Another Rainy Day

It is another rainy day in Dun Abhon. Unfortunately rainy days for Belegarth mean practices called off, but that doesn't mean you have to be un productive. Rainy days can be a good time to repair weapons, build new ones or to complete that garb project your been working on and just haven't had time to finish.

In my case i decided to take a little time and work on a piece of garb that I have had on the back burner for some time. I am making a fur mantle. This project started with a surprise find that I had one day when I was in a thrift shop. An old fur coat in poor repair that was being sold for $15.

At first I wasn't sure what to do with the fur but it occurred to me that our toasty August weather doesn't last and as things cool off I might need something to keep me warm.

Well the first thing that I did was remove the sleeves. I'm thinking that there is enough fur on the sleeves to add decoration to the paldrons on my armor and since I've been doing a black and red color scheme this works perfectly.

Next I need a pattern for my mantle. A mantle is basically a short cloak that hangs around your shoulders. So I did a little hunting online to see what I could come up with. Basically what you want for a cloak is a fan shaped pattern like in the picture below. Since I am using an old coat I decided that it is already cut and sewn to hang well around the shoulders, and while is isn't a full fan like the picture, it does have the basic shape already.   If you are starting with a fake piece of fur, a fur hide or even an old coat like me and need to do some cutting a word of warning. use scalpel or a razor knife of some kind. It is a bad idea to use scissors on fur. The fur will mat between the blades and give you an uneven cut.

My next step was to sew up all the holes in the coat. It was in a very poor state when I got it so it needed some work. I got a large leather needle and some black artificial senew. I also got some leather mending glue. I used some really thin scraps of leather in some spots and glued them under the fur to reinforce it. I sewed the arm holes together and sewed up all the other holes that I found.

Once I had it all sewn up I had to find a way to fasten it on. So I ran down to the local fabric store, peaked in Michael's and even went to Walmart to see what was available. I settled on two large fancy buttons and a piece of silver chain for my Tibulae. 

Here is a picture of the completed Mantle. Hopefully I will get out to some cold weather events this year so that I can show it off.

I realize that it is still a little plain looking. So maybe for my next rainy day project I will add a red liner to the inside of it. For now I have some swords that need fixing so I think I will get to that. 

Have a great rainy day and be sure to tell me all about your rainy day projects as well. Our readers would love to hear about them.

Thorne the mercenary.

Coming soon: How to make a period sky gazer chair or what some call viking chairs.