My Saruman the White costume finished*pic heavy*

[CorriTimigan]

This Saturday 8th of September a friend of mine will be hosting a Lord of the Rings themed party, as there is a nationwide LOTR marathon planned in Australia. It's going to be fun!

Since I already own United Cutlery's Staff of Saruman I've elected to go with him. However, since I'm unemployed (read: poor) and there's only a week to throw something together it will have to be costume on a super budget.
In fact, budget is: $30. That's literally all I have to my name.

This will be my first ever costume attempt, thus I'm not sure how good it will be or whether I'll give a lot of photo updates. I'll try my best! It will be pretty text heavy until I really get into it, at any rate.
Let's get started!

I'll be beginning with Saruman's robe, which in the film is not actually white. Perhaps it was once but apparently the thought behind it was that since the wizard is quite ancient his clothing will have faded to an off-white/cream look. Keep that in mind as I go.

I plan on making this robe out of some nicely embroidered bed sheets, table cloths and curtains. All bought from op shops (or thrift stores) in keeping with the budget. Today, whilst scouting out some shops I stumbled upon three or four yards of white curtain fabric with a subtle floral embroidery at only $8. It really was quite beautiful, though I only got to look at it briefly before I had to leave. I'll be going back to get it early tomorrow.

Being a curtain it was very thick, heavy, and stiff. A little research tells me that I'll need to wash and tumble dry it, perhaps with some vinegar, a few times to soften it before I slice it all up with a pattern I've found online. I'll let you know how it all goes!


Here's a bonus for you! This is a terrible terrible terrible terrible quality (both the photo and costume) mock-up of how the costume will look in the end. This is done with a few bed sheets and table cloths that I won't use in the final product, they were just lying around. Also that black scarf will be going. Consider this a terrible "before" to the hopefully much better "after" that will come! Any advice will be more than appreciated!
Wish me luck!

I kinda look like ***** in this :wacko :lol

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP

Alrighty, day two!
This morning I bought my material and I've spent all day washing, cutting and fitting.
Here are some close ups of what I got.

In natural sunlight

Unfortunately it's not quite as floral as I hoped, but for only eight dollars I'm not going to complain too much.
As I mentioned earlier I put it through the washing machine with a cup of white vinegar and sent it through the tumble dryer. While it's still a little stiff it's much much nicer than it was!

I don't know if I mentioned, but I'm really bad at maths. Like, really really bad. As a result, despite double, triple, and quadruple checking my measurements the head hole is a full five inches too far to the right. It is however easily fixable. But I was stupid enough to forgo printing my pattern out on paper, I basically tried to make it up as I went along. Rooky mistake, won't be doing that again!

Note the terribly off center hole. How did I even do that!?

For the sake of ease I elected to make a one piece robe using this pattern:

Again, it didn't have any instructions one how to make the measurements and what-not so I was flying blind. Not easy but hey, I can say I've done it.
And done it I have!

I kept forgetting how big this thing is until I tried to take a photo of it. It was challenging to get it all in one shot.
Here it is with an N64 controller I had lying close by. Why, you ask? Because N64 is king.

Here's the almost finished product. It all just needs to be sewn together after a few small adjustments, but for all intents and purposes it's done.

With my staff

If you remember I made you note that Saruman's clothing isn't white. I was originally going to tea-dye this cloak but from what I've heard polyester/cotton blends don't dye well, and unfortunately that's what this is. I'll put together the rest of my costume and see how it looks before I decide to spray paint it or something.
If anyone else has any other suggestions I'm all ears!
Please tell me what you think! This is my first ever attempt ever at a costume ever, so I'm not doing things correctly. I already know that. Please tell me exactly what so I can improve for next time!

Until then!

Corri Timigan

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

A quick update for the precisely zero people keeping an eye on this.

I decided to take the weekend off because making the coat was a much quicker process than I thought it would be. I powered through it in a day, where I thought it would take a week. I suppose that shows a bit in the final product but it works for me!

I'll probably be making some half-arsed spats for a pair of tan boots I own at some point so I'll likely post some pictures of that when I do.
Otherwise I think I'll leave this and just show you how I do it all come Friday night when I test the full thing out.

I think I really overestimated how complicated this was going to be. If it were an accurate costume, maybe, but for what it is it's really simple

A'ight y'all! Have a good evening!

 

[Nobby]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

A quick update for the precisely zero people keeping an eye on this.

Hey, I'm watching buddy
Hope you manage to get this finished for the party :thumbsup

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Well hey, there you go! That's actually good to know, thanks!

Now I'll definitely have to catalogue those spats

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Sort of half update #2!
I'm not very good at this.


Alrighty, I made a conscious decision the other day not to make the spats I was going to. After looking at the colour of the shoes along with the colour of the robe and tunic I made (which I'll have to talk about) I've decided to forgo putting in effort to hide them, they're not as offensive to the eye as I previously anticipated.
Now for the tunic. I forgot to photograph as I went, I'm afraid, but I'll explain in detail. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of what I ended up with!

But, I stopped by the Salvos where I volunteer a few days a week and found a really nice doona cover in a light beige-ey yellowish that I really liked. Of course it also had the floral pattern embossing it, can't go wrong with that.

My initial plan to drape the thing over my shoulders and have it hang down *see the image up top, that's a very long table cloth* failed as the cover was too thick and not long enough when folded in half.

I had a long day, I couldn't be bothered to nicely measure everything and sew it with a machine, so instead I butchered it! Completely!
I put myself inside the cover and cut a crude hole for my head to pop out. Imagine at the moment I look a bit like a walking carpet with a head poking out the top. Next I simply cut massive slits down the front, so it could act like a cape of sorts, and then some big slits down the side for my arm.

Well. . . I say cut. More like tore. I seriously destroyed this thing. It's a pity, it really was quite nice. I wonder if the original owner would approve of my primitive methods
Finally after ten minutes of hacking, tearing and splitting fabric I had a large long mess of fabric. Looking at it lying on the floor you'd think it was rubbish, but once I fold it nicely, put it on and fasten it nicely with a strip belt I fashioned out of the robe's hem it looks pretty bloody good! If I do say so myself.:love

Again, I'll have to show you the final piece for you to see me but seeing as how it's after midnight here and my little brother has to go to school tomorrow I don't really want to wake him to take some shots of me.

Tomorrow I'll be trying out the entire costume to be ready for Saturday so I'll take a few shots and show you all of it for the sake of it, plus talk through the small things I haven't mentioned yet.

As always, thanks for reading. It's a pity that there are apparently so few Lord of the Rings costume builds of the RPF, they all seem to be of Batman and Iron Man, and they're WAY out of my league.
:behave I'm rambling. I'm going to go to bed now. . .

 

[Nobby]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

I'm no whizz with a sewing machine myself, but the old cliche: "measure twice, cut once' definitely works
Just take it slow, don't rush it. You'll get much better results. I realise you've only got a couple of days, but how will you feel if you rush and make a mistake that cannot be fixed?

Looking forward to seeing what you've done

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

You're absolutely right, I won't argue, and I usually would be more careful. I just got lucky this time!
I'm not sure why but I was really restless today, just needed to do something. . . Turns out ripping apart a blanket worked a charm

 

[Diastrom]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Very cool, thanks for sharing the pattern pix.

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

No worries, friend! It's obviously very rough, and I'm sure you can find better and more precise ones elsewhere but I thought I was short on time when I found this so went for it as a guide.
If I had my time over I definitely would have searched more thoroughly. When it's all said and done, however, I'm glad I found it.

 

[pat0003]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

A quick update for the precisely zero people keeping an eye on this.

I decided to take the weekend off because making the coat was a much quicker process than I thought it would be. I powered through it in a day, where I thought it would take a week. I suppose that shows a bit in the final product but it works for me!

I'll probably be making some half-arsed spats for a pair of tan boots I own at some point so I'll likely post some pictures of that when I do.
Otherwise I think I'll leave this and just show you how I do it all come Friday night when I test the full thing out.

I think I really overestimated how complicated this was going to be. If it were an accurate costume, maybe, but for what it is it's really simple

A'ight y'all! Have a good evening!

No I'm watching!opcorn Great first attempt at making a costume. Yes the tea will help tone it down.:cool

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Thank you all very much

Here is a full build of my finished costume, from the bottom layers out!

Here we have an ivory dinner shirt (or tuxedo shirt) I got last year for the school formal for about thirty or forty dollars. The pleats make it look very nice with the tunic over the top.
Then you can just see my light grey trousers, which look a lot darker than they really are in real life. Then I have some white braces to keep them up, I rarely wear belts. I find these far more comfortable.

And look, here's that mess I was talking about! Looks terrible.

But not too bad when it's on. I was honestly really happy with this for a ten minute job. As I said, I got really damn lucky. And you can also see the white belt/cummerbund type thing I made with the hem of the robe. It works well to bring the entire costume together. Speaking of which. . .

There's the whole thing. Again, the boots and trousers look very dark for some reason, but aren't that bad in reality. What do you think?

Oh, and just for reference:

Of course I could never come close to the great Sir Christopher Lee in anything I did, but I like to think this is a nice tribute to his brilliance

Oh, on a side note; I also decided I didn't want to buy a cheap wig and beard from a costume shop. They never ever look good on me and would make the entire thing look tacky, in my opinion. Instead I'll be running a bunch of talcum powder through my own hair and beard to whiten them. When I get some photographs tomorrow before and at the party I'll be sure to post them here!
Thanks for watching this, guys! So much! It's been a really good experience for my first go. Any last minute comments?

 

[Nobby]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Looking good :thumbsup

Have fun at the party

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP *pic heavy*

Thanks, man! I certainly will!

 

[Thedoctor67]

Re: My Saruman the White costume WIP

Alrighty, day two!
This morning I bought my material and I've spent all day washing, cutting and fitting.
Here are some close ups of what I got.

In natural sunlight

Unfortunately it's not quite as floral as I hoped, but for only eight dollars I'm not going to complain too much.
As I mentioned earlier I put it through the washing machine with a cup of white vinegar and sent it through the tumble dryer. While it's still a little stiff it's much much nicer than it was!

I don't know if I mentioned, but I'm really bad at maths. Like, really really bad. As a result, despite double, triple, and quadruple checking my measurements the head hole is a full five inches too far to the right. It is however easily fixable. But I was stupid enough to forgo printing my pattern out on paper, I basically tried to make it up as I went along. Rooky mistake, won't be doing that again!

Note the terribly off center hole. How did I even do that!?

For the sake of ease I elected to make a one piece robe using this pattern:

Again, it didn't have any instructions one how to make the measurements and what-not so I was flying blind. Not easy but hey, I can say I've done it.
And done it I have!

I kept forgetting how big this thing is until I tried to take a photo of it. It was challenging to get it all in one shot.
Here it is with an N64 controller I had lying close by. Why, you ask? Because N64 is king.

Here's the almost finished product. It all just needs to be sewn together after a few small adjustments, but for all intents and purposes it's done.

With my staff

If you remember I made you note that Saruman's clothing isn't white. I was originally going to tea-dye this cloak but from what I've heard polyester/cotton blends don't dye well, and unfortunately that's what this is. I'll put together the rest of my costume and see how it looks before I decide to spray paint it or something.
If anyone else has any other suggestions I'm all ears!
Please tell me what you think! This is my first ever attempt ever at a costume ever, so I'm not doing things correctly. I already know that. Please tell me exactly what so I can improve for next time!

Until then!

Corri Timigan

Hi there, Know this thread is quite old now. None of the pics are showing - but I'm trying to create a Saruman costume & hope that you can help. Kind regards Matt

 

[CorriTimigan]

Hi there, Know this thread is quite old now. None of the pics are showing - but I'm trying to create a Saruman costume & hope that you can help. Kind regards Matt

Hi Matt! Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately all these photos are long gone, as is my costume. You won't be too saddened to hear that it ended up looking pretty rough, I'd be lying through my teeth if I said it was in any way accurate. But I'd be happy to help however I can, though!
There's a bit of a rule when it comes to costume replicas which you might have heard.
Cheap, accurate, quick. You can choose two. Mine was cheap and quick. If you want an accurate costume done quickly, you go to someone like Magnoli or some other maker and you pay them to do it all for you, but you really are paying for their excellent service. If you have a lot of time and a good eye for detail you can very slowly handmake your costume without breaking the bank.
Which level do you think you'd find yourself?

 

[Thedoctor67]

Hi Matt! Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately all these photos are long gone, as is my costume. You won't be too saddened to hear that it ended up looking pretty rough, I'd be lying through my teeth if I said it was in any way accurate. But I'd be happy to help however I can, though!
There's a bit of a rule when it comes to costume replicas which you might have heard.
Cheap, accurate, quick. You can choose two. Mine was cheap and quick. If you want an accurate costume done quickly, you go to someone like Magnoli or some other maker and you pay them to do it all for you, but you really are paying for their excellent service. If you have a lot of time and a good eye for detail you can very slowly handmake your costume without breaking the bank.
Which level do you think you'd find yourself?

Hi Corri,
Thank you for replying. I would have loved to have seen your costume. I bet it was better than what you remember.

My costume is going to be 'created' (lol) by me. I have seen some excellent replicas but are so far out of my price range - so I'm cheap and quick (though not that quick as I have till August! I have managed to pick up some cheap trousers (cream) to wear under a robe (to make) and I have a sheet, which has been sorta worn to see how it'd work as an over-cape with large sleave - but that has to be pinned etc before sewing. I have a large polystyrene ball that I'm going to make into a Palantir - going to give it several coats of PVA glue, then paint it yellow, with a black eye either side and then use orange to create a flame around it. I'm also going to attempt to make the staff and have a template to download and cut out. I bought a straight white wig for the hair - but I may go clean shaven as a young uncorrupted Saruman, despite the palantir! Again any help & advice is greatly appreciated. This is the first time that I am trying to do a costume from scratch

 

[CorriTimigan]

Sounds like you've got a plan! I hope you share photos when you've done yours.
A couple of years after doing this costume I made an Aragorn costume, this time with a little more time to make it. For that costume I used this website which was absolutely invaluable.

Saruman

There's a lot of very intricate details which you probably don't need, but the reference photos are still helpful.
What will you make your staff out of?

Finally, layers will make this costume look good. More fabric typically means more luxurious, so if you're not going screen accurate then I recommend wearing as many layers as possible to exude that regal look Saruman has. Like I did, maybe go into some thrift stores or even proper fabric shops and have a look at fancy embroidered materials which you can add to your costume.
If you have them, there's also a bit in the 'making of' dvds on how they made Saruman's costume and their thoughts behind their choices. You might be able to find it on YouTube?