Thorin BotFA Leather Surcoat - Work in Progress

Whew. It seems it is time for an update. I've been working feverishly these past few days to get my costume for the BotFA premiere ready, and it's been somewhat of a challenge. I get restless when I feel things are taking too long, and a sense of panic begins to set in. 

Anyway, the surcoat is nearly finished. Pictures are kind of tricky, though, because of the dark color. The detail work doesn't show up very well. Took it out for a jaunt in the snow, though, for contrast purposes.

Hard to tell from these pictures, but nearly the entire surface of the leather has been quilted in a diamond pattern, which took ages. It's not showing up well, but I plan to remedy that by using a paste made of French Green Clay and water to create a residue that will bring out the pattern and simulate the weave of the original surcoat. 

The leather was scavenged from a pair of trousers and a coat, both from Goodwill, and I'm amazed I was able to pull it off. It wasn't, by any means, easy ripping apart so many seams, and for a while I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of the leather that hadn't been compromised by buttonholes, pockets, etc.

These leather garments are no longer with us in these forms. Note the high waist on the trousers. *snerk*

It made a dreadful mess...

Drawing the lines for the quilting. That took a while. My sewing process was basically continuous, though, so it wasn't as hard to quilt as you'd think. (I suppose "quilt" isn't technically the term for this process, as I'm not backing the leather with another material, but whatevs.) This particular panel of the leather had a wrinkly defect, but much of it was ultimately cut off and encased in the seam, so it's not very noticeable. It'll be even less so once the weathering is complete.

My test piece. The cloudy substance in the glass is the French Green Clay. 

All assembled (except for the right-hand sleeve flange). My pattern was previously tested in a dark blue vinyl (pictured in a previous blog post), and fits very well. 

I've been working on the jewels for the front. I made them in vegetable tanned leather first, then made a mold and cast duplicates in resin. There are three different types of jewels used, technically, but I've only made duplicates of one thus far. 

My horrific resin-casting mess. The kitchen table is outta commission, guys. 

And here are some of the various elements of the costume, all piled together. The chain maille will be joined with another shirt to make it shin length, and split down the center front. The cloak will be fitted properly and adorned with ornate trim. The fur mantle will be cut into shape and sewn in two layers to afford a very luxurious, 3D look. 

Last night, I made a hem binding to affix to the bottom of the surcoat. Quite a challenge, really. The leather fit perfectly, and it still wanted to bunch and wander. After several mishaps (which involved an unfortunate amount of seam-ripping), I found the solution was to hem the upper edge of the joined piece, position it where I wanted it, and glue it down. Seems a natural solution anyway, since it's basically impossible to sew through the layers of leather folded over each other (5 total) with my current machine. 

Now I've only to hem the front and begin the weathering process. I'll post an update when I'm finished, but I'm planning to continue casting the jewels over the next few days, so that aspect of the coat probably won't be finished for a while. I'll be glad to have this aspect of the outfit done. It's been quite a challenge, and very time-consuming, but I like how it's turning out. 

Also on the docket for today:

1) Trousers (I'll be airbrushing a design on a suede patch that will be sewn over the kneecaps)

2) Fur mantle

3) Belt (will begin designing and tooling. Really excited about this part of the project; it's gonna be awesome)

Finished Thorin Raven Crown and New Project Breakdown

All done! I like how it's turned out. A fun project, to be sure, and a great learning experience. This is one of those projects where I would actually be up for making a duplicate. That doesn't happen very often. 

It's very sturdy, and the detail shows up well. If I were to fix anything, I might add some aging to the "gold," so it looks less shiny. The texture of the leather, though, gives it a nice, hand-forged appearance.

I like how the back wraps around to support the front. Makes the whole thing feel a lot more integrated and sturdy.

The dangly squares are quite fun, and slightly ingenuous. They're suspended in place by a strip of garment leather, and they create the illusion of a tail. If I'm being honest with myself, this design looks like it matches Thror's beard/hair jewelry. :D

And here's me... trying to do Thorin's "grump face" justice. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Majestic! 

Now it's on to the rest of the costume. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna be Majestic Thorin for opening night. Here's a pic of the costume, except that I'm also adding the robe with fur collar and the crown to the  ensemble. 

Kinda hard to see, as most of what he's wearing is very dark, but the outfit is quite complex. To break it down, it's:

1) Outer cloak, black; fur collar, gold and black trim

2) Outer coat, black, quilted, pieced leather, metal jewels along the front opening 

3) Under tunic, black, gold trim identical to that he wore as a prince in Erebor, except that it's in gold instead of blue and silver. Symbolism much?

4) Undershirt, dirty off-white, buttons visible; very much a relic of Laketown 

5) Trousers, with ornate suede patch visible

6) Boots, fur-covered, wrapped in leather

7) Belt, tooled leather; gold buckle embossed with Raven emblem

8) Gloves in the same style as the outer coat, with gold, quilted trim around the edge

9) Possibly sword and shield, but not necessary, as this outfit is the one he wears before battle is imminent 

I've already finished the mock-up of the outer coat, in a different fabric, but I intend to make it in black leather. Will be cutting apart a leather coat and a pair of leather trousers to acquire said leather. 

I may end up using this mock up as the base for my remake of Thorin's navy blue traveling coat. I like the pattern; very well-fitted, considering I worked it up in an evening. (Will definitely be making a "hero version" of the coat in genuine leather and raccoon fur at some point, though. I already have the materials.)

Will update as things develop. :)

 

Progress - Thorin Raven Crown

Decided to post a few new shots of the Raven crown. It's coming along quite well. Just finished mapping out the design for the back and the wrap-around pieces that support the front. A bit tricky, really. Again, all the reference images show the crown in its finished state, either being worn, or simply suspended in space, in all its three-dimensional majesty. 

So this is where I'm at after another evening of work. Will tool the back piece tomorrow, and see about attaching it (probably with glue, or rivets) to the front piece. Might not attach it at all until I get the beveling tool I ordered, and the dye. In any case, I'll probably finish the second back piece at the least and make sure everything fits the way it should. 

Thorin Raven Crown - Work in Progress

The first time I saw the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Million Nopes... I knew I had to make this crown. This crown is so majestic I can't even. 

Obviously, forging it out of solid gold wasn't really a option. I've seen a couple of people who made it out of heat-shaped plastic, but I wanted something that looked more natural, more organic. I wanted something really durable. So I opted for thick, vegetable tanned leather and acrylic paints. 

I spent an evening studying photographs and sketching out the basic design. The next day, I scrapped that plan and printed off an actual photograph of the crown, which I then traced and modified. (The pictures show the design in 3D, rather than the 2D that is required to transfer the design to a flat surface). The printing process was an interesting adventure in and of itself, but I'll spare you the agonizing details of the three hours I spent getting one of our four (!) printers to actually, you know, print.

I know what you're thinking. Majestic, even on paper, in black and white. So I traced the design onto my leather, and cut it out with a winning combination of willpower, luck, elbow grease, and some really dull scissors. Genius. 

There's one of them, all cut out and embossed with the design. Next came the tooling, which takes forever, but it's actually quite therapeutic. Using my handy leather tooling kit, I strategically outlined the embossed design to give a sense of depth and cause the raven to appear more clearly.

 

Rinse and repeat. :) Not quite finished with the other side yet, but it's coming along nicely. This is a work in progress, so I'll be making another post when I complete more of the crown. Can't wait to paint it. But first I have to bevel the edges, harden and shape the leather, and dye it. *sigh*

Khalisi Daenerys Wedding Dress

This dress Dany wears for her wedding... my version turned out a little more brown than hers, but I actually like it. It's very earthy, and there's truly nothing like wearing a flowing silk gown. It felt like I had nothing on (in the best possible way, not "omg, I'm naked!"). 

I didn't document the process very well, unfortunately, and even this picture doesn't really show what the front (or back) of the dress look like. I'll have to take some more pictures later and update this post.

I hand dyed the silk in a massive canning jar cauldron, which is always an adventure. No horrific mishaps this time, thankfully. Then I used a base pattern that was actually really, really close to the original, and had this baby finished in an evening. It was actually a lot of fun, and diverted me from my mom's propaganda film, which I probably would have watched if I'd had nothing better to do. 

The picture below was during an intermediate step, but it does show the interesting coloration well. 

The best part of the gown is the front tie details (not yet attached at the time of the above photo). There are some ties (much like those you'd find on an infinity dress) that loop through a closure adorned with dragon heads), cross, and then are tied at the back of the dress. Fun little detail. A very simple design, and yet very elegant. I like the open back. :)

Well, Halloween's over and it's time to move on to bigger and better things. Like my costume for the premiere / opening night of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Million Tissue Boxes. At the moment, I'm definitely contemplating going as Thorin in his secondary battle armor. Not the gold plate armor Thror wore at the Battle of Azanulbizar, but the chain mail coat and quilted leather surcoat. Also contemplating wearing... the crown. Which actually doesn't go with the aforementioned garb, but it looks amazing and I totally want to make and wear it.

Commission: Lucy from Fairy Tail

Well, after an entire day's work, I've finished my youngest sister's costume, and I am exhausted. So ridiculously exhausted. Hard to believe I haven't even started on my own costume yet. We're really getting down to it. *jumps up to stop euphoric cat from rolling around in tissue sewing patterns* 

The costume wasn't all that difficult, though the pattern I bought for the bolero top had the strangest collar I've ever seen. It's like something the bourgeoisie French might've worn. *scratches head* Really bizarre. What _was_ difficult was how many separate pieces there were, and the various details of each. Bolero top, bodice (fully lined, with appliqué), tie-on flounce sleeves, and a skirt. That's a lot to finish in one day, lemme tell ya.

Anyway, another anime character costume, from another show I've never seen and know nothing about. At least my sister is delighted. I wasn't terribly sold on the electric yellow with the royal blue, but it does give it a sufficient pop of color. I adjusted the original costume to make it more modest (made the bodice a full one instead of a belly shirt, and lengthened the skirt). 

I have to say, it looks remarkably good on her. The skirt and bodice mesh together well, and almost look like a dress. The flounce sleeves are really (dare I say it?) cute. I think my version looks better than the one in the anime. *satisfied grin*

Next up in my pre-Halloween costume marathon is Daenerys! Haven't seen Game of Thrones, but I'm sufficiently impressed by the costume work, especially the gowns worn by the "Mother of Dragons." I have a shoulder dragon I'm going to use as part of the costume; looking forward to wearing it. But first... I'm taking a much-needed break. :)

Commission: Maka Coat from Soul Eater

Firstly, I have no idea what a "soul eater" is, and I think I might prefer it that way. Secondly, I generally avoid that particular niche of interest known as anime and manga. Alas, my sisters are highly enamored of it, and spend most of their days scheming about how they're going to acquire their next fix. Thus, I find myself in the strange position of recreating costumes from animes, as both my sisters want to be anime characters for Halloween (my youngest sister wants to be, I've been informed, "Lucy from Fairy Tail." That means absolutely nothing to me. I was all, "Whatev. Just show me a picture, and I'll make the stupid outfit." *muttermutter*))

Anyway, here's the finished coat for my second youngest sister, meant to be Maka's from Soul Eater. She has a huge red and black scythe that goes with it. I wonder if she's meant to be some kind of Grim Reaper. A fashionable Grim Reaper. *shivers*

It's black wool suiting fully lined with some kind of slubby polyester that used to be a curtain. The buttons were fun to do. They started out their short little lives as ordinary black buttons from Joann's. Now they're fabulous silver buttons with black x's on them. (For anyone who might be making this same costume, get thin scotch tape, cut pieces in half lengthwise, and stick them on the button to form an x. Then spray paint the whole thing in metallic silver, wait for it to dry, remove the tape, and cover in a coat of clear acrylic sealer.) 

For those interested in the lining process, I basically made two coats, then pinned them together, right side to right side, and sewed around the whole thing, leaving a small gap in the lower hem. After I turned the coat right side out, I designed the cuffs (basically a long rectangle of white fabric fused to interfacing), and hand sewed them to the ends of the sleeves, using the cuff to sandwich the raw edges for a nice, clean finish. There are also matching buttons on the cuffs.

The pattern I used for the coat/dress is one I've used for many different projects. I love it because it fits me well, and as such, is quite flattering to anyone with more of an hourglass figure. As you can see from the above picture, the coat scoops in to hug the small of the back instead of proceeding downward in a straight, boring line. It's really great if you can find a basic pattern that works for your body type, because you can use it over and over for all sorts of custom work and you're already familiar with the pattern and its assembly.

Anyway, expect more rapid updates in the next few days. I have on the docket, to finish before Halloween:

1) Lucy from Fairy Tail

2) Daenerys's Wedding Gown from Game of Thrones

3) Simple, last minute Thor costume for my younger brother (he wants to wear it to his job at Wal-Mart, since all his fellow employees evidently refer to him as the aforementioned Norse god because of his long blond hair and beard) 

Commission: Dr. Who Inspired Cloak

So I didn't really document this process as much as I probably should have, but suffice it to say... it wasn't so much challenging as it was time-consuming. It's fully lined, and quite heavy, made of blue linen look fabric and gold crepe back satin. 

The Tardis windows on the lower hem are appliqués, hand cut out and applied, then stitched around. That took the majority of the first day.

The 50-odd Dalek circles were as evil and homocidal as their fictional counterparts, and I had to hand paint every single one. It took about six hours total. 

If it had just been an ordinary lined cloak, it would've taken about three hours. All told, this decorative cloak took me some fifteen hours. Repetitive tasks. Not a fan. 

I'm going to have nightmares about painting black circles... over and over and over and over. Exterminate! *dies*

Finished Elsa Gown

Finally finished my Elsa Gown, which was a lot more trouble than it was worth, and which reaffirmed to me once again the tremendous importance of "ease of use" when it comes to fabric selection. Sequined lycra is 100% off my list of future fabric choices. Practically killed my machine. It's worse than leather. Anyway, I managed to finish what I needed to. Hemmed the sleeves and neckline, installed a zipper in the back of the dress, finished the eyelets for the bodice, and embroidered the train. 

Finished product, modeled by my long-suffering younger sister, Charity. 

I don't really like how the top portion turned out, and if I were to do it over again, I'd choose a sequined fabric for the bodice and leave it at that. The craft foam, while interesting, simply doesn't provide the professional, polished look I strive toward. Also, I'd choose a different fabric for the sleeves and neckline. The sequined lycra is absolutely awful to work with, as you may have already gathered. I do, however, like how the train turned out. 

The embroidery is gorgeous, and the jeweled rhinestones I added were the icing on the cake. I was going to do more snowflakes, but in the end, I decided to keep it simple. It was challenging embroidering on the sheer fabric, but the end product was surprisingly ethereal, like snowflakes floating in the blue sky. 

My room is kind of in chaos right now, since I'm in the process of reorganizing everything. I've come to the conclusion that I have too many supplies and materials that are inaccessible, and the volume of stuff I have out is making the room look cluttered. So my next few projects are going to be of an organizational nature, and should help in using up a lot of the very specific items I have. Expect posts on repurposing sweaters, and making cloaks. Not necessarily in that order. 

Elsa Queen Gown Spoilers

Sorry for lack of updates lately. Been pretty swamped with work and generally exhausting housekeeping tasks. I have had time, however to indulge in a bit of fun in the form of recreating Queen Elsa's dress from Frozen. Only lately saw the movie, despite having its ubiquitous "Let it Go" song played ad nauseam in my (and everyone else I know's) houses. 

In short (because I'm exhausted), I saw the dress, liked it, and decided to have a go at recreating it. Bought my fabric at Wal-Mart, with the exception of the cape fabric, which was purchased from Joann's. 

Here's what the dress looks like right now. It's far from finished, but it's beginning to look pretty good. The bodice, in particular, still needs a lot of attention. 

I really had a lot of fun with this dress, actually. It was relatively easy, despite not having a pattern (I cobbled together the various elements from several patterns in my collection, and modified them as necessary. I also added three godets to the back of both skirts to create a kind of "flowing water" effect; it's hard to see in these pictures, but it looks really cool.

The bodice was unusual, in that I utilized a medium I don't often use: craft foam. All those "scaley" things on the front are cut, individually, from craft foam, glued on, and painted. I've only finished the front thus far, which isn't actually done. Still have more painting and decoupaging to do, and I need to have the scales at the top go all the way up to cover the fabric beneath. 

The other major things I still have yet to do are the ombré dyeing of the lower portion of the skirt (I'll be doing it in a blue to match the cape, which will look incredible), and I need to embroider a bunch of snowflakes on the cape. Already found my patterns, so that'll be cake when it's time. 

In a few days, I'll have the finished project (it was supposed to be a one-day thing, but I decided to put more time into it), as well as my nearly-finished Thorin cape with fur mantle. 

One other bit of news: just got the leather for Thorin's coat (the one he wears throughout most of the first and second movie), and a raccoon-fur coat to use for the mantle and trim. It's going to do nicely, I think. A lot better than vinyl and faux fur, that's for sure. 

Thorin Tunic - Post 1

Okay, so I skipped a day. Got busy, which tends to happen to me a lot. It's a terrible thing. Trust me. Despite missing a day on my blog, though, I wasn't completely idle in the crafting department. I was actually doing a lot of hand sewing yesterday on my Thorin tunic (the bottom layer of my "Prince Thorin" costume, which is going to be epic). I made a lot of progress whilst in the waiting room at the doctor's, as well as in the car while my mom was driving. I was totally planning to come home after my appointment and be all productive, but then, Goodwill happened, and two hours later, my mom had bought herself a bunch of colorful shirts. I think it was an impulse buy, personally, but I'm glad she enjoyed herself.

I'm really off topic, aren't I? Sad. Well, to get this crafting train back on track, I'll say that this post is meant to detail some of my progress in making Thorin's shirt, not all of which has been documented, as the advent of this blog was sometime after I'd begun the shirt. Oh well. The first part's fairly basic anyway.

So, to throw you right into the thick of things, I'll start with the collar. Thorin's shirt (much to my sadness) does not have an awesome hood like Fili's and Kili's. Evidently, the one he uses is on his coat or something. This picture illustrates my collar pattern, which was mostly stolen from a Simplicity pattern I've had since high school. (I don't expect you to know how long ago that was. I'll just be vague like Edward and say it's been "a while.") 

The pattern, in case you're wondering, is Simplicity 4942, and is basically a generic Théoden, Legolas, and Elrond pattern. I'm sure there are dozens more that would work, but this one is perfectly sufficient to use as a base pattern. Base patterns are incredibly helpful when you're trying to achieve a particular original design, but don't want to start from scratch. You modify beforehand, using a mockup, or if you're impatient (like me), you modify as you go, to mixed results. (I'm getting better about that, I swear. I'm trying to be more professional.)

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Making a collar.

I cut two of the collar from my linen fabric, and one out of fusible interfacing. Fusible interfacing stiffens the collar and will make it stand up like it's supposed to. It's great for cuffs, as well, which I'll also be making for this shirt. 

So here you can see one of the fabric pieces being laid over the interfacing. Placing a damp rag over the fabric, once it's where I want it, I fuse the interfacing in place with my iron. Then it's time to sew the interfacing fabric piece to the non-interfacing'd fabric piece, the bottom 1/4" or so I've ironed up so once I've sewn my seam, I can hand slip stitch the facing in place. Sounds complicated, I know, but it really isn't. 

Once I've sewn around the top, rounded part (I altered the shape a little bit from the original pattern to make it less rounded, because Thorin's collar is more squared off at the edges), I can turn it and press.

Now it looks like this. Totally epic, right? I don't have pictures of the process of attaching it to the shirt because I did it in a rush before work, but it's really straightforward. You just pin the longer side (the one where the white is showing) to the back of the neckline on the shirt and sew about a quarter-inch seam (technically, you're supposed to sew 5/8" seams, but I usually don't when I'm drafting my own patterns. Anyway, it's an easy thing to fix if it ends up being too big. Not so much if it ends up being too small.

So Thorin has über awesome shoulder pads on his shirt. We're not talking 80's dress suits here, people. These shoulder pads have a purpose. They're meant to keep weapons straps from making your shoulders sore over time. (I wish I'd had this shirt when I was still playing bass in my brother's band, lemme tell ya.) The process of making them was a whole different story, what with making a weird sandwich with the fabric on the outside and cotton batting on the inside, then drawing the lines, then quilting them with my machine. I then sewed along the existing outside lines to attach the shoulder pads to the shirt. And they look... sexy? 

Notice all the cool lines along the front of the shirt. I've seen people actually cutting the fabric and then piecing it back together to achieve this look... *shakes head* You poor, poor people. So much easier to just mark, press, and sew a tiny seam right in the existing fabric piece. Same, exact look (if not better), and it's soooo much easier. Also sturdier construction, so you don't have to lie awake at night fretting that your seams are going to come apart and you're going to have a wardrobe malfunction and everyone's going to get an eyeful. 

So my next task was to make a binding for the front edge of the tunic, and a fabric lacing to go through the eyelets. A few days before, I'd found this cheesy, plastic strip cutter at a thrift store (I get so much whacky stuff at thrift stores), and I decided I'd put it through its paces. It actually... worked. Using fabric leftovers, I managed to cut a huge pile of 1 1/4" wide strips, which I then attached together in ingenious ways to make a binding/facing for my tunic front, as well as enough to make a lacing. A bunch of cutting, sewing, pressing, pinning, and sewing later, this was the result:

It looketh so prettyful. I was quite pleased with myself as I collapsed on my bed that night. After a lot of hand sewing the next day (mainly the front facing and the inside of the collar), as well as (today) finishing the lacing, this is where I'm at now (ignore the lacing; I've just draped it over the front, and it's not attached):

All that remains to be done now are the sleeves, the side seams, the back hem, and the eyelets. Oh, and I have to dye it a darker color. Wow. I had no idea I was actually that close to being done. That's amazing. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have time to make more progress. If not, I'll cheat and make a blog about something else. Because Mahal knows, I'm always working on something, and get distracted ridiculously easily. I'm the most ADD crafter in the world. It's a wonder I ever finish any of my projects. *sigh*