Making Bard's Coat
Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:44 am
Hi everyone!
I have decided for a variety of reasons to start working on a Bard the Bowman costume, based on what photos are out there of Luke Evans in the upcoming Hobbit film. On some levels I actually kind of hate the look of this costume, but on a lot of other levels it's really growing on me. Plus, I totally have the look to pull it off, and he's always been one of my favorite characters from the books. And then there's the whole archer thing, so really it's kind of a no-brainer for me.
Anyway, another reason I decided to start on this costume is because it's honestly relatively simple, as far as the outfits from the PJ movies are concerned. I know pretty much exactly how I will make 90% of the costume, and what I will make it out of, with the exception of one important piece: his coat. In the movie he wears a long shearling sheepskin coat, with a split in the back, and wide lapels/collar. The thing is, the coat itself would be easy enough to make - I could even theoretically alter an existing women's sheepskin coat to suit my purposes, provided it didn't have really obvious pockets, weirdly placed seams, etc. Or if I so chose, I could easily make it out of raw sheepskins. However, I am extremely broke, and buying a long sheepskin coat, or even enough sheepskin to MAKE a log coat, is starting to look a little cost prohibitive, from the prices I've seen around the web in my preliminary searches.
At any rate, I was hoping maybe some folks around here might be able to offer suggestions on where I can find inexpensive shearling hides, or even where I could find inexpensive ready-made shearling coats, etc. I am also not at all opposed to using a faux sheepskin material for this. Normally I'm all for authenticity, and I tend to steer away from synthetic faux furs and leathers - but for the moment at least, this is mainly a costume item. I would love to have a genuine one so I could use it for cold-weather ranger-wear, but my priority at the moment is just to get something wearable that looks as close as possible to the original.
Soooooo... any thoughts?
I have decided for a variety of reasons to start working on a Bard the Bowman costume, based on what photos are out there of Luke Evans in the upcoming Hobbit film. On some levels I actually kind of hate the look of this costume, but on a lot of other levels it's really growing on me. Plus, I totally have the look to pull it off, and he's always been one of my favorite characters from the books. And then there's the whole archer thing, so really it's kind of a no-brainer for me.
Anyway, another reason I decided to start on this costume is because it's honestly relatively simple, as far as the outfits from the PJ movies are concerned. I know pretty much exactly how I will make 90% of the costume, and what I will make it out of, with the exception of one important piece: his coat. In the movie he wears a long shearling sheepskin coat, with a split in the back, and wide lapels/collar. The thing is, the coat itself would be easy enough to make - I could even theoretically alter an existing women's sheepskin coat to suit my purposes, provided it didn't have really obvious pockets, weirdly placed seams, etc. Or if I so chose, I could easily make it out of raw sheepskins. However, I am extremely broke, and buying a long sheepskin coat, or even enough sheepskin to MAKE a log coat, is starting to look a little cost prohibitive, from the prices I've seen around the web in my preliminary searches.
At any rate, I was hoping maybe some folks around here might be able to offer suggestions on where I can find inexpensive shearling hides, or even where I could find inexpensive ready-made shearling coats, etc. I am also not at all opposed to using a faux sheepskin material for this. Normally I'm all for authenticity, and I tend to steer away from synthetic faux furs and leathers - but for the moment at least, this is mainly a costume item. I would love to have a genuine one so I could use it for cold-weather ranger-wear, but my priority at the moment is just to get something wearable that looks as close as possible to the original.
Soooooo... any thoughts?