Basic Fantasy Costume Patterns

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#1

A T Tunic - the easiest piece of garb you’ll ever make…

Probably the most simple piece of costume you can make is a T tunic. If you can operate a sewing machine, you can make one in ten minutes.

Materials needed:

  • 1.8+ meters of fabric 0.9m+ wide - cotton drill is fine and generally the heavier the fabric the better it will look. Avoid thermal backed material used for curtains as they don’t drape very well and you’ll over heat. Avoid stretchy/knit fabric. This looks good at least mid thigh length, with a belt around the waist. Sturdy green or brown fabric look good.
  • matching thread

Tools needed:

  • scissors
  • pins
  • sewing machine

Fold the fabric in half so that the fold represents a line across the top of your shoulders. Use a baggy T shirt to help you size the pattern.

  1. Cut out a hole you can get your head through. Hem the hole.

  2. Fold the fabric in half so that the hole is slightly more on one side than the other (typically the neck opening is higher at the back than the front).

  3. Cut around T shirt, leave about an extra 4-5cm around the outside and make it long enough to come mid thigh.

  4. Pin and sew about 1cm in from the edge.

  5. Hem the bottom edge

  6. Zig zag over all the edges to stop it fraying.

Note: this is a very simple pattern that will work for baggy clothing only. If you want to do fitted clothing, you will need to do proper arms seams and probably, back and several side seams.

This is ideal as a first piece of costume and can be work with black jeans as it should conceal the pockets and make them look like earlier leggings of some sort.

TIP: If you and a friend get an army surplus blanket each, you can probably make a tunic, leg wraps and a hood each. If you get a brown blanket and a green blanket you can have both have leg wraps and hoods that contrast with your tunic. See below for information on leg wraps and hoods.

Costumes - For complete noobs
Plastic shield bosses
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Plastic shield bosses
#2

Leg wraps - for hiding modern footwear and trousers.

There is little you can do to hide a white modern sneaker aside from wearing clothing long enough to conceal them. Darker colours are less obvious and easier. Using offcuts from your new T tunic, create two long strips of fabric about 5cm wide. Starting under the arch of your shoe, wrap them around the shoe, shin and calf of the leg.

Looks very Viking!

#3

A basic buckler or round shield

One of the most popular type of shield throughout the classical and early medieval period was the round shield. In particular the round shield with a boss and central handle. These shields are ideal for larp for a number of reasons: they’re very maneuverable, they’re ideal for foot combat, they suit combat where the power of the blow is light and they’re easy to put down and pick up.

Using corrugated cardboard or corflute (corrugated plastic) Cut a stack of round circles so you’ll have enough to make a shield about 12-15mm thick.

Glue all the layers together in a way that any ugly printing is on the inside. For corfluet (plastic) use someting like ADOS F2 - for cardboard use PVA. You may wish to reinforce the handle area with a stick of some sort.

Mark the center, draw a circle there about 15cm across. Mark a handle about 3-4cm across You should end up with two D shaped areas that will become holes. Cut out the holes.

Glue a layer of cheap fabric (like calico) to the face and back of the shield using the same glue you used to glue your sheets together.

Glue or otherwise attach a plastic bowl over the hole. This is called a boss. You may find a spacer of foam between the bowl and the shield helps it to adhere nicely. It can be riveted or bolted in place if you wish.

Paint the shield. Especially the plastic boss which can be painted black and then dry brushed silver to make it look metallic. Look at some books or websites from the period/genre you’re copying for ideas on cool things to paint on your shield.

Wrap the handle in light leather.

Cut a strip of light soft leather about 8cm wide long enough to go around the rim (you may have to use several pieces joined together). Stretch it around the edge and attach by sewing the ends together and gluing the leather on.

#4

A basic sword

Swords and pool noodles do not look similar. Here is a brief tutorial on how to make a sword that does not look like a pool noodle:

Materials:
6-8mm fibreglass rod - available from farm supply stores as cattle prods and electric fence standards or from kite shops. Cost around $10/m unless you buy a lot.
Camp mat - $7 for enough to make about 6 swords.
Glue - ADOS F2 of similar $15 for enough to do about 10-20 swords.
Scrap fabric, latex or cloth tape
10-15cm of garden hose

Tools:
VERY sharp craft knife ($2-$15)
Belt sander or angle grinder with sanding disk ($20-$300+)

1. The pointy end
My biggest complaint with commercial larp weapons is the poor thrusting tips. The weapons are not designed to thrust. I like thrusting. Using some glue and a short length of garden hose, make the tip of your fibreglass rod safe:

2. Padding the blade
Cut three profiles out of your camp mat shaped like a sword blade. In one of the profiles cut a piece out of the center where the fibreglass rod will go.

Glue all this together using a ADOS F2 or similar. Use lots of glue and follow the instructuions.

Let the glue dry. You will then have a very ugly block of foam with a piece of fibreglass sticking out of it.

Use the belt sander or angle grinder to shape this more like a sword blade. You can use a pin to detect how much foam you have left over the fibreglass. Take all the pins out afterwards.

Build a handle and guard. Use lots of glue. Copy a picture of a sword to make it look even more sword like.

Cover the blade in liquid latex, silver fabric or cloth tape. Athletic cloth tape is generally better than the really budget duct tape. Budget ducting tape begins to peal off after a short time. You can paint it black and dry brush it silver to make it look metalic-ish.

#5

Armour - A Helmet
The piece of armour that most makes someone looked armoured is a helmet. Foam helmets are for the most part pretty ugly. But we’re not proud here, we’ll settle for something that suggests “helmet”. Running with our current vikingish theme, we’ll go for a nasal/spangenhelm type look…

Measure around your head (hat band measurement) and add a couple of cm. This is the width of the pattern.The height of the pattern is pretty much from the tip of your nose to the top of your head + a few cm. Make the angle at the top of the points less than 90 degrees. Remember that all four points must total less that 360 degrees or it won’t work. An angle of about 80 degrees gives a nice point.

This can be built from camp mat. Use ADOS F2 to glue along the edges and follow the instructions on the glue! Cover with Autobody undersealer and eventually dry brush silver.

You’ll typically get a few of these from a single camp mat. The autobody sealer is expensive, but if a few people pool together you should be able to do 4-6 helmets for less than $10 each.

Armour - Vambrace
The piece that most seems to get whacked and hurt is the forearm. That’s because it’s usually the closest piece of you to the enemy. Here is a pattern for a vambrace made from heavy leather. Close using a shoelace.

Greaves can be made using pretty much the same pattern, but slightly larger.

#6

Body Armour - leather surcoat or coat of plates
Using light leather (2mm) you can build a leather surcoat or coat of plates. The main difference being, a coat of plates has reinforcing inside it.

Note: leather can be expensive, especially from craft shops. Walk in to places like Fern Country Leather and ask for seconds. Take cash.

Sew together using saddle stitch. Use an awl (or a small nail and hammer) to make holes to sew through.

Coat can be decorated using two part rivets ($50/1000) from Grut Distributors.

#7

[quote]A T Tunic - the easiest piece of garb you’ll ever make…

Probably the most simple piece of costume you can make is a T tunic. If you can operate a sewing machine, you can make one in ten minutes.[/quote]

That pattern can be made a bit more interesting by flaring it at, or just above, the waist. Primitive, quick tailoring can be achieved by throwing the basic garment on the intended wearer and using pins to mark where the new side-seams will look nice. Make sure you can still get it on and off afterwards.

Two quick ways to hem the curving neckhole neatly (which can be tricky if you’re new at it):

a) Draw the shape of the intended neckhole onto some spare cloth, and cut it out with at least three inches extra on the outside. This is the facing. Lay the facing where you want it to go; sew on the line. Give yourself some stay-stitching (dead-easy, just sew on that same line again, but with the machine needle clicked to the left or right). Cut out the centre with a half-inch allowance and make a few clips to the stay-stitching. Turn the facing inside out - an iron is useful here - and put one final line of stitching just on the inside of the new edge, for stability (it’s called top-stitching).

b) Sew ribbon, bias-binding, or a strip of cloth ripped from the selvedge, to the raw, curving edge of the neckline. Iron flat. Stitch it down.

Derek’s pattern is very quick; it’s also, unfortunately, quite wasteful of material. If you have to make a lot of tunics, consider making the sleeves seperately to take advantage of some of the waste material.

[color=blue][size=200]Remember to zigzag the raw edges!!![/size][/color]

It is unbelievable how much this simple step will increase the durability, shelf-life, and overall beauty (after it’s been washed) of the garment. If you’re making club gear, which will be re-used many times, do this.

#8

This is a great bunch of instructions, Derek.

#9

What she said.

Can we make these topics generally editable for a few days? Kinda wiki style? I’m sure there are lots of people who will happily flesh out the areas I’ve glossed over…

#10

If there is anything else people want covered in here, I’ve built most things. Just ask…

#11

Head wear - 80% of the bang for 20% of the effort

We spend a lot of time looking at peoples faces. Some of the best bang for your buck will be head wear on any costume. Here are some examples of head wear that strongly suggest a period:

If you had four names to distribute (say “Bud”, “Francis”, “Richard” and “Neil”) you’d probably not need to think much.

There are several very easy styles of medieval head wear that are easy to make. A coif (or arming cap) can be made from a scrap of white fabric. An old cloth nappy is ideal. Wash first.These are fantastic under a helmet, especially if you’re planning on doing a bit of fighting. The keep your hair and sweat out of your eyes.

Next up is the “Robin Hood” hat. A piece if green felt is ideal. This could be made of two pieces of contrasting fabric (maybe brown oilskin and green linen) and be reversible.

Lastly, the hood. This is best lined - which means you basically make two of them. Lining the hood means all those edges don’t need finishing. Make the outer from wool and the inner from cotton or linen in a contrasting colour. The triangular inserts are essential. The hood is a reasonably big project for someone new to sewing.

#12

Or coughSHAMELESSPLUGcough trot along to the Medieval Shop and ask to look at either of two excellently made, fully lined hoods already present. One’s green lined with cream flannel, t’others blue, with a particolour, reversible lining. If they sell, I’ll make more of them.

#13

Armour (especially steel armour) is a bit more work than clothing and I’m not going to tackle it here. However, here are a couple of tutorials I’ve done on making:

Other than that, if you want to build armour I suggest:

#14

Real Armour
Check out The Ring Lord for rings and scales. Puts the meaning into “some assembly required” :smiley:

Faking Armour
There are several good ways of faking “heavy” armour. Some of these involve making “real” armour out of fake (usually lighter) materials and others are just ways of making things that look armourish.

Mail (chain mail, maille, ring mail etc)
Find someone who can knit. Give them 100m of 3mm nylon cord. Get them to knit a jumper. Dye the cord black. Dry brush it silver. This is okay from a distance. You can just make sleeves if you want and attach them under a sturdy vest.

Scale
You can make scale from lots of things: steel, hardened leather, leather, plastic - whatever. There are commercial sites who sell pre-made scales in the USA. Or you can make them yourself. If you are able, make a steel template first to assist with getting all your holes in the same place. A pattern like this is historically correct horseman’s scale. It will work well.

Use 2-3mm nylon lacing from the hardware store to hold it together. And when you drill the holes deburr them so they won’t fray the cord. I deburr by prodding the hole with a drill bit several sizes larger to take off any sharp edges. Leather and plastic usually don’t need deburring.

Studded Hollywood Armour
Hollywood produces some strange things that look like armour. One is a padded shirt with studs all over it. I assume it is meant to represent a coat of plates, but usually the shirt looks too flexible to actually contain real plates. They do however look really cool and are similar to wearing a couple of sweatshirts. Ideal for larp because you can tell when you are hit. Make a padded shirt and cover it in a pattern of two part rivets…

Two part rivets are available from Grut Distributers (in Auckland). They’re really usefull for all kinds of things and cost around $50 per 1000 (depending on what type you get). Here are some examples…

Bifricated Rivets (nice and strong - get small washers for the back of them)

Two part rivets (not as strong as bif’s but easier to use).

Studs - great for boot hobnails as well, or bondage gear!

#15

Plate Armour
Everyone larper wants a suit of mirror polished plate armour. They rock. They are however very very expensive if you want to get one you can actually wear are fight in. Here is my current leg harness. It’s probably beyond most people and I won’t bother posting here how to build it :smiley:

Here is a simple pattern from my the first leg armour I ever made that actually worked. You can build this armour from 1.2-1.6mm aluminium and it works just fine for larping (heck - it worked just fine for steel weapon combat all those years ago as well). I used bifricated rivets to hold them together. They may still be floating around after more than 15 years of service!!!

Make up a template in stiff card first to make sure you get the holes in the right place.

The articulation holes are about 40% of the way from the edge to the center. Make a couple of extra "lames. Put 3-5 straps around the leg and hang them from your belt on the side (not the front).

If you make them and they don’t bend properly, adjust the hole on the underlapping plate (then nobody will know you made a mistake).

#16

[quote=“Derek”]Mail (chain mail, maille, ring mail etc)
Find someone who can knit. Give them 100m of 3mm nylon cord. Get them to knit a jumper. Dye the cord black. Dry brush it silver. This is okay from a distance. [/quote]

Nylon doesn’t take dye, it just washes off. Only natural fibres take dye. Also, nylon string frays. You must use cotton string for string mail.

While I don’t really recommend making string mail, if someone is going to do it then I suggest buying black cotton string from Spotlight.

Dying is a pain and costs money, and soaking in water makes the string swell up to the wrong size and go fluffy. Better to just buy black string in the first place, knit it, and then drybrush with silver paint. The paint will fade with time and neeed to be re-applied, but I don’t know a better way.

Otherwise, very impressed with the coverage you’re giving here Derek. I was going to suggest that a tabard guide might be useful, but figure you might think they’re too simple to need a guide.

#17

To make painted finishes last longer clear coat them. Using a clear topcoat will also help seal the item against weather.

Alista & I experimented with knitted chain years ago. We were not impressed with the result, and (we did not clear coat it) the paint had a tendancy to rub off onto whatever you were wearing underneath. Clear coating may help prevent this.

Monty Python’s quest for the Holy Grail used knitted chain (ref: Michael Palin in ‘Intrepid Journeys’ when he revisited one of the locations). If you really want to have a go, use large needles and simple stocking stitch. The ‘right’ side of the chain is what is usually the ‘wrong’ side of the jumper. Looks best if hung sideways so that your knitted rows become columns when worn.

#18

I think most tabbards look pretty bad. However, a short piece on front opening surcoats might be in order. I might cover applique as well (sewing designs onto things).

#19

I have to say that a tabbard over a robe lookms rather interesting. I did it for the drunken elf, and he looked good the second time he came to Mordavia, although that was the time he spent to entire weekend so drunk he slept the whole thing away. There is a picture of him on the Mordavia site, looking rather dapper in his robe ad tabbard.
well, it dosnt look to bad at least.

mordavia.com/display_photo.p … 20Illumina

In a nice cult colour scheme, with a desent holy symbol it would look rather fetching I think.

I think there is always room for a tabbard. not that I have ever actually worn one.

#20

Tabards & Surcoats

Okay - I think a good tabard looks really flash. Unfortunately, there is also a piece of garb that is often worn which people call a tabard that I could happily never see again. This is the rectangular piece of fabric with a hole in it that I shall call the “simple tabard”. They’re pretty much what set me off on this rant in the first place… :smiley:

It is easy to modify the simple tabard to the much better side opening tabard. This can be closed by lacing or with a series of buckles. Side lacing tabbards are very period and a number of effigies show the existence of this very medieval garment. This has a number of benefits, chief amongst them is you come untucked a lot less!

The Musketeer tabard is a very simple piece of garb that can look fantastic. If you fancy yourself as a “fencer”, this is almost compulsory costume in either red or blue velveteen with a cross on the front, back and both “sleeves”. Anywhere from groin to calf level looks good and it can be worn with or without a belt. In fact you can belt just the front, leaving the back unbelted if you want to have that billowing cape effect.

The front opening tabard can also be from groin to calf level. If worn long, split it up the back to assist walking.

Most importantly though, to my mind anyway, put some heraldry on it! There are two very easy ways to put designs on a tabard or surcoat: painting and applique. When painting, use a fabric paint and heat set it as per the instructions.

TIP: If you are making a heraldic surcoat (say red with a yellow design, considering lining the surcoat with a contrasting colour. This saves a lot of work on the edges and when you move, the flashes of colour look fantastic!

Applique
Applique is ornamentation, as a cutout design, that is sewn on to or otherwise applied to a piece of material. Here is an examples of applique on a padded coat or jupon:

I use the following method:

  1. Wash all fabric first ( to pre-shrink & to wash out any extra colour)
  2. cut out design
  3. pin design to backing fabric
  4. straight stitch around the design
  5. trim the fabric close to the straight stitch
  6. using a very wide but close together zig zag stitch, sew over the edge of the fabric all around the design.

This is another example where some parts of the design have been made by sewing the fabric edge to edge and other parts have been appliqued over the top: