Tutorial: Dwarf boot covers

You can find this tutorial in Norwegian here. 

Someone asked me about how I'd made my dwarf lady boots, so I documented the process when I made new show covers. The construction is super easy, but I'll explain everything in case there is anyone who haven't worked with foam before.

This is the second time I'm making new covers, so be aware that since they are made from foam, they won't last forever. But they are cheap and pretty easy to make. My last pair lasted four days through intense wear and tear, and if you're careful with them, they'll last longer.

I found my base shoes second hand, so I can't tell you where to get them, sorry.

Before you start, stuff your boots with newspaper or something so they keep their shape while you're working. Put masking tape where you want the cover to go. Draw your design (or just copy mine). Try to get it symmetrical.

This is my pattern. You can cut it out in paper or cardboard if you know you are going to make them more than once. As for me, I appreciate the masking tape pattern that sticks to the foam while I'm cutting it.

Cut out your pattern in foam. You might want to add some "seam allowance" to the parts that will overlap. You can always trim it later. Try your pattern on the shoe to make sure it fits.

This was my first pair that died really quickly. Boo, pink foam.

Notice that I am using BLACK FOAM. I am a clutz and I know that I will mange to scuff the paint off them no matter what. But when the foam is black, the scuff marks show less and the shoes just look like they've been trekking through Middle-Earth (authentic!) and I don't get bullied by nasty Elves for having neon pink spots on my shoes. 

Dwarves seem to like geometrical details. Create interest with texture and patterns. I have carved details into the foam with a pen. It's also possible to add raised detail with puffy paint or extra foam parts.

The pattern I've used on top of the shoe is from Thorin's dwarven sword. The sides are decorated with norse bindrunes. There are loads of Dwarven patterns to take inspiration from.

Glue on a clean surface - clean the shoes if they've been used outside. Scratch the surface of the shoes with f. ex. sanding paper to give the glue extra purchase. There are loads of different glues to choose from - if you're using contact adhesive, do yourself a favour and choose the less toxic kind that doesn't give you cancer. If you're using hot glue, make sure to use only a thin layer of glue so that it doesn't show through the foam. Here I've used school glue 'cause that was all I had lying around.

Foam is too porous to paint, so you'll have to seal it with watered down glue.

If you haven't used black foam, now is a good time to paint the whole thing black, just to have an even primer. Dwarf-boots usually have covers in metal or leather, so that's what you want to mimic. When painting props I usually paint the whole thing in a base colour and add shadows around raised details before I distress/age it.

And this is what they look like after a day at con.
(Exhausted dwarf cosplayer not shown.)

Paint until you're satisfied, let dry and then you're ready to kick some Elf butt! (Though, be ready to run away from offended Elves. Mahal, it's a good thing we Dwarves are natural sprinters.)

Questions? 

Adventures in dy(e)ing

 

Decided to use the dwarf lady costume for Desucon Japan and quickly realised I had my work cut out for me the moment I remembered that someone had thrown/given away 30% of the costume due to moving house and simply not being pleased with some of the costume parts.

The first part I've finished is this linen shirt (handsewn, with linen thread because it will find its way into my viking wardrobe once I am finished crying after the last Hobbit movie).

I've hoarded onion peel for about six months with plans of trying natural dyeing. Once I had finished the shirt I decided no time's like the present and set to work.

Here are two test swatches. Undyed linen underneath, swatch #1 is dyed with yellow onions, swatch #2 has red onions added to the dye. Fixative is vinegar. 

Thoughts I got while dyeing:
can you dye with blood...?

The shirt was too big for the pot I had boiled the dye in, so I had to put it in a larger container and mix the dye with more water to cover the shirt. Before I put it in, the shirt had been soaked in vinegar and water for a couple of hours, to get rid of chemicals from when I pre-washed the fabricand and to prep the shirt for dyeing.

This was my first time using vinegar as a fixative, so to be sure the dye wouldn't just wash out, I added half a kilo of salt to the mix and let everything sit overnight. The first four hours I turned over the shirt every now and then, to avoid uneven colouring.

The colours are a bit stronger in real life than in this pic.

... of course diluted red dye turns pink-ish. I'll have to wear a woolen sweater on top of this, because the colours clash with the rest of the costume. I've managed to swallow my pride and have decided to look upon the whole thing as a learning experience. On the positive side, the shirt is colourfast, even in the washer. (I had to give it a quick spin to get rid of the stench of vinegar and onions...)

Until next time I've hopefully learned a thing or two like, putting the shirt in the dye while it's still in the pot and then keep the whole thing warm for a while, using gloves (because in addition to reddish hands, vinegar and salt are not things you want on your hands when you're owned by a vicious cat beast who has made you bleed recently...), and that more onions=more dye=stronger colour.

And at last, a tip from my grandpa: if you have used one of grandma's pots to make dye in and in the process managed to dicolour it, you can scrub the pan with fine, fine sandpaper. Works wonders! 

Dwarf lady

In April I had a tiny photoshoot with Sylvilel, one of my roomies. There have been some changes in my costume since December - I donated my armbracers to the cinema because I had a fit of I-HATE-THESE-THINGS-I-MADE... my comfy dwarf-sweater was left with a friend of mine that lives in Oslo and I haven't gotten around to restyling the beard after I rinsed it for glue.

Please ignore the houses in the background and the fact that I am shamefully beardless, and instead feast yer eyes on my beautiful sledgehammer.

I know I am a nightmare to work with because I only stand still like two seconds at a time, and I'm easily distracted by EVERYTHING. Sylvilel is an incredibly patient photographer.

I am very pleased with how the sledgehammer turned out. I lost count over how many times I painted and repainted it, but the time was well spent, it tricked a hobby smith into thinking it was real.

My preciousss.

Costume plans

There hasn't been much sewing as of late. Life's gotten in the way. For the rest of 2013 I have two costumes I know I have to finish and a third I might get started on if I have the time. (The Edwardian gown from April has been taken apart. The insides were rather messy and there is no sense in working on something you'll end up hating and not wearing.)

Source

The first costume on my list is an actual cosplay, not an original costume. Captain Sabertooth might be going to Torucon in September. If not, he's going to be my Halloween costume this year.

For those outside Norway - the Captain comes from a series of pirate musicals for kids. Everyone born after 1989 will have gone through a "Sabertooth phase" in early childhood. When I was four I had a cassette from one of the plays and there were days I did nothing but listen to it. In the end I was only allowed to play it once a day because it drove my grandparents mad. (I still have that cassette. It's a wonder it's survived this long.)

The Captain is the most feared pirate on the seven seas, except he's afraid of ghosts and he's not that happy about girl cooties either.

I can't find my new costume sketch, so this'll have to do.
Enjoy my quality drawing.

There have been slight variations to his costume (the show has been put up each summer since 1989), so I'm mixing in elements from different variations. I'm using a period pattern from this site here and look forward to cursing about the differences of the modern vs. the rococo fit.

The vikings I've joined are going to shake things up at the Hobbit premiere in Tromsø. I'm going to be a generously bearded dwarf lady of awesome. I've six months, so I'm in no hurry. The jacket, shoes and bracers are even done, so I only need a tunic, pants and some weapons all the weapons.

The last costume on the list - I'm making a late Victorian gown inspired by a gown worn by the empress Elisabeth in the musical based on her life. I got a heapload of lovely, lovely fabric from aunt, and it's just perfect!

Only the golden fabric.

It's almost the same, more gold than red, but what the hey, it's vintage silk! I'm gonna use a pattern from Truly Victorian for the skirt and probably modify the heck out of BurdaStyle 7880, the same pattern I used for the brown bustle dress, for the jacket.

The Vikings

No, not the inaccurate "History" Channel series. I'm talking about my vikings. In December I found a course where you could learn nalbinding, and met vikings from a local reenactment group. Thirty minutes later I was a member.

My nalbinding has improved a lot. These are only my experiments.
Not gonna use this stuff for anything.

They have workshops every sunday, where you bring whatever you're making (and maybe some cake too) and then there's social sewing and lots of geekery.

It was really last minute, so we went to a second-hand shop for costumes.
I made a tricolore cockade for fun: Tutorial

They're vikings, but their work span over a few centuries. They were hired to stand around the cinema (heavily armed!) in costumes from LotR  for the Hobbit premiere, and we dressed up as tattered revolutionaries for a random showing of Les Miserables. (And then we cried a lot. Oh how, we cried.)

Mjolnir comes from Jelldragon.com
It's a reproduction from Børneholm.

Got some cheap glass pearls when a hobby store in town closed down, so now I sorta have some viking bling. I'm going to build my outfits slowly over time to reduce cost and make it right, so these are temporary, though one of the pearls (top tier, middle) is a reproduction I had lying around. (Guess that's a nice thing about Norway - you just happen to have viking stuff lying around.)

Some pearls were left over, mostly because how did I think this could pass as viking stuff?The scissors come from Jelldragon, and I love them, they're great seamrippers.

WIP: Bracers in foam.

The vikings are guests at the next Hobbit premiere too, so we've started on our costumes already. I will be a lady dwarf, my height and slim build bedamned, with a full beard 'cause it makes the viking lads uncomfortable. I don't want a gown, even though the renaissance-inspired dwarf gowns were magnificent, so I'll just whip up something like what the travelling dwarves are wearing. I'm thinking a jacket in leather, tunic in linen, some fur parts, a bit of protection and a few weapons.

I tried working with foam for the first time. This tutorial just about saved my life.

After forming them with a heat gun I brought the half-finished bracers with me to show the vikings. A few of them were very sceptical until I explained I was going to paint them. (At this stage, they were very colourful. The underside of one of them was bright pink too, I don't think that helped.)

I found the perfect shoes at the local Goodwill. They're way too big even for my gigantic feet, but they're oh-so comfortable! I can't express how much I look forward to wearing costume shoes that won't try to eat my feet.

I was inspired by the shoes worn by Thorin Oakenshield and added some foam details onto them. In retrospect I'm not sure how great this idea was, cause I don't think the foam will survive long, but oh well.