Knight Costume

This wasn't actually Pinspired! It was inspired by Princess Lollipop's love of the TV programme "Mike the Knight" (pictured above) and the lack of suitable Knight costumes anywhere! Although I doubt if I would have even thought of making my own if I hadn't already been a regular on Pinterest :-)

MY OWN CREATION

I bought a painting tabard to use as a pattern, as despite searching under all the terms I could think of I couldn't find a suitable template for one online. I decided to make a quartered design, rather than the solid colour that Mike the Knight has. Using the folded tabard as a pattern, I cut out the felt, instead of a shoulder seam I cut the front and back in one piece with the fold as the shoulder "seam." I cut one top in pink and another in blue, and then cut two bottom quarters in pink and two in blue. I sewed the pink bottom quarters to the blue top and vice versa, then sewed down the centre seams. Not forgetting to press the seams open between sewing the different parts. I then top stitched all round the edges and around each quarter. I drew a small shield shape, and cut that out in blue and appliqued it to the front top pink quarter, just using a straight stitch (the beauty of non fray felt).

Again using the painting tabard as a template I sewed two small lengths of 1 inch elastic to the sides to fasten the front and back together.

I bought the sword and shield from the Toy Shop :-)

PRINCESS LOLLIPOP'S VERDICT:
She opened the sword and shield pack first, and knew immediately what they were and grabbed them and shouted "I Mike the Knight" She also recognised the tabard as soon as she opened it, but isn't as keen to wear it as the Superhero cape.

WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

I would remember that this costume was for a 3 year old, and not leave the ends of the top stitching open (ie. not reverse stitch over the ends) and hand sew them, so there isn't a double lot of stitching! It was the fiddliest part of the whole costume, and totally unnecessary! I'd also check the size against the child I'm making it for - the tabard reaches past her knees (plenty of growing room lol).