Construction Details:

For this costume I taught myself how to work with leather, how to chainmail and how to work with Worbla.

The helmet started off an army helmet from a halloween store (via a suggestion from Miss Katcakes). I cut off the flipped edges and sanded them down. I then patterned the pieces of the helmet out of foamies and then used Worbla to sandwich the pieces together. After doing so, I glued them onto the helmet using cement glue, hotglue and the adhesive on the worbla, then coated the whole thing in wood glue. Sanded, primed and painted. (There is construction pictures of my gradual painting process) The leather flaps are made from leather as are the diamonds, however, they were made using lambskin that was pre-dyed. So I could not boil the diamonds. I plan on adding glue to them later to make them harder. There is a piece of wire on the inside of the flap to help keep its shape. The flap is attached via the safty system on the inside of the army helmet.

All armor minus the waist syncher and the shin and arm guards are boiled and painted veggie tan leather. All armor pieces are attached using suede lacing. The breastplate was as decorated on top using a bevel and all buttons and attaching details are wooden. The waist syncher was not boiled so that it could be laced in the back and pulled tight. It had a layer of leather riveted to the front by hand. It was also dirtied and ruffed up using sandpaper and acrylic paint. At the bottom the skirt pieces were added. They were made of lamb and riveted on. This is also were I attached her metal disks. The belt was bought for now and there was a sheath made of of leather and wrapped in muslin that was painted and distressed and attached using twine.

The chainmail is about 500 links in and I'm still working on making it more film accurate. The necklace is made from sculpey and made to look kinda like a cat from what I could tell of the screenshots I took.(I read later that the books explain that at one point she is made to kill her cat, so that would make sense in a way. She wears it with everything in the film. Probably a token to remember her pet by)

The duster is made of linen and not finished so that it give it a more worn look. The shin and waist guards are made with worbla with lambskin straps attached. The paints were made from a wool blend and were made like britches and lace up in the front.

**I am still working on the arrows, bow and sword. Not to mention I hope to replace the undershirt with a fine chainmail shirt once I am done with the chainmail cowl.

Personal Thoughts:

Another one of my dream costumes. What better year to make it than its 25th birthday year!

Styling Notes

I trimmed the lacing and styled her hair up like it is in the movie. A top knot of hair, braid and ponytail in the back. I had to move and pin the hair around a bit to make it look like a ponytail in the back since its not a ponytail wig.

Wig Review

I love lacefronts at Arda. If I adjust them tight enough and cut close to the hairline I don't even have to wear lacefront tape or glue!

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!