Tauriel Costume Tutorial

While her addition into the Tolkien universe is up for much debate, I think she's a pretty cool character.  I have a very long opinion about the movies, but I shan't get into that here.  The costume. It is not easy.  In some places it is down right monstrous, which I wish I'd known before I started this thing.  I initially made it for the premiere of Battle of Five Armies and then wore it for a Ren Faire.  I hope to wear it again soon!
Find some pictures to work from and be inspired by like the picture below:

Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel in The Hobbit.  I do not own this image.

Dress

(A combination of two patterns)

Caution!  The way I made this dress seemed like the best way to get the type of dress I wanted and I'm still convinced it looks right, but it is difficult and round about!  Just so you're aware before we move on! Doable, but parts are tricky.
Fabric: Dark green suede cloth from Joann's (on sale!)
Alterations: Lots! See below
I chose the pattern below because of the collar on it, but I altered it quite a bit.

(The collar is all I wanted)

(See?  The collar is perfect!)

As you can see, the sleeves and the length are very wrong.  I bought less fabric than it called for because I shortened it by several inches and I didn't make those ridiculously long sleeves.  I began cutting out the pieces for the costume not worrying about the length, knowing that I'd hem it to my desired length at the end, but making sure as not to waste what I knew would be cut off.  When I got to cutting out the sleeves is the first place it got tricky.  I used the top of the sleeve pattern for the upper half of the arm and then just before the elbow I tacked on the lower half of the sleeve pattern from the pattern below.

(I've now used it for 3 different costumes)

The jacket pattern uses gather at the top of the sleeve which I did not want for this costume, but the lower half of the sleeve is just a plain sleeve which when measured and added onto the first sleeve pattern, creates a plain sleeve for the Tauriel dress.

Whew, first obstacle tackled.  Next, the damn collar.  I found this obscenely hard to follow.  I looked up tutorials for the pattern and found that I'm not the only one who has had trouble with it.  I recommend looking one up if you have as much trouble as I did.  Just go slow and read ever.single. step. Three times.

After everything else, determine the length that you'd like.  I went with mid calf and almost kind of measured it.  Okay fine, I half measured.  The hem is not even at all, but you can't tell unless it's hung up on a hanger.

(You can't really tell when I wear it)

After not having watched The Hobbit for a year waiting for the new one to come out, it slipped my mind that her dress isn't really a dress so much as a slit up skit with pants underneath.  When I wear it next time I'll be finding pants for it.

Vest

(Another slightly altered piece)

For the vest I simply didn't want to buy another pattern, so once again, I used my handy dandy simplicity jacket pattern pictured above.
Fabric: A nice leathery looking brown suede cloth.  But wait for it to go on sale or to have a coupon.

Alterations: Again, quite a few.

If you don't want to alter a bunch of stuff again because you're fed up with what I did to the dress as it is, then I'd check out an actual vest pattern.  Which I should have done.  But I didn't.  Instead I took the pattern pieces for the jacket and first discarded the arm and collar pieces.  Then, instead of have the front as two pieces, I cut it out as one.  Then for the back piece, I cut it as two, so that it would open in the back.  I sewed the rest of it according to the pattern and handed how I wanted the neckline on one side and traced it onto the other side to keep it even and hemmed it up.  To close it in the back I considered another zipper, but instead I did rivets and lacing because apparently I like extra work.

(I laced it up with leather cording, shown on the right)

In order for the fabric to be think enough to hold rivets and lacing, I folded over the sides of the fabric and sewed in some light interfacing.  From there I pounded in the rivets through the two layers of fabric and the interfacing.  That part was fun.

Accessories

She's not an overly accessory crazy character, but she has a couple.  I didn't have the necklace that she wears in the movie, but I'd like to find one for next time.

(Turned out rather pretty with the gold)

The bracers I made with a pattern that I made by wrapping paper around my arm and then cutting out the desired shape and hemming up the fabric.  I drew the design on with a gold sharpie.  It's not entirely movie accurate, but I liked it anyway.  

(The hemming gets a tad wonky around corners)

I sewed on two snaps per bracer because I was impatient and waited until the day of the movie.  I recommend doing three though, one in the middle would be beneficial.  

(It's so preeeeetty!)

My bow is perfection.  I can say that with no ego because I didn't make it.  It was made as a Christmas present from my boyfriend, made to look like Tauriel's.  I did the leather wrapping and the gold designing on it.  It's beautiful.  It shoots like a dream.

 (Her bow has some design, but not a ton)

(The handle)

Boots and Hair

Boots are simple.  Plain out brown boots and you're good to go.  Hair on the other hand, is not my strong suit.  There are lots of Tauriel hair tutorials online and I watch a lot of them trying to figure one out.  In the end I just did a short bit of french braiding down the back with two small braids going from my temples back to meet it in the middle of my head.  Don't forget to take a few strands out at the front!

All Done!

(Me and my pal Gollum)