"Erulaitalë Gown" by Lyra

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Title: Erulaitalë Gown
Artist Name: Lyra
Prompt: Write a story or create art about the midsummer holiday (Lithe, Gates of Summer, or another midsummer holiday of your choosing).
Description: For the three major Númenorean holidays, it is said that the King and a great concourse of people ascended the holy mountain Meneltarma, "clad in white and garlanded, but silent". This is supposed to be a typical white gown for the purpose of attending the Erulaitalë (praise of Eru Ilúvatar in midsummer) ceremony. Well, technically speaking, my LARP character (for whom I made this thing, really) can't afford to have an extra dress for each of the three holidays, so for her, it's more of a "general Meneltarma gown". But it's got cornflowers on it, so it's clearly meant to be a summer gown.
Rating: General
Warnings: None apply, except perhaps for the bad quality of the pictures
Artist's Notes: I'll try to upload better pictures once I've got my paws on a taylor's dummy, but for now, this is the best I can offer!



You'll get a slightly larger version of the pics if you click on them.



So here's the entire thing. I don't have a taylor's dummy, so I had to improvise with a stick, a pillow and a blanket. I apologise for the scarily distorted "torso". The dress normally fits me (size M), but not in my current state, so I couldn't model it for the occasion.

This was totally inspired by movie!Éowyn's shieldmaiden dress, as you may have guessed. Actually, it originally started out as my attempt to create Éowyn's shieldmaiden dress, back when all we had from The Two Towers was promo shots and the skirt was still white. (In the movie, it's brown.) As there are about a thousand replicas of that dress by now, however, I decided at some point to turn it into something more individual. And as it was white anyway, why not use it as a Meneltarma dress for my Númenorean LARP character, who needed a holiday dress anyway?
So I took away the padded bodice, replaced the (off-)white cords with blue, and embroidered some cornflower-ish decoration onto the collar. Et voilà: Something completely different!



Collar embroidery detail.
The entire thing is handsewn because I can't handle a sewing machine to save my life (or fingertips, at least), and the cornflowers are hand-stitched, too. Embroidery is a good way of passing long boring car journeys!



Belt detail.
The buckle was taken from an old, threadbare belt from my mom's hippie days. I have no clue where it came from, but it was sure useful now! Yes, I'm aware that the flower looks more like a thistle or something. That's OK. Thistles flower in summer, too.
I'll probably stitch some more stylised cornflowers in off-white onto the blue, by and by. When my fingertips have recovered. (Pro tip: Thimbles are actually a good idea.)

The gown itself is made of off-white silk (very thin crinkled mulberry silk lined with firm tussah silk) which I got cheap some years ago. It's a pain to work with, but I love the way it looks and feels. The belt is partly silk (blue noil silk) and partly cotton because I had to use scrap fabric for it, and that's what I had left in the right colours. The yarn is ordinary cotton yarn. Hey, I'm sure the Númenorean climate allows growing cotton. And if it doesn't, they can import it from their colonies in Middle-earth, or something.

I don't have a Meneltarma-like mountain in the neighbourhood, so I used our backyard. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince it to look summer-like, but considering that it's only February, it's at least doing a decent spring impersonation!

Comments

[ilye-elf.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful! Such fine detail - though wow, I can't imagine stitching something like that by hand. I'd have no fingers left by the end *covets her sewing machine*

Did you base it on a dressmaking pattern or did you put it together from scratch?

[mirach-ravaia.livejournal.com]

You did a wonderful job with it! And wow, all of it hand-sewn! I always use the sewing machine for costumes, even if historical accuracy would demand hand work - I just don't have the time and patience for it...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Not only is a beautiful dress, and I am in awe of your sewing and emboidery talents - I am also in awe of your ability to produce such a good 'dummy' with a stick, a pillow and a blanket.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I have a dim feeling that I remember this from when it still was Éowyn's Shieldmaiden Gown, but the original twist you gave it turned out beautifully. The colour are stunning, and it looks just so - summery, really - the flowers, and the colours evoking blue sky and white clouds... and considering you chose cornflowers of all possible ones, I love the idea that the woman this gown belongs to in-world may have taken a look at Idril's heraldry for inspiration. :)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I love the dress and the embroidery is of a particularly labor-intensive stitch, requiring a lot of patience. You make me itch to try some embroidery of a fannish sort. (I have not done it for years and not since my eyes were so bad--but, hey, bigger needle, heavier floss might work.) The pictures came out really good also. Thanks for the inspiration.

[elliska.livejournal.com]

I LOVE your choice to make a costume. And this one is lovely. I am just getting into embroidery myself right now, so I can really appreciate the work that went into this. The deign is beautiful and very 'elfy.'

[tarion-anarore.livejournal.com]

This is awesome!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Lovely dress! Very impressive work with the embroidery - and the buckle seems very suitable!

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

I love the cornflowers! The fabric and colors really work together nicely.

The buckle was taken from an old, threadbare belt from my mom's hippie days.

LOL! I suppose there's something to be said of the accoutrements of my generation (or nearly my generation, something like that). The design works beautifully with the whole ensemble.

Very nice work, Lyra!

[greatandgrey]

I love the embroidery around the collar, and the beautiful belt buckle completes this gown! :)