Monday, November 7, 2011

Toddler "Braveheart" Costume

Hey Guys,
 
No artwork to post today, but we do have a little modeling/tutorial featuring our oldest son, Noah. He went as William Wallace, who was made famous by Mel Gibson's movie "Braveheart". It's a very easy costume to make and I can't even begin to say how many people said they loved it and that he would have won a costume contest for sure if they had one at the place we went to for Halloween. Enjoy!
 
 What You'll Be Creating:

This is after he wore it for a while 
so some things are coming undone.
 
Notice:

I would really advise you making a mock costume for any idea you have to see if they will wear it before you go head long into it. Kids are picky so be prepared to practice patience when they don't want to wear something they wore 2 days ago.
Inspiration:

To start this off I just want to say that he was going to dress up like a dinosaur until I can home one day to see that his sister's had colored all over his face.

The blue line on his face was the thing that reminded me of Braveheart, and is the reason I decided to see if I could make it happen. I went online first and found a couple of pictures to base his costume off of. I wasn't shooting for perfection, so we went with a mix of 2 different scenes. I just wanted to get some shots of the clothing and makeup that stood out to me. I'm a huge fan of Braveheart so it didn't take me long to find what I needed.

Reference Pics:



The plus side to all this is that I found everything I needed from a trip to Walmart and Goodwill for under $20.00. I think I could have found everything at Goodwill, but some things were at the Walmart that I went to first.

Materials:

1. Little boy/Little girl :)

2. Flannel Adult Pajama pants. 

3. Sword. I found a $2.00 sword at Walmart in the costume section. Toy section was a no go.

4. Wig. I couldn't find a good wig and my son wouldn't keep it on, so I bought a cheap brown shirt cut it up to the collar, and slipped it over his hair line. He wore it and didn't complain about having it on. Another method is buying a stocking hat and somehow fastening yarn to it. There is a ton of yarn hair tutorials online so find the one that works best for you. Unfortunately, some kids won't wear a hat. It still looks cool without the hair. 
 
5. One thick Adult belt for around the shoulders, and one thin Child's or Woman's belt for around the waist.
 
6. Safety Pins to keep the pajamas in place if you want to use them afterwards. I wear them at night :)
 
7. Brown shirt or sweatshirt. It's colder now and we found a nice warm long sleeved shirt for him. 
 
8. Blue Marker.
 
Remember, this is how I made it. Feel free to change things up. We didn't use a gauntlet cause I knew he wouldn't keep it on, but you could make one with a painted paper towel roll that's cut up to fit and then taped back together. I also wanted to use little gold circle stickers for his shirt to match the cover in the left picture.
 
Putting it All Together:

This is all coming from what you're child will allow you to do. We put the pajama kilt on a day or two before so he could get comfortable with it. He took my practice belt off when I put it on so I bought softer belts for the costume. Noah was in a happy mood so it was easy to set it all up.

1. If you don't have a wig, then cut one of the brown shirts into strips up to the collar. Don't cut the collar! Put cut up shirt aside till last step.

2. Put on nice brown shirt. Easy.
 
3. Pajama Kilt: I wish I had pictures to walk you through this, but in all honesty it's really easy. I would recommend some warm black or flesh colored pants underneath in case it's cold outside.Other than that, you just drape one pant leg over a shoulder so that the end of it goes to their butt. Hold the back in place as you wrap the waistline of the pajamas around your child's waist (pajama waist will be sideways/horizontal as you wrap it), going over the back part you are holding and then the other pant leg around again. You can wrap the pant legs underneath everything like you do with a towel and safety pin everything in place. You'll catch on quickly when yo do it and it should hold fast by the second try. 

4. Fasten the thick belt around the opposite shoulder that the kilt is on. You may have to make your own hole. Cut remaining belt off so it doesn't flap around.

5. Fasten the thin belt around waist to help support pajama kilt.

6. Follow the reference picture to color face with the blue marker.

7. Put on wig or cut up shirt or yarn hat or whatever. 
 
8. Hand them a sword and teach him how to scream "FREEDOM!!!!!!!!"
Some extra's are boots that match the movie, the gauntlet, a braid for the hair, 5 o'clock shadow, etc. We used the only black shoes we had and the kilt covered them nicely.

There you go :)

You can also have a ton of fun playing with this idea. You could do it all in different shades of pink and make a little girls "Pink Braveheart". I think it would be really cool to see a 2-year-old girl running around in a pink kilt, dark pink shirt, white belts and a bright pink face.

That's it for this post. Have fun and God Bless,
Daddy

Ephesians 6: 11-12 NIV

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your 
stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not 
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the 
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and 
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."