farawyn costume
Also known as Female Ithilien Elven Ranger Costume (or FIER) if I would wear my elf ears with it

Finished, April 2005

This dress consists of a long chemise with long sleeves rolled up, and an overdress kind of like a floor length jerkin. I have decided to officially call this outfit my Farawyn outfit from now on. I have a back story and everything which I will post sometime. In short, Farawyn is the daughter of Faramir and Eowyn. (Not according to Tolkien, but according to my imagination.)

I went to JoAnns on Saturday and bought a pattern and fabric to start this dress. I decided to use Simplicity 9103 which I already had in my stash for the chemise. I bought Simplicity 5551 for the overdress. I bought white linen look for the underdress. I also bought more Alova suede in green. It's the same thing as my Eowyn Green Dress. That's as far as I am on this dress. Probably won't get any farther soon, seeing as I don't have a sewing machine right now.

Update!! January 22
Snowy day, nowhere to go, perfect for sewing. I made some major progress on this dress today. I have the underdress basically put together. I need a zipper for the back and I'm out of white thread. I made this from Simplicity 9103, which I lengthened about 7 inches I think. Which, stupid me, is made for stretch fabrics. The linen look stuff I bought has no stretch whatsoever. So, being me, I forgot to compensate for that and make it bigger. So now it's tight in the bust and I can't raise my arms above my head, much less get it on and off easily. So I need to make the seams 1/2 inch instead of 5/8 inch. I have to do that still. And I'll put in the zipper, so I won't have to slip it on over my head and get stuck in it.

The sleeves....oh boy, these gave me the biggest headache. Like I said before, I forgot that this was for stretch materials. So I cut the sleeves and could not get them on. Well, ok so I could get them on, I just couldn't bend or move in them. So then I took them off, (I didn't figure out that they were too small until after I had sewn both of them on, typical) and cut sleeves from Simplicity 9891 and sewed them on. Much better. I still can't raise my arms but that's because of the tightness in the chest area, which I will fix.

After that experiment gone wrong, I started the overdress. This is actually coming along quite nicely and easily. (I probably shouldn't talk yet...) I used Simplicity 5551 and lengthened it about 4 inches.

Oh! one point of interest. I bought green alova suede at JoAnn's thinking that it was the same stuff I used for my Green Elven Dress (now my Eowyn Green Dress) Well, when I got it home, I noticed that it is a few shades darker than the stuff I had. I like the darker shade better. If they would have had it last year, I would have got it for my green dress. Only they didn't, so I couldn't. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Ok, back to the costume

I didn't do that many alterations, I made the shoulder straps smaller (they were huge)and created a back seam so I could sew it halfway down and leave the bottom open. I finished the armholes and the neckline. The neckline is done in this decorative stitch that I have on my machine, it's in green thread so you can't really see it, but it looks really cool up close. You can kind of see it in the picture I took. It's blurry, but you can sorta see.

I also folded the side edges over and sewed them. I put 4, 3/16" grommets on each side (I would have put more on but I ran out, need to get more) and laced it to see how it would look. I still need to put the rest in. Then I need to take in the back seam, it's a little large, but I need to put the grommets in first to see how much I need to take in. Then I need to get tabs and make ties to tie the font shut. If that doesn't work, I'll make it a false front with the ties for decoration only. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, head over to Alley Cat Scratch, and check out the Faramir Ranger Garb costume study. The green tunic is the look I'm going for. Only fitted and slightly more feminine. Anyway, that's as far as I got. Here are some pictures of my progress:



January 30 update
I went home this weekend for a day so my dad could take a look at my computer (there was no sound coming out of it at all). So while I was home I decided to continue on this project. I added 6 more grommets to each side. I ran out again and need more, since I think I want to add a few more. It doesn’t go down as far as I want it to. This dress is kinda nice, it's not a replica one, so I am free to make it look however I want. That's as far as I got on the dress since I was only home for one night. I still need to put the zipper in the underdress and fix the sleeves. Then I need leather for the ties in the front of the overdress. Only one picture of the progress:



February 5
Update!! I now have the zipper in the underdress and the neckline is finished. This was my first attempt at putting in an invisible zipper, and I have to say, it went in and looks great. I'm never going back to regular zippers after this. I sewed the back seam shut, and turned the neckline over twice to finish it. I don't know if I want to add trim around the neckline yet. It depends if I want to eventually convert this to Elizabeth's rum shift. I may or may not. Haven't decided yet, but if I do want to change it eventually, I'm not going to add trim. Otherwise I will.

February 13
Well, I'm almost done with this outfit! I bought some more grommets and the leather that I wanted to make the tabs for the front out of. Yesterday I worked on the overdress for this, getting it almost completed. I put in 4 more pairs of grommets (2 on each side) and decided that that was as many as i needed. Then I cut the leather into pentagon shaped pieces, sort of like Faramir's tabs. I stuck some leather lacing in them, and sewed them to the front. There are 3 tabs, 2 inches apart. All I have to do with the overdress now is possibly take the back seam in. I can't decide if it's too big or not. Then I just have to hem the underdress and figure out what the heck I'm doing with those sleeves. Pictures of my progress:



April 23
I finished!!! I hemmed the bottom of the underdress by turning it under twice, and I finally figured out the sleeves. So I can now add thid costume to my completed list.