I just created a short howto on creating a ring belt. It is a short and simple tutorial. Making belts is easy and it is rather pointless to pay many of these people $20 or more for a belt. Make it yourself and save some cash. You can even start making them for your friends!
Check out the article here.
I recently made a tutorial on how to make a T-Tunic. I also included a rough set of instructions about modifying it for how a t-tunic based dress was made. This is a really easy sewing project and a great way to get your first bit of garb.
I found a comic online today that amused me a bit.
Source: http://truckbearingkibble.com/comic/2008/06/30/the-joust/
I recently wrote up a howto on making a buckler from wood. It is a good step by step guide that tells you what sort of shapes are used, and what sort of wood you need and everything. I also give advise as to where to get the wood. Need a buckler? Check out my How to Make a Buckler page
About a week or so ago I ordered a strip of leather to use to make a belt off of ebay. Today the leather got here and I decided that I wanted to go out and find myself the ring to use for the belt. Now, before I bought the leather I did a little research and found this guy who had done research and his research showed that medieval belts were rarely wider than 1 1/4 inches. So I decided to order 1 inch wide leather.
Today I went out and got an aul to help poke holes in the leather. I was looking for some metal o rings, but my local Joann etc. store failed me. They have hardly a thing for leather! I found the aul there in the drappery department, which is where I also found what I was going to use for my o-ring. I found drapery hanger things, which had an o ring and then a little clippy thing attached to it. The wire for the clippy thing looked weak, so I figured I could bend it off. It wasn't the color of o ring I wanted, but when you are going on the cheap you have to make due with what you can find I guess.
Here is the aul and one of the hangers (it was a 6 pack):
The next thing I did was to fold a piece of leather over the ring and then use the aul to poke holes from the back. You can have smaller holes by poking through the back and then it will leave a small mark on the back of the front part which will tell you where to press for the front. Once I had hole through which to threat I found a strong needle and strong thread and started to sew from hole to hole. Then I went back to ensure it was good and solid. Below is a picture of my finished belt.
I have finished one of the pair of gauntlets for my friend. I am currently using elastic to hold them on, but I hope ot eventually get/make a pair of gloves for them to attach to. Atleast a bit of fabric to fasten it to and then elastic that or tie or something it onto the hand. All that the gauntlet really is, is a rectangle. I messed up in a few places and it doesn't look the best, but it will work. I have fastened it to my hand and started hitting it with some of my tools, then took it off and hit my hand. Let me say this, it helped. The maille moving about then hit helps divert the force. Also the different maille links on top of each other absorbs some impact. I need to wind a lot more rings for the next one, but i need a break. My eyes are going wonky after looking at the rings.
Today I just finished my buckler for rapier fighting. They are very simple to make, so here is how.
First find plywood. I used some scrap 3/4 inch AC plywood. 1/2 inch would also work, but no less than 1/2 inch plywood. You could use some interior VC plywood if you want it to look nicer. I then used a band-saw to cut it into a circle. I am also making one for a friend who wanted a diamond. Just use what you have to cut it. If you buy it at a lumber yard you may be able to ask them if they can cut it for you. It never hurts to try. I then used a bit of wood glue (any glue should work) and I put it in any cracks in the plywood. AC is an exterior wood that is usually not seen, so it doesn't have to look good, but it is still strong. The glue will help make sure there are no problems with the buckler. Once the glue had dried I used craft paint to paint it. My device is not yet registered, so I didn't want to put that on it just yet. Once that was dry I attached my handle to the back. I bought a zinc plated drawer pull from my local hardware store and it looks like it will work out just fine. You may need to get different screws to use though. The ones in my package were too long, so I found a few shorter ones and used them. You also need to put something around the edge in case of splintering. I plan to use electrical tape.
Now let me get a little historical on things about bucklers. Historically bucklers are metal and are circles, with an area in the middle that extends outward, like the one below:
In the back there would be a handle across where the dent it, which is where you would hold it. Bucklers are not meant to be work on the arm as a shield is. They are meant to be held in the fist so that they are lighter and faster than a shield. They are usually no larger than 24 inches in diameter, though I have heard of people using larger ones. They can also be very small, I have seen a few that are less than 1 foot in diameter. As I said earlier, they are usually round and made of metal, but they were made of wood sometimes. They can also be in shapes other than a circle.
Now lets move to a new subject. I have been needing some garb to fight in, and I just recently made myself a tunic that I will use for fighting. I have a shirt, but I am not comfortable using it for fighting since some seams are hand stitched due to the difficulty of getting a sewing machine to do the work. All I did was make the basic short sleeved T-tunic and then add sleeves. The t-tunic is not hard to make and instructions are easily found so I will not add them here. The sleeves were a little bit trickier. What I did was measure the length of my arm from my shoulder and then have the other dimensions be one foot, so that I would have a nice poofy sleeve. Then I folded it in half the long way and sewed up the seam. Then I pined it inside my sleeve in my tunic and sewed it up. I forgot to take into account that if you sew below the shoulder, you don't need to measure all the way to the shoulder... so I ended up with really long sleeves, though they are manageable. I did use a bit of elastic to make some bands to hold the extra fabric just above the wrist. I also put in draw strings at the cuffs with a thumb loop since I will be using this for fighting and it will keep the cuff from being pulled out of my glove.
Well I have not posted on this before but I will indroduce myself. I am Amarelie Amarillys and I am a member of the Bristol Buskin Frolic which is the dance group at the at the Renaissance Faire. I just bought fabric to make my garb for faire and it is very colorful. We are required to be as colorful as we can with out breaking period faire rules and we are suppost to have lots of bells to make noise on our outfits. The colors for my garb are yellow(pale not bright) bloomers, a darker blue underskirt, a oliveish green overskirt, a lighter blue bodice and a peachy pink chemis. I will stick out in a crowd indeed. Well I will get pictures up as soon as i can. Have a wonderful day.
I modified by gorget today. I found the steel at my local hardware store. I got a 8"x24" piece and it was around $5, so not too bad. I forgot to take pictures before the modifications were inserted, but I can describe what I did. I got my gorget and took approximate tracings of the areas that would need protection. I then cut them out, just a little smaller since I don't want metal hanging out or over the edge. I then took electrical tape and went around the outside of the steel since I don't want sharp edges. I then bent and formed the things as best I could and stuck them in the gorget. I then went through and duct taped them down. It wasn't too hard to do. Here are pictures of the finished product.
First, the whole gorget (inside)
This is a slightly closer look at the front
I recently bought the last piece of armor that I need for my SCA rapier fighting. I needed a gorget. I bought one off of Purpleheart Armoury (gorget). I knew when buying it that it would need something by the SCA rules to make it rigid. I am going to be using either steel, or aluminum (of the appropirate guage required by the SCA). I need to go out tomorrow to get the metal and I will report back later on that. But for the time I would like to show the parts of the gorget that need the metal added. I will be only showing the front, but the back needs it as well but is needed in similar places and if you look in the rapier manual you can find where exactly it is needed.
This first picture is a picture of me with my hood and my gorget showing where on the front the points that require protection are.
This is a picture of me and my hood (the same as above) with a picture of where I plan to put the plates of metal.
I plan to fold the edges of the metal over so that I don't have sharp ends, and since i don't have the tools to rivet the metal, I plan to duct tape then on the inside until they are approved my a Martial. Tomorrow I will get my metal, and then I will show pictures of that. Then I will go to fighter practice and return with word of what the martial said. Wish me luck.
P.S. I appologize for the horrible drawing in the pictures above, but they do serve my purpose...
