My Hobbit Maid Costume

Originally, this was supposed to be done by September 22, Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday. My excuse? A sewasaurus rex is never late; she finishes costumes precisely when she means to!

Walnut trying to get down = slightly better view of the whole outfit on me.

But if you ignore the fact that my self-imposed deadline was a couple months ago, technically this costume was finished early! I was only going to wear this for the movie premiere on December 14, and wear my Rohirrim gown for my party instead. However, I decided last minute that I should do a test run of the costume since it's done; I want to make sure it's comfortable enough for standing in line for several hours, and then sitting through a whole movie. I'm pleased to report that aside from it being very warm (too warm for our crowded apartment!), it is quite comfortable. With my elven cloak, it will be definitely be warm enough for SoCal on a December night.

I almost re-donated this pattern, but I'm so
glad I didn't!

This costume is basically three parts: the skirt, the chemise, and waistcoat/bodice. While I could've used the recently released Simplicity 1771, I know that the pattern drafting for Big 4 costumes tends to be ridiculously bad -- scanty directions, anachronistic zippers, up to eight inches of ease in bodices (I'm not even exaggerating), etc. -- and I wanted to make do with what I already had. The skirt was the easiest to make -- just two rectangles (a twin flat sheet torn in half), gathered, and bound at the top with a waistband. It closes with a grosgrain ribbon drawstring and a couple of snaps. The chemise was made from Simplicity 7842, a pattern I only picked up because it was part of a thrift store bundle, but I'm glad I had it, as it makes an excellent hobbit chemise. However, it would be pretty easy to make one even without a pattern; it's essentially a peasant blouse. For the bodice, I used Vogue 8648 because of its over the shoulder (as opposed to into the armscye) princess seaming. I did have to put together the bodice and waistband pieces to get the look that I wanted, as well as take out some of the ease to get an appropriately fitted look. To make the button front, I just cut my front bodice piece in half and added about 3 inches to the center front so that I could fold it over to make the button placket. My shell was originally a tablecloth, more recently cut into this dress failure, and now has taken its final incarnation (hopefully) as my hobbit bodice. The lining is an old pillowcase in a thankfully coordinating green.

My sketchy directions for making your own hobbit maid costume. 

To actually put together the bodice, I sewed the assembled shell to the lining, wrong sides together, then tried it on and folded the center front over to make the button placket. I topstitched all the seams so as to make the whole thing stiffer, then bound the edges in narrow olive green bias tape. Joann's didn't have too much by way of natural-looking buttons, but thankfully I found these buttons that have a similar motif as the tablecloth. Oddly enough, they're made of coconut shell -- somehow, it feels wrong to have such a tropical button material on a costume for what I imagine is a temperate-deciduous-forest-type community.

I was so please to see how all the various materials looked together!

Close up of the skirt opening. When it's all tied and snapped together, you can't even tell that there's a gap there. Also, if you look at the left side, you can see the place where I accidentally cut a square out of the fabric because I wasn't paying attention and had multiple layers stacked on my desk. I ended up putting in a bizarre little patch that people keep mistaking for a pocket. 

The chemise hits at about mid-thigh. 

The inside of the sleeve: I sewed a piece of seam binding on and threaded my elastic through that. 

A close up of the ties inside that gather the neckline. 

I'm really pleased with how this costume turned out, and I have to say that making it was also immensely enjoyable. I worked on it while my husband was just watching football, and we just so happened to have plenty of leftovers in the fridge, so I had nice large blocks of time to just sew away! There were only minor fitting issues, and no crazy new techniques to puzzle over, so I totally got into a groove, almost like runner's high, but sewist's high? Anyway, by the time I finished, I had a huge grin on my face because of how successfully hobbity I looked!

Summary:
Fabric: A cotton-poly blend twin flat sheet for the skirt, a 100% king-size cotton pillowcase for the bodice lining, 3 yards of 100% cotton muslin for the chemise, 1/2 of a small tablecloth for the bodice shell
Notions: Grosgrain ribbon for the skirt drawstring, 6 coconut shell buttons, a package of narrow double-fold bias tape, seam binding for the chemise elastic casings and drawstring
Hours: About 20 hours, most of which happened over one weekend!
Will you make this again? Not unless someone else wants a hobbit costume from me.
Total cost: $3 for the sheet, $6 for the muslin, $2 for the bias tape, $4 for the buttons, and the rest was free. $15 total for the whole costume -- not bad!

I'm hoping to get more/better pictures of me wearing this costume at the midnight showing. Elaine and I will be at the Chinese Theater line party. The last time I dressed up for a midnight showing on opening night was for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, so it'll be nice to do the whole take-pictures-with-other-geeks thing again!

Because, you know, I didn't do enough of that at my party. Also, doesn't Shayna make the most adorable male hobbit?