This is my blog so every now and then I get to toot my own horn. Everybody that saw Max's costume from the fairytale parade and Halloween were very impressed, therefore I am the artist of the week.
Last week the first grade at our local school had a Fairy Tale Parade. I wrote all about it here. As I mentioned in the post I made Max's costume. My inspiration for the costume was from some tunics whipped up by Jessica's Mom over at Balancing Everything (Warning: Jessica has a tendency to periodically tear down her website, so I don't know how long the link will last. However, she is always worth seeking out for her writing, extremely cute kids and neat crafts.) There is no tutorial, but from the pictures I was able to get a fairly good idea of what I needed to do.
Like any good do-it-yourself project, duct tape was my friend. I did give Max the aluminum foil option, but he wanted the duct tape.
What a guy.
The hardest part of the whole outfit was the helmet. We wanted something that actually covered his head and was not to complicated. While staring at a small Amazon box I got inspired. I carefully pulled the box apart, keeping it all in one piece. I then rolled it up and cut the flaps so that I could staple then together in a conical shape. If you look inside the helmet you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.
I was aiming for something along the lines of a bucket or great helm. I preserved the slit form between the lower flaps and adding an ocular slit perpendicular to the nasal slit. It is not completely accurate (there should be a nasal guard), but the end result is pretty convincing. Especially considering I did it all off the cuff with no help from my friend Google. I didn't find the above link until now. Then the whole thing got wrapped in duct tape, thus strengthening the construction and giving it a nifty metallic look.
The tunic was fairly easy. I hemmed the long sides of the fabric and then cut a slit for Max's head and "hemmed" the slit with a bit of dark blue press-on felt. The shoulder decoration and bottom hem were also made with the press on felt. For those parts I double over the felt and cut out the teeth before sticking the felt on. That gave a bit more body to the felt and it was then stuck to both sides of the fabric. I asked Max what heraldic beast he wanted on the tunic and he picked out a dragon. I did a freehand drawing on a piece of paper and used it as a pattern for cutting the press-on felt.
The sword was a piece of cake after the helmet and all I used was doubled over cardboard, yet more duct tape, glue and tape. Max was very pleased with the end result.
To get a full appreciation of the final result you should really check out the Fairy Tale Parade video I shot. During the first half Max is having a glorious time hacking away as he marchers along. I like the large space his classmates keep around him when they are outside.
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