Charlotte Sometimes

Tag: LARP

Marcher Beater – First thoughts

Sooooooo… there’s this Marcher I know at Empire who crews as an auctioneer for the civil service.

Currently he looks something like this:

I’m deeply offended by seeing his pants every time he puts his costume on.

When he’s trying to be more modest he looks like this, and so then I despair at his leather trousers and swarthy pirate look instead of his half-nakedness.

Image by Sally Bramhall

We can’t go into a third year of Empire without some modesty and some better kit. Plus he keeps whinging that he’s lost loads of weight and wants new kit that fits. Challenge accepted. Slinky full-length gambeson is about to make it to the drawing board.

‘I’d like one of those jackets that closes to one side’ he said to me while I was drawing up plans for my own gambeson. I said ‘you mean asymmetrical?’ to which he screwed up his face a little bit and vaguely nodded. I think he only nodded because he assumes I know what I’m talking about.

A few days later I came across this picture, which I thought was pretty cool.

Actually it’s this gambeson I’m interested in:

See the asymmetrical detailing? Nice isn’t it. Apparently there’s no historical provenance for this kind of cut in Europe, but I still like it. And in a fantasy game if you try hard enough you can make anything fit. Almost. As long as it’s good, right?

And then I saw this one. And I liked it too.

I like the way it’s cut low at the front and high at the back so that the archer can crouch and remain protected. That’s a nice touch. I think perhaps I’d more heavily pad the torso than the trousers – a thin skirt with dense quilting would drape beautifully on the floor. I like the studs too. And I like that this has potential to be asymmetrical. The red tunic cut is nice as well. I think the shorter cut is more Marcher, although really I’m not sure that – after some research – anything below the knee is completely on-brief. But it’s ok, the devil will be in the details.

These guys are listed as inspiration for Marches Beaters… Rangers of Gondor from Lord of The Rings.

I think we’re getting somewhere.

What about under the gambeson? You know me, I hate to do things by halves…

I think this is a pretty good look.

I could imagine a battle hero hanging out in this during the summer events while he runs the auctions. A bit less flounce on the shirt, but I love the war-weary ‘I’ve just stripped off my outer armour and left my leg armour on because I didn’t want to take my boots off’ look.

September 26, 2014
Mythlore Costume – The last post. For now.

I promise, this is absolutely the last one in the series for now. However hopefully Simon will pick another game next year that we can use to develop this costume.

Photograph © Tom Garnett

I want to thank Tom Garnett for sharing some gorgeous pictures from the event where he captured all my hard work. I want to thank Simon less for not wearing the whole thing and apparently not taking the armour I made for him out of the car. However, it was designed to work in layers of various kinds, and so I think it’s ok – as long as he wears it in the future sometime so that all my hard work becomes worth it.

Also Adam, for seeing me through a day of costume making where there were sense of humour failures, serious regret and almost even tears as I battled to get it finished on time for the event.

Photograph © Tom Garnett

I’m surprised at how light the blue of the outer robes looked in the end. They looked far more grey in my flat, but I really like how it came together.

I was particularly pleased with the tagelmust. Not anything particularly fancy, but I added a row of studs to the end of the fabric that echoed the design of the armour. Before he wears it again I plan to also trim the long edges with yellow binding so that there is a twisted effect when he wears it.

Photograph © Tom Garnett

You just have to love that striped effect around the legs, don’t you? Well I do. The back being cut into three and the high side splits really make it for me. I love the way that it flares as he walks.

I’m also really pleased that we did the whole thing out of natural fibres. I know some people really like synthetic fabrics for this kind of costume. I mean, they are an easy way to get bright colours and cool patterns. But I’m pleased that early on we decided to stick entirely to natural fibres. I much prefer working with them and I like the look of natural fibres about a thousand times more than synthetics. I know there’s a time and a place for everything, but if I’m ripping traditional middle-eastern/Arabic/Bedouin to pieces and recreating it in a fantasy style for shits and giggles, the least I can do is remain authenticish to the materials. That’s a vague attempt at some respect as well as making it look cool. (Cultural appropriation really bothers me.)

Photograph © Tom Garnett

I should add at this point that yes, I’m willing to take on commissions. However I’m not cheap. Nor will I make something completely off the peg. Please don’t send me shitty emails telling me I’m more expensive than other LRP traders or I’m not worth as much as I think I am. I don’t really care about your opinions and if you don’t like my prices you can have something from someone else. Also, I only create kit for people I like, with a brief that I can fall in love with. Try me.

After all was said and done though, this whole outfit cost about £130 in materials in total. That’s the robes, outer robes, armour and tagelmust. As well as a whole metric-fuckton of love for a friend. You can’t buy that shit.

And just two more background shots…

Photograph © Tom Garnett

Photograph © Tom Garnett

September 26, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Finished!

With a scant twenty-four hours before he’s due on the field at Mythlore I handed over the costume to Simon and it was at last gone from cluttering up my flat!

So here’s the pictures of the final stuff. Please excuse the unwilling model.

The robes were… a sticking point. I started making them up in pale grey and blue and they looked horrible. Like this… (excuse second unwilling model).

I’m not kidding. They sat pinned to my mannequin for weeks without being sewn because I just couldn’t face it. Eventually it started to become critical so Simon and I decided that a short wallow in some Antique Grey Dye was the way forward.

And hey presto, in 24 hours the magic happened and both the robes and the armour got finished and covered liberally in Fullers Earth!

I also distressed the robes as much as I could without ripping and destroying them. You’ll spy seams that have been pulled through deliberately, and I wanted to simulate a slightly clumsy wearer by stretching the front of the loose weave linen robes *after* I’d sewn the more stable cotton bias tape around them (did I mention that I made somewhere around 24m of cotton bias tape by hand for these robes? I have mentioned my pain several times to Simon). Basically I put my foot on the bottom of the robes and yanked upwards on the collar to make it stretch around the feet where he’s fallen over it.

The only bit I’m not quite happy with is the way that the back hangs. However that might be rectified in PtII – The Return of the Minoan Robes.

Would I do things differently? Sure. There were many lessons learnt, especially on the armour. However I think it all turned out more or less ok.

I’m kind of sad sending my first completed costume out into the world. I’m hoping it has fun at Mythlore this weekend and Mr Pennington doesn’t get them all slotted within thirty minutes so that they can go to the pub.

As a little added extra I wanted to show you these in a beautiful black and white. Some of you might know that I used to work full time as a product photographer and it’s really my passion when it comes to photography. Portraits and products (and a bit of architecture). I’d love to, one day, shoot products ahgain more regularly, but for clients who want something a little bit different.

September 19, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Fixing a belt

Simon and I started sorting through his leather accessories to see what we could use with the costume I was making. He pulled out one belt declaring that this would would work really well… and unfortunately it was broken.

See? Is broken.

No, I have no idea why M&S would make that bit in the buckle removable either, but apparently it fell out.

Doesn’t work very well as a belt without that middle bit.

Anyway.

The leather strap was still in good condition so I went on eBay, ordered a new 1¾” buckle for a couple of quid.

All I had to do then was unpick the stitches…

And then I used to waxed linen thread that I had for bookbinding to sew it back up again. I think you should really sew it with a double needle in order to hide the ends, but I didn’t have two needles I could use and I didn’t really care too much since otherwise Simon was going to chuck it away.

Not too shabby, eh?

August 20, 2014
Youtube and Copyright and LRP

So as well as taking photographs at PD events I also work behind the scenes. I have my fingers stuck in pretty much every area of Matt’s business that feeds images into the public domain.

Lots of people are aware that I spend time working on the wiki to remove copyrighted images and replace them with images from the game (it’s starting to look good, but we’ve got a long way to go) and this is because I feel passionately about the rights of content creators.

I have quite considerable knowledge about the way that licensing works with images, but recently I’ve been investigating how video and music also works within the copyright world. I mean, I have a basic understanding because the various types of art aren’t actually all that different, however the digital world is constantly in flux and new uses are developing for media every day.

My latest challenge has been to understand the way that YouTube deals with copyrighted material and it’s been a challenge. I had a basic grasp on how it works but this morning I came across this TED talk by Margaret Gould Stewart, the head of user experience at YouTube. She explains what they do very well.

I like the way she talks about a creative ecosystem. It’s an feeling I’d like to help foster at PD, allowing creatives to all work together as seamlessly as possible.

I’d also like to say that I don’t believe that ripping big international content creators off (like the big Hollywood studios or famous composers) is any more ethical than ripping off the lone artist. If we’re going to be fair to one person, we need to be fair to everybody in the course of business. I suppose I have an advantage here because I see things in a very black and white way. You either apply the rules rigorously, or you don’t. You don’t make exceptions based on who has made the most money in our capitalist system.

August 11, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Kimono Fail

So I got started on the kimono that’s going to go under the yellow robes as a base layer. I dug out a nice khaki muslin fabric from the stash and worked out that I had more than enough. I followed these instructions, or so I thought, and was feeling dead pleased with the finish on it. Below you can see how it’ll look under the yellow robes – notice the matching stitching?

However what I actually managed to do was use his half chest measurement rather than his shoulder to shoulder measurement, resulting in a garment that fit my mannequin rather than his mannequin – as you can see above. Fail. At least I have enough fabric to cut another.

What have we learnt from this little problem? Well, it wasn’t the only problem. Earlier this morning I cut a set of sleeves that were wrong too. We’ve learnt that four days post surgery is too soon to be trusted to draft patterns and make garments.

August 5, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Still to go
So there’s like… five weeks until Mythlore and it starts to become a race to see how much I can get done. Unfortunately work, LRP and surgery keep getting in the way of working on the costume parts so progress has been slow.

However, if I could complete everything I wanted to complete, I’d have these elements:
- Kote Sleeves
  Inspired by Japanese Samurai Armour. With hand embroidery and beading.
- The Outer Robes.
  With a fantasy touch.
- The Battle Skirt.
  Half finished.
- The Oberyn Coat.
  With hand printed and distressed fabric.
- The Tagelmust.
  A trip to Coventry to pick up six yards of beautiful blue muslin fabric and then tassel the ends.
- The Gauntlets.
  More Japanese inspired armour.
- The under-under-robe.
  If I can find a source of cheap, blue, thin cotton in time.
- Accessories.
  Because layers.
- Jewellery.
  Because more layers.
August 5, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Base Layer Robes – Part II

So here we go!

The robes are almost finished. They just need hemming but I can’t do that without Simon being here to put them on. Hopefully we’ll do it this weekend and he can wear them at Odyssey to start wearing them in on a dusty field.

Here’s a shot with the armour pinned over the top to start to see what it looks like as an outfit.

And some detail shots. I’m considering adding much more elaborate work around the shoulders and the (three meter!) hem, but that can be added if I have enough time.

July 30, 2014
Staying cool – coolthentic braies

So… this Empire just gone was way too hot. So I started a thread on Costume Froth to find out how people had dealt with it themselves. I wasn’t sure if it was a bit weird or not to basically wander around in medieval pants, but apparently that’s all right and we’re a free and easy community of role-players, so I figured that was the best thing to do.

I currently have a giant spool of cream thread loaded in my sewing machine so I’m going through projects that require cream thread to finish them off. While tidying stuff away I came cross a pair of trousers I’d made up to test out a pattern for some trousers for Simon. They were too tight for his fat ass, but I tried them on and they’re alright for me. So I cut them off at the knee, hemmed them, and now I have something approaching IC pants for future hot events (and for wearing under my Odyssey robes).

Yeah, so they’ve got pockets. And black tape in the waistband instead of matching cream tape (which I might fix at some point). But they’re good to go. At some point I might put a draw string in the hems, but right now I’ve got a project done and out of my sewing box and into my wardrobe.

The pattern is Simplicity 3633, which is actually for hospital scrubs. But they’re simple and they work. (Also as usual, french seamed throughout, no raw edges for toughness in the field.)

July 29, 2014
Mythlore Costume – Base Layer Robes

I’m taking a break here half way through the set of base layer robes, because I want to revel in the neat and tidy seams – you’ll see later. 😉

But here’s the process so far. I decided to dye my own fabric for various reasons. Mostly that I’m not going to get up to Coventry to go shopping any time soon, but also because the muslin I liked was very narrow and I wanted to be lazy with my cutting and seaming in order to make it nice and neat inside.

So above you can see the white Ikea Ditte cotton fabric in the dye bath. I had to go on eBay to find the colour that I want, since Dylon have reduced their range considerably. Old Gold is the name of the colour, and I have another ten pots of it since I managed to find someone selling off old boxes of shop stock. When I say old… these aren’t even in the plastic pots that I remember as a kid. They’re in little metal pots that try their best to cut your fingers off. Anyway.

I decided to cold water dye it. Well, warm water dye. Partially because my shower is the safest place in the house to do these things – I didn’t really want dye in my little kitchen, I don’t have an outdoors area, and I didn’t particularly want to use my washing machine to dye. But also because if you’re “careful” you can get a streaky, mottled effect. OH GOD IT’S WONDERFUL. This fabric looks like it’s come right out of the end of the dye bath – perfect for someone cursed who can’t afford better. The only annoyance is that where the fabric is damaged from being stored on the fold line, it’s taken up more dye at that point. Nothing I can really do about that except buy wholesale on unfolded bolts – but that’s not going to happen. It doesn’t bother me too much.

So here’s the fabric as it was drying.

The robes are basically the same pattern as my own Odyssey robes, but modified to be bigger (because Simon is bigger than me – however only really in height terms, not in chest or hip terms) but also to have a Kimonoish style front. If you recall, this was the look we’re going for:

So I got to cutting the pattern out. I didn’t photograph the front, but I had to cut it in two pieces. The main body/arm and the gore. If I had more fabric I wouldn’t have done that, but I had to in order to squeeze it on. No problem.

Here’s the back piece, to be cut on the fold. The sleeves are short. I quite like them short. I think we’re going to add a piece to make them longer, maybe in blue. Mostly I just wanted to be able to curve the poxy underarm seam.

And here it is with the side seams sewn together.

It looks insanely yellow in that shot courtesy of my iPhone. It’s not. It’s more creamy, almost like a mustard.

The entire robe is french seamed throughout. I like making things super neat and tidy inside and mathematically working out the best way to do that.

Here’s the outside of one of the gores:

And the inside, where you can see the construction…

I’m pretty pleased with myself. Terrible pictures though.

July 29, 2014