Erestor
The costume so
far only does have one sleeve, so that's why the picture looks a bit funny.
I'm in the process of beading the second sleeve.
This Erestor coat was inspired by my friend Piper at the Gathering of the Fellowship 2003. She had a beautiful Erestor costume, a long black jacquard coat. I decided to try making one of my own (of a very different design).
Fanfiction Erestor is almost always depicted as wearing black. I don't exactly agree with the absolute black idea, but I do think a dark colour works, so I went for charcoal grey trimmed with black ribbon and dark beads. The trim stands out, but it's not in overwhelming contrast to the coat fabric. Originally I was thinking of trimming the sleeves with a very wide sort of ribbon or lace, but I couldn't find anything that really caught my eye. So I decided to make my own "false trim" out of a pattern of ribbons and beads.
This Erestor coat was inspired by my friend Piper at the Gathering of the Fellowship 2003. She had a beautiful Erestor costume, a long black jacquard coat. I decided to try making one of my own (of a very different design).
Fanfiction Erestor is almost always depicted as wearing black. I don't exactly agree with the absolute black idea, but I do think a dark colour works, so I went for charcoal grey trimmed with black ribbon and dark beads. The trim stands out, but it's not in overwhelming contrast to the coat fabric. Originally I was thinking of trimming the sleeves with a very wide sort of ribbon or lace, but I couldn't find anything that really caught my eye. So I decided to make my own "false trim" out of a pattern of ribbons and beads.
The trim is three
inches wide. It started with criss-crossed black ribbon stitched on with
silver thread. The raw edges of these ribbons (the left edge in the picture
above) are covered with another wider ribbon band. In each little square
created by the crossing ribbons is a hematite bead surrounded by blue seed
beads. The cuff edge, where the ribbon and suede meet the lining, is decorated
with a half and half mixture of clear and oilslick seed beads. There
are something like 250 hematite beads on each sleeve, each one surrounded
by eighteen seed beads, plus the seed beads down the outside edge. THIS is
why the second sleeve isn't done yet! The hematite beads normally cost 15
cents each from a bead store, which is pretty expensive when you think of
the 500 needed for two sleeves. But for anyone interested in doing something
similar, the trick is to ask the store manager if she'll sell you a wholesale
string. I bought my hematite beads on wholesale strings, $4 for a string
of 85 beads. Way more affordable that way.
There are no fastenings yet, but once everything else is done I have eight black satin frog-type things to use as fastenings for the coat.
There are no fastenings yet, but once everything else is done I have eight black satin frog-type things to use as fastenings for the coat.