Essay - Mississippi, USA

Meridoc "Master Holdwyne" Brandybuck: Knight of the Riddermark

I made and wore this costume for the midnight showing of ROTK. I'm actually pretty proud of it, considering that I had...what...three or four pictures to work off of? And none that were very clear. I spent about six or seven months on this...most of which was spent on research, sketching, planning, and drafting my pattern. The actual construction and painting only took about a month.

There are "technically" four/five layers to this costume.

The Breastplate: Made of dark red upholstery vinyl painted with acrylic paint -- to simulate tooled leather. (Not skilled in that arena, unfortunately...) The design is based off the one semi-clear picture available of the front of Merry's amour and the shield he wears on his back. (Though I wouldn't recommend the acrylic paint...it rubs off too easily.) I designed my own pattern for this, using my dressmaker's dummy and tissue paper. I first sketched out on paper the number of pieces I needed, and the basic size of each one before trying to convert the drawing to the dummy and the tissue paper.

The panels are mirrored in the back, though less curved. The top chest section is slit down the middle all the way to the second panel (see picture) and then laced up with red cording (though in the picture it looks brown). I first stitched all the panels together then topstitched both edges of each panel. I made the shoulder straps part of the back panel, sort of like a v-neckline in the back. They're stitched into place by the same seam that attaches gold painted vinyl to simulate the bronze metal band at the top of the chest plate. The garment laces up with leather cording on the left side, so the neck lacing can be ornamental. (Less to lace up when you're getting dressed.) I used a leather punch, but reinforced the vinyl around the holes because it tears easily.

The under layers are supposed to be a long sleeved shirt under a short sleeved tunic, but I had to cheat because I used a rough textured cotton blend that wasn't strong enough to support the buttons well enough. So instead, I used a Simplicity pattern for a basic side seamed, a-line dress, and sewed a short sleeve in over the long sleeve. For the appearance of the shirt collar, I had to just wear a separate shirt underneath.

The pants were thrift shopped and hemmed for last year's Merry costume, though they're a bit short.

The cloak is one of a set of match Fellowship cloaks that my Dernhelm made for all the "Fellowship" members represented by our group at the theater. It's a thin, lightweight gray fabric from the dollar table at Wal-Mart. It's the Fellowship cloak pattern found on the ACS site.

My vambraces are also vinyl, painted purple and gold with two mirror imaged horse heads. They're laced with cording on the inner arm.

My positively amazing shield was made by Dernhelm's dad, and painted by her mother. It's plywood, covered with green leather, with leather hand and shoulder straps, and painted with the horse design. (See Weapons and Warfare, pg 46) The gold attachments are made from a candle holder and coffee tin bottoms. Ingenious, eh?

My "broach" on the armour, is of foamboard painted gold, with black paint pen for the horse design. (similar to vambraces)

The Lorien leaf broach is one that was purchased from The Noble Collection, so don't give me credit for that! =) There are a few things on this costume I want to fix up and fine tune a bit...like the fact that I don't have a baldric. So I'll have to update when I get version two finished.

This page was last updated 11/21/09