Our knight in shining fabric

Each year before we go to the Renaissance Festival, I ask the kids what they want to go as (usually knight, knight, pirate, etc.).  The Boy wanted to go as a knight this year, but not much fit him from previous years.  I pulled up a bunch of pictures of knight costumes and asked him to pick one that appealed to him.  I would try to make something similar.

This is what he liked this year:

I told him the helmet was a no-go, but I could do the rest.  I think he liked the lion crest on the chestplate.

First things first…fabric.  I didn’t have anything that looked like chain mail.  I bought some fabric from Fabric.com, but none of it really worked.  Off to Joann’s I went!  Unfortunately, the fabric I wanted was $16/yard.  Gulp!  I hate spending that much on fabric, but it was the best thing I found.  It is a metallic mesh, and it works close enough.  I put a sparkly silver/gray fabric underneath it, so it glimmers enough.

For his pants, I bought some ultrasuede that looks like leather.  He wanted pockets in his pants, so I drafted pockets for his simple lounge pants.

The chestplate is out of a shiny, silver metallic fabric that is backed in some thin felt.  It isn’t super thick, so he can actually move in this bad boy.    I finally got my Silhouette out of the box and bought a lion clipart from their store with some credit I had with the purchase of the machine.  I did the lion in red, since he has bracers in red leather that he wears with his costumes.

I tried using acrylic paint first and that didn’t work out.  I had to do several layers to get a nice coverage and the paint didn’t adhere well enough.  When I pulled off the stencil, some of the paint came with it.  I had used freezer paper for the stencil and it also didn’t adhere well enough.

Next try was clear contact paper and Sharpies.  Worked much better!  Once I got the red all covered nicely, I pulled off the contact paper and outlined and accented with a black Sharpie.  It looks much better than paint.  I rubbed at it and they didn’t smear, so this is a good way to apply the lion art to this type of “fabric”.

The construction on the chestplate was:

1. Cut the pieces out – front and back
2. Double fold bias tape on the neckline and around the arms, sides and bottom.  The only thing without bias tape is the shoulder seam.
3. Lined up the shoulder seams and then put a piece of leather over that area (used Wondertape to keep in place).  Stitched the leather down with several lines.
4. Cut out leather ties and pieces for the side.
5. Placed the leather ties and pieces with Wondertape and stitched them down.

The construction on the shirt was just doubled up mesh and fabric.  I left the edges unhemmed for the sleeves and bottom seam so it looked more “metal-like”.  I added a hood, since it can get chilly at the Faire.  The shirt is extra long, so that it looked like the picture (added bonus…more years of wear!).

Now here the outfit is in action in its natural element…The Renaissance Festival:

He even said he “might” wear it next year.  He better!  He did get several compliments throughout the day, so I call it a win. 🙂