No need to apologize! There are several topics that come up repeatedly on this forum, and jerkins are definitely one of them. If you're interested, this topic has some discussion of (sparse) textual evidence of the use of jerkins in Middle-earth (although not by Dunedain) and possible firsthand experience the Professor could have potentially had with similar garments (nothing we can prove, though). Not that Greg's very good points aren't perfectly good reasons to use one, of course!Cimrandir wrote:My apologies, I didn't intend to reignite the debate on the accuracy of jerkins.
I think it looks great! The stitching you were able to achieve is much tighter and neater looking than the mock-up image, which I think makes a world of difference. I think avoiding the Hollywood "messy stitching" really helped make this seem like a real garment, rather than a costume.Manveruon wrote:When I first posted about my intentions to split up the jerkin into smaller panels and add this “ladder†stitching (not the correct term, but I can’t seem to find what it’s actually called) over the top, I know Taurinor and a few others raised some debate as to its functionality, vs. just looking cool - but after deliberating on it for quite some time I decided to go forward with my original plan, and in the end I’m quite happy with how it’s turning out. There was some concern that this type of top-stitching would make the garment look too “Hollywood Fantasy,†and while some probably still feel this way, after doing the work on it I feel I can defend its practicality, because it really does reinforce the garment a great deal. Also, I deliberately kept my stitching extremely even and relatively small to avoid that “messy stitching†look that’s so common in modern fantasy.
Always glad to be proven wrong in situations like this