Gondorian Ranger-ess

Gondorian Ranger

well ... sort of

Since there are so many layers and accesories to this costume, this page is organized a bit differently. Pictures should be under their specific topic; general pics of the entire outfit might get their own page someday.

First off, I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the following sites. They've been amazingly helpful in the rearch and other aspects of this project.

AlleyCatScratch
Gondorian Ranger Research
Shieldmaiden Corest Insructions

Summer 2007

Not sure when I should put a start date on this project ... let's call it Summer 07. There we go. Oh, inspiration for this project actually started with the Flogging Molly black wrap skirt. That, and over the winter (i think) there was a discussion on LotR_Costume Group @ yahoo.com about a Ranger-ish costume - a mixture of Eowyn and the Gondorian Rangers. Those things combined, and this is what hit me, though delayed. ;)

So, this project is my interpertation of what a female Gondorian Ranger (if there were such a thing - I'm sort of working on a backstory) would look like.

9.26.07
So ... on with the details!

The Basics (not clothing)
Bow
A big part of this costume is the bow and arrows (a sword could be good, but it's defintely way out of budget to even consider it right now). I've always wanted to get into archery, so as a bitrhday present to me, I bought an English Longbow from woodbows.com. It's wonderful, though i'm still trying to figure out how to use it (hard to do when i'm shooting arrows into a hill).

Arrows
Anyway, I attempted making arrows using the tutorial HERE, and I think for a first try they came out pretty good. I've only made two, since I am out of feathers. I looked at lots of pics of the Rangers and found 2 styles of feathers - I've tried to make both of them. The first one is pretty horrible though. Also, I'm not going to tip the arrows that I'll be carrying around ... it's a lot of work for them not to be seen, having the foam crush, and get the tips looking nice. Once I find good feathers to use, I will make at least 6 good arrows.

Quiver
Where do I even start? Definitely one of the ... most time consuming projects I've done ... but I'm pretty sure thats because of all the drying time. I'm not used to that. Anyway, I sort of winged it based on a vague explaination of how to make one. It started out as cardboard, rolled and then taped with masking tape to help make it sturdier. After that, I glued my suede fabric on it, and after lots of drying and regluing, the fabric stayed on and I turned the edges over. Then I put some of the same fabric on the top half of the inside, so it sort of looks like the whole thing is made of leather. Then I put a couple coats of watered down Tacky Fabric glue, which once it dried gave the fabric a good leather look. And it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. THEN I added the leather edging (sewed it on the machine first, and then hot glued it to the quiver). And I just put the last coat of glue all over the quiver, so yay! no more glue!
There is also a sock that is in the quiver - it's supposed to protect the arrows from bad weather. So I made that too. Was easy - it's bascially a tube - and I put a little hot glue at the bottom of that so it's attached to the bottom of the quiver. I poked some holes at the top of the arrow sock so if there is bad weather, I'll be able to pull it shut and keep the arrows dry. Well, in theory, anyway.
The quiver strap was a belt from WalMart - I cut it and poked holes in it where I wanted it to connect to the quiver, and sewed the both of them together (was diffucult!). But I think it looks alright.

Clothing
Skirt
Yeah, I never thought I would get here! As you can see, I've already completed the skirt, formerly the skirt in Flogging Molly. I added silver trim all around it, cause the devil is in the details! that, and I thought the skirt could use something more. There will be matching embroidery around the collar and sleeves of the shirt. I think part of the inspiration for the whole idea and how it started with the skirt was that it is a wrap skirt, which makes life easier when one is escaping or riding a horse or fighting in battles. Yeah, it's silly, but here I am.

Shirt
It's going to be kind of like Legolas' blue shirt .. I like the idea of that high collar, and the long sleeves with a slight bell to them.
I'm so lucky to have a dressform, it definitely made this whole "let's just do this without a pattern" thing a LOT easier. So, for the shirt I just kind of thought about the whole thing, and then started to sew. I did do a mock-up for the collar, since I didnt really know what I was doing. The shirt doens't button down the front like I had originally planned, but that's ok. It slips over the head, and has silver emb. all over it. Not sure exactly what it is, it's like a blanket stitch gone triangle. I like the sleeves though :) even if they're a tad too long. The whole thing didn't take me too long, about half a day.

Jerkin
Basically a long sleeveless vest ... the bottom "skirt" part is going to be made of 4 panels ... so it will be open at front, sides and back. The top part is going to have a shallow V neck, and I'm not quite sure if I am going to sew quilted sleeves directly onto the jerkin, or if I'll make quilted detatchable sleeves. Anyway, by some odd stroke of fate I found fabric (it's even a cotton twill!) at JoAnn's that almost matches my green cloak! ... I bought just one packet of Rit Dark Green Dye ... I think I am going to try and make this a darker shade.
Well, I think it turned out pretty much the same. I used the buttons for this (the ones that I was going to use on the black shirt). It's a tad tight on me, cause I didnt measure very well and I usually leave an inch or two to make it bigger, but I didnt. The jerkin also kind of looks funny when it's worn by itself ... where the panels meet the vest, well they just don't lay right. And I didn't end up adding the sleeves cause I didn't have time to make them. And, I'm pretty sure I ran out of fabric. ;) I still have that packet of RIT Dye, and havent overdyed this, though I fully intend on it.
Oh, bonus points for me - while working on this part of the project, I definitely figured out how to use the button holer on my machine! so YAY - I didn't have to hand sew the button holes!
*oops - I thought I had pics of just this. Apparently I don't, and the next time I get this outfit out, I will correct the situation. below are pics of the jerkin over the skirt & skirt, but under the corset/breastplate.

Tabard
I'm making up these "names" for pieces of clothing as I go along. Actually not really .. they all just sound strange to me. Anyway, at the beginning of the summer I bought some dark brown microsuede, because I didnt feel I was ready to work with leather. That, and leather + supplies + tools = VERY expensive. Especially for someone who is just getting into leather working. Besides, I'm sure there will be other opportunities for me to work with leather ;) So, tabard ... my idea so far ... a deeper v neck (so other layers are visible), with side lacing, and it will end a little below my knees in a slight point. I think.
Nothing really changed from my origninal idea, except that I need cord to lace it up other than the thing white ribbon that I'm using now. It's also lined the with the micro-suede, and interlined with red canvas.
Again, no pics of the tabard by itself, but I will fix this, at some point.

Corset / Breastplate
It's really not either of those things, and it's done! Yay - cause this was another of the labor intensive parts to the costume. Mainly because of the Tree of Gondor - which is embroidered by yours truly. I did it on a separate piece of cloth (could have been a disaster - but it was prevented by the wonderful wonderful people on LotR_Costume) and then cut it out, and attached it on to the front part of the corslet (maybe that would better describe this?). The pattern I used was the wonderful pattern for Eowyn's Shieldmaiden Corset (can be found HERE). The front piece has 3 layers of canvas, the back pieces have 2 layers. There is also boning at the front, sides and at the lacing in the back. Aside from the back, I dont think the boning is doing much good - I salvaged it from an old corset, and it's only 1/4" thick. There are 11 eyelets on each side at the back, metal eyelets but they weren't staying in so I had to re-enforce them with brown thread. The edges are bound in the same fabric, and is it lined with the suede, making this almost completely reversible, if I choose to cover up some of the more prominent seams.

Cloak
Almost forgot about this one! Luckily, it's all done. Or done enough - when I made it a couple of years ago, I managed to slightly mess up a couple parts of it, and I would like to re-do the hood - it's rather pointy. And it would be nice to make a "real" closure, the one that's on there now was sort of thrown on it.
This was an easy part. I re-set the hood in, so there wasn't that awkward pleat at the back. I also added a closure similar to the Rangers (and managed to use some really old leather cord that was falling apart - braided it all together! gave it a nice lived in look.) Oh, I also had to cut some of the back seam apart, so I could slip my quiver strap through the cloak, making it A LOT more comfortable to wear. The seam is pretty much invisible though, so it's all good.

Other Accesories
Boots: I stilll need a good pair. Once I get the money (or my birthday rolls around) hopefully I'll be able to get a nice pair.

Vambraces: I started to make a pair, but I didn't get them done in time for the faire. They had a good start - I made them they same way I made the quiver.I even machine stitched the Ranger Design onto them. Perhaps a good couple layers of glue will fix this.

Mask: I have green wool - so I was thinking about knitting a mask since some of the Rangers are seen wearing them. Maybe they wore them for the cold or to hide their identity or some other reason. ;)

Gloves: would be good too - but low low low on the priority list (but my microsuede is oh-so-warm!).