How to make Arwen's Death Dress

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. 

​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).

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.

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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.  

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  And may the evenstar forever shine upon you.  :)