So my son wanted to be a marauder/mercenary/buccaneer (not a pirate…apparently).
What he wanted for his costume:
- Leather jacket
- Spauldrons (shoulder armor)
- New pants
- A hood that was separate from the jacket
- Arm greaves
- Back carry belt for a sword
Leather Jacket
The main thing he wanted was a leather jacket with the arm spauldrons. I purchased a Burda pattern and had to get to half sides of garment leather from Tandy. I was hoping I could get it done with one, but couldn’t get everything out of one side. It was about 1.5 sides of garment leather. The inside lining is a satin from one of my fabric patterns. I didn’t add the outside pockets, but did add an inside pocket for his phone. With the spauldron strap it was too hard to get his phone out, so he used an old pouch from his Assassin’s Creed cosplay to put it in that instead. He did use the inside pocket for his wallet, so it worked well since we paid for pretty much everything.
Spauldrons
The spauldrons was a pattern from Dark Horse Workshop. I didn’t have enough time to do a really detailed design on them like the pattern, so I did the design on the top one and then used a leather stamp I had for the rest. I had to figure out the leather strappings to keep it on him, though. I used the one for under the arm and then I did a strap across his chest. I didn’t have a great way to connect them to the jacket, so made my own strappings. I only got one side done in time, so here is the other one I got done over the next few weeks. I tried to dye them all darker, but the leather that I had to wet for the patterns didn’t want to get darker.
Pleather Pants
The pants were a pattern I made before and just made a little bit bigger. They were pretty tight last time, so I added width all around. I added too much width and not enough height. The fabric is the Perfection Fused Leather I purchased from Amazon. Plot twist: It’s not leather, it’s pleather. I knew that when I purchased it and it is a good use for clothes since it is on a knit base and has a bit of stretch to it. I’m sure it doesn’t breathe the best, but it will look like he has an all leather outfit.
He didn’t come in until the night before the Ren Fest, so I had to add elastic to the back of his waistband. They would have fallen off of him otherwise. Afterwards I took off the waistband, reduced the width on the sides and back, and then added a new waistband with added height.
I’m trying to reduce what I have to do before next year’s fest.
Linen Shirt
It was going to be a low 70’s kind of day, so I decided to make him a sleeveless linen shirt to go underneath his jacket. This was a pretty loosey-goosey pattern. It has a little stretch to it, but still made it wide and long enough to pull over his head. I need to add some lacing to the front split yet.
Arm Bracers
These are not very “armor-like” since they are made of soft leather, but they look cool! A few years back I ordered a metal mesh from Etsy that I used to simulate armor, so I used most of what remained to add them into the bracers.
I cut out a thicker cowhide for the outside and the inside is a soft lambskin. I tried not to stitch too much, so I used a lot of the double-sided tape and rivets. Again, I used grommets to lace them up.
I forgot that I had purchased a bunch of grommets from Joann’s for the prom dress that did not get made yet. That was a great find, since I needed them for the arm bracers for both costumes.
For next time…
I really want to work on them more than 2 weeks before the event, so maybe I will actually make some plans. At least I got the pants altered and finished the spauldron pair.
I also need to make a few more things.
- He wants a hood, so I will make a hood out of wool and line it. I may add some buttons and a loop underneath the leather collar of his jacket to make sure it doesn’t move too much.
- Make a leather vest he can wear instead of a jacket on warmer days.
- Back-carry harness for a sword.
