Battle Dress

Red Battle Dress

Susan Pevensie’s red battle dress was the inspiration for this dress–only I modified it into a more Lord of the Rings style. Let me explain 🙂 Susan’s dress, as are most of her dresses, is princess-seamed. And the slits in her dress are made by leaving two of the front princess seams unattached part of the way down the skirt. (See here and here for pictures that show what I mean.) However, most LOTR dresses are fitted through side seams. So I did that with this dress and put the slits in the sides. I had some problems with making the slits at first, but eventually, I just cut the skirt pieces and sewed them to the bodice, but didn’t sew them up the sides. That gave a fuller skirt than slitting a dress up both sides. The dress is actually made from the same burgundy crushed panne velvet as the Cranberry Dress–only this time I used the other side of the material. Underneath is worn a red pleated underskirt of a thinner cloth.

As for the armor, instead of Susan’s Battle Armor, that she wears with this dress in the movie, I paired the dress with her Night Raid Armor, which is her leather cuirass with thin leather over the shoulders. (I really like her Night Raid outfit, and I also didn’t have anything on hand that would work for chainmail–maybe I’ll make a chainmail shirt as part of another doll outfit :D)

The doll’s cuirass is laced up the sides with cord I made from dark brown thread. I left off all Susan’s fashionable straps and buckles 🙂 and added shoulder straps made from the same leather as the cuirass.