Usually, on the eve of the New Year or another holiday, parents look for examples of unusual outfits of fairy-tale characters or other heroes for their children. Many people prefer to make everything on their own. It will cost less, and sometimes there is simply no time to go to the store if the child suddenly informed that tomorrow he needs an outfit to participate in the school play. The main thing is not to panic. Learn useful tips on how to make a knight costume with your own hands from available materials quickly and without much experience, and get to work.
Execution methods
It is worth immediately deciding which way you will create the outfit. There are two options:
- Run everything from scratch.
- Make a kit based on existing clothing, complementing it with characteristic accessories.
Sewing a knight’s costume with your own hands is the first method when you have enough time and already have experience in making clothes. The second method is recommended for beginner needlewomen or those who have absolutely no time to be creative, but it is not possible to buy a finished outfit for any reason.
DIY knight's costume
The outfit itself, or rather even the image of the hero, will be created from the following details:
- Cape, tunic or other element of clothing imitating armor or bearing the sign of a knightly order.
- Helmet.
- Shield.
- Sword.
Everything else can be easily assembled from the child’s clothing or (if you have the time and experience) sewn from the appropriate materials. This applies to pants, turtlenecks and shoes (usually boots).
Materials and Tools
To make a knight costume with your own hands, you need the following:
- The fabric is a suitable color.
- Cardboard for the manufacture of the frame of the sword, shield and helmet.
- Paper for the pattern (for products of complex configuration).
- Pencil, ruler, eraser.
- Scissors.
- Pins and chalk for transferring the template to the fabric.
- Threads with a needle.
- Sewing machine.
- Glue.
- Decor (foil, metallized paper, ribbons, braid for decorating a sword, shield, helmet).
As you can see, you can make a New Year's suit of a knight with your own hands by affordable means. The choice of materials and manufacturing method should be based on what you already have in stock. For example, you can simulate chain mail from a mesh material. Consider the comfort of wearing manufactured things. It is permissible to cut out some details from the insulation, the surface of which imitates metal (foil) well, however, such an outfit will be difficult to wear entirely. It will quickly become hot in it, especially in a room that is too warm.
How to make a sword and shield
To make the knight's costume for the carnival look spectacular and more realistic, it is worth choosing not only the appropriate combination of clothes, but also additional attributes. The easiest way is to make a shield and sword from a thick or several layers of thin cardboard. Foam, plastic is also suitable.
The work is performed as follows:
- Cut a blank of the appropriate shape from thick cardboard. To make a template of several layers of thin cardboard, you must first glue the sheets together or make a paper stencil. All parts should be the same.
- Make the same blanks from foil or decorative metallized paper.
- Glue the elements together.
- Decorate the handle of the sword also with beautiful paper, cloth, or other suitable material.
- Stick on the surface of the shield stenciled or independently drawn sign of the knightly order. You can come up with your family coat of arms.
- On the back of the shield, attach an element for which it will be convenient to hold the product, for example, glue a cardboard strip (a piece of dense fabric or any strap), securing it only along narrow edges, leaving the middle free and sufficient to pass the child’s hand there.
How to make a helmet
A knight’s New Year’s costume is unthinkable without a hat. This thing is easy to do on the basis of the existing cap by gluing on the surface or sewing on parts made of foil, paper, fabric imitating metallic sheen, or other material. The visor that will cover the child’s face must be made as comfortable as possible so that the child can see everything around and breathe freely. It is best to cut parts out of cardboard. By the way, the entire helmet can be made of this material. A fabric version with or without a frame is also possible.
How to make a knight costume yourself quickly and inexpensively
As already mentioned, it is easiest to make an outfit based on the child’s existing things and the minimum of additional, but, of course, necessary and irreplaceable details. The sequence of work will be as follows:
- Decide on the look and color scheme of the suit. It is better to draw a rough sketch or have a finished picture or photograph in front of your eyes.
- Pick pants and a turtleneck in matching colors and a hat cap if needed.
- Buy or choose from available stocks a flap of rectangular fabric for a tunic or wrap. In fact, the tunic is a double (double-sided) cloak.
- For a cloak, cut the neck arch. For the tunic, fold the rectangle in half along the shoulder line and cut a semicircle in the center of the fold line. When unfolded, there will be a circle.
- If the selected material does not show off very much, make a curly bottom with scissors manually, according to a pattern or any stencil.
- Trim or hem all sections.
- For a cape sew on ties from satin ribbons, braid or from the same fabric. So that the tunic fits well on the child, and does not scatter to the sides, connect the lower corners of the hanging rectangles by hemming them manually with a needle and thread.
- To make the knight’s New Year’s costume look more impressive and natural, stitch on a cape or on either side (front or back) of the tunic a detail from contrasting material in the form of a sign of any order. Make a shield, sword and helmet using the technology described above.
So, you have learned how to make a knight costume with your own hands quickly, at home, in fact, from what everyone has. Even if you are informed about your child’s upcoming performance or carnival show just a day before the event, you can easily and quickly make a beautiful outfit.