After several years of doing the "ranger thing" in one form or another, I've started to find myself a bit lost with regard to my kit and garb. It all started with me wanting to put together a screen-accurate Aragorn costume based on the one worn by Viggo, but I never really got around to finishing it for various reasons. Then I started getting very into the Robin Hood myths, so my ranger garb started to take on a bit of that flavor. Unfortunately, this started to lead me further and further away from what I felt was a truly "Tolkien-esque" ranger design, and I've been wanting to try to rectify that for a while. Well, after watching the excellent folks over on the Dunedain Germany Facebook page for a little while now, I have decided at long last to completely change directions with my ranger kit, and gear it more towards the Ithilien Rangers from the Peter Jackson films. It's funny, for one reason or another I never much liked the way they looked when I first saw the movies, but over time they've really grown on me, until now it has become one of my favorite aesthetics from the Trilogy. I like their color scheme, the layers and cuts of their garments, the fact that they are specifically mentioned in the books as carrying bows (the only rangers who are, in fact), and that those bows seem closely resemble English style longbows, in both book and film. I also appreciate that they're nearly the only people in all of the films who actually wear pouches on their costumes - who knew rangers might need to carry things on their person while out in the Wild, amiright??
The other great thing about this is that I can actually use a fair deal of my existing garb and kit to start with. I've already converted an old green wool cloak by swapping the hook-and-eye closure out for a couple of cool, "Gondorian" looking buckles (in truth, they're reproduction Rus Viking buckles) and a 1-inch leather strap. It's WAY more comfy than it was before! This was actually the first costume item I EVER made completely by myself (like 12 years ago or so, now), but I've never really gotten to wear it because I've never been satisfied with the closure. I'm thrilled to finally be able to use it with a full costume.
Below are some pics of the cloak (sorry for the crappy cell-phone pics and the super-classy bathroom-and-pajamas selfie, haha), and keep your eyes peeled for more updates in the future!
Maerondir Perianseron, also called “Mickel,” Halfling Friend - Ranger of the Misty Mountains
That looks incredible! The cloak itself also looks really well made - very nice seams. What type of fabric is it made from? Is it a half-circle design or does it have shaped shoulders? Sorry to ask you questions about something you made 12 years ago - I'm a sewing geek.
Thanks guys! I'm hoping to have quite a few updates pretty soon, so stay tuned. I'm normally pretty slow (glacial might be a more appropriate word) at making garb improvements, but I've got a lot of inspiration right now, so hopefully I'll be able to churn some stuff out quickly.
As for the cloak itself, as I said, this was one of my very first costume pieces EVER, and actually the first thing I ever sewed entirely myself. I got the material from a very nice local fabric store, but it was sold as pre-cut remnants, so the fiber content wasn't labeled. I've never done an actual burn test, but I'm fairly confident it's 100% wool. Looks to be some type of brushed twill, probably. It is a half-circle design with a cut-out neck hole, based on the AlleyCatScratch descriptions of the Fellowship cloaks. It was actually designed to be my Fellowship cloak for my Strider costume, but it didn't really come out very much like the ones in the films. Trouble was, the wool was in two pieces of 1.5 yards each, so I had to piece it together by sewing a seam up the middle rear, and even so, there was very little material left for the hood, so it's not at all long and trailing like theirs were in the movies. Still, it closely resembles the hoods of the cloaks worn by some of the Ithilien rangers, so I think it works perfectly for that role. The other thing was, because I was working with fairly limited material, the cloak is rather short. It only comes down maybe four to six inches below my knees, and while the cloaks in the movies were much longer, I feel the slightly shorter design of mine is more practical for a ranger anyhow.
As for construction, all the seams are rolled under and top-stitched, so there are no unfinished edges. The new clasp system holds the cloak in place very well, and since it's somewhat wide, the cloak lays nicely across my shoulders, giving it a sort of shaped-look. I haven't field-tested it with its new strap system, but I'm pretty confident it will stay where I want it quite well.
Hope that answers everything for now!
Maerondir Perianseron, also called “Mickel,” Halfling Friend - Ranger of the Misty Mountains
Again I have to say it looks very well done. And you may end up really enjoying the fact that it isn't so long that it more or less drags the ground; saves you some trouble from grabbing and clinging plants.
The only thing I have to say about the strap system that holds your cloak is that it is similar to my first cloak. Not only was my cloak too long but as it was being grabbed by thorns and what-not the strap allowed too much play. The cloak would begin to shift around on my shoulders and needed adjusting almost constantly. This may have been an error of the tailoring, maybe I made the shoulders too wide. It may have also been that the cloak was just too long. Either way I thought I would throw this experience out there. My best experience is to just fasten or sew the inner neckline of the cloak together good and tight. Then again, the design and preference always differs from ranger to ranger, and has a lot to do with what and where you're traveling through.
...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
I've grown to really love this style of buckle, and a lot of places sell variations of it. I actually just ordered a belt buckle for my new ranger belt in a somewhat matching design from Viking Leather Crafts:
It reminds me a lot of Aragorn's belt buckle from the films, as well as some of the buckles worn by the Ithilien rangers.
And regarding the cloak length, yes, I think I'm going to be grateful for the shorter length too. It was kind of a happy accident in the end - and come to think of it, the buckles were a happy accident too, since we initially bought them for Sarah's Mirkwood elf quiver, but they didn't actually fit, so we weren't sure quite what to do with them until now. I feel like, on some level, both the cloak the the buckles were really just waiting for the right opportunity to be worn, and now I seem to have found it! Glad I never got rid of them!
Maerondir Perianseron, also called “Mickel,” Halfling Friend - Ranger of the Misty Mountains
It's amazing how many things were picked up for one thing, and don't work, but manage to become perfect for something far better down the road!
Musing a bit on your decision to move in a film-based Ithilien direction...
I've made a few decisions over the course of my still-in-process kit rebuild to a similar end: adding more small bits of film-inspired kit, and fewer plans for strictly historical garments/accouterments. This is, in no way, a means of giving ground in authenticity, but it's been a decision fueled by something very important to me: public view. I knew, in my own mind/heart that my kit was Tolkien-authentic according to the books, but the end result in public was an instant assumption by passers-by that I was dressed A) as Robin Hood, or B) [possibly the greatest pet peeve in my existence] Link, from the Zelda video games. Often, they'd even call me Zelda, forgetting that's not even the hero's name, but rather the Damsel-in-distress, and would proclaim this rather loudly. "Mom, he's ZELDA!"
*sigh*
So, in an attempt to encourage the public's mind to instantaneously jump to "Lord of the Rings" as a first-glance conclusion, I've begun planning some kit pieces that more closely reflect some of the key/more popular points in Aragorn's and the Ithilien Rangers' kits, for the sake of steering the minds of the general public away from Robin Hood and Video games, and towards my actual intent. I'm in no way sacrificing book-authenticity, as I said before, but I'm allowing a little more play in my own mind and "fantasy" as a genre, which I consider acceptable, for the sake of my own sanity, and, perhaps, a bit of my pride.
When all is said and done, I'll know I did it right if I hear a stranger say, un-prompted, "He's a Ranger" at a Ren Faire sometime down the line, without being dressed in a screen-accurate costume.
Pardon the wordsplosion...but I think we're a bit on the same page.
