The second time we see the White Lady of Rohan, she is wearing white. It begins with her crying over Theodred, who she has just discovered is dead. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf soon arrive at Edoras. This was the first gown that we saw promotional images of, and I fell in love with it at that moment.
There is a study page for this gown on LOTR Costume here. The costume galleries on the Extended Edition DVD for 'The Two Towers' are excellent, and show many important details, including her shoes.
These are photos from a special screening for a launch of collectable lotr pins. I hope to take some more photos soon. The black and white photo is from the 'Sunday Mail' newspaper. They took a photo of my friends and I looking at the pins.
Pattern
I started with Simplicity 9103, which is the same one that I used for the Refugee Outfit. I used the top of the sleeve as a base, and then sized it accordingly based on the images you see above. I lengthened the pattern all round by 9 inches, and also added a short train to the back. I now have a basic pattern that I can use for many of her gowns, that will only take slight modifications (necklines, yokes etc).
Fabric & Trim
For the main part of the dress, I used white gaberdine. For the lining on the sleeves and the body of the gown, I used something called antique satin that has a dull, slightly mottled look. The colour is egg. It was the closest thing that I could find, and I like how it feels and drapes, although it stretched on the sleeve lining, and doesn't sit very well. If it made it again, I'd try to get a stiffer fabric.
For around the top of the sleeves, the lacing on the undersleeve, and the neckline, I used cream and gold braid.
Gown
The gown is fully lined with the satin, as the fabric was a little see through. It's very comfortable. I made the tight undersleeves to go with this gown, even though you don't see them unless you are looking for them. I inserted a shorter than usual invisible zip in the back, which stops around hip level. Although I'm able to get it on, I'm not able to get it onto my dress form, which is why it took so long to get photographs. Regardless of how it should be, I'll always use a long zip in future. It's much easier in many ways.
Embroidery
I did a simple version of machine embroidery for the neckline. I might get around to re-doing it at some stage. I'd like to, but I've already spent a lot of time on this gown. It's time to work on something different for a while. It's just a little swirly, leafy design. In fact, it's the same one that my friend used on the neckline of her shieldmaiden gown, so it was still in the style of Eowyn, even if it wasn't identical.
Belt
The belt took longer than everything else combined. The gold design is done with 10 metres of trim, which has been handsewn on. I drew the curved shape on a piece of sew-in interfacing, and cut it out to make each side even. I then pinned it to the belt, and sewed on the trim as I went along. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. I had some trouble at the last minute, and realised that I didn't make the centre front pointed, but I'm still happy with how it looks.
I got the metal discs from a leather shop, and they are attached with rivets. I made the holes with my leather awl, by lining up the disc on the fabric, and poking the hole through the middle. I then attached the rivets, with the long part at the front, and the shorter part at the back. I pressed them together easily, and then once I had them all attached, I hammered them more securely on the reverse side. They are reasonably lightweight, so it wasn't too heavy. I was going to sew the belt onto the gown, but I was short on time, and so I used safety pins to attach it.
Hair
I'm wearing a wig. I got it from an ebay store called 'wildcat wigs'.
