LOTR COSTUMING TUTORIALS

1.0 CHOOSING YOUR LOTR COSTUME:

        Now that you'd decided to join our team and don a LOTR Costume, you can must first choose which character you will like to do.

        The decision will primary depend on what characters and costume is still available. Your Height, Body Size & Shape may also have to be taken in consideration. Your budget will also help to set what costume and how accurate you can do.

        Do as much research as you can about the costume. Alleycatscratch-LOTR is a Great LOTR Costumes/Armors/Props Resources. Observe every picture available of the character you have chosen and try to do a search online to see if anyone else had done it. You can also consult anyone you know who knows about choosing rite cloth for your selected costumes.

2.0 GETTING THE MATERIALS:

        In order to get started doing your LOTR Costume, you need to get the materials needed. For cloth, you can drop by Arab Street Cloth District or People's Park Shopping Centre (Chinatown) #02 or Geylang Serai/Joo Chiat Complex or your nearby neighborhood Cloth shops.

        Before you start shopping for the materials, list down what you'll need and how much. This will primary depend on the basic design of the costume and if you're commissioning it to someone (seamstress, tailor, friends etc), do consult them first to make sure you are buying sufficient materials for your costume. Also try to allocate the budget for your costume with a little extra to accommodate any increase in the price of the items you need to get.

3.0 PUTTING THEM ALL TOGETHER

        Have the basic/intermediate Sewing Skills? Then you can sew the costume yourself. But remember to give yourself sufficient time to do it to make sure it's ready by the needed date (Dec 27th 2004).

        You can also make use of commercial patterns such as Simplicity, McCall's, New Look, Burda and Butterick readily available at Spotlight. A number of them had been recommended at LOTR Costume Research Home.

        Can't sew? Then you'll need the service of a seamstress or tailor or friends who can do the commission work for you. Do search around for one who is willing to do the costume according to your budget. Make sure you provide enough info for them so that your costume will turn out how it meant to be. Basic drawing of the costume layer by layer (if there is several layers) with smaller sketches of certain parts that need special attention will be very useful.

        If you got a couple of hundreds of dollar to burn and need the costume in a hurry, then you can use the service of local Costume Shops as listed in our Costume For Rental page.

READY, SET . . . GO!

        Finally, after many weeks and months doing your LOTR costume, you are now ready to don it at the our next LOTR Appearance/Outing.

        Wait! Before the day arrive, wear your costume and check in the mirror whether it's complete. Does the costume fit you comfortably? Is there any unsightly parts sticking out? Try sitting down with the costume (this is VERY IMPORTANT cause later if you'll be sitting in the cinema).

        On the night before the parade, lay out your costume parts and pack them up together to make sure you didn't left anything behind. Make a list of items/parts you need to wear/bring if possible.