I have three costumes I'm currently planning.
The first is Eowyn's shieldmaiden dress. I'm doing all the research and planning right now so that when school gets lighter in April/May I can start working on the dress itself. I plan to have this one completed before the Renaissance Faire in October at the "castle" near my town. (Yes, we have a castle here, 'Stronghold Castle'.)
The pattern I will be using is Simplicity 4940, which I would call their 'Lord of the Rings Inspired' pattern. It includes three patterns for dresses resembling Eowyn's shieldmaiden dress, Eowyn's green dress and Arwen's blood red/dying dress.
I will be using costume view B for the shieldmaiden dress. The first modification that I will be making to the pattern is changing the zipper in the vest to a lace up back with a modesty panel, enabling me to keep the zipper in the dress. I will also be making the vest a little longer so I can add all three rows of trim/embroidery that you see on Eowyn's original dress. There are other tweaks I'll probably make when I lay out the pattern. Below are my sketches of how I will create the dress. I know that on the original shieldmaiden dress, it is not laced all the way up. It's hard to explain how it is, but since this is my very first Ren dress, I'm making it as simply as possible and just doing lacing all the way up.
Sketches:
Second, Arwen's blood red/dying gown. It is known by both of those names and is by far me and my sister's favorite dress of Arwen's. I will be making this one for my sister, CrystalCoramir. I haven't made any sketches for this dress yet as Cora and I just decided on this one. I'm hoping to have this one done before October so she can wear it to the Ren Faire, and if I don't get it done before the Ren Faire, then I have till the end of the month to get it done in time for Halloween. (Now that I mention that, I realize I never posted pictures of my version of Susan's quiver that I made for my costume last year.)
I am also planning to make Susan's farewell dress from the end of Prince Caspian, but I'll post about that another time when I have more planned out.
Now, on to my Susan costume from Halloween last year.
Susan's gifts:
Last year for my birthday my friends gave me a replica of Susan's horn. It's the BBC version, but it's close enough to the Walden one and it's so beautiful! I really don't know what it's made of. I stole the stand from the wooden aircraft carrier I made a couple years ago to display it on. The strap is from an old pair of binoculars that my grandma had. Now, I only needed Susan's quiver. Many people have made her quiver out of paper-mache or carved PBC pipe, or used clay. I didn't have the supplies or the time to try those methods. I had two days before Halloween. So my mom suggested using oatmeal containers. Brilliant! I cut the bottom out of one container and cut another container in half. I attached those together and then added them to another container (2 and 1/2 containers total). Then I covered the oatmeal containers with a large sheet of white paper, wrapping it around twice so the red 'Quaker' logo couldn't be seen through.
Next I needed to transform the white tube into Susan's quiver. So I started looking at pictures of the original to see if I could piece together the pattern of the engravings. Fortunately, I check DeviantArt (site not associated with TLC) and found that member crystal-studio had already created a pattern for the design. Using her design as a guide, I free-handed the design onto paper. I cut out the design for the bottom of the quiver and glued it right to the paper-covered oatmeal containers. Now, for the top I wanted it to have the shape that Susan's quiver does, but it's super hard to cut oatmeal containers like that with an exacto knife. So I glued the design for the top to a piece of flat cardboard and bent the cardboard around the top of the oatmeal containers. I glued it in place and used tape around the inside to make sure it stayed put. I cut two slits on the back side of the quiver for the strap to go through. I used an old purse strap that has hooks at the bottom which I attached the horn to. I made arrows out of dowel rods and hot glued chicken feathers to them for fletching. So they are not red like Susan's but they are very unique and very me.
Overall, I am greatly pleased with how everything turned out and happy that I could make it so recognizable on a very cheap and easy scale.
My costume that I wore with the quiver and horn was based off the one that Susan wears when she first arrives in Narnia. I already had a plaid skirt like the one she wears, a white blouse and grey sweater so that was taken care of. I had an old, long black coat that worked perfectly as Susan's fur coat. I completed the look with tan knee stockings and black Mary-Janes. I had to rely on my props to explain who I was, because I look nothing like Anna Popplewell.
I was quite recognizable by those who saw me (except for a couple little boys who though I was Katniss from 'The Hunger Games' because I had a quiver of arrows.
I look nothing like her either!)
Pictures:
I hope you enjoyed this and maybe it will inspired you to make your own quiver!