Today Charlotte was going to a Knights and Damsels in distress party, she excitedly went through the princess dresses and chose to go as Ariel. Emma was allowed to tag along, and decided 1 hour before the party started that she didn't want to be a damsel, she wanted to be a knight. I decided that I would take up the challenge, and rifled through the airing cupboard for an old pillow case.
None of the outfit is hemmed, so it is unlikely to last that long, but in the time I had I was very pleased with my effort. I cut out a neck hole and folded the corners in to make the shoulders. I sewed a silver button on to the point of each folded corner to secure it. I then cut from the hem of the pillowcase up to just under the folded corner, about 4cm in from the side seam on the front of the pillowcase - this gave a cloak at the back and the front of a tabard at the front. I cut the front a little shorter and the back too, as Emma is quite little and I didn't want her to trip on it, then sewed a couple of lengths of chain from under one button to under the other one. I then used felt tip pen to draw the cross on the front (the fabric pen had conveniently run out). Ta-dah, one knight costume.
She wore a grey t-shirt and grey leggings underneath, then a belt of mine looped twice around her waist to hold the tabard part to her body. She made the sword and shield herself at her birthday party earlier in the year.
I went back to my roots and made the patterns from scratch, which fascinated the children, who had never seen dot and cross paper or a pattern master before. The dress patterns were relatively simple to design and the cape for Anna was based on a jacket from their wardrobe. I bought the fabrics from Ebay and got to work, two weeks later, here they are (with their heads photoshopped, obviously!)
