Post by StarWarsOnTheBrain on Aug 8, 2004 9:54:19 GMT -5
[glow=silver,3,000]Arwen has so many costumes that I decided to give her a separate thread. I'll be doing her costumes in the order that they appear in the movie. It might take awhile for me to get all the info. I'll try to find patterns that might help and so on. Anyways, here goes.
Arwen's Angel Dress
The Dress
This dress is the first dress that we see Arwen in (how many times have you heard that? About a million?). Apparently there is an earlier version that you don't get to see well in the film (so that's where the picture on my bookmark came from, oops sorry, hehe, Blonde Elf moment), if you'd like to see the picture go here.
This dress consists of two layers, an underdress with a cloak-like overdress on top. Now if you look at the behind the scenes pictures it's an off-white color, almost ivory, but keep movie lighting in mind. As anyone who's been sewing for a few years would know, lighting affects the color of the fabric, since it appears white in the film I'm gonna say that it's white (Many of Arwen's costumes are affected in this way). Back to the dress. Both the underdress and the overdress have the same rounded neckline (in some picture it does appear to meet at the middle in a point), I think they're attached at the neckline. The over dress is held together until about four inches below the neckline, then it's edges travel outward quickly. The underdress is a reasonable length with one peice sleeves. The overdress has an impractically long train (in other words, for those of us not shooting a movie, shorten it) with petal sleeves that wrap around the upper arm.
Fabrics and Trims
The underdress' sleeves appear to be made out of the same chiffon as Arwen's Chase Dress. As the for the rest of the overdress my guess is (I'm no expert mind you, but this is what I think) is white silk with chiffon on top. The over dress is some kind of knit, probably with mettalic thread, but if you're not going to have cameras on you making that glowing effect you can skip the mettalics. The 2" trim around the neck appears to be a crocheted lace with sequins on close inspection (see sleeve close-up). A delicate loop trim is found on all the edges.
Patterns
Simplicity 9891 Veiw A
If you lengthen the sleeves so they'll fall about 5" past you hand and lose the fabric peice around the neck this pattern could be used for the underdress. Also, if you mess around with the front and sleeves you've got a possible over dress.
Simplicity 5843 Veiw B
This one isn't one of the best choices out there, but then again there aren't many choices out there. On this one you will have to mess around with the fit since it's loose, and you need to work with the sleeves (Note: If you do it right you can fake the wrap around look). Lose the that awful lacy thing.
Butterick 6593 Veiw C
This one proves to be the most promising I think. You'll need to fix the neckline, and make the sleeves wider and longer(do not, I repeat, DO NOT mess with the armholes unless you have alot of experience). The hem needs to be lengthened also. But it's a close fit and once you fix those things you could use this pattern for both layers. And it has a front seam so that should make altering it for the top layer easier.
McCall's 4490 Veiw D
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This one is also pretty promising. Although you'd need to work with the back so that it uses a zipper instead o lacing up. The sleeves probably need to be lengthened (what a surprise ), and you might want to adjust it so there's less of a curve. This one also might me useable for both dresses once you've done the overdress alterations.
Note: When you make this dresses, especially since you're gonna be messing around with the patterns use muslin to make a practice dress. Don't use your real material until you have everything just the way you want it. If you're not sure about what you're doing or to get a more personalized fit try finding a book like the Singer Sewing Reference Library's The Perfect Fit. And it helps to have an experienced seamstress nearby (trust me, I know)
That's it for now, please MSG me if you have any comments or know of any other patterns that can be used for this dress. Also if you can't see any of the pictures here let me know so I can try to fix it. For more info go to www.padawansguide.com/angel.shtml, www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Elf/Arwen/Angel.htm, or www.elvishcostume.org/arwen
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Arwen's Angel Dress
The Dress
This dress is the first dress that we see Arwen in (how many times have you heard that? About a million?). Apparently there is an earlier version that you don't get to see well in the film (so that's where the picture on my bookmark came from, oops sorry, hehe, Blonde Elf moment), if you'd like to see the picture go here.
This dress consists of two layers, an underdress with a cloak-like overdress on top. Now if you look at the behind the scenes pictures it's an off-white color, almost ivory, but keep movie lighting in mind. As anyone who's been sewing for a few years would know, lighting affects the color of the fabric, since it appears white in the film I'm gonna say that it's white (Many of Arwen's costumes are affected in this way). Back to the dress. Both the underdress and the overdress have the same rounded neckline (in some picture it does appear to meet at the middle in a point), I think they're attached at the neckline. The over dress is held together until about four inches below the neckline, then it's edges travel outward quickly. The underdress is a reasonable length with one peice sleeves. The overdress has an impractically long train (in other words, for those of us not shooting a movie, shorten it) with petal sleeves that wrap around the upper arm.
Fabrics and Trims
The underdress' sleeves appear to be made out of the same chiffon as Arwen's Chase Dress. As the for the rest of the overdress my guess is (I'm no expert mind you, but this is what I think) is white silk with chiffon on top. The over dress is some kind of knit, probably with mettalic thread, but if you're not going to have cameras on you making that glowing effect you can skip the mettalics. The 2" trim around the neck appears to be a crocheted lace with sequins on close inspection (see sleeve close-up). A delicate loop trim is found on all the edges.
Patterns
Simplicity 9891 Veiw A
If you lengthen the sleeves so they'll fall about 5" past you hand and lose the fabric peice around the neck this pattern could be used for the underdress. Also, if you mess around with the front and sleeves you've got a possible over dress.
Simplicity 5843 Veiw B
This one isn't one of the best choices out there, but then again there aren't many choices out there. On this one you will have to mess around with the fit since it's loose, and you need to work with the sleeves (Note: If you do it right you can fake the wrap around look). Lose the that awful lacy thing.
Butterick 6593 Veiw C
This one proves to be the most promising I think. You'll need to fix the neckline, and make the sleeves wider and longer(do not, I repeat, DO NOT mess with the armholes unless you have alot of experience). The hem needs to be lengthened also. But it's a close fit and once you fix those things you could use this pattern for both layers. And it has a front seam so that should make altering it for the top layer easier.
McCall's 4490 Veiw D
This one is also pretty promising. Although you'd need to work with the back so that it uses a zipper instead o lacing up. The sleeves probably need to be lengthened (what a surprise ), and you might want to adjust it so there's less of a curve. This one also might me useable for both dresses once you've done the overdress alterations.
Note: When you make this dresses, especially since you're gonna be messing around with the patterns use muslin to make a practice dress. Don't use your real material until you have everything just the way you want it. If you're not sure about what you're doing or to get a more personalized fit try finding a book like the Singer Sewing Reference Library's The Perfect Fit. And it helps to have an experienced seamstress nearby (trust me, I know)
That's it for now, please MSG me if you have any comments or know of any other patterns that can be used for this dress. Also if you can't see any of the pictures here let me know so I can try to fix it. For more info go to www.padawansguide.com/angel.shtml, www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Elf/Arwen/Angel.htm, or www.elvishcostume.org/arwen
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