Vikings S2 - My Lagertha Battledress

[Shieldmaiden]

A WIP; Here are a few progress photos of my most involved project for this year's Dragon Con; Lagertha's chainmaille and blue leather battledress.



I'm going to be putting a few personal touches on mine, mostly in the tooled leather designs for the chainmaille tunic. I'm still deciding on specifics, but I know I want Norse ravens on the shoulder areas, and perhaps Norse dragons or wolves on the waist.

I made a mockup in cotton from a basic sewing pattern, that had a similar cut for the blue leather dress.


After the fit adjustments were done, I used the pieces as my new pattern and cut it out in the blue leather:



I'll be sewing this dress together tonight, and I also have the tooling leather shapes cut for the armor pieces:
From my mockup pieces...

to the leather...


With Dragon Con so close, I'm hoping I can finish it in time. Luckily the chainmaille is already made in the form of a large hauberk, so all I need to do is 'harvest' the right size pieces from that.
Wish me luck!
You can also follow along and see previous entries on this project, at my sewing blog: http://austrianwoman.blogspot.com/search/label/Lagertha

 

[Vixika]

Very cool! I love Lagertha... Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

[Shieldmaiden]

It was a late night. This Norse dragon inspired by an ancient axe head, will be tooled into the leather waist of the chainmaille tunic.
The design I'm using is not an exact replica of what is on Lagertha's armor in the series. This is on purpose, not only because it's really hard to make out the design in most images, but I want to do something that represents my personal totems and a little piece of history off the battlefield. The leather pieces at the shoulders are getting raven designs, representing Huginn and Muninn.
While I'm no stranger to doing detailed work like this, this will technically be my first detailed foray into tooling leather on this scale.



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Very cool! I love Lagertha... Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Thanks, Vixika My poor fingers will look forward to it being finished, too!

 

[Vixika]

I bet!!!! Hehe

It's gonna look so freaking awesome, I just know it!!

 

[charades]

Finally a Lagertha costume! Love it.

 

[Shieldmaiden]

An update on the leather work progress, and the undershirt is done.
Made in the traditional way from a linen flax, here's an early construction shot before sleeves and the dye bath. I'll post more when I've made more progress on all the pieces. xoxo

 

[swede]

That drawing would make a nice tat on my back Love it

 

[Shieldmaiden]

Here's a quick photo of the chainmaille and tooled leather armor progress from yesterday.
So far, so good and not bad for a day's work. I still need to add the strip of chainmaille to the area between the belt and bust line. The front is nearly complete and the back is not much different, but it has a narrower belt piece and less curved upper sections. Sitting on the flat table it looks uneven in the photo. When it's actually on me, all the sections straighten out.

 

[smoothrat]

Any updates on how this turned out? Your progress looks great.

 

[closet batfan]

I really like what you've done with the leather pattern, i want to try some thing similar for my LOTR costume but im scared of ruining the leather as I know nothing about engraving (not even sure if thats the right term) leather. Can you give me some pointers please?