Kíli Project - Boot covers and jacket

This is a long one and it's got a lot of pictures! But, first off, a tiny update on the boot covers: This is how they looked after I finished them:

  

Moving on, I started from scratch again with regards to Kili's jacket because the split leather was simply too thick and the suede finish just didn't work, so instead I found two pairs of leather trousers in a second hand shop and got them for a very decent price. They were so fabulously 80's - early 90's that I had to take a photo of at least one of them:

What's more, one of them had a little colourful surprise:

If this is not the worlds ugliest lining, then I don't know ...


















I took the trousers apart, splitting each into four pieces, which I then shuffled about and stitched back together again to make the basis of the jacket. Once that was done, I needed to finish the trim to be able to continue, so I picked up where I left it last time and started to add the blue material to the edges:
















 I realized quickly that it wouldn't look very good if I simply stitched it on, either by hand or machine, so, instead, I did a second layer of the golden zig-zag seam, only a tiny bit wider so as to fasten the blue material along with it.

Once that bit was done, I hand stitched the material to the backside so that it would look all nice and neat with no visible seams on the front.

When that was done, I started the work of fitting it onto the base of the jacket:












Having carefully pinned it to the leather, I proceeded to stitch it on by hand, and I tell you, this is a job where a thimble, a pair of hobby tongs and a lot of patience is needed!


As you can see on this photo, I decided to attach it so that the trim was sticking a bit outside the leather. This was simply because I hadn't had enough leather to get the exact width I needed, and this added the missing inch.














Because I know it's something Kili cosplayers have been discussing, I thought I'd address the matter of the trim vs. neckline issue by showing how I approached it. I went for the solution of folding the trim in on itself to make the corners, and I feel like it turned out quite nice.




Once the trim was done, there was only the matter of the gambeson sleeves left. From my research, I had found that these were only partially attached, with gaps under the arms for greater flexibility. I'd trimmed the armholes of the jacket basis with plain, black cotton trimming before I started attaching the sleeves.






 Again, thimble, tongs and patience were my friends, but I'd still say this costume is taking it's fair share of blood, sweat and tears. ;)

That's all for now! Next post, I'll be showing you how I made Kili's belt and pictures from the hair test with what was finished of the costume at that point! :)

Kíli Project - Tunic 0.2

Finally getting back into this project,  I've started remaking the blue tunic, this time in linen, which is far more satisfying than the dreadful cotton.

Having measured up and cut out the pieces for the front and back, , however, I realised there probably won't be enough fabric for me to do both rhe sleeves and the hood, so today will take me on yet another trip to the fabric shop. :p

This is how much I managed to do before running out of material, though:

Having learned a few lessons from the last attempt, I'm using three layers of material for the front piece, plus a fourth layer for the gambeson pieces at the shoulders. This will pad the whole thing up and give it the rigidity around the shoulders seen in this photo. It also makes sense to pad the chest area with you several layers of linen as this would serve as extra armour and protection against weapon penetration.

Also, having studied the video blog material on my precious Blue-Ray of The Hobbit, I finally found some shots of the back of the tunic, allowing me some further insight into how it's been constructed. As I'm loathe to post images on my blog that I do not have the rights to, I'll post the sketch I made from the still instead, which illustrates the extra layer on the shoulder area on the back piece:

It now looks like this:

Front piece stitched together (I know, the gambeson piece is far too small, but I cant be bothered redoing it again):

 

I will return to you with more updates once I have grabbed some more material and made further progress! :)

Kíli Project - Under Coat

So, having made what I'd like to call a "first draft" of the blue tunic (I'll be doing a new one once I get hold of the right material, which I suspect to be linen, or wors, natural silk), I can start my work on the next layer; the under coat, or actually, as it turns out a leather vest with gambeson sleeves. Having done some research, and stumbling across this awesome blogpost describing both the making of a medieval gambeson and testing it gor it's usefulness in battle, I've decided to go for the layered method for the sleeves. However, I'll be using cotton rather than linen due to my budget. For the leather, I will use some more of the suede hides I got for a bargain price. I'm still not certain what to do with regards to the trims, but I suspect I'll be buying some wide velvet trims and simply sew the dwarven pattern on myself (just need to get thread with the right yellow/gold hue).

Here's what I've got so far:

Gambeson sleeves:

I first cut out five layers of material, then aligned them all, stitching the top and bottom together. Turning them inside out, I ironed them so that the hems were all nice and neat. From there I started the work of sketching up the seams:

 After the sketching job was done, I pinned all the layers in place:

Here's the result:

And when the last edges were sewn together, this is how it looks:

A it turnes out, these may be a little too tight and a little too short, so I'll probably have to redo them, which is why I didn't add the last vertical seams as seen on the original. However, this was a useful test run and I've learned a lot (and broken a lot of machine needles). From here, I will be moving on to the trimming and the leather.