Raistlin Majerie
I’ve finally started this costume with only 65 days left until the Con!
I always struggle to come up with a good idea for a DragonCon costume that isn’t completely overdone but is still recognizable. I decided last year that doing a character from the DragonLance books would be fun since probably everyone at DragonCon has read them (sorry for the huge stereotype, but I’ve met the DragonCon people and, trust me, they’ve read these books!) And, while the chainmail bikini that Tika is wearing was tempting, Raistlin is hands-down the coolest character in the Dragonlance books. These books are pretty cheesy, but they are the ones that introduced me to Fantasy novels. Until I borrowed them from a friend when I was about 14, I didn’t even know the genre of Fantasy existed. My friend also informed me that these books “weren’t really for girls” which made me mad and even more determined to read them. I think my mother still curses the day that I discovered the Dragonlance books and started on the journey to become a Fantasy fanatic, Sci-fi junkie, Larper, Scadian, costumer, etc… All I can say is that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were hugely influential in my middle school years (As well as Mercedes Lackey, ’cause what 15 year old girl can resist talking horses!) and this costume is my homage to that,well, and the total awesomeness that is Raistlin!!
Anyway, when I had the idea to do this costume, the first thing I di
d was to go online and look at other Raistlin costumes people had made. Whoa. Bad idea ’cause there is some really terrible stuff out there. I did find the picture on the left which is really nice and more what I was looking for. The goal for this costume is to get the idea of Raistlin without looking like my mom made the costume for a school play.
I think that once again, I’m going to use cotton velveteen for the robe. I’m also only going to use one bag instead of two because I don’t want to outweigh my costume with accessories.
My husband is in charge of making the Staff of Magus (I’m geeked out) and he’s going to try to give it a crystal top that will light up. The funny thing about the staff is that in every Elmore picture, it is different; a different crystal top, a different bottom, a different height…I really like the height of the ones in the pictures here,so that is hopefully what I’ll end up with.
This should be fairly easy to make, the only thing that I don’t know where to find is the small animal skull. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.
June 28, 2011
I finally settled on the patterns for the costume. I looked through a whole bunch of historical costuming books and finally settled on a McCalls patttern and a Simplicity pattern. Oh well, so much for any historical accuracy, but both patterns are simple and I should be able to get the outfit done pretty quickly. The patterns I’m using are McCalls 2339 for the Robe and Simplicity 5794 for the cloak. I had both on hand, so that also made me choose them…instant satisfaction. I’m going to use the McCalls for the robe and I’m going to add black bands around the sleeves and bottom edges. I’m going to use the Simplicity for the cloak and I’m going to use the purple velvety picture with a hood but no capelet. Several of the Elmore pictures show Raistlin with a cloak.
I bought my fabric today. I was planning on using cotton velveteen, but upon looking at it, I decided that it was way to fancy for “adventuring” garb. I then found some really pretty red linen and put it in my cart and strolled it around Joann’s for a bit, but it didn’t look “mage-y” enough. I finally settled on some dark red microsuede. The historical costumer in me cringes at the thought of 100% polyester for medieval-esqu garb, but it looks right for a mage outfit and, whatever, this is a fantasy costume. I also bought some black microsuede for the bands around the edges and some gold fabric paint to make the runes on the cuffs.
I didn’t buy any lining because I thought I had some black fabric at home. I didn’t, but I did have a white sheet that was in my scrap pile. I ran to Hancock’s for some dye and when I got home I realized it was for dyeing on the stove. I really wasn’t up for an hour of stirring fabric in a pot, so I went to Publix and bought some black Rit dye. It is currently in the washing machine. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out okay.
July 9, 2011
Robes are done!! Using the two patterns above, I made some fairly good mage robes. The lining that I was going to dye went the way of all of my dying projects and turned totally not the right color, so now I have a lovely dove grey lining instead of black. Oh well.
I used the angel robe pattern and the purple cloak pattern. The only changed I made to the patterns were putting the black edging on the sleeves, hood, and bottom of the robe. Other than that, the patterns are straight from the package. I also lined the robe, but I think I’m going to cut it off at the knee because I don’t like the way you can see it at the split in the robe.
I’m not a huge fan of the microsuede, but I think it looks okay even though the thought of all that polyester makes me shudder. I also used some acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium to paint runes on the sleeves and the hood of the robes. The gold stands out really wall against the black and the paint went onto the microsuede really nicely.
I’ve also been working on accessories. I want to make a big leather spellbook bag, two sack-pouches, and one or two leather pouches. I made a scroll case last night and I think it turned out pretty good. I used an old gift wrap tube, an old suede jacked that was destined for Goodwill until I re-purposed it, and some acrylic paint. Painting was fun and it allowed my two hobbies-costuming and illumination-to merge.
We also made our annual DragonCon costuming Home Depot run. (This trip was combined with Scott’s plan for domination over the ant empire that has taken root on our patio) Scott had the brilliant idea of using a closet pole for the Staff of Magius. We got it cut to 6.5′ and it is really hefty and good feeling in my hand. I need to stain the pole and figure out how to make the top. Step 1: Acquire a glass globe. I have no idea where.
Update: August 1, 2011
The Costume is 99.7% finished. The only thing left is to attach the globe (yes, I found one) to the staff and that sounds like a job for my father-in-law who is very nice and patient about all the weird things I ask him to do.
I have been working like crazy making pouches and “magical” things that an adventuring mage would need in his travels. Here are some of the treasures that I made:
The first picture, which was one of the last things I made, is the wrist sheath. I realized after I had finished all the other pouches and pockets the in the Dragonlance books, Raistlin always wears a stealthy wrist sheath with a dagger in it. My forearm is a bit small for a dagger and I didn’t really want to buy a real dagger, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a letter opener which fits nicely on my forearm and won’t accidentally stab me. The sheath slides up the arm with the two cuffs then ties tightly with the leather cords.
I then found this idea at the Armor Geek website and made a scroll to tie on to my belt in addition to the scroll case. As I’m typing this, I just realized that I need to write a “spell” on the paper. It took just a few minutes to make. The studs are actually upholstery tacks with the backs hammered down and covered with a strip of leather. I didn’t have any actual studs and since I was making this late and night and needed it right then, I had to make do with what I had on hand.
I bought this cool bottle at Joann’s for $1. It definitely needed a holder, so I took a strip of leather, sewed a loop on one end for the belt and on the other end for a leather strip to go through and made and easy potion holder. I need to fill the bottle with something interesting…
The coin bag was another pattern from Armor Geek. It is made of brown wool leftover from my Flemish Partlet. It took about five minutes from start to finish and looks pretty neat.
This pouch is also from Armor Geek. It is made of some terrible pleather that I used to make poulaines for my Cotehardie. I blanket-stitched the edge to make it look more hand-made and added a buckle which I found in my button box. I have no idea where it came from, but it made a nice little feature.
I realized, rather belatedly, that I needed a spellbook. I thought of just making a bag and putting any old book in it, but the costumer in me wanted a cool prop. I went to google and asked its opinion on the matter. It told me that this website http://www.instructables.com/id/Harry-Potter-style-Hogwarts-Library-Spellbooks/ had exactly what I was looking for. I knew that I had to make one.
First I went to a used book store and looked in the “decorator books” section. I found a copy of Aristotle with a leather-ish cover. I bought it and a spare…which I didn’t need…and began making my spellbook.
Usually, I would feel pretty bad about beating up a book, but since it was a decorator book which was destined to go sit on a shelf just to look fancy and given that there are drillions of copies of Aristotle’s works, I didn’t feel too bad.
I sandpapered Aristotle’s name off the spine and the part that said “Great Works of Western Literature”…it kind of killed the myth that this was a spellbook.
Step one was to figure out a title and a font. Scott came up with the title and the font was one I had downloaded for an SCA flyer a few years ago. I cut it out with an exacto knife and painted it with gold goauche.
That didn’t give enough interest on the cover, so I made a sigil using the letters of Raistlin’s name.
Once that was done, it was time to commence with the beating. I banged the book on tables, dropped it on the floor and generally treated it like I would never treat a book. Poor book.
I also scuffed it with sandpaper, put ink on it, stained it with coffee inside and out, bent the cover and the back, set it on fire, and I can’t even remember what else.
I painted some glyphs on the side and scored and painted lines on the front and back covers to add some more interest. The one on the back looks vaguely pentagram-y, but is actually just a design I copied off the cover of a different old book.
Finally, I needed some way to attach the book to myself. I decided to make a book strap because I didn’t want to cover it up in a bag. I took some strips of leather and worked out a basic shape and tied it with some straps I found in my trim bag. The little studs were from my scrapbooking suppplies but added some needed texture.
Finally, I made a skull and some feathers. The skull is out of Fimo. After a few failed attempts, I realized that sculpting clay was not my forte and asked Lorenzo for some help. He made me a lovely bird-ish skull (from the other side, it has creepy teeth). I painted it to make it look aged and more like bones and less like clay. I also painted the red swirl on the top which is on the skull in my inspiration picture.
I don’t have any pictures of the whole thing put together yet. I’ll add those as soon as I cool down enough to put all this stuff on.
I also bought some yellow Avatar contact lenses. I still need to get some gold/yellow body paint and some grey hair color.
Update: 8/28/11
The Raistlin Costume is done. I have gotten my yellow contacts, which are just plain weird to wear, and my grey hair paint. I don’t have pictures of the makeup on yet, I’m waiting for the Con to be that hardcore, but here are some pictures of the whole thing sans makeup.
Raistlin with Accessories
Belt and Accesories
Inspiration
Final Comparison
The first picture, which was one of the last things I made, is the wrist sheath. I realized after I had finished all the other pouches and pockets the in the Dragonlance books, Raistlin always wears a stealthy wrist sheath with a dagger in it. My forearm is a bit small for a dagger and I didn’t really want to buy a real dagger, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a letter opener which fits nicely on my forearm and won’t accidentally stab me. The sheath slides up the arm with the two cuffs then ties tightly with the leather cords.
I bought this cool bottle at Joann’s for $1. It definitely needed a holder, so I took a strip of leather, sewed a loop on one end for the belt and on the other end for a leather strip to go through and made and easy potion holder. I need to fill the bottle with something interesting…
Finally, I made a skull and some feathers. The skull is out of Fimo. After a few failed attempts, I realized that sculpting clay was not my forte and asked Lorenzo for some help. He made me a lovely bird-ish skull (from the other side, it has creepy teeth). I painted it to make it look aged and more like bones and less like clay. I also painted the red swirl on the top which is on the skull in my inspiration picture.
