two of them. I thought about embossing them with celtic designs, but that required far more skill than I had, so I left them plain.

I cut out the shapes that I wanted, then marked where I wanted the eyelets for the laces.

Then I used my awesome leather hole puncher to poke holes where marked...

Placed the eyelets in the holes...

And since I didn't want to buy the $25 kit that opens up the eyelets for you, I improvised with some needlenose pliers to flatten them out.

Once all the eyelets were secured, it looked pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Tunic:

Now after staring at the Hobbit production photos for hours, it still didn't help me figure out what kind of tunic would be appropriately dwarf-like and still in my budget. Then I realized that Viking outfits are fairly similar to dwarven ones and made a tunic based on traditional Viking clothes.

First, I bought a large black sweater from a thrift store and turned it inside out to make markings on it. (Have I mentioned how much I love thrift stores? Visit many and visit often, and you'll find all kinds of amazing things.)

I tried it on Jim, then made marks a bit below where I wanted the sleeves to end. Then I chopped off the sleeves about halfway down.

I chopped off the neckline and made an outline of what I wanted the neck to be.

I found some awesome ribbon trim for cheap online, and used it on the edges.

First I hemmed the neck and sleeves to avoid fraying.

Then I used silver thread on the top and bottom borders in order to invisibly attach it.

Now that my tunic was finished and my chainmaille sewn on, I attached the t-shirt sleeves to the inside of the sweater to make one whole shirt.

I sewed the sleeves on with black thread, right above the ribbon in order to be as unobtrusive as possible.

When the whole thing was assembled, it looked something like this:

I also bought a huge bag of leather strings from the Hobby Lobby for $5, so I dug through until I found some that fit.

And with the finished costume, I think it looked pretty authentic.

Add the $3 plastic Halloween axe (also from a thrift store) that I blessed with dwarven runes in silver Sharpie...

(what, like you didn't learn Angerthas in high school because you were geeky and bored?)

And I think he looks like a great dwarf. 

The cloak and beard added to the effect as well. (He enjoyed growing out his beard far too much)

And here we are at the night of the premiere!

Well, hope that helps you with your own dwarf costume, and happy Hobbiting everyone!