Ves - The Witcher

[Freya Willia]

I really want to document this build here, because I'm using a lot of techniques I've never tried before. I was introduced to the Witcher series by my brother and while he mostly played the games, I read the short stories the game series is based off of and really liked it. I liked Ves right away from her design and turns out she's as much a badass as I could have hoped for based off her appearance alone.

The most challenging part of Ves' costume is her jacket. I wanted it to be plated like an armored vest/brigandine coat.



So after I built a jacket pattern using this flex-foam fabric liner



...I put little styrene squares everywhere. Challenging, because the body and cut of the jacket is not one big giant square. They gradually change in size to fit with the shape.



For the front of the vest I used a styrene vac-formed boob cup, hoping that it would give the grid some shape when they were made into little squares



Then I put interfacing on top to keep all the squares firmly in place before I started sewing.



Stitching was done at a low speed and very carefully. I messed up the bobbin case once and had to take my machine in for a repair (it was due anyway, but that put a halt on things for a few weeks). If you try this wear some kind of eye safety gear.





More to come! If I could figure out how to do the updated mobile app for this forum without getting frustrated, my posts here would be more regular. I no longer have a laptop which is what I used to do most of my N7 armor build.

 

[Solos blaster]

Honestly, I think her jacket is just a quilted gambeson (as seen below), made into a short jacket, with small studs or such added at the intersection of each pad.


Gambesons were worn under armor like mail and helped offer more protection from weapons as well as getting pinched from armor.

In any case, I'm also a Witcher fan and can't wait to see this through.

 

[Freya Willia]

Honestly, I think her jacket is just a quilted gambeson (as seen below), made into a short jacket, with small studs or such added at the intersection of each pad.


Gambesons were worn under armor like mail and helped offer more protection from weapons as well as getting pinched from armor.

In any case, I'm also a Witcher fan and can't wait to see this through.

It could be that. But I prefer to think the rivets have a function like they do here.

Also the bulkiness of her sleeves, and the way they are attached by a strap at the top of her shoulders (probably able to separate from the vest, since you can see they are not connected at the seam and other references show red string ties there), makes me think it could be armor plated. With the bonus of not having to sew them to the armhole.

I'm using a leather hole punch to get the rivets through. I'll be doing nothing else for a while.

 

[WereDrelf]

Your work looks really interesting! Looking forward to following your progress.

 

[Halex]

Oh, very nice! Been playing Witcher 3 almost nonstop for a month now and it's great to see some of the characters being brought to life.

 

[Freya Willia]

https://flic.kr/p/BHC7yN

Hm. I can't tell which one of those upload options worked, but whatever.

Working on weathering a bit before I sew all the pattern pieces together.

 

[gopers]

Loving this. Great job!

 

[Gee2]

Fantastic! Really great work on this, love the game so I look forward to more progress.

 

[Freya Willia]

Here's her jacket pieces pinned together on my mannequin. Still working on riveting her collar.

I will be using mostly synthetic fabric for this costume, but I do plan on using leather. I imagine her pants being made of something like soft leather but for now I will be using metallic spandex that I'm going to grime up and texturize with fabric paint.



People are skeptical of how that's going to turn out, and understandably, but I'm not worried. It will work. Because I'm going to force it to.

I do have some genuine antique linen I'll be using for her shirt though. I have a collection of handwoven linens specifically for costumes. There isn't anything like it produced today. This is from the early 1800s, before they started using wider looms. Probably bed sheets, since there is a seam down the middle, but it's been laundered thousands of times so the linen is very very soft and almost like a towel. It does not wrinkle like modern linen.

 

[Freya Willia]

https://flic.kr/p/Knzutj

Not sure which of those will work because I'm on the mobile app.

Airbrushing is too tedious to film or capture easily in sequential photos, but to achieve this stage I did:

1.) pass of flesh-tone (like concealer makeup)
2.) pass of burnt umber + transparent airbrush medium focusing in the seam areas, 1:1 mixture
3.) pass of burnt umber + desaturated yellow, 1:2 mixture

While I did the airbrushing I occasionally smeared drips and scratched texture with a sponge before it dried completely, keeping most of the texture to the seam areas.

All of these layers are very fine misting done about 8-10 inches away from the legs. I want to keep some of the metallic showing through.

This can only be done outdoors in natural light, imo, to get the correct contrast and temperature shifting of color.

 

[HaggardSage]

Wonderful work! It looks amazing.