LOTR Elves Cosplay Masterpost

Cosplay Help

A lot of people, when it comes to cosplay, just don’t know where to start, or think that they can’t find exactly what they want/don’t have the skill to create replicas. However, a lot of pattern companies and indie blogs have started creating a lot of very useful patterns and tutorials just for those people.

Today’s post is all the help I could find and/or create for Lord of the Rings Elves (although, they could work for any high fantasy elf). If you think you may be doing one of these cosplays in the future, I’d suggest book marking this page because I will be updating it as I go.

Notes

Fabric

It’s all really about the fabric you use.

Rivendell = Silks in blue and silver

Lothlorien = Fluttery and lightweight (think of a little kid’s fairy costume) in white and blue and silver

Woodelves = Greens, browns, and other ‘natural’ colors in wools and linens with leather. If you’re being a stickler to the books they don’t wear armor (I know they do in the movie, that was just wrong, okay?)

References

One of the great things about making Lord of the Rings costumes is the number of resources because 1) a lot of people have done it already and 2) the costumes travel around a lot, so you can get good, up-close photos of them.

Dresses 

• Simplicity 8199: I know this is for Link (from Legend of Zelda) and someone from that other game, but I could see it being used for an elven battle or adventure outfit.
• Wood Elves:
  • Patterns:
    • Simplicity 8074: This is technically for a Game of Thrones or Rey costume, but I couldn’t ignore how similar it is to a lot of what we see the Wood Elves wearing.
    • Simplicity 1010: Technically this is a Tariel and some various Dany (from Game of Thrones) dresses, but they’re all very similar
    • Simplicity 1008: More Game of Thrones dresses that could be elves.
    • McCall’s M6941: This is another that really looks like Dany, but it could work.
  • Other
    • Yvettes: Mirkwood elf gown construction
    • Yvettes: Mirkwood Elf Cloak
• Rivendell
  • Simplicity 1045: These really remind me of some of Arwen’s dresses and some of the dresses seen in the background
  • Simplicity 1009: Technically for Cersi, but this is also close to Arwen and the elves of Rivendell
  • Simplicity 1137
  • McCall’s M2044
  • McCall’s M2004
  • McCall’s B4571
• Lothlorien
  • Patterns
    • Simplicity 1582: Its clearly based on Galadriel
    • Simplicity 1551: Clearly another Galadriel
    • McCall’s M2028
  • Other
    • Yvettes: Lothorien Elf Extra

Battle Gear

Mens

• McCall’s M2052:
  • ‘Viking inspired’ so that gives you an idea of what you’ll be looking at. Its not as ‘fancy’ as most of what we see the elves in, but it could work.

Women’s

• McCall’s 5923:
  • ‘Viking inspired’ so that gives you an idea of what you’ll be looking at

 

Accessories

Jewerly:

• Head
  • Rachel Ann Poling: Making an Elvish Crown

Cloaks:

• Simplicity 5840
• Simplicity 5794
• McCall’s M2016

Character Specific

• Arwen
  • Yvettes: Lavender Beaded Gown Construction
  • Yvettes: Purple Arch Dress Construction
  • Yvettes: Red Dress
• Galadriel
  • Darling Elf Darling: Brooch and Crown
  • Entropy House: Dark Galadriel
  • Starlight Masquarade: Lots of photos and tips
  • Yvettes: Mirror Gown
•  Tauriel
  • Simplicity 1010: Technically this is a Tariel and some various Dany (from Game of Thrones) dresses, but they’re all very similar

Infinity Scarf

Jo Ann’s has fabric with designs from The Legend of Zelda now, so I decided I needed to make myself a scarf.

I think the scarf may have ended up just a little bigger than I intended, and if I were to make it again I’d fix that, but on the whole I really love this scarf and I get a lot of compliments whenever I wear it.

See the scarf on my Portfolio.

Making the Scarf

Materials

• 1.5 yards of patterned fabric
• 1.5 yards of complimentary fabric

Its a pretty simple pattern, all I did was cut two rectangles of each fabric (so four total) which measured 40 inches by 15 inches. Then I laid them out, right sides together, and sewed them up following a method a lot like this.

Making a Magik X-Men Barbie Doll

My best friend’s favorite thing ever is X-Men and her favorite X-Men is Magik, the younger sister of Colossus, who you would probably recognize from the Deadpool Movie. In fact, you wouldn’t recognize Magik from any of the movies, but if you play Marvel Heros 2016 she is a playable character. I’m told that she’s not hugely popular, so you actually don’t see her much of anywhere.

Sewing a Barbie Unitard

For the special doll I mentioned before on the post Giving Barbie Bangs  but I also needed a plain black jumpsuit with long legs and long arms. To do this I bought a pattern for pants and a long-sleeve shirt which I intend to alter.

Paper Flower Corsage

My best friend and I are both huge nerds. She’s more into comics and I’m more into reading, but we both cross over a little. Recently she introduced me to both Deadpool and the X-Men.

Bloglovin’

As part of my series on DIY Social Media I thought I’d share a how to about the site Bloglovin. Bloglovin is a site that allows you to follow almost any blog across the web, even if the author of that blog hasn’t posted it to Bloglovin themselves. I personally use it not only to promote my own blogs, but also to keep up with people who don’t have WordPress blogs (people on sites like Blogger), but whose posts I want to keep up with.

Nerdy Paper Flowers

I love paper flowers. They’re so pretty and yet so easy to make (and fun too!). I spent the better part of an afternoon making them using different mediums. My favorites by far were the comic and book flowers. The comics make brightly colored, random flowers and the books make simple, elegant flowers.

Giving Barbie Bangs

I’m making a special Barbie doll – I can’t tell you more about it at the moment in case the person I’m giving her to finds this blog – but I needed a blonde Barbie doll with bangs. I had a hard time finding one, so I grabbed a Barbie out of my old box and got to work on her hair.

I don’t know what Barbie I used – I think she was a ballet themed Barbie at one time – but her hair was in a half pony tale so I took it down and brushed it out.

The Cheshire Cat

Or, I can’t believe its not knitting!!

Yes my friends, I finally make a post that’s not about knitting! This one is an Alice in Wonderland inspired cat’s tail. The idea origionally came from a contest that I entered, that featured a “Chessie Tail” as one of the prizes, as well as a signed book by the author A. G. Howard who writes dark Alice in Wonderland books. While the tail matched the description of Cheshire in her books, it certainly didn’t match the Cheshire that is most recognizable, the pink and purple one from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.