Geralt – The Witcher – Costume Details

This costume has been an agony of time in getting it finished.  I have not had the time I would have liked to devote to all of the details in making it.  I feel bad that I didn’t get their swords done for the Geralt and Ciri costumes, but something’s gotta give, Man.  Momma works full time and clothes them in other awesomeness, so time for all of this is at a premium.

So, here are the details:

Clothing:

This was one of the hardest things to decide to do.  I didn’t figure the dude would want leather leggings, so I compromised with a pair of suede-cloth jeans.  The shirt is a thick knit, and I doubled up the sleeves in order to give it a more quilted look.  The shirt is supposed to be padded for the “armor”.

The jeans is my own pattern that I drafted and sized up from a pair of RTW jeans he owned.  The top is a heavily modified Ottobre pattern that I sized up.

The leather strapping:

Another thing that took forever.  I got these finished up in the spring.  They took me several days, several different types of leather and a metallic mesh.  Lots of buckles on this costume.  LOTS.

The chest plate:

This is made from vegetable tanned leather, which is a nice thick leather.  I wet it and formed it with some “molds”.  It took a day to dry.  Next it was dyed and formed again, since the dye makes it wet, too.  The straps are added last.

The mid-section armor:

What do you call this?  An armored corset?  I made the chainmail for this part.  I didn’t do it on the shoulder pieces since I ran out of time.  Maybe I will redo them.  Not sure yet.  Chainmail is shifty and a pain to make.  I ordered the jump rings online, along with a jump ring separator and curved nose plyers.  It worked really well, it just, you know, took forever.

The chainmail was hand-stitched onto the heavy-weight upholstery fabric.

Next I added the leather to the sides and I covered the back with corduroy.  I did a strip of leather across the top.

I used grommets and suede lacing at the side to bring the front and back together.  It was hard to see what they used in the game, so I improvised.

When it was done the dang thing was too big.  Ughhhhhh!  I had to cut it at each side and redo the leather edge.  Doesn’t look too bad, though.

Clay wolfhead:

This was made out of Sculpty clay.  Several layers, a bit of time and some paint later…it’s a pretty cool wolf.

Gloves turned bracers:

I didn’t want to do gloves since I had never made them before.  Instead I just made some bracers.  This is several different leathers and then some D- rings.

What didn’t get made:

• Leg Wraps: I wasn’t sure I wanted to do these, since that is a lot of leather to go to waste.  Since he had the suede pants, we opted to forgo this piece.  They were a PITA to put on his Connor costume, so I think we were both okay with it.
• Weapons:  I really wanted to make these out of wood and do some carving, but I just ran out of time.  If I had more free time I would have totally made it.  We’ll see.  I may yet.

It was a process and I am glad that it is done enough for Halloween.