From Goodwill to Viking!

With our desire to go to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival this year, we chose the Viking weekend and began to prepare for it. Viking, or Barbarian, styled costumes is not something I would have ever thought to create without a reason like this. But the thought of trying something new was too strong a pull to disregard. So when my husband requested that we go that weekend, I knew I had to start planning our outfits. Amazingly enough, the whole family (husband included) wanted to dress up! I had my work cut out for me. From finding the ideas in online photos, to finding pieces we can put together, to completely creating the costumes - every bit of it was worth the effort. 

Step 1 - When it comes to cosplay, I am all about the details. I want everything to fit the theme and look right. To some degree, I even work to make it accurate. So I went online and found the styles I wanted to try to piece together for each member of the family. 

Step 2 - Making my lists and checking them off of each type of item I needed was key. Otherwise I'd get lost in creating and make (or buy) too much. Costumes for this are pretty simple. I knew I needed to look for fur and leather-like things to make this work.

Guys - vests, shirts, pants, belts, weapons

Girls - leggings, tunic/dress, vests and belts

So off to Goodwill we went. Amazingly enough. I found vests for 4/6 of us! All in some way furry-looking. Boys found oversized shirts to use in colors they wanted. I wanted them to at least be darker colors. Most of the styles I saw were dark. Lots of browns, black and grey. My older son picked corduroy pants that were way too big, but my husband told me they did that on purpose to look like the Vikings did... I wasn't convinced, but I went along with it. Normally, I'd choose something that they would use later on for other things. My daughter found this long sleeved, long dress. It was a maroon color that she fell in love with. I knew we could throw leggings underneath and her furry vest over the top. Add a belt and maybe some kind of decoration and she would be a beautiful Viking girl. 

And we even found a long Avatar spear that was foam. It stands almost as tall as me! Kids were excited about that. 

Step 3 - We needed embellishments! From medallion style things to hair pins or breastplates - I mean there were a lot of things to consider using. My Dad had sent us a 3D printer that we are in love with. I started glancing around ThingIVerse. I found the perfect pieces to print! 

My guys are going to have medallions attached to belts in some ways. You can find them HERE. 

For us girls, I found this HAIRPIECE that would make a breastplate for the little one and hairpiece for me. I even embellished them with paint as the print job wasn't the smoothest.

But I had to do some searching to find something else for the older girl. I wanted to make something special for her. So I found these earrings that are pretty small and thin, but my husband could make bigger.

Turned one into a decoration for a bracelet I made from the overflow of a belt I cut down for her. 

The boys knew we only had the one spear we found, so I was curious... I ran a search on the 3D print site and found just what we wanted.

This first one didn't come out pretty on both sides. My husband thinks he needed to add different supports.

But when he mounted it to the dowel, it works well enough and the kids love it!

The second one is absolutely amazing, but we did have to make the tip duller as I could see serious injury happening if that tip came into contact with anyone's flesh...

I took this jacket my mom had sent me way back and seam-ripped off the sleeves. From that, I started making some bracers. Tougher than I originally thought. Took me about 2 hours just to hand sew the one...

I finally asked my crafty-minded friends for suggestions. Amazingly, I learned that the hole punch will cut through pleather with little resistance.

So I did that, after cutting the desired sizes and shapes. Not the prettiest, but they will work just fine for a day at the festival.

The youngest one was the easiest and I finished hers first. She told me that Viking or "'Barians" had weird styled clothing because of the fuzzy jackets (furry vests). 

Once I added the bracelet and belt, the older daughter loved her outfit. She was hoping for bracers so I made some for her like her brothers.  

My oldest son wanted to be more of the Dapper Viking. I think he likes wearing his hat too much to skip the opportunity. So we are dressing up his style more than the others.  

I even told my husband I'd braid his beard. So he started letting it get a little longer for just this weekend. I would say this only works if you use some kind of wax or holding gel to keep it in place though!