How to make a Jon Snow Costume without breaking the bank (Leather Jerkin)
Making Jon Snow's Leather Jerkin
The next part of my project was not so easy. I was asked to produce as authentic looking a costume as possible – now just how hard could that be? Well, in the end it was quite tricky. Jon Snow had three main pieces of attire that he wore after he had left the Stark household; a black 'Night's Watch' uniform, an 'on the wall' uniform and an 'north of the wall' uniform.
All of them looked very similar yet all of them had sometimes quite subtle differences. To add insult to injury, judging from the photo's from various exhibitions, the quality of the costume varied from one episode to the next... so it was quite a job to amalgamate these different representations, to produce a good quality costume.
As I mentioned before, there was a budget to adhere to as well, so with this in mind I intended to use every last scrap of the offcuts from the coat to good avail.I fashioned a collar and hand bound it with a strip of faux leather (5.99 a metre from the local store) and then looked at the bottom half of the coat. I removed this part of the coat off to just below the waist. Then, using a paper pattern to obtain the right shapes I made some peplums for the bottom to add a little flair. I then hand sewed the button holes closed and then bound all the raw edges with some more of the faux leather (this is where my sore fingers came into play!)
Looking closely at the actual straps on Jon Snow's leather doublet I could see that they had been riveted on. Although I could not see how many straps were used, I seemed reasonable to assume that they extended all of the way down the front of the costume. In fact, the straps were fashioned from the very last pieces of leather taken from the original coat and then attached as a final finishing touch. The rivets were obtained from eBay for about £5.00. (Cost so far: £10.99)
The buckles were a bit of a worry because I just couldn't obtain enough of the right size. In the end I had to compromise and purchase them slightly bigger than I would have wished for, at a further cost of 3.50. The nicest thing about using the rivets is that Sebastian can further customise his outfit by swapping the straps for much more suitable buckles at a later date. However, they will do for now! (Cost so far: £14.50).
Keep tuned for my next posts which will cover how I made Jon Snow's sword 'LongClaw' and also other layers of the actual outfit!
Thanks for reading!
You can read more of Jane's articles at her website 'Geekytoons'.
