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So, I knew without a doubt that I HAD to get this done for Katsucon 2013.
I've been planning Éowyn off and on for years. In November 2011, I finally bought 5 yards of velvet in NYC, and got a pattern to use as the base for my dress. And then I kind of...just sat on it. And did nothing. I made my ACR costume, and Thor costume, and kept putting this off.
Admittedly I think I was intimidated by the idea of not only making an elaborate gown, but of that gown being from a movie. With a game, or an anime, you can take certain liberties. It should look like the art, but you're translating it into real life, sometimes things can't be exact. With a dress made and worn for a live action movie though...I think I was just a little scared, that I wouldn't have the proper time to devote to it and it would be harder than I thought, and that I would either mess it up or not finish it and either way it would look terrible.
Well, with The Hobbit coming out, I was reinspired, and then learned that many people were as well, and there was a huge amount of people planning Hobbit or LOTR for Katsucon. And I was GOING to do it.
I had 5 costumes planned originally. I got 2 done, but then, I knew that not everything on that list would be done by Katsu.
I started on my AC3 Pioneer first, thinking it would be easy and I'd have plenty of time after for Éowyn. But, like Naxul Cosplay, it took me about 5 weeks. -.-
Which left me 1 week for Éowyn. A week that included school with 2 huge projects, and a reunion that I had to go to on the Saturday before Katsucon.
In other words, I made this baby in 5 days. Just like the Thor costume. I'm still not quite sure how that happened....?.. But it did. And I'm a little amazed at myself.
I wish I didn't look so fat and ugly in the photos, because it ruins the effect of the dress, but the dress itself is pretty magnificent.
The dress is made from 7 1/2 yards of green velvet. The underskirt, collar, and sleeves are made from a velvety home decor fabric. I picked it because it really looks like the underskirt that Éowyn's got in the movie. I see a lot of Éowyn cosplayers use brocades, and I almost settled for that too in desperation(I looked for over a year for underskirt fabric. This was a random chance find), but brocade didn't look right to me. Not any of the ones I saw anyway. I mean, some of the ones they've used are great- but no place sold those brocades, only ones that would've looked stupid.
My underskirt fabric pulls apart easily, that's the only downside to it really. But it's pretty, and going over the edges a few times with the sewing machine solved most of the problems of fraying.
The lace on the collar is the official lace, and was bought at MJ Trim. The company doesn't make it anymore though, so I got some of the last of it(there's still enough for maybe 2 costumes over at the store).
The Met Opera had JUST bought all the gold so I had to buy silver and paint it all gold. Such a hassle. Thanks a lot Met.
The belt is golden sheet metal, and jewelry wire which has been hammered down into the shapes for the belt, layered, and glued on.
I cut the sheet metal pieces, but my father helped make the belt since I was pressed for time with all that sewing(it WAS a lot of fabric, and then the collar pattern was hard, I had to improvise and make my own underskirt...). He drilled holes into the metal, and then crushed the wire into shape. He's awesome. He always helps with all our props.
Like I said, the pattern for the collar was hard. I'm not the only one who found it confusing. I went online for help and only saw people complaining about the difficulty.
And for some reason the pattern didn't have an underskirt, or the cut and pulled up overskirt that has the leaf fabric lining and gets pulled up. I had to figure that all out, and it wasn't easy, but hey, I did it and it looks amazing.
The only thing at all that I would change is the sleeves. I don't think they're long enough.
Pretty proud of how fast I sewed this all. If only I looked better in pictures. :(
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, I used my real hair. In case people ask, no wig or dyes involved here.
I want this year to be a wig free one. This and the Pioneer both used my own hair.
This is my natural length and color, and I asked a friend to braid it in 6 small braids the night before to get the wavy effect.
Éowyn's hair is weird- sometimes it's curly, sometimes wavy. I was going to use curlers and go for the curly ringlet look, but this was far easier, so wavy it was!

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