Production-inspired bag
One of the things I'd noted from the first movie, back when all the dwarves still had nice gear and loads of it (like, where did Thorin use that bow he had in some pics? Does he ever use that axe or did he bury it in a Warg skull while they were being chased and leave it behind?) was that they all had nice packs and bags. Thorin had something interesting he was carrying around, but you never get any good screen shots of it. When the Weta book came in, I eagerly searched for more hero-accessories, but was disappointed. They featured other Dwarf's packs, but not his. Blurry screen shots it was for reference, then.
The Weta book did state in the section about Dwarf belongings that Thorin's bedroll was a royal looking thing that had posh gold thread, ooh la la, but that's all I learned. In the screen shots, you can see it's draped over a sort of satchel/messenger bag style thing. The only details of the bag itself was that it had fur, and probably a leather strap. You can see the bedroll lavishly draped over it, along with the oak shield with a belt threaded through its straps (mine has a carrying strap on it that unclips which is simpler). The last pic is the only decent shot I have of the bag. Looks like leather with a decoration, and that hairy bottom.
Well, hairy bottom bag it was then.
I toyed with the idea of making the bedroll, wondered when I'd ever use such a thing again and decided against it. Instead, I decided to combine the two things into one sort-canon bag. It would have the blue and gold idea of the bedroll, some leather, and the fur.
Thorin's Hairy Man-bag Purse thing
The pattern I went for was based on a messenger bag, and rather than worry about getting new materials for it, it was made up of scraps from the rest of the costume.
Pleather - from scraps of Thorin's leather outer robe.
Blue velvet, pieced - from scraps of the blue velvet long waistcoat.
Fur - from the fake fur collar of the leather robe, the one I pulled off and replaced with real fur.
Lining - From potential lining for the armour (I eventually used one that had a smaller pattern, and this is a traditional Japanese festival print that still has that Dwarven aesthetic.)
Backing for the embroidery - from leftover blue wool of Bard The Bowman's loose trousers.
Leather for the shoulder (not very Hobbit-movie-ish but darned if I want that strap cutting into my neck) - from leftovers of making the belt.
New items - 100 yen elastic, 220 yen worth of blue canvas strapping. The gold thread was a lucky strike - a shop was selling off 5000 m spools for 1000 yen and I took a chance - and it's the best embroidery thread in gold I've ever had - no breaking or fraying. The gold cord was something I've had in my closet for ages, but you can bet I wouldn't have paid much for it, and it has metal content so it won't fade or melt.
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The bag is fairly big - I do lots of fan book shopping and the bottom will hold a B5 fan book laid flat, and then you can stack 20 pounds more of books on top. The pocket is NECESSARY. I don't have pockets anywhere else on the costume, not even on the pants. A shame, but it'd be a chore getting past all the other layers to reach them anyway.
The bag went together fairly quickly, aside from the embroidery. (Had to reinstall my pirated embroidery software - never ever buy Husqvarna unless you are a software thief like me. Each square took about 15 minutes or so for the machine to do). Out of the thousands of patterns I have, I tested about ten (used the rest to make little medieval pouches to sell) and decided on this one. Celtic, sort of Dwarfish, good enough. The blue velvet and gold echoes the thematic idea of the draped bedroll; the pleather and fur imitate the actual satchel Thorin carries. I applied the squares of embroidery to the velvet with the same gold thread in a thick zigzag stitch.
I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but the more I look at it, the better it seems, and I'll probably use it for school or whatever when winter rolls around. This is Tokyo, and mad accessories are the least of fashion choices here. It's barbaric and rich-looking and that's cool enough for me.
Anyway, there you have it - the last item made for the costume. Like the bag I made for the Bard costume, it's not a real thing the character has, but it matches the costume in style and is worthy to be carried at conventions without one looking stupid for having (as I've done already while in Thorin costume and dragging a wheeled suitcase because the bag check was full) a Sherlock printed bag or similar. Mind you, several people did want to know where I'd got the Sherlock bag, and I directed them to the artist's stuff on Society 6.
I s'pose the last post will be a couple of notes on make-up, such as it is, and the other accessories, which were all purchased.
Thanks for reading!
