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Free Tutorials

How to make Arwen's Death Dress

3/22/2018

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Those of you who are familiar with the Lord of the Rings might recall a couple scenes where Arwen Evenstar wore a gorgeous red and black gown, commonly called her "death dress" as depicted during Aragorn's morbid vision of her while gazing into the palantir.

Well, here's how I recreated it. 
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​Following the same mockup pattern that I used for Arwen's coronation gown (Simplicity Costumes #4940, style C), I slightly modified it by cutting a deeper neckline (to make room for the neckband) and increasing the legnth.  I wanted a nice, flowing train for this one.  I also changed the sleeves, which I'll explain in a bit.

I purchased everything, except for the lace, at Joann Fabrics.  I used about 6 yards of black velvet and about 3 yards of red velvet.  I ​also found a red paisley silk print, which I used for the neckband and sleeve cap things (I forgot what they're technically called).  I simply made a small pattern out of newspaper for the those.  

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Here's a closer look at the paisley fabric.  The actual fabric print that Liv Tyler wore had some black in it, too, but this was the best I could find.



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It was also challenging to find antique styled lace that had similar scalloped edges and width as the lace depicted around the elbows.  I made do with a supplier that I found on Etsy (One Stop Trims).
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According to picture references, Arwen has some sort of lace which looks like it covers the top 2" of the neckband.  This REALLY bugged me while I mulled over what it could possibly be.  So I ended up taking a scrap of the paisley back to Joann's, where I maticulously went up and down the aisles, laying all sorts of laces over the paisley, trying to find one that looked right.  Unfortunately, none of them did.  But then I came across some black tulle with silver sparkles and thought it gave a satisfactory, dimensional, effect.      

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Once I had trimmed and tacked the tulle over the top portion of the neckband, it gave a similar appearance to the real deal, but not close enough for my liking.  Once I come across a more accurate lace, I'll probably replace it.  (Later, after finding a better picture reference, I realized the top portion actually lays UNDER the dress, but alas....)

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I used a different lace, also ordered through an Etsy supplier (fabulessfabrics), to overlay the paisley fabric on the "sleeve cap things".  This lace also had a paisley pattern.   

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​The sleeves on Arwen's original death dress are actually much longer and more rounded than what the Simplicity pattern provides, so I experimented with muslin until getting the general shape.  Basically, it's a very long D shape.  

I did use the Simplicity pattern sleeves for Arwen's coronation gown, which turned out pretty good, but I wanted a more dramatic look for this gown.

Once everything was all sewn together, I ended up hemming the bottom of the gown quite a bit, since I'm so short.  I didn't want to risk tripping all over it.  But I did leave the long, flowing train.  The picture posted below was taken before I hemmed up the bottom.  
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Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  And may the evenstar forever shine upon you.  :)
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