Freelancer Armour

 A while ago, when I was still at college, I indulged a little in LARP. There's a branch of Fools and Heroes that runs a short walk away from where I live, so once a month I'd dress up like an elf, run around in the woods and hit people with things. It was pretty fun, but I stopped when I went into my final year. What's that got to do with 'now'? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was helping someone out with some leatherwork for their degree, and we all got to talking about LARP. The girl made her leather thing, the guy insisted on trying on all of my armour and got rather excited. They made me want to LARP again.

That armour there, to the right, is my Freelancer Gorget. Out of all of the armour things I've made, it's my favourite. After far too long of trying to come up with a new LARP kit, I decided to make something like that, but something that would fit me.

So, the Freelancer Cuirass was set in motion. The pattern for it was draped on the stand, like how I learned at college for fabric costumes. I designed it to fit me, with the right kind of curves in the right places. With a bit of luck, it's going to be lovely to wear.

It has a bit of battle damage, like on the gorget. A scratch or two here, a couple of dents there... I think it just looks better than having perfect and pristine leather armour. It does the whole 'I have seen battle' thing a bit better, in my opinion. There's nothing wrong with shiny armour, of course, it's just personal preference.

The front and the back will be fastened with buckles at the sides, and the shoulders will be riveted together. Then there's just a couple of details, like adding O-rings for attaching a cloak.

Armour is my favourite thing to make. I just gotta get people to get me to commission things.

Any takers?

Explorer Armour

To start off, an announcement.

I finally have an etsy shop!

The current stock is a little lacking, but I'll be adding to it when I collect up my patterns and manage to take some decent photos.


So, I have delved back into the world of LARP. I've been wanting to make some 'proper armour' for a while now and, under orders of a friend who has a car, I went to the leather shop armed with a jar full of money. I left the shop with over £200 of nice, thick leather, so here we are. Armour time!


First off was a gorget. I've made simple pauldrons like this before and, thusly, used the same patterns. There are a couple of differences with these, though, in that they attach with buckles rather than being tied on, and the edges are curved up a little. The gorget itself was complete guesswork. I did look at some patterns beforehand, but then thought 'no,' and did it my way anyway.

As well as a mass of leather, I got some new tools, so now I can do edges properly, as well as things to engrave and... tool, really

The arm guard here is completely detatchable, so it can be put on the opposite pauldron, which can also be on either the left or the right. I'm going modular with all of this.

I have some vambraces to match the design on the bigger pauldron, and might make some greaves, too. A breastplate? Perhaps not, but we shall see!

Dragon Helm II

So, back to Mister Dragon!

I coloured the pieces with Antique Stain rather than dye, because I just love the colour you can get from it on the straw kip leather. As well as that,  I like the uneven browns on it. The whole thing just looks more loved. 

There weren't many rivets in there at the end, which was nice. After all of the sewing, it was a godsend for my shoulders! The headband part has some eyelets so it can be tied to fit whatever size head it comes across.

After it was all fixed together, I did a final shaping on a stand-in head (or 'Nogg', as I have taken to calling them.). The string was there to keep the little flaps at the side sitting nicely, which seemed to like to... well... flap around instead of being where they were supposed to.

And soon after finishing, Mister Dragon was off to be sold. Made me a bit sad since I only just made him, but he'll have family soon enough! There was a lot of interest in him before he left, so it seems like the wise thing to do. Next thing will be giving the thing a proper name instead of just 'dragon helm'.

Dragon Helm

I'll be trading at Nerd East at the weekend, and I'm quite determined to make something Big And Fancy to take with me. I've got a few pauldrons/spaulders on the go (anyone fancy telling me which?), and a few post-apoc bracers, and some of my usual masks... but I don't see any of those as Big And Fancy. Maybe the Scavengers are, but I'm just too used to them now.

Anyway! I decided to have a go at an actual helm. I've toyed with the idea in the past and had a look at a few patterns, but I've never actually gave it a go. This is my chance, right? And what goes nicely with LARP? Dragons, of course!

I went with my usual straw kip rather than something sturdier, because it's nice and cheap for when I end up doing it wrong, and I can stiffen it up later. So, here we are, bits of the dragon so far.

So, that's pretty much obviously the face-part up top. Not sure about any more shaping to it yet. Might add some more bits. We shall see! Next are little fin things which will go to the side like so. Can't have a dragon helm without wingy bits, right? The face-part is the first thing I've properly hand sewed with the appropriate tools and thread, so it's a little messy, but it does its job.

The other bit it supposed to be like a little tail, which will hang somewhere on the back. It has a little bit of movement in it, which is nice, as long as it doesn't get stuck or fall apart. 

More updates as I do stuff. Possibly. I am ridiculously bad at blogging.