Not the best picture but you get an idea of how the dress looks on me, at least. I realized on Thursday night that the reason I was so hesitant to make the Bellatrix LeStrange outfit I had planned on for Halloween was simple - I didn't have all the materials I wanted on hand. I didn't get the hooks and eyes for the leather doublet until Friday afternoon. I never found a good black silk (what the heck? White silk, orange silk, but not black silk anywhere around me?) so making the outfit with "make do" materials wasn't an option.
Instead, I realized I had plenty of stuff to make a Lord of the Rings Elf gown. I wasn't too picky about screen accurate in this case - just something so I would blend in as an extra without anyone noticing. :-) The rose stretch velvet has been in the stash for at least two years. I originally wanted to make a Christmas gown out of it but the style I wanted to do I ended up already have two dresses similar to that... No reason for yet a third dress! The undergown is some silk dupioni I got from one of the Fabric Mart sales. It was $6 a yard with a ten yard limit. :-) I used only maybe 2 1/2 of those yards to make the undergown and the long, pointed sleeves under the chiffon sleeves.
The chiffon sleeves were part of an old dupatta I had to use in sewing stuffs. The top of the sleeve is somewhat fitted and then I just left the rest of the dupatta ends to include all the pretty embroidery.
The pattern for the dress is my own. It's one piece in the front and two pieces in the back. It's actually the pattern I use for loose knit work dresses because it's comfy and looks nice on. I just elongated it for the Halloween dress. I also cut the velvet with a lower neckline. I was going to add trim to the silk and the velvet necklines but I didn't get around to it.
I wore this to a wine tasting (LOL!) and to go grocery shopping on Halloween and I had a lot of people compliment me on the dress. Some people thought I was a "Regina" or Queen while most did get that I was an Elf. :-)
The above is the front of the dress but on the dress form. Since I'm bigger than the dress form, it looks a bit off.
The back of the dress.
The dress, overall, was pretty easy to put together. It was maybe a little over an hour of sewing? Cutting it out took another hour because chiffon sleeves are not an easy cut....