Ygritte Costume: The Process

 Although the Game of Thrones costume party that this outfit was really meant for is not for another couple months, I figured I might as well make it early for Halloween just to test it out. I ended up making much more of the costume than I had originally planned, but it turned out surprisingly well considering it was my first time sewing without a pattern (and my second time making a costume at all!). I'll give you a quick run-down of how I constructed each part:

 The Vest
This vest, which I believe we have only seen in promo photos for the next season of the show, turned out to be the most difficult part of the costume. I used a tan faux leather that I ordered online, and while it was surprisingly easy to work with, I soon realized that it was not very forgiving of mistakes. Once you punch a hole in this material, even with just a small pin, it stays there permanently staring you in the face. Luckily I had fur to attach to most of the raw ends, so these holes or rips could be easily hidden.


I used a light blue tank-top as my example, as I like how loosely it fits me and the style is very similar to what I'm going for. I also looked at photos of costumes others have put together to see how exactly the pieces should fit.  After a lot of tracing, cutting, taping, looking back and forth from the photos to the paper, I managed to end up with three different shapes. One of these, the back, would be cut out twice, since both back pieces should be identical. Because Ygritte's actual outfit shows the front pieces as slightly different sizes, I had to cut out two different shapes rather than do the same thing I would be doing with the back. But who said this would be simple?




Starting with the neck lines, I then sewed all four pieces together and attached some faux fur. I ended up having to remove it from the bottom ends later when I cut the vest down smaller, and then reattach it. It wasn't exactly difficult, but definitely very time-consuming. Did I mention that I spent at least 3-4 hours every day for about 2 weeks on this entire costume?

Front

Back

The last thing, which turned out to be the most frustrating for me, was inserting the eyelets/grommets into the sides underneath the armholes. These would secure the punched holes through which a suede lace wove through to tie at the bottom. This was what kept the front and back sides of the vest attached, and I must admit, looked quite stylish.


The Pants


This was probably the simplest part of the costume, and the one that took me the least amount of time to complete. I used a pair of pajama pants (as they are loose and stretchy, which is the look I was going for) as a guide to create a pattern and cut out four pieces from a black faux leather. I quickly sewed them all together and then inserted some more of those cursed grommets into the top for more suede lacing. Unfortunately, after several attempts to tighten them, I still found the pants too loose when I wore them on Halloween and hope to alter that before I wear them again...it would not do to have my pants falling down at a New Years Eve ball, now would it?










The last thing I did-- sparked from the idea given to me by a coworker-- was smudge some white paint onto the outside of the pants to make them look covered in snow and more worn. I was nervous about how it would turn out, hoping I would not have to start all over, but to my amazement it looked even better than I had expected.











The Coat
Now I'll have to admit that the coat actually came about at the last minute. The weekend before Halloween, I found myself nearly finished with the other parts of my costume (including the bow and arrow set, which I'll explain in a minute) and then had the sudden thought-- What will I wear over my costume in the morning? I knew it would be cold and that I would have to wear something over my sleeveless vest, so would it not make the most sense to wear the actual coat Ygritte is seen in every shot wearing? Of course, mine would be made with cheaper fabric so that it would not look very authentic, but at least it would be something. I also had a ton of faux fur leftover, so I figured I might as well use it.





So 3 days before Halloween, I took the cheap grey suede I had bought the day before along with some dark brown cotton lining, and cut out my pieces using a large black coat as my guide. I didn't even bother to cut out pattern pieces this time, as I knew I would be covering most of it with fur anyway. In one night I had put together most of the pieces (front, back, sleeves) without any trouble at all. It seemed I was finally getting the hang of this sewing without directions thing!





I then proceeded to attach the faux fur, which was a tedious process of mostly hand-sewing, but it definitely made all the difference. Oh, and don't let me forget the hood-- that also turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated! Although I would have liked it to be a bit larger, it did cover my head quite well while wearing the wig so I couldn't complain.

Half finished coat with wig and props

The Wig
Now this I had not planned to do anything with other than take it out of the box and place it on my head, but I found it much to curly and frizzy for my liking and decided that something must be done. So I researched ways to straighten out a synthetic wig and discovered that it was as easy as dousing it with boiling water. I then pinned it to a large piece of Styrofoam I had lying around and set it up in my bathtub before pouring the hot water over it. And it worked! The hair was immediately pulled down straight by the weight of the water and dried that way. I had to do the process a couple more times before it was the consistency I wanted, but it ended up working quite well, I think.

Before straightening

After straightening

* P.S. You will also notice in the after straightening photo above (to the right) that my vest is shorter and a bit tighter. 

The Bow and Arrows and Quiver
 Last but not least, my props. I have been long fascinated with archery, and am pretty sure I want to try it out for real after all this is over. I was very tempted to actually shoot my bow and arrow in my apartment just for fun, but decided it probably was not the best idea.

I bought a cheap bow and arrow set at Big 5 with the resolution to alter them in any way I could to make them look like something Ygritte would use. Using photos of her bow and arrows as a guide, I then wrapped some black fabric around the bow and laced some black suede down it in a cross-hatch pattern that I noticed in the photos. I then painted the arrow fletchings white and stuck some feathers over them that I had bought at Michaels. A bit small, but they didn't look too bad.

For the quiver, I bought a PVC pipe and end piece at Home Depot and wrapped it in a loosely sewn black faux leather casing, which I also laced with the suede rope. It may not look quite like hers in the show, but it still seemed to match my costume pretty well. I attached some fur at the top and tied on a strap, adjusting it several times so that I could throw it over my shoulder and still reach the arrows with my shooting hand.





I was actually wearing some new laced boots I bought for my upcoming Dickens Fair costume, which I loosely covered in more black faux leather and wrapped with some dark brown fabric like hers appears to be in some of the photos. I'll have to better adjust that part later so that it doesn't come off while I'm walking, but it worked well enough for a photo at the office, anyway!

You know nothin', Jon Snow.

Happy Halloween!