02. The Smuggler - Costume break-down

So you've gathered as much research as you possibly can on the costume. Now's the time to break it down by listing each piece that makes up the costume. See image below.

See all the different layers? I went the extra mile and made a really rough scale mock-up of the costume on a little artists mannequin. It helped me get my head around what pieces I needed to make and the basic shape of the pattern pieces.

With the Smuggler, you have:

Costume (red):

• puffy sleeved under-shirt
• shirt collar and bottom part of the shirt (not a complete shirt)
• leather-plated tunic
• skirt panels (front)
• leather armour skirt
• cloak with the 3 layers + hood
• underskirt panels
• blue sash thing under the shirt front
• pants with the ruffled white lining

Accessories (purple):

• Templar brooch
• boot covers
• gloves
• cloak chain
• belt 
• metal vambrace (forearm)
• hidden blade + bracer
• boots
• metal greaves (legs)

This is where you make construction decisions. Like with the shirt tails/collar - do you want to make it as one shirt, or cheat and make it two separate pieces? You won't see the mid-section of the shirt anyway because it's covered by the leather tunic, so do you really want to do that extra detail work? It also gets pretty warm in the leather tunic, so do you need that extra layer as well? Is it worth sacrificing comfort and time for design?

I'll expand more on the inverted hidden blade and the greaves in their own posts.

Tip: print out the image of your character and sketch over the top of it. It helps you picture the shape of a piece, especially if you need to picture what the back of the leather skirt looks like (as an example).