Elven Plate Mail Project - Day 2

Day 2

Pattern-making is something that I really enjoy. Unlike a lot of the things I do, I find it is something that I can't really explain or teach. I do know that it involves a lot of "thinking through" the entire construction process. My poor client will receive a lot of questions today as I work on creating a template.

On this particular project I start with the outer lines of the pattern pieces, then detail the interior. Since the larger pieces are made of smaller overlapping pieces I draw in the overlap with a different color ink and I place the rivet and grommet positions in.

 Then the 1st pattern gets cut apart traced onto green pattern paper and then taped back together  (to deal with the overlap) then traced for the next piece, taped back together, etc.

I only pattern one side of the breast plate. The pattern pieces will get turned over and traced for the other side. In the process of patterning an interesting decision comes up. I bought a yard of brown vinyl, and that will be enough if I expose the rivets - riveting one plate to the next. However, I like the idea of hiding the rivets under the edge of each other - riveting them to another layer of vinyl underneath the plates. I think that it has a cleaner aesthetic, yet it will increase the cost (I'll need more vinyl) and the weight. So I need to communicate and get my client's preference on this decision before continuing.


The client leans toward the aesthetic solution, so after procuring more vinyl it comes down to laying the pattern pieces out. There is more to this than simply trying to get the most out of your fabric. Vinyl is essentially a textured plastic coating adhered to a fabric background usually a knit. Knits are known as self-hemming. Meaning that you can cut them and they do not fray.

The knit portion of the vinyl does have a direction.  That means it has something called bias. Bias means that the fabric stretches differently on horizontal, vertical, and diagonal axes. Often in sewing, pieces that are meant to drape or curve they are placed diagonally on the grain of the fabric. Examples could be skirt pieces and collars. With the vinyl much of the bias will be mitigated by the plastic side, however it is there a little bit in the knit portion of the fabric.

So I cut the front of the breastplate pieces on a gradiated bias, because I want more curvature on the front than I want in the back - which is cut on a straight bias.

One of the other things that became visually apparent as I worked on this was amount of material used in the construction. You can get a simple vest out of a half yard of fabric, but this is not a simple vest. All of those overlaps add up, both in material and time. I am working with 60" wide vinyl and have used almost 2 yards of it in cutting the pieces out. That is 30 square feet - which is a whole lot of leather. Leather costs for an abbreviated  breastplate (it doesn't cover the midsection of the torso) and rerebraces (cover the upper arm) would run me around $240, if I could get the right weight of leather on sale. (7.99/sqft of 5-6oz.) Start adding in the cost of rivets and buckles stains and finishes and a real leather set of armor is going to get out of the budget I have in no time. The vinyl I have to say usually runs $16.00 a yard and I got it for better than that. So the difference is about $200.

That isn't to say that leather isn't worth it. If you can afford it, it is so worth the cost. But in many cases folks are looking at a costume that they cannot budget that much for.

So end of day 2 and I have the pattern cut. On Day three I will be tracing it onto the vinyl and cutting it out. I wanted to have all of that done today, but there are 42 pieces in this pattern. That's a lot of cutting and taping today alone. Good thing I find this work enjoyable!