Medieval Times...on a shoestring budget

Happy (almost) Halloween! Today I'm going to show you a quick step by step DIY for a simple tunic that looks a hundred times more expensive than it really is!
First off, let's take a look at what the mass market has for sale:

This costume, which is available online, retails for between $60 and $100 (not including shipping). It looks okay, right? Eh...it's generic and you'll probably run into someone else who's wearing this. So, let's be original!













First step is to gather materials. I went to the Goodwill yesterday in my neighborhood and found some fabulously tacky pillow cases. I don't know if I'd want these on my bed, but for what we're using them for, they're perfect!! Total cost? $3.99.














I did a rough pin onto my dress form to take a good look at the pillow cases before I got started so I could just eyeball what I wanted it to look like when I was done.























I then dug through my scrap box and found some gorgeous yellow silky material with a subtle pattern. I turned it inside out so it wouldn't contrast too much with the red of the pillow cases.
I used a pattern I found online for the roaring lion, using Photoshop to take it and blow it up into a larger size for the chest piece. Using a black Sharpie, I traced the lion onto the gold fabric.
















Cutting the gold fabric is tricky and it tends to fray, making tiny details tough. In order to give it some stability I ironed it onto some two sided heat fusion paper. Not only does it make it easier to cut out, but it will help me out later when I attach it to the background fabric.












Now that the lion has been ironed onto the heat fusion paper, it's time to attach it to the darker fabric background. I'm using a medium weight canvas which will not only provide stability to the thinner gold fabric, but will also make it stand out from the red fabric of the pillow cases. I iron on the lion to the black fabric and then cut out the lion, leaving a roughly half inch border all around.











Once that's done I turn back to my trusty fusion paper and iron another sheet onto the back of the now gold and black lion. The fusion paper allows me to skip all the sewing and just iron it directly onto the red pillowcase. I center it in the middle of the pillowcase but keep it in the upper half so that when my knight wears it, it will be easier to see.

The nice thing about the fusion paper is it not only provides stability to my iron on lion but it also keeps the fabric from fraying...but the greatest part is...I don't have to sew the lion on! The fusion paper glues it down for me and I can skip the tedious stitching! Yay!







Now that our lion is on there, let's add a little royal touch (because, let's be honest, our knight is a favorite of the king, so he has to look good!) I use some gold ribbon I have laying around (but if you don't, you can buy it at the fabric store for a few dollars a yard) and pin it along the top of both my pillow cases. Using fusion tape (just like the fusion paper, but thinner) I iron it into place.










Ugh...now the part I'm dreading. Yup...time to haul out the sewing machine. First I put both the pillowcases up on my dress form and make sure the edges on both match up. Using pins, I figure out where I want the neck hole to be as well as the arm holes.















Then it's off to the machine to stitch the shoulder together (remember, don't sew the whole top of the tunic together or you'll sew the neck opening closed and have to spend hours ripping all that out. Ugh) Although I should have used yellow or gold thread, I didn't have any...so I used red, which still looks good.










All the stitching is done, our lion is glued down and we're ready to see the final product! The costume is actually for a friend of mine so unfortunately you're going to have to wait to see it really really really done with the whole costume put all together...but this will give you an idea. I used a rope to act as a temp belt (we'll get a real leather one later) but you can see what the final project looks like.


Okay, let's crunch the final numbers:
2 pillow cases: $3.99
Half yard of gold fabric (1/2 off at JoAnn's for Halloween): $4.25
Half yard of black canvas: $3.00
Fusion Paper and tape: $10.00
Gold Trim, 1.5 yards: $3.99
Spool of red thread: $.99
Total cost?: $26.22
Time commitment: 2 hours

So, there you go, an amazing tunic for less than $30 that will be guaranteed to be better looking than anything you can find in any Halloween shop...

Coming next: How to make a matching dress for your Medieval Lady out of an ugly brown jersey and a white tablecloth.