Legolas
This was my Legolas costume, made for the premiere of Two Towers
The shirt is actually a shortened version of a simple medieval shift-dress pattern. It's close-hugging, not bulky at all under tunic and vambraces. |
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The fabric for the undershirt is actually taken from an old skirt I found at a local thrift store. It's a really lovely fabric - crinkly and close-hugging, it's patterned with a woven-in leaf and flower design that catches the light beautifully, very elvish. The color was excellent, as well - a silvery grey with faint hints of lavender. The simple swirled design of the closures seemed to fit. |
The tunic is made from sueded suiting in a light green and a deep grey that obligingly turns green when placed next to the light green. This involved way too much dissassembling and reassembling! We fudged the front a bit - decided to let it open further down, to show off the pretty shirt a bit better. I've only just finished the front embroidery. Technically it should be blue, but I decided to work it in a very pale green instead for a more subdued effect. |
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Here you see the belt added. I fell in love with this belt at a Ren Faire and purchased it on the spot for my elf costume. The wrap-around leather closure is very simple and effective, and very elf-like. |
Here's a closeup of the belt. |
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Now the fun part - the accessories! First off, the quiver and arrows. |
| The quiver was made by covering a cardboard tube in brown leather. The 'metal' design was painted on with gold 3-d fabric paint. The arrow grid inside was cut out of a section of gutter-screening. Gold D-rings were sewn to the sides for the straps to pass through. |  |
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The arrows were made by taking dowels, trimming them to the right length, then nocking them with a hand file. They were stained with brown shoe polish. The feathers were white craft store feathers, tinted with a mixture of food coloing, water, and a drop of soap, then trimmed and glued to the dowel. As a final touch, gold thread was wrapped around the feathers and glued down at both ends. The arrows are untipped. |
| I've had some people ask me for diagrams of how I held my quiver and bow on. It works by having all the straps attach to an oval leather support piece. Here are some rather messy diagrams. :) |
Where the straps attach to the support oval
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The vambraces were made by glueing leather to an internal stiffening and shaping provided by felt and thick string. |
| Here's a diagram of the design - after failed attempts with a number of paints, I ended up drawing it on with gold gel pen. The leather lacings thread through sewn-on jewelry coils. | Vambrace design diagram |  |
The vambraces! |
