After attending the Renaissance Faire one year, I got inspired to make my own Ranger costume. I had never worked with leather or cloth, but thought it'd be a fun and valuable skill to possess. I got a sewing machine, some cloth and leather, and just let my imagination run wild. I had no templates or measurements, just testing and tweaking.

This is one of the most ambitious projects I've done. It took about 8 months of work.

I definitely had an overall look that I was going for, I just had to make all the individual pieces to create the whole.

I started with all the cloth pieces; some bought and some made. The cloak, surcoat, shirt and pants were bought. The shoe guards and apron I made.

When it came to the leather work, I really had to learn as I went, as I had never sewn, much less with leather. I bought a whole cow worth of leather, literally. With this, I was able to craft the vest, arm greaves, and various other pieces of detail.

I had some more expensive pieces of leather that I thought would be nice to use for accessories, such as arm bracers, chest armor, and the pride of my outfit; my arrow quiver.

Lastly, I needed to craft some accessories to make my Ranger complete. I needed a bow, some arrows, potion bottles, pouches, knives, belts, etc.

My wife also needed an outfit, so I quickly crafted one from all the test pieces I had created in the long process.

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