Thursday, October 22, 2015

Crafting Adventures: Treebeard

Yesterday I showed you the costumes that my daughter and I wore to the Maryland Renaissance Festival this year.  But what did Mr. Geek wear?


Why he was Treebeard, of course!

Whenever Mr. Geek convinces Chief to ride around on his shoulders, he always says, "Don't be hasty, little hobbit," which is what Treebeard says to Merry and Pippin as he carries them through the forest.  So I figured it would be perfect for the two of them to dress as Merry and Treebeard!  At first, I thought I'd go as Arwen or something, but then I figured I should pick a character who was with the two of them at some point in the story.  That left Gandalf...or Pippin.  Mr. Geek was okay with wearing a beard, but I wasn't ;)

So how did I make that beard?

Well first, I found a brown zip-up hoodie.  The hoodie was so comfortable and fit him so well that I didn't want to forever tarnish it with tree-pieces (or should I say Ent-pieces), so I knew it had to be something easily removable.

So I decided to just make a beard covered in faux leaves that buttoned on to the hood.  That way, he could unbutton it to eat lunch, and when the Faire was over, all I needed to do was remove the buttons with a seam ripper and it'd be like nothing was ever attached.

The beard was really simple.  I picked up a few fat quarters in various fall colors.  I took the brown and green and cut a vaguely beard-shaped piece out of each, making sure it was wide enough that I could attach it to buttons sewn just on the inside of the hood on both sides.  Then I took the other colors and cut similar beard-shaped pieces that were all a little shorter than the brown and green.  Then I laid everything on top of each other, with the brown on top, and all of the other colors (except the green) slightly farther down than the next, and stitched them all together.

Then I cut a rectangle out of the top portion so Mr. Geek's mouth wouldn't be covered- I left about an inch on the top and on the sides.  Next, I arranged my faux leaves over the beard, including a couple on the "mustache" portion.  Finally, I attached buttons on the inside of the hood and put button holes on the beard so that the beard lined up properly on Mr. Geek's face.  In the words of my toddler- "All done!"


Are you doing any family costumes this year?

Much love,
The Geeks

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