Laurea Silme

The Elf Lady

Story

This is is my very first cosplay fully handmade by me!

It started with one of my friends. I was planning to learn how to sew, so I can make cute lolita dresses for myself or make some clothes for my own style. I already made some parts for my Christmas Angel dress, but I never did a whole dress before. My friend worked with a cultural group that time and they had an event for the second Hobbit movie in a cinema. She knew that I know some cosplayers and asked if I can invite some Lord of the Rings cosplayers there, but I didn’t know them really that time. So I decided to make an elf outfit in a week only, and invited a friend because I remembered from a Halloween party that he had a Nazgul costume. I only wanted to do some armbands with a lot of muslin falling down, use a corset top and my bellydancer skirt, so I only needed to sew the armbands. I folded the muslin and started to cut when I realized that I made a mistake and the muslin won’t be long enough to reach my wrists, and it looks awful. I started to cry, because I ruined the fabric. After that I started to think, and found a blouse in my wardrobe! It was white, transparent and had embroidered leaves on it! Perfect! It was not the best wear for everyday, but it was perfect for resewing it into a brand new top. I rushed to the store and bought what I needed: zipper to the back, fabric to sew inside and to the front part, elf-style bands to the edges so it will look more elf-like, I even found a fabric to a light green cloak so I will not freeze to death in December. I made the blouse in 3 days with the cape and a headband, I looked nice on the event. After that I decided that I will sew a skirt for it, and I will participate in the next cosplay contest.

I met the problems after that. I needed to resew nearly the whole blouse because I made a lot of mistakes in the rush, but I had time for do it finally! I found a nice curtain fabric for the skirt and I sew 6 meters folded together to my waist so it will look nice and it can look well with sit down photos. It was a lot of hard work, but turned out really nice! I made a whole new headdress too, and bought my elf ears finally. They needed a repaint, so I asked a local team’s help. Tulok Arms painted my elf ears to mach my skin tone, he did a lot of work with it! I even did a brand new cape, because I had a plan on stage, I wanted to take down my cloak, go to the front than to the back, pull my 3 meters long cloak after me and then turn around just like Galadriel did in the movie. I mostly did it as I imagined, all the people fell in love with it! The first photos in the gallery were taken on that convention.

I joined later to the Hungarian Lord of the Rings Cosplay Club with that dress and appeared on a lot of events with the group. I had a chance to make some photos in the Hungarian House of Parliament on the stairs with the red carpet! We had a lot of events for kids, we spent nearly a week at a Hungarian cinema, even made a video about it, it was really fun! I left the group later because I had different plans and didn’t have many time for it, but I am glad that I met those people and we always meet on MondoCon and some other conventions in Hungary!

Q & A:

Is it hard to wear it? – Not really. It is a little bit problematic to move in it or use the public transport because of the length of the skirt and cape…

Is it available now for a convention? – Not really. I used it with my own hair when I was brown, now my blue hair doesn’t go that much with the outfit and I don’t have an elven wig for it what I like. I made a wardrobe cosplay with this outfit to a photoshoot with a 150 cm blonde wig, but it was more like Rapunzel than elf lady. And now I had this dress on so many conventions, I know that it is beautiful, but I just can’t wear it anymore, I am afraid that it will be ruined with the next wash. 🙁 But if you want it REALLY much, I can make a try!

Is it hard to bring this cosplay to far away? – Nope. I can easily pack it in a backpack or suitcase. I just need to iron it before I take it on!

Will you upgrade this cosplay? – I don’t think so. A resewing would help much more. Or just simply make a whole new dress for her! I have a lot of fabrics already! 🙂

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