The Crafty Anthropologist: Tauriel Costume

Here it is, finally! My complete costume for the elf Tauriel from the Hobbit movies (well, just the second two). Although she is a character created solely for the movies and never appeared in the book (like much of what happens in these movies actually...), I felt drawn to her. Probably since she is one of the few females who appears in this series, and also happens to be pretty badass. And she lives in a forest city. Oh, and she has a cute dwarf and Legolas pining after her. Not a bad setup, I'd say.

Anyway, I used some other Tauriel cosplay photos as my guides as well as movie stills of Evangeline Lily in helping me choose my fabric and design my costume. There seem to be several variations on what she wears, which I found neat. However, since I'm still but a novice when it comes to creating costumes from scratch, I figured I should keep it as simple as possible.

I first tried using green vinyl for the top half of the dress, and found it to be too stiff and hot. I mean, I'm planning to wear this in San Diego at Comicon in the middle of July so I'd rather not feel like I'm going to suffocate. I ended up replacing that fabric with a cotton-poly mix that is way more comfortable and actually works better for the skirt (which needs to sway around my legs). It looks a little odd with the brown vinyl vest and arm guards, but it was the best I could come up with. The dress actually came together pretty quickly. It was the vest that took some time to perfect, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. But I suppose it will have to do unless I decide to start it all over (which I really can't afford right now). Most of the rest of the outfit was bought either online or in stores-- the elf ears, the wig (which I'm in love with!), the necklace, the leggings, and the boots.

The bow was something I debated about for awhile. They were selling an actual replica on Amazon for about $250 that I was really tempted to buy, but once I found out it was not actually usable I decided against it. Why spend that much for a bow you couldn't actually shoot? So instead I ordered a basic black longbow for about $40 and decorated it myself. I simply painted it green, then glued small leaf-shaped pieces of Styrofoam that I cut out, and painted those green and then gold. Lastly I glued a piece of brown vinyl around the middle and painted gold lines around (which could have been done much neater, but I'm not too picky). It is a working bow so I can take it to an archery range later on when I feel so inclined.