Tower Guard Coat

This Instructable is on how to sew yourself a jacket based loosely on the uniforms of the Guards of the Citadel of Minas Tirith. Or, if you are a sane person and don't want to destroy your fingers trying to embroider that much, you can just make a fancy coat!

Fabrics (I used about 3 yds of each)

1. Plastic table cloth or scrap fabric (optional, for making a mock up)
2. Black cotton fabric
3. Dark blue/indigo cotton fabric
4. Black flannel fabric for lining

Supplies

1. Embroidered lace edging trim, white or silver (6-7 yds)
2. Fancy silver buttons
3. Stout felt
4. Silvery white glass beads or gems

Embroidery materials

1. Metallic silver thread
2. Metallic gold thread
3. Metallic white or white gold floss
4. White floss

To begin, I highly recommend making the entire coat, minus the lining, in a different, more expendable fabric first as a mock up. This will ensure that the coat fits properly, and then you can take it back apart and use the sections as a pattern for the good fabrics.

Personally, I never use patterns or size charts or anything. I usually just glance at a picture of a pattern so that I know the basic shapes of the fabric I need to cut, then I make a mock up and adjust it until it fits me how i like it. If you don't want to play around, though, there are many patterns online that you can print out and Frankenstein together to get what you want. You can also try to find an item of clothing, perhaps a vest or a coat, that fits you well and trace the basic size and shape of it from there.

As for me, I began with cutting the three shapes of the vest. The back of the vest is a single symmetrical piece with two half-ovals cut out for the future arm holes, as shown in the pictures above. Now, this is very IMPORTANT-- make sure the flat sections at the top are wide enough. This means making the neck-hole not too wide, and making sure that the top of the armholes stick out farther than the bottom. I learned this the hard way, as when the sleeves are attached, they will need room to fit your shoulders. I suggest playing with this in a mock up to make sure it fits with the sleeves later. Since I didn't do this at first, I had to make little shoulder extensions to make room.

Anyway, back to the beginning. Once you have the back piece cut out, you'll want to use it as a sort of guide to cut the next two pieces. The arm-hole side will be the same for both pieces, but the opposite will differ in this; make one of them longer, so that it stretches across the breast so it can later be buttoned up on the side.

You could, of course, always make the two meet in the middle so that the coat buttons up in the middle, but that's up to you.

Here's where this might differ a little from person to person. If you are a human of the female variety, and want a more flattering fit for the waistline and bust of the coat, you'll want to cut a triangular pie slice out of the bottom of these two side pieces of the vest, as shown in the pictures above. The point of the triangle should be just below the arm holes, and should rest just beneath the bust. When these are sewn together later, it will cause the waist to sinch in a little while leaving the breast area the right size.

Now that we have all three pieces of the vest, cut in the black cotton fabric, use them as a pattern to cut the same three pieces of the black flannel lining. Set these aside for a moment, and let's sew the outer pieces.

If you made the sinch cuts in the front pieces, this is where you'll want to sew them together. Stitch along the inside and then you should have a nice seam once the vest is turned inside out. Next, sew the flat sides beneath the arm holes on the front pieces to the matching side on the back piece. In the photos above, you can see it lain out where they need to be connected.

Once this is done, sew the top of the shoulder pieces together. When done, the arms should be a circular hole.

Do the same for the flannel pieces, making sure that when you turn this inside out, it will line up with the cotton pieces that are right side out. This is so that when you attach the lining to the inside, the ugly seams will be hidden inside.

For every edge that will be exposed and not attached to another piece later, you can finish it by folding it over twice and sewing it, with the lining trapped between.

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

If you don't hate yourself and you want to save yourself a lot of trouble, skip ahead to the embroidery steps and do the embroidering BEFORE you sew the lining of the vest into the set. I did not do this, because I am not very smart.

On to the blue fabric.

Note, the light blue fabric in the pictures was the only shade of blue I had, so I dyed it indigo later after I had all the pieces cut out, so don't be confused by it.

Anyway, for the shape of the sleeves, I kind of just looked at a picture of a straight coat sleeve pattern and...winged it. Wung it?

Anyway, there are lots of easy to follow patterns online that you can print out if you need to, but basically it's a long rectangle with a pirate hat, and a skinnier long rectangle with a U cut in the top. The top curve of the pirate hat is the shoulder, and it lines up with the U to where when sewn together in a tube, the U is the piece that goes under the arm. Pictures for reference, because I'm sure that didn't make much sense.

Repeat with the lining, then attach the lining to the inside of the sleeves. When this is done, you can attach the sleeves to the vest.

The skirt is very simple.

First, cut out three identical flat-topped triangles of your blue fabric. The length of all three triangle tops together should be the same measurement as the waistline of your vest, leaving a small gap in the front center as shown in the pictures above. Sew these together.

Repeat with the lining as before, hemming the sides and bottom. Attach the top to the waistline of the vest.

Time to add a little more details to the coat.

To spice up the sleeves, I added some black vambrace-esque pieces. To do this, I doubled up a piece of fabric and laid it out on the sleeve. Then I cut the pointed design and when unfolded it's a symmetrical vambrace. Sew this onto the sleeves, leaving a little bit hanging over so you can tuck it into the sleeve and hem it.

I also added a bit of black trim to the hem of the skirt.

For the collar, measure the neckline of your coat and cut a strip of black fabric to length. Round out the top edges, then cut a lining piece to fit. Hem this, then attach to the neckline of your coat. It should pop up nicely.

Now to begin the embroidery. Full disclaimer, this is my first attempt at such things, so it is by no means anything above adequate.

First, draw your design onto a piece of hard felt. The felt will make the embroidery bubble up more and stand more pronounced. This isn't necessary, but I decided to do it so that I could get the design as symmetrical as possible.

Now, using your white or white gold embroidery floss, cover all the felt in a simple loop embroidery.

To make the flowers on this prospering flowering tree, start by marking little circles in each spot you want a flower.

Then, using white floss, make a little loop out toward the edges of the circle, then make another loop to tack it in place. Repeat this five times and you have yourself a flower.

For the stars, use a metallic silver thread for the main four points. For the middle four rays in between, thread a few glass beads.

For the crown, embroider with silver thread and gold thread, with silver in between the three points. A section of gold in the center of each spike, followed by more silver.

Sew the lace onto the hems of the skirt, the vambraces, the collar, and the front flaps. Then add the buttons.

Clad in the livery of the House of Elendil , you are now properly prepared to defend the Citadel of the Tower of Guard.