~ Elven Ranger, Fall 2008 ~

One of my favorite things to look at is tutorials on how people put their costumes together, because it's helpful when I'm trying to do something similar and need some advice. I am also immensely proud of this costume, something that doesn't really happen a whole lot to the many projects I have going... :)

All Hallows Eve (or Halloween in more common terms) is my most favorite holiday of the year, but usually I don't do anything special for it. For some reason (probably because I had a friend who was real gung-ho about it), I decided to go all out in 2008. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to be, but I finally settled on this elven ranger-type character, which had sufficient weapons and pointed ears to satisfy me.

If you couldn't tell, those pictures aren't from Halloween. All the pictures from Halloween turned out... not nearly as well. They were blurry, or I slouched, or they just didn't look good. Stuff like that (although a few turned out well for the construction, which will be later down). Why these, then? Well the spring semester afterwards (2009), I was in an advanced commercial photography class. The final project was to include a self portrait, which could be professional, casual, creative, etc. As long as we took it ourself, using a long cable for the shutter release. Needless to say, I thought it would be cool to do something like this, so I pulled all my costume pieces out and made them better. I'll tell you more detail about that when I'm actually describing costume construction.

I did end up taking more than one kind of picture. You can find the professional picture on my resume page. If you were wondering how I triggered the shutter release, when it looks like both my hands are occupied... I stepped on it. That was the most common thing among the class, to step or kneel on it.

The last picture of the trio is photoshoped, but for a good reason. We were having all sorts of fun taking these pictures in the studio, and at some point we realized that we had a lens flare. A real, honest-to-goodness lens flare (I don't think I'd ever seen one before that wasn't done in Photoshop). We rearranged the lights a little to get rid of it, but not before taking advantage of it. If you want to see a side by side comparison and hear a bit about what I did, go here.

The studio pictures were taken using a Phase 1 back and a Hasselblad lens. They are a little bit older (for cameras), so any noise in the shadows are a result of the camera itself, not because of the file size or type. The background was a crinkly type of black fabric, which shows a little bit in the pictures.

Enough of the pictures, here's the breakdown for clothing. Unforunately, I don't have a whole lot of pictures for the process of putting this stuff together. I just kept forgetting.

Cuirass - This, really, is the best and most important part of the costume. If it weren't for the cuirass, this whole thing would have taken much less time to make. A cuirass is, by Merriam-Webster dictionary, "a piece of armor covering the body from neck to waist; also: the breastplate of such a piece." Ok, so mine doesn't go all the way to the neck, but it's pretty much a breastplate.

I used McCall's pattern M4107 (pictured below), which is a corset pattern. However, I changed some things... the original length on the pattern had the bottom edge of the corset ending somewhere above my belly button. It was just not comfortable, so I lengthened it to go down to the top of my hips. With the style and the length, it's very similar to that of a Victorian corset. Because I lengthened it, I had to do some other modifications - it needed a bit of shaping in the back seams because the original pattern wasn't ever meant to fit to the curve of my back. I inserted darts there, which worked perfectly because it was also a little large. The picture below on the right is just after I've sewn one side.

   

Now, here is the problem with the typical corset patterns of today: plastic boning. Plastic boning is what most people use, unless you're real gung-ho about being authentic, and at that point you go spend the money on steel boning. But even steel boning is supposed to form to your body to a certain extent. Unfortunately, plastic boning takes that a little too far and bends in all the wrong places. After this foray with plastic boning, I will never use it again. It was extremely uncomfortable.

Ok, here's the reason behind that little rant. When I knew I was going to be taking the self portrait of this costume, I pulled the corset back out of the closet and brainstormed how I could make it work better. I did consider steel boning, but I didn't think it would fit in the channels and I know that the bones take some different techniques for things. In the end, I took a trip to Home Depot (I love that store) and got some of those warning signs - the ones that say Beware of Dog! and For Sale By Owner, etc. In other words, thin flexible sheet aluminum. I also picked up some tin snips, and I cut the signs in the shape of the panels on the cuirass. The bottom seam was already open from when I took out the plastic boning, so I just slid the aluminum panels in. It worked like a charm, and it was SO much more comfortable! The cuirass also held its intended shape instead of folding over my curves strangely.

Shirt

Wrap Pants - I used some handy guides that I found on LiveJournal and Wordpress/Etsy. Thanks guys!

The concept of wrap pants is to basically take two yards of fabric, fold it in half, cut out the crotch (I used a pair of shorts for a guide), hem everything, and sew ribbon or straps on the corners. Viola! Pants! These things are so comfy. The only problem is that the sides are open all the way up your leg. For this costume, I wore them over some bicycling shorts and tied the legs into knots, tucking the knots into the top of my boots.

Jerkin - Lastly, the jerkin was worn between my cuirass and shirt. It was (theoretically) the easiest; I didn't even use a pattern. I used a shirt for a rough size template, basically cutting a rectangle with a hole for my head. I put in grommits up the sides so I could lace it up. It was made of the same faux-suede stuff that I also used for the cuirass.

Enough of the pictures, here's the costume breakdown:

Arm Vambraces - made from the same fabric I used for the outside of the cuirass. Just took a rectangle of fabric, folded it in half, and sewed up the side. Then I spent a little bit of time tweaking them so they fit a bit more snugly. They never did end up looking like a proper vambrace, because they kept bunching up on themselves.

Belt Pouch - This was something I sort of had lying around. I made it a couple years ago because I got tired of carrying my diabetic stuff around with me everywhere in a purse. It hangs down a little lower from the belt than a regular belt pouch, which practically sits ON your belt and feels funny. This wasn't intended as part of the costume, but when I started putting everything on, I realized I would be going to the bathroom and digging my insulin pump out from the bottom layer every time I had something to eat. So I dug this up from wherever I had it and used that.

Hair - I almost always do my own hair; nobody can usually get it done to my satisfaction. The whole reason why this "character" is a ranger instead of a warrior-type is because of the hair. Simply put, a warrior would have very little, or none at all. Or, if they had my length, it would all be up and underneath a helmet. I went for something that showed off the length and looked Elvish. The top 1/3 or so is pulled back and braided. The strands next to my ears are loosely braided, or just held with tiny rubber bands - it helps cover up the seam from my elf ears.

Makeup - I always kind of figured that elves either didn't wear makeup, or didn't wear a whole lot of it. Which fits, because neither do I. Most of my makeup at this point is Mary Kay, because of a mixup with my luggage in January. So I had on mineral powder foundation, black eyeliner, and eyeshadow in earth tones.

Necklaces - I did some agonizing over what would be a proper "Elven" necklace to wear. I finally ended up making a Lothlorien leaf and putting it on a leather cord. It is made out of white Sculpey (or something similar) and painted with green and silver acrylic paint. The loop is made from the wire that is part of the pendent. It's a delicate thing that didn't really last through one night's use and started to crack in half around where the wire pokes into the clay. Oh well. The other necklace is a snowflake pendant that I bought at Michael's put onto a several-strand leather corded necklace.

Tattoo - Originally, this was the tattoo from the Tainted Fairy Makeup Kit from the Spirit Halloween Store. I liked the design, but it wasn't really a temporary tattoo - it itched like mad, and flaked off, pulling my little face hairs. Ow! So the second time around, I pulled some of the pictures I'd gotten into Photoshop and drew the design, then printed it out on this special tattoo paper. I also got smart and shaved my forehead, and things went without a hitch. :)

Sword (Katana) - Purchased item, sort of - it was a Christmas present from my boyfriend a couple years ago. Apparently it's legal to carry a sword on the streets (peace-tied) as long as it's not concealed, but I wasn't terribly comfortable with that. The difficult part is that this one is actually decently well made; it's a full tang (the part underneath the hilt), and the end of the tang is threaded, with a nut to hold on the handle and hilt. I couldn't just take the blade out and stick the hilt in the scabbard. So I went and browsed Home Depot, finding some 36" threaded screw rods. I cut two of them down to size, bent them in the same curve as the blade, and that worked moderately well.

Boots - purchased at Museum Replicas in black. I put in a pair of custom-made soles because what was there already wasn't suffient to keep my feet from hurting when I worm them. I also bought knee-high trouser socks from Walmart, but when it's chilly out, I wear them with a pair of thicker alpaca socks that are a little taller than normal crew socks.

Belt - purchased at Medieval Ware. I like the concept, but it needs a little work. Hanging a sword straight up and down usually means it tends to get all tangled up in your legs. I believe I will make a few modifications on mine for future use - it needs a real frog (sword carrier) that will have the sword hang at an angle.

Ears - purchased at Ardani Studios. I got the small ears, and a small bottle of spirit gum. Ardani is awesome in that when it comes to painting ears. You tell them a general skin tone at checkout, then email them a picture of your ear, and they do their best (which is pretty good) to match it more exactly. They are so comfortable when applied correctly that I forgot I was wearing them after shooting in the studio. I got some strange looks, and the ladies in the cafeteria were asking me questions, hehe.

Ear Cuffs - In the studio pictures, the ones I wore were purchased at Ardani Studios. Before my luggage was lost, I had one with feathers that dangled, which was a gift. These were worn to help hide the seams of the elven ears.

Oh yes. It was All Hallows Eve... we carved pumpkins. :)