Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck costume from The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring

One of the most interesting parts of Merry's outfit is his signature golden yellow weskit.  Befitting Merry's standing as a member of the hobbit upper-class, his vest is elaborately embellished with finely curling floral patterns.  At first glance, the decoration seems to be embossed into the fabric, but after poring over many, many photographs, I decided that the design was actually quilted. I started off by doing some sketches to get a feel for the looping, whirling patterns.  Once I felt comfortable with the embellishment style, I made a paper mockup pattern piece for the front of the vest.  On this pattern piece, I drew out my design freehand with a Sharpie.  Because it is nearly impossible to see all of the vest embellishment in stills and photographs from the film, I had to make some compromises and simplify it a bit, but overall, I am satisfied with the way my design looks.  It is very true to the spirit of Ngila Dickson's costume design without being an exact copy.

Next, I cut all my fabric pieces for the vest from my sunny yellow cotton.  Merry's vest is a simple, belted vest.  For the basic construction, I used a commercially-available mens' vest pattern.  Using the paper mockup of the front of the vest, I carefully traced the embellishment design, using tailor's chalk.  Since I used Sharpie to draw out the design on the paper, I could simply place my fabric pieces over the paper, and trace out the design.  After the loops and whorls were drawn onto the fabric pieces, I constructed my vest completely.  The front panels were self-lined, with a layer of quilter's batting between them.  Once the vest was constructed, I stitched the embellishment using my sewing machine, carefully going over all the lines I had sketched on my front vest panels.  Initially, I attempted stitching the embellishment by hand, but found that it did not create the proper "look".  Sewing the design by machine pinched together the layers of fabric and batting to give it the same embossed look of the vest in the film.  Although it was very slow and difficult at times, I am very pleased with the final result. For the finishing touch, I purchased wooden buttons and dyed them with Rit fabric dye to match the color of my vest fabric.

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