The Leaves of Lorien Jacket, or Folkwear 124 Strikes Again!

Having fallen in love with the sleeves from the Bolivian milkmaid jacket, I set out immediately use them again!  My husband and I had a trip planned to New Zealand in September, which is their early spring time and I wanted a lightweight woolen jacket,  appropriately themed, of course :D

Urban Threads has the most delightful embroidery designs, one of which bears a strong resemblance to the leaves of Lorien cloak pins, gifted to the hobbits by Lady Galadriel in the Fellowship of the Ring. 

I stitched out many leaves in different sizes on silver organza, planning to cut out individual leaves for appliqué. This worked well, I used a flame to singe and seal the edges of the poly organza. 

I freehanded a little silver vine situation between the leaves:

my original intention was to have the leaves cascading off the shoulders, but I never got that to work. It always looked a little heavy.

I was very pleased with placing the leaves at the cuffs. The sleeve is the very same pattern from Folkwear 124 but I lengthened the sleeve a little bit so I could turn back the cuff.

The jacket pattern is Quik Sew 3334, with some modifications, 

I wanted more of a peplum look so I did a slash and spread below the waist line to get some flare, and I also added a 2 inch wide belt piece. I was able to just squeak in a pocket:

The fabric is wool brushed flannel, lining is poly taffeta, buttons from Amazon.  Shelob the spider is silver and Baltic amber, a souvenir from a trip to Darłowo, Poland  

All of New Zealand is magnificent and if you ever get the chance to go to Hobbiton, DO IT! 

Anybody home? :D

The Hobbit set exists for visiting because after the first Lord of the rings films, people (sometimes dressed as wizards) kept trespassing on the sheep farm to see the location, even though the hobbit holes set had been struck. 

When Peter Jackson went back to the same location to film The Hobbit trilogy, they made a deal with the farmer to build a permanent set for tourists since they were going to come anyway. Most of the hobbit holes are just the façades, but there are two fully furnished hobbit holes you can tour. 

They are utterly delightful. The detail that the artisans created for these little dwellings is amazing.

This is The home of the notable Mr. Bilbo Baggins:

Sadly, Bilbo‘s home is just a façade. 

Quaffing a cider at The Green Dragon!