1. Hi all, I've got just a couple of very n00b questions if someone can help?

Yes

I'm very new to eso, currently a lv8 Nord. I like leather armour and have rawhide armour right now but what bugs me about it is after putting on the cuirass I have no sleeves! It seems you can't layer clothes? I never seem to get the item drops I need from deconstructs to be able to improve, does the upgrade of fine to superior give it sleeves?

Welcome. I don't believe improving changes the "style" of armour but simply makes what's already there look better (e.g. Metal is more shiny). The style will change as you craft higher level armour. Check out ESO Fashion for all the styles. Unfortunately you can't layer clothes and "appearance" items sit on top of the armour.

When you level up clothing there are passives which increase the extraction chances. So you will get some if you keep deconstructing. If you have some gold you can buy from guild traders but I wouldn't recommend doing that at your level

And also, is buying the same armour at a higher price from a merchant after lvling up the equivalent of improving your current armour? Is it the same end result?

When I started out and during levelling: every 5-10 levels I would steal everything from the merchants: equip what was better and then deconstruct or fence the remaining items. Not buy any gear from the merchants, though, as your gold will be better used to but a horse or bank/bag upgrades.

Those might be dumb questions... I haven't played a scrolls game since Oblivion... I asked all this on another forum and got 5 replies all with a url to eso fashion and couldn't make heads or tails of it... 

Thanks

They're not dumb questions but now that I've seen you've already got linked to ESO fashion, I'll elaborate a bit more:
Use this link: http://eso-fashion.com/medium-by-armor-weight/

Armour weight = player level materials used to create. Yours will be rawhide @ <level 10 up to rube hide @ v16 which is max level)

If anything doesn't make sense then let me know and I'll elaborate further.

One other option is costumes from the crown store to give you an appearance you would prefer

RagnarThePwner wrote: »

And also, is buying the same armour at a higher price from a merchant after lvling up the equivalent of improving your current armour? Is it the same end result?
Those might be dumb questions... I haven't played a scrolls game since Oblivion... I asked all this on another forum and got 5 replies all with a url to eso fashion and couldn't make heads or tails of it... 

Thanks

Armor comes in levels, as you know. At each tier, which is about L16, L26 etc you get different materials and different looks. I used different racial styles as I was leveling depending on how things looked. But, a leveling character does not have a need to have optimal armor, just be wearing something. To that end, just use the armor you loot from mobs. You also want to wear at least one of each type of armor while leveling so all the armor skills level as you go along. This way you can change out gear end game and not have to grind an armor skill (which takes a long time)

For the first 40 to 50 levels you will be changing out gear so often, that you will only be seeing your character in an armor for a hour or two at the most. So, if its ugly, then fight more mobs and get more loot to select something else from.

In the meantime, decon the rest of the loot to level crafting, and start researching traits. This way you can make the gear you want in the style you want at the latter levels of the game when the gear matters.