LARP Scale Armour (Part 3)

With the scales cut and painted, and the sleeves of the hoodie marked out, it's now time to sew the scales on, and make the final piece...

...or so I thought.

I had hoped I could attach the sclaes to the sleeve with a pair of holes at the top of each scale, and if I had used a more sturdy material for them this might have worked. But as it is, the scales are too flimsy, and bend too easily with only a pair of holes.

I also found that the spacing lines marked on the sleeve were probably a bit too far apart, so that means making some further adjustments to the pattern before sewing can properly commence. Each scale is roughly 65mm long, and 35mm wide, and I had made the spacing lines roughly 50mm apart, this was to ensure some overlap...but there just wasn't enough overlap for my liking once the scales actually started being put solidly into place. So for every 2 spacing lines, I've ended up sewing three rows of scales (basically creating rows of scales that are 33mm apart, which is roughly half the length of the scale, and in turn this means virtually all parts of the pattern are protected by a double thickness of scales.    

To enhance the degree of connection between the scales and the sleeve, an additional row of holes were punched in each scale, 20mm below the first. Thus every scale is attached to the sleeve at four points which makers for a far more stable structure. 

It only takes a couple of rows to see how the final sleeve will look.

The scales have been attached in a specific pattern.Where (C) = a curved scale and (F) = a flat scale, I used the following... 

(C) (C)

(C) (C) (C)

(C) (C) (C) (C)

(F) (C) (C) (C) (F)

(F) (F) (C) (C) (F) (F)

(F) (F) (C) (F) (F)

(F) (F) (F) (F)

(F) (F) (F)

(F) (F) (F) (F)

(F) (F) (F)

(F) (F)

(F)

This gives a lot of curved scales toward the top of the piece, allowing it to curve around the shoulder more naturally, while becoming more straight down the musculature of the arm (what little musculature I have), and allowing the piece to taper away toward the elbow. This is more a stylistic choice than any protective decision. 42 scales total, 15 of which are "curved", 27 of which are "flat". I've certainly got enough scales to make a second sleeve, but quite a few of them will need to be painted up. 

I don't do many selfies, but since I wanted to see how the sleeve looked while being worn, I headed to the biggest mirror in the house and took some shots. 

Next to work out whether to do scale pants/legging or a skirt/kilt.

But for the moment the proof of concept has been completed, and it looks like it works.