FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Trash to Tinúviel
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
Photography: Daisy Viktoria
Outline the story …
“Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight.” -Of Beren and Luthien, "The Silmarillion". The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have been a source of inspiration for me my entire life. Luthien was a character I had always wanted to portray as she was so important to Tolkien himself. She was the embodiment of his wife Edith, so much so that after her death he inscribed “Luthien” on her tombstone. The design of the dress is inspired by much of a ‘classic fantasy dress’, with long, flowing sleeves and in the blue color mentioned in the quote. I wanted to include the golden flowers on the sleeves and mantle, keeping it as mystical and flowing. In Tolkien’s works, elves were considered master blacksmiths. I wanted to forge the flowers themselves from actual metal and for them to be the focus of the gown. It was also important to me to showcase other parts of Luthien’s story in my gown. To sneak into Angband and confront Morgoth, she disguised herself by turning into a bat, so I designed the mantle into the shape of wings to be extended when I raised my arms. Though the costume is not historical in nature, I did want to include the spiral front lacing as a nod to the medieval inspiration of Tolkien’s stories. Being new to sewing is scary!
Outline the construction…
After drafting a bodice block and making a princess seam bodice for the first time (thank you YouTube and FR!) I traced my pattern pieces onto white cotton muslin for lining and separated the panels of an old, cheap Halloween costume given to me by someone drastically larger than me. I flatlined the pieces together and smoothed out the transition lines into the continuous panels of the skirt and trimmed them to match the lining pieces. Most of the gown is backstitched by hand with the exception of the long skirt seams and the rolled hem edges to save on time. I drafted half-circle shaped lower sleeves from an old tablecloth and dyed scrap muslin and strips of an old curtain for bias binding. The upper sleeve features a decorative trim in gold embroidery thread that I crocheted into a scalloped pattern. I added front lacing with hand-sewn eyelets instead of the back zipper, making a separate tunic from the tablecloth for modesty. The mantle was made from poly organza and cut in the shape of wings with bias tubes French-seamed into straight lines for the wing effect. The golden flowers were forged from empty soup cans by heating them with a MAP torch and hammering them in flat sheets on my anvil with a ball peen hammer for texture. They were cut to shape, painted gold and stitched onto the dress with beads in several places to achieve shine and dimension. The biggest challenges were material restrictions and fitting.
Well done, your dress is beautiful ! I particularly love the golden flowers on the shoulders
Thank you so much! They were old, stained curtains nobody wanted so I decided to give them a beautiful life 😊
You — you made those flowers?! I also love the subtle bat-wings.
Yes! The flowers were old soup cans hammered out and cut to shape. I really wanted them to be the focus of this gown. And thank you! The bat wings gave me the most trouble. Next time I say I want to add a zigzag rolled hem on poly organza with a metallic thread, just punch me in the face so I remember how much it hurts 😂
Your costume is absolutely stunning! I love how you gave such beautiful new life to materials that would otherwise have been discarded while also capturing the essence of the character
Your piece is stunning! The details are lovely and I adore the choice of color. Great job❤
I love this so much!
This is amazing on so many levels!
This is so beautiful and so creative in transforming materials available into something amazing ! Bravo !
Oh wow, at first I thought the flowers were made of gold fabric, but no! I can’t believe you made them out of old soup cans!! I would never have guessed! So creative and such a great way to recycle materials, as you have done in all parts of the dress! Also, I’m a big Tolkien fan too (as many of us are it seems) so I really appreciate you bringing this character to life! Well done!