Éowyn's Refugee Dress

Pictures of Éowyn in the Refugee Dress. Éowyn wears this as all the people of Rohan make their way from Edoras to Helm's Deep before the battle.

Éowyn with her sword while packing

Éowyn with her arms behind her head

Gimli and Éowyn talking

Éowyn at Helm's Deep

Éowyn's "Kickin' Orc" dress -- her refugee underdress and shieldmaiden vest/corset

There are some excellent screencaps of the orginial dress from TTT EE DVD Appendices here.

Fabric and Pattern
I drafted my own pattern for this one since it wasn't very complicated to do. The fabric for both is linen. The underdress fabric isn't as light a blue as it is in the movie, but the color was so pretty that I didn't really mind it.
I bought white linen and dyed it (in the washing machine) for the surcoat. I dyed it once, and I thought it was a complete disaster; the dye just seemed really uneven. I hung the fabric on the clothesline to dry and somehow the dye evened out and it looked nice. The only problem was that the dye was a lot lighter than I wanted it to be. Here's a picture:

Sam sitting on my fabric after the first dyeing.

I'm going to dye the fabric again with a darker brown.

Underdress
First try on the underdress, I made it as just two panels of fabric with sleeves. After this was done, I saw pictures proving that the dress had a waist line. I decided to be more accurate, so I cut the dress at the waist (with a point in the front) and put the skirt back on with the slit all the way up the front. For the slit, I just picked out the stiching in one of the (former) side seams. The lower sleeves lace up. It makes them very form fitting and it's also easier to secure them when I roll them up. I bought some blue ribbon that matches the fabric to lace up the sleeves with. All of the eyelets were sewn by hand; here's a picture:

Surcoat
I was able to make this (except for sewing the eyelets) in one night. Even after dying the fabric even darker, it's not quite the color I would like, but it looks so nice with the blue that I'm not going to complain. The lacing that I use to lace up the sides of the surcoat is just gold cord that I bought from JoAnns.

Yay, I'm done! This was a fairly easy project, and I would recommend it as a first for a beginner. Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Underdress	Underdress again	Underdress
Photoshopped to see the lacing better.	Another Photoshop for the lacing.	I *heart* Photoshop.

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