Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Bregolas and Earrame (The Further Adventures of Balbo Baggins)

Bregolas Swiftleaf and Earrame Sea-Wing


for the feature film
‘The Return of Balbo Baggins’
Original costumes by Leaves of Lorian
Photo of Bregolas © Over Again Media
check out Leaves of Lorain on Facebook
Get previews, trailers, BTS and more of my lovely costumes for the film HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Further-Adventures-of-Balbo-Baggins/1508920379331240?ref_type=bookmark
***
Everybody loves the elves. It’s just the nature of elvendom - to be loved and adored.
(Or at least have your costume admired.)

So, that being said, I had a big challenge to bring our elves to life for this film -- both male and female.
I don’t want them to look ‘manly’ (I want them to have an elvish feeling), and have freedom of movement so as not to hinder fight scenes. I also have to keep in mind these are both warrior elves, so nothing encumbering or frilly. I defiantly want the costumes to reflect their gender, male and female, but to be similar enough you can look at them and go, “Oh, those are elves, and they are from the same elven kingdom, and that’s a girl and that’s the cute guy.”

My final challenge laid on myself is the fact I’m a huge Tolkien fan, (like I can quote passages from the Hobbit and the Silmarillion kind of huge) and I really want these costumes to be worthy of Tolkien-esk elves.

So with that all in mind, here’s your concept drawings.
 Earrame and Bregolas, respectively.

And here’s your results.
 
Photo (c) Over Again Media
The elves might have a little too much time on their hands on set.
And just so you don’t worry, here’s a teaser of some of their shots.
Now, back to my wardrobe blog.
Starting with Earrame:

As you can see from the photos above, she has a tunic and a jerkin over that.
The tunic is a soft pink of naturally rushed fabric. It adds a little detail to her costume. It has petal wrap sleeves.
The jerkin is split in the front and sides, laced up the sides and fastened in the front. It has tiny cap sleeves and a stand up, hand embroidered collar.

Bregolas:
Has a tunic, jerkin and sash.
The tunic is a soft blue knit with a light weave pattern to it. Love sleeves, pointed in both front and back.
The jerkin is split on both sides and has a stand up collar. The petal wrap sleeves are duo colored and both they and the chest piece are hand embroidered. It is also pointed in the front and back. It is a combination of moss green microsuede and pine green faux suede.
The sash is a simple wrap of dark forest green crepe backed satin.


 
Here you can see a little bit of the details of the fabric for the tunics.

Tunics themselves before being taken in and hemmed:
 Bregolas’s tunic is a pretty straight shot. Earrame’s is a little more complicated with the collar and sleeves.


Earrame’s over tunic shots.
Her tunic started out in about ten pieces. Ten very very thin pieces. It was based off the pattern I made and used for my Chase Dress (see that blog).

So this is the tunic all sewn together, pre lacing, pre fastening, everything. Just sewn together. It kinda looks like seaweed.



 This is the same side, pre grommets and finished product.
Grommets and leather lacing, ends right above the hip.
And these are close ups of the collar and embroidery area.
Back of the collar. Same as my chase dress.

Pattern (I made) and results for the cap sleeves. Same as my chase dress.

Front and back of finished costume. Hem line not done.


Bregolas!
 





 
Bregolas’s tunic is actually about ten pieces. Both the front and back of the over tunic are three pieces.

Here you can see the over lay in the front and back, and a little bit of the embroidery.

And in the off chance you wanted a better look, here it is.


Full tunic, final hem in place.
I realize this seems like a very short blog for Bregolas...if I get around to it, I'll exspand it later.




Yes, Bregolas is a brunette.

Look for more blogs up soon featuring the costumes for the rest of the cast - in the meantime, check out the facebook page and get ready for some awesome elven action!!
I will have a short blog up at some point specifically for elven petal sleeves.
And always, here are the random hats, pretty things, and odd pictures that go with my blogs.
 




But wait….you think you’ve seen everything until you’ve seen someone quoteing Shakespeare to a wig….
in the bathroom...
Yeah…
Our house is like that.

So anyway, here are a few more teaser shots of your elves…enjoy!!
Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar.
Nai elyë hiruva.

Namárië!!
Nai truanted ar varyuvantel i Valar tielyanna nu vilya!!
Namárië!!



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

For those of you wondering why I haven't posted anything new...

In a while....

I am currently costuming the cast of an independent film based on the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit.
There will be elves, men, hobbits, wizards, ogres, vampires (yes, vampires are Tolkien based!) and more!!

Pictures and everything will be up just as soon as I get something done!!
 (So STAY TUNED!!!)

~ Elanna

Monday, December 23, 2013

Antoinette Gown

Leaves of Lorian Original

 
 
 By Leaves of Lorian
Top Cover Photo and some finish Photos courtesy of DS Orchid Photography
I have always been in love with the huge hoops/panniers and gowns of the
French Baroque/ late Victorian era.
Recently, I was given some fabric by a dear friend of mine…(a Queen in fact)…
which just seemed to scream “GIANT BUSTEL!!”

What else could I do but answer the call??
(Any costumer will understand)

I’ve named it after Marie Antoinette, who happens to be a favorite person in history for me.
(Along with Robin Hood, Blackbeard and General Custer…)
(Yeah, I know, I have weird hobbies)


IDEA
I’ve quite given up on patterns.
I find them handy to adapt, but as far as finding one that matches my ideas, forget it. I’ve started sketching and working from there.
Here’s the rough draft of my Antoinette gown.
What you see here is a two layer skirt with separate bodice and giant bustle, and a huge collar. The bows were to be a light pink, and the underskirt and front panel of the bodice to be a darker blue, self piped.
Obviously turned out a little different.

FABRIC
As mentioned, the entire dress was created around six yards of fabric
that eventually became a bustle and over skirt.
This is a eclectic blue (my FAVE color) cassa collection fabric. It has the swirls already sewn on it.
Which are very blurry in this picture, but at least you get the idea!!

The blue of the collar, front panel of the bodice, and under skirt is a color no longer sold.
(How weird is that?!) and it is of crepe backed satin. Love that stuff.

The lace for the collar, sleeves and ruffle on the bustle is cream, rather then white. It was 45 inch lace.
 
 

The bodice itself is made of heavy satin, almost the same shade of blue as the over skirt and gown.


The bows on the skirt are from a 3” cream ribbon.

PATTERNS
I do still use pattern as a base to start from. Here are the ones I chose to start with for my Antoinette gown.
Simplicity 3637 is already an French baroque styled gown. I only used the bodice.
The collar came from another simplify pattern based off of Mirror Mirror costumes.

SEW HERE WE GO
From the get go, this gown was a challenge.  I’d put it at 3 out of 5 stars. Nothing as bad as Huntress’s cape or my next scheme, but difficult none the less.

Bodice
About 80% of the bodice is hand sewn. It is boned, front and back, and I wear my corset under it. It is fully lined and has two sets of interfacing. It has a square neck and closes in the front with twelve (12) large hook and eyes. Hand sewn. Yeah.
The sleeves are four pieces, and self lined.
 



Adjustments made: the back of the pattern was made for a cape that attached at the back of the shoulders and made up the back, then falls down the skirt. I changed that, obviously.

Side note: I’ve never done boning before and everyone said it was scary….but to be frank, I found it quite placid.

Underskirt
Consists of fourteen (14) yards of fabric. I love it.
About six (6) yards go around the hoop, and the rest is around the bottom as ruffles. It sits at my hips and is gathered on both sides.
I really wish that the pile of fabric in the chair had made it into the picture here…Oh well..

Overskirt
Is about six (6) yards of fabric. (A little less, I was running out)
It has a draw string waist, and is sewn together at the center and gathered on either side of the center.
Shown here with the bustle over it.
This was pre-bows and gathering.

Bustle
Came from McCalls M6770...Nice pattern.
I was running out of fabric, so I opted for a smaller bustle then I had first hoped.


As you can see it’s three layers of very gathered fabric on a base. Love it.

Collar
Was a pain in the rear…but looks nice, and I love it. About 90% hand sewn.
Boned, lined, has interfacing, and attaches straight to the collar of the gown.
It does not come off.



And the random assorted pictures
that always accompany my creations...

I made them hats!!!



I also made a little hat to go with the dress. I don't have any good pictures of it's creations...basically it was a couple small ovals of fabric with a layer of padding in between and strip of lace sewn to it. I added feathers and a pin.

kinda pretty....ish....
So, here I am in my Victorian/Antoinette glory….Gotta find a place to wear it now!