The Hobbit Cosplay: Tauriel

Hi! So, you all probably know by now that I am sewing a Tauriel costume and creating a cosplay masterpiece. What you probably didn’t know, is that I’m completely finished. Something else you probably want to know, is the “how?” Well, I don’t know if there’s anyone following me who sews, loves the Hobbit, and admires Tauriel’s no fear of orcs mentality. But, if there is, this is for you.

Okay, so here goes.

Step One: Dress

Tauriel can’t be Tauriel without her dress. There are four different dresses and I named each one myself with the help of a Hobbit/Seamstress savvy friend. 🙂

Dress One: Tauriel’s Spider Dress:

Same as the Laketown Dress only with a leather bodice and she threw on a scarf.

Dress Two: Tauriel’s Laketown Dress:

Dress Three: Tauriel’s Archer Dress (Variation #1)

This is the dress she wears when she gives Legolas a scolding. You should know that I don’t like Tauriel for the disrespect she gives Legolas. He’s awesome. I wrote a whole post about it (click here for that).

Dress Four: Tauriel’s Archer Dress (Variation #2)

This is the dress I made…she wore it on the Forest River! My most favorite scene in the Desolation of Smaug! 🙂

#1 – Fabric: Satin looks really nice and that’s what I used for my dress. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners because it is EXTREMELY fray-ish. It will be frustrating. I actually heard that the real Spider dress is made of Crinkle Taffeta and the Archer Dress is made of Suede. I don’t know where you can buy Crinkle Taffeta, though. How much fabric to get: about 4 yards. I used the Simplicity Pattern 1347 and I think I got about 3 1/2 – 4 yds. For the leather bodice, I didn’t use leather. I know it looks like it, but it’s not. It’s called Polyester Leather Look (I bought it at Hancock fabrics for like $19.99 a yard – the reason it’s so pricey is because it looks like real leather but it’s not).

 #2 – Dress Design:

I did use Simplicity pattern 1347 for the dress, but I changed the leather bodice to match the Archer Dress bodice. So, I used the Simplicity pattern 4940 View B’s bodice with a few changes. Here’s 1347 pic:

And this is 4940…view B is the Eowyn shield maiden…i think that will be my next project! Eek!!

My bodice uses grommets and twine instead of a wonky zipper. I don’t think Elves use zippers, so I thought grommets would look more elvish.

Front of my Bodice:

Back of my bodice:

Please excuse the plaid shirt…I went to a square dance and (had the best time, thanks Kaitlin!) had to look cowgirly. More on that later…expect that post on Wednesday (10-28-15 :P)

P.S. Super cute pic of Evangeline Lilly backstage loving her archer dress…made me smile:

Step Two: Accessorize:

Necklace:

Most people probably don’t know this about Tauriel, but she wears a necklace! Yes, you didn’t know that. I didn’t either. You can actually see it pretty clearly in the part in Desolation of Smaug where she’s reporting to Thranduil:

I used an arrow to kind of point it out, but click on the picture and then it’ll show it more clearly! I actually bought my necklace on Amazon for a pretty good price (click here for that), and I really like it. You can buy the official one on WETA for $179.99…click on the picture to go to the link:

Hair:

All the girls I know say,”I love Tauriel’s hair.” It’s so long and wavy and braid-y. I love it. I would not buy a wig – you have to pay a lot of money to get a good one and if I had to buy one, it would be cheap and would fall apart. I’m going to actually dye my hair a red like hers and just braid it. Here’s some tutorials on Youtube (doesn’t everyone learn how to do stuff on youtube now?)

Braids Inspired by “The Hobbit’s” Tauriel by LaDollyVita33

The Hobbit Hair – Tauriel by Silvousplaits

and: