I made the mantle/gorget piece of the Ithilien ranger costume. You can see it here: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Human/Gondor/Ranger/Ranger2Parade_Syt.jpg
And again here, in brown: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Human/Gondor/Ranger/Ranger_AFront_8354_GLeaf.jpg
I decided to make it out of the suede/leather-look fabric I used for my most recent cloak, and to make it out of an old sheet first to make sure it fit. I’m so glad! I ended up making…five or six versions before I was happy with it. The final piece looked like this:
I saved this picture – http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Human/Gondor/Ranger/Ranger-gorget-flat.jpg - cropped it in half in Paint Shop Pro, and printed it as big as I could. I cut it out and used it as my first pattern piece (on the fold of the fabric). Version 1. Over the course of my mockups, I made it bigger and changed the shape some, especially at the neck so that the fabric wouldn’t bunch there.
I bound the edges with wide bias tape, added nine eyelets on each side of the front (my reference site guessed there are eleven on each side of the movie version, but mine wasn’t big enough to make that practical), and laced it. The finished product:
Without flash -
With flash -
You can see my skirt pattern beneath it. About that skirt…I need to work on it. I still have a couple of pattern pieces to cut out, aside from the ones I lost. I have a vest to do, and probably another vest, and my brown microsuede is begging to be made into a ranger jerkin. I just need lining for those. I might have some fabric I can use. The other items I want to make are waiting for fabric to be purchased for them.
Except for Susan’s farewell overdress, which has fabric but no pattern. I’m waiting for McCall’s to go on sale. The fabric I bought is blue and beige, but other than that, doesn’t have much in common with the fabric used for the movie dress. But I got six yards for five dollars, and I think it will look nice anyway.
Speaking of overdresses, I finished the one I was making, but I have yet to get pictures.
God bless!
- Manwariel
Since I don’t have fabric for any of these projects right now (except some of the items I’ve comitted to making), it could be a while.
