Hi! Welcome to my new blog, where I will document my progress towards each costume I make n.n I hope to help people with theirs as others have helped me loads with mine, either by teaching people new things or helping them not make the same mistakes I have. Here we go!
edit 12/19/2015 - finished costume
The first costume I want to talk about is what I consider to be my first real costuming project. It took a lot of research time and work, many hours and trial and error process to accomplish what is, if i'm not 100% happy and would one day consider to remake in order to be more accurate, my most beautiful costume to date.
I will start with the coat. The actual one is made from deerskin in a dark green tone, as explained in the hobbit's Cloaks and Daggers artbook, which has great pictures of the parts of the costume separately, that is this coat (which I think it explains it's actually a top and skirt separate pieces, since the bottom isn't there when she wears it with her travelling cloak), said travelling cloak, and the cuirass. I have also found some great closeups of the details of the bracers that have helped me make them a bit better. But more on that later.
I didn't have the budget to make the coat from deerskin, as it's impossible to import stuff into my country, so I had to make the best with what was available locally, which was a stretchy microsuede. The color was great, a suitable alternative since it's a bit lighter than the actual one, but i was afraid of dyeing it since I bought the last 3 yards they had and it had been quite expensive to ruin it while dyeing (haven't had much luck in that process yet!). I made a small mockup for the top part since I wanted to get the panels as accurately as possible even if the cuirass covers this, and once i was happy I cut it up. When I started to sew it i realized there was no way the fabric alone would work as it stretched while being sown, so the piping ended up looking all wrinkled and it was a mess. I had to redo it 3 times for it to be finally ok, and that was because I had to iron interfacing on the back of each piece so it would have some rigidity and stop stretching. The pro point on this was that the interface stretched on the width so it still kept some of that give so the costume would have a better fit on me, as opposed to it being completely rigid and having to be tailored more.
first stages of the coat being made
most of the coat sides sewn by hand via faggotting (excuse my regular fabric mess lol)
The seams on the bust panels, back panels and sleeves, had piping on each end and were joined by doing a faggotted seam on all the length by hand with crochet thread. The seams on the actual coat seem to cover the entire space between each piece, and mine dont, so you can actually see what's underneath, meaning skin lol, so it might be a double faggotting stitch or something of the sort, im not quite sure. It also has two collars, the first one is part of the whole coat, and it's quite short, the second one is added on the inside and flips outwards as pictured, like the actual one has, as the costume designer explained they decided to add it later while making it and it was easier to add it on top of the first one. The coat is lined with a moss green silk, shiny side out, since the costume designer said the coat (which I later think she meant the travelling coat, but since I might not do that one, I opted to add the detail to this one) was lined in a shiny fabric so that when she moved, it would catch the light and flash.
For the cuirass, I first made a mock up in muslin, to see more or less how the panels would work, I then transfered these to pleather to make a new mock up to see how it looked in a thicker fabric, since this was my first time working with leather and again, I didn't have much and didn't want to screw it up.
2nd mock up, in pleather
cut leather pieces for the actual cuirass
Then I proceeded to cut the actual cuirass, for which I latter added a veg tanned leather panel in the middle with the leaves motif carved and dyed, instead of doing the whole thing out of veg tanned leather, since my machine wasn't really up to the ask of sewing such hard leather. The part I was most afraid of was dyeing the leather and have it match the color of the base leather, but it luckily ended up being a perfect match! The design was drawn by a good friend, The Crystal Shoe since I can't really draw to save my life lol.
veg carved panel before being dyed over base cuirass
carved panel now dyed
I was really very happy with how it looked, since the worst part was over! I was very afraid of working with leather and for a first time I'm very proud of what I accomplished and I ended up wanting to do more!
First costume test
The rest to be done were the bracers, boots and pants. The pants were made from a stretch pleather in brown, the actual ones are probably real leather, and in a reddish brown color, while mine a darker brown, but like I said previously, it was what was available. I made a quick legging pattern, with the panels the pants have and sew them up, not pictured there but I promise I will show them later.
The bracers are also done in veg tanned leather, carved and dyed as well, the design also done by my friend The Crystal Shoe. The actual bracers have tiny leaf buttons for closing, so I tried my best to find something similar in design, and I did, they had to be cut since they had a few more decorations, and sanded, but they looked very much like the original ones.
The boots were bought to be modified later. I painted them a darker brown, and distressed them with acrylic paints to look worn and have grass stains on the front and back of them. The design was painstakingly hand sown on the boot also with crochet thread, and my fingers were absolutely numb after doing this... I later realized, that under the sewn pattern there is a leather applique that is what's sown on to the boot, but I was halfway done so I passed another thread beneath the stitches so it'd give that impression of having something underneath. The zipper is covered by two pieces of pleather, also hand sewn, and closed with cording like the actual ones are, since they were also bought and modified.
Close ups of bracers and boots.
I haven't done any shoots with this costume yet because I consider it to be at 80% completion, since I didnt make either the belt or quiver, and my weapons lie 13000km away from me in the Uk. I considered making a spare pair of daggers so I could wear the costume soon but I don't have time now so I might see to it at a later date. Still, I'm very very happy with this and even if it's not 100% accurate, it was a first time for lots of things and I love how they came out!
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