Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Something that has annoyed me for a while is not having a linen surcoat of some kind to use when I want to look like I am in kit, but am at a hot summer medieval festival or indoors at a comic-con or similar. I've been meaning to make this for over a year but I haven't been able to get hold of any heavy linen, but I finally got some a few weeks ago so I made this exact pattern: viewtopic.php?p=44907#p44907 from linen, the only thing I changed was making the arm holes deeper to provide more ventilation

It's more of a costume item really, I guess it would offer protection from sharp undergrowth but it doesn't keep me warm or dry, it's just an extra layer for the sake of looks, that's more pleasant to wear in the heat than wool. When I was making it I decided to make it with a lined construction because I couldn't be bothered to hem the whole way around, boarder the slits and bias the curves on the arm holes, then I had the idea of using the blue as the lining and making it reversible, since it was hardly any extra effort. The blue side is clearly not fells-ward appropriate so I will probably hardly ever use it, but it does give it versatility as a costume item








Another advantage of the lined construction is that all my strong machine stitching is on the inside, so there is no visible machine stitching on this piece, I think it needs some embroidery tho...











when I went out wearing it in the woods I couldn't properly test it in hotter weather because there was still enough chill in the air to need a cloak, but it does seem to work well with my short sleeved tunic, and I was pleasantly surprised how well the solid brown linen preformed as camouflage





More pictures to be found here: viewtopic.php?p=52356#p52356

Wow you look great. I think you knocked that out of the park ( is baseball popular enough in the UK for that idiom to be well received?)
Costume or not, in my climate linen would definitely be more practical than even a lightweight wool as a removable layer during this time of year.

I'm adding this to my ever growing list of projects

Turned out fantastic! Well worth the time invested! Looks great.

Iodo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:19 pm It's more of a costume item really, I guess it would offer protection from sharp undergrowth but it doesn't keep me warm or dry, it's just an extra layer for the sake of looks, that's more pleasant to wear in the heat than wool. When I was making it I decided to make it with a lined construction because I couldn't be bothered to hem the whole way around, boarder the slits and bias the curves on the arm holes, then I had the idea of using the blue as the lining and making it reversible, since it was hardly any extra effort. The blue side is clearly not fells-ward appropriate so I will probably hardly ever use it, but it does give it versatility as a costume item

when I went out wearing it in the woods I couldn't properly test it in hotter weather because there was still enough chill in the air to need a cloak, but it does seem to work well with my short sleeved tunic, and I was pleasantly surprised how well the solid brown linen preformed as camouflage

Nicely done, it looks great on you. I like the fact that it's reversible.

Thank you all, glad you like it

That looks really good. And I bet it makes a great outer layer!

Yep, Thanks so much Elleth

Very Dwarvish! And I think the blue would fit in quite well for a well-to-do Dwarf. I recall all those brightly colored hoods at Bilbo's party in the Hobbit and I think this would do just as well.

Thank you, glad you like it

Iodo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:19 pm

Okay, I have to ask you. On both the front and the reverse you have leather straps linking the buttons, but one on the front, and one on the back has one edge cut at an angle. The only thing I can think of is that you wanted to be able to tell which one it was by touch.

Cimrandir wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 12:45 pm I recall all those brightly colored hoods at Bilbo's party in the Hobbit and I think this would do just as well.

Thats exactly what i was thinking lol

Tom_Ranger wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 11:41 pm Okay, I have to ask you. On both the front and the reverse you have leather straps linking the buttons, but one on the front, and one on the back has one edge cut at an angle. The only thing I can think of is that you wanted to be able to tell which one it was by touch.

not exactly there are 6 buttons on each side sewn in the same place, and only 3 leather straps, if I turn it inside out I move the leather straps to the inside, the leather straps have a button hole on both sides so there is no point in making 6, and as for that angle, that is just the product of cutting the leather straps quite randomly from a triangular offcut from a previous project

Now I made a hood to match it

You dwarves and your colored hoods.

looks great!

Elleth wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:09 pm You dwarves and your colored hoods.

looks great!

Thanks a lot and you have a good point, the only reason the reverse side of this is blue is because a few years ago I got a 6m bolt end of royal blue upholstery linen very cheap and I've been trying to use it up ever since, I thought it might come in handy if I ever wanted to dress as a DnD wizard or for LARP etc...
...but now you say it, if I decide I want some added dwarven splendor I can turn my hood around