Jude's Examples
Glasgow, Scotland
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Gondorian Soldier
Based on Aragorn’s battle outfit
from ROTK, I designed my own Gondorian Soldier’s outfit.
The Surcoat
I decided early on that I wanted the
surcoat to be in red, to match my vambraces. A lucky find in my local
discount fabric store was two meters of red wool broadcloth, in exactly the
right shade, for £6. I snapped it up.
The design is a simplified version
of Aragorn’s white tree design; I left off the stars and just embroidered
the tree on in white cotton.
Constructing the surcoat itself was
actually pretty easy; the front and back pieces were rectangles with a
little shaping at the shoulders and a neckline cut away. I added a standing
mandarin collar and sleeve caps on either side (both constructed with an
inner of black velvet and sewed in together) and then decided I wanted to
line it.
Taking out the last of my beloved
stash of black velvet, there was just enough left. I lined the whole thing
by hand, and when it was done it STILL didn’t look finished. I’d flirted
with the idea of gold trim on the collar and sleeve caps, and now it was
nearly done it looked like it needed the trim all the way round.
Using a reel of gold crochet cotton,
I made my own trim using finger braiding. After making miles of the stuff,
I sewed it down by hand onto the edges of the surcoat, adding more around
the inside of the sleeve caps and the lower edge of the collar.
I tried it on. It looked pretty
good, but still wasn’t fancy enough.
The Undercoat
The next bit took some thought, and
some input from my friend Catherine. Eventually we decided that what it
needed was a ‘Boromir Suit’ – a variant on the wine-red silk tunic that he
wears in FOTR – but probably in gold.
I bought a meter and a half of
gold/amber two tone silk dupion (£15 a meter! Eeek!) and very hastily
started making the sleeves. They’re elbow length tube sleeves, beaded with
silver seed and bugle beads, sewn into star patterns around the lower edge
and studded all over the upper parts of the sleeve. When they were done I
made a very simple open fronted tunic with what was left of the silk, and
sewed the sleeves in. There’s a mandarin collar with little silver stars
along it.
Wearing the Outfit
I started with my blue cotton shirt
and grey trousers; I may get round to making some kit-specific ones at some
point, but I actually quite like the colour with this outfit. I added a
pair of what I suppose are technically spats – they started life as a pair
of long green boots, but then the soles fell off and I cut off the feet,
making them into green studded leather leg-warmers (mmm…).
Then the mail went on. Rather than
my usual scabby ring-mail, I borrowed a set of shiny silver chain, which
while much heavier than mine is smoother and comfier to wear, even without
an arming jacket. That belted around the middle to keep some of the weight
off my shoulders.
The silk undercoat went over that.
The sleeves were about an inch shorter than I’d thought they would be, so
the mail shows underneath, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Then the
red surcoat went over the top of that, and it got pretty hot all of a
sudden.
My leather accessories were made by
my friend Mike, and consist of pretty much a straight copy of Boromir’s
vambraces with a belt to match. The helm was inspired by the early
Gondorian stuff at the beginning of FOTR, and is surprisingly comfortable.
I love this kit. It took a long
time, but it was worth it in the end.
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