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GregoryAragorn
The shirt was an old long sleeve shirt that had the same texture as
thermal underwear, "long-johns," as we call them in Tennessee. I ripped the
collar and sleeve cuffs off and cut them up a bit...cut the V out and used
eyelets to allow me to lace that in front. For some reason, it always pulls
to the left and you can see it's off center in these pics. I dyed that
shirt for a day in a bath of coffee and tea to weather it a little. I also
sprayed it a bit with a bleach cleanser to get a mottled, worn effect.
The jerkin is not leather, although it will fool your eye unless you look at it up close. It's a false suede material, very lightweight and not hot at all. I figured it's used to make throw pillows and the like. The edges are very easy to fray, so my wife had to hem them in, except the middle portion where the lacing is, which has a perpendicular stitching treatment in the fabric. The material is strong enough that I could put in eyelets here too. For the lacing, I used leather laces, as close as I could find to the jerkin color. I knotted an end on the outside of the eyelet, then slipped the lace underneath across to the other eyelet opposite. There I brought it up and did another knot, an inch or two slack, then looped that knot around the slack connecting the two sides of the jerkin. The knot assures that the jerkin will stay together and can be slipped over the head, then looped and tightened by looping that knot around the slack. The jerkin here is all one piece. My wife measured my chest and shoulders, etc and sewed the shoulders together and hemmed the armholes. We plan on modifying it to present the slits down the outer sides and the back...but this wraps around like an open-front skirt. The gauntlets are improvised, using inexpensive Halloween elbow length gloves, intended for a woman's outfit. I cut the hand off one and of course, left the glove portion on the right hand, lopping off the fingers, only. I found raw black leather rectangles used to make your own wallets, etc and attached them to the forearm by rolling up the end of the gloves and using black leather strips that are used to make your own braided bracelets. I tied the rolled up end down with a brown leather lace...left over from the jerkin lacing. The effect is convincing, but again, you'd realize it's not the Gondorian tree/stylized feather design if you got close enough.
The cloak is more of that charcoal grey material, lightweight enough not to get too hot, but lays down well. It reminded me of a low-pile beach blanket of sorts. This material and the jerkin fauxsuede were found at Wal*Mart, of all places. The outside of the cloak is the matte side, which has an interesting visual texture, with the inside being a bit shinier, but not by much. It's got an ample hood, and was gathered at the collar/seam where the hood connects. This way, it is full in the back, but when you put it over your shoulder...it stays put and you're not always hitching it back up because it wants to fall back over your torso. The jerkin and cloak were done by measuring and testing fits, but no pattern was used at all. The leaf at the connection of the cloak is a piece of decorative glass, shaped like a leaf, which I painted. It's sewn into the cloak itself, hiding the simple eyelets that actually connect the cloak. The belt is just an extra long belt, but had rivets going along both edges and looked cool enough. I didn't have a ring of Barahir, (although I have since procured one), so just used some old simple rings I had around, one being my wedding ring, LOL. The sword is a replica of Aragorn's ranger sword, not Anduril. I don't care much for the Anduril design...seems to be really a shorter version of Glamdring.
This page was last updated 11/21/09
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