Apr 152011
This was made as a wedding dress from beaded silk chiffon, which I have boiled to remove the silver lining from the beading (to achieve an effect more closely to the original dress, which was beaded with clear beads), and silk satin.
The belt is hand- and machine embroidered.
Below are also some pictures of my customer wearing the gown. I just love the way the sleeves drape!
12 Responses to “Galadriel”
Comments (12)
Hi there,
Beautiful work!
May I ask where you got the embroidered chiffon from please? I’m looking to make the Galadriel mirror dress too 😀
Claire
X
I bought it approximately 15 years ago from Thaisilks, if I remember correctly.
Hello
Can we buy it ?
Regards
…no, because I made it years ago for a customer who still owns it 😉
What pattern did you use for this dress? And if you used one, how did you alter it? If at all. I would be so greatful to know.
Simplicity 8725 (LONG out of print!) was my base for the body of the dress; the sleeves are altered to become half-circle sleeves from the elbow area downwards.
Hello!
I’m looking into making this dress myself for the opening of the hobbit – I am curious as to how you make the sleeves, as it seems they’re supposed to be made out of one piece of fabric?
Love! your work (I’m reading your refugee thread on RL also 🙂 )
If you happen to have a useable pattern for the galadriel dress…well, I’d be willing to pay for it 🙂 How many meters of fabric went into the making of this dress?
Indeed the sleeves are made from one piece of fabric (like the original sleeves were; you can’t find a seam on those seperating top and bottom either).
Constructing them is considerably simple:
– Take (any sleeve pattern you like), cut everything below the elbow crook away.
– Then move the seam (which is usually starting from the armpit) to the center back of the sleeve, between shoulder and armpit, by cutting a line in that place and reattaching the cut piece along the former seam.
– draft a large half circle. Measurements: twice the length (from your elbow crook to approximately four inches above floor) on the ‚long‘ side (where the circle is cut in two); and (from your elbow crook to a bit longer than your fingertips) on the shorter side (radius of the half circle).
– attach that half circle to your cut sleeve pattern; the center of the ‚longer side‘ should be precisely at the center of the line where you cut the sleeve off at the crook of your elbow.
Voilà – Galadriel sleeves 😉
I usually use between eight and nine meters of chiffon to make this dress and approximately 4-5meters of satin or taffeta to line it; but of course that depends on the size of the person I’m making the dress for.
Hope that helps 🙂
Hi. I’ve just resently discovered your site. The question I want to ask is: what did you actually do when you „boiled“ the chiffon? What happen to the chiffon besides losing the silver lining you didn’t want.
Hi there!
I prepared a LARGE pot on the stove, added lukewarm water, then added the 8 yards of uncut beaded silk chiffon fabric to that, and then, while constantly stirring the fabric (and water..) I heated it up until it boiled. I kept stirring for another 15 minutes or so while letting the chiffon basically ’simmer‘, then turned the heat off and placed the pot in another, even larger pot which also had hot water in it – that’s done to cool down the bottom of the pot, which is still too hot to be in contact with the silk for a longer time.
Then I just let that rest, and maybe stir every 15 minutes – it took about 3 hours to cool down by itself.
Problems with silk chiffon don’t come from boiling it. The problems usually occur when cooling the chiffon down too quickly after boiling (like rinsing the hot chiffon with cold water); or if the silk (no matter if chiffon, satin, velvet, habotai, doupioni, organza or whatever silk that CAN be washed!) is treated with the wrong products.
See, silk is a protein fiber, like hair. As you may know (and maybe already did ;)), you can use hot curlers / irons on hair to get it into shape. You can, using the appropriate substances, bleach as well as dye hair. You can even give it a permanent wave. The hair – unless you do those things OFTEN or with the wrong products! – won’t be damaged, if you care well for it; and neither will the silk.
Simple, isn’t it? 🙂
Hope that helps 🙂
That, in case of silk, also means that you should either use special silk washing detergents or instead *indeed* use mild (!) hair shampoos and maybe even conditioner in the rinse (!).
Hello, I was impressed with the dress, you do custom?
Yes, I do; however, only for people that I’ve been knowing for quite some time (aka ‚friends‘) or those who live close to me. Sorry!