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Vores familie er drageglade. Høj som lav elsker de vingede væsener, og det er så faktisk lige meget om de er onde eller gode. På det seneste har dragebegejstringen taget et nøk opad, for drengene er blevet introduceret til filmen om Hikke og Tandløs (Sådan træner du din drage) og bagefter til tv-serien. Kort tid efter meddelte MM med fast stemme, at han da bare så gerne ville være Tandløs til fastelavn. Jamen, hvad skulle man gøre, når drengen nu tror fuldt og fast på, at jeg kan lave et hvilket som helst kostume? (jeg er ikke klar til at punktere hans tro på mig endnu)

Our family loves dragons. Both boys and us adults have a soft spot for the winged creatures no matter if they be good or evil (Smaug for king!). Lately the interest has gained another notch, as the boys have been introduced to the movie and tv-series about Hiccup and Toothless (How to train your dragon). Shortly after seeing it for the tenth time (i.e. a day or two after we got the movie) MM told me that he really, really wanted to be Toothless for fastelavn (think of it as the Nordic Halloween). When the boy believes I can make any costume for him, what could I do, but sew a dragon? (I’m not ready to burst his bubble of belief in me just yet).

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Jeg vil mene, at det faktisk er lykkedes ret så godt. Gennem de seneste par år har jeg fået utrolige mængder inspiration fra Jen fra Epbot, som blandt andet viser fantastiske billeder af cosplay til diverse convensions i USA (og laver nogle vildt flotte ting selv), men også har en stor skare følgere, der er utroligt kreative til at lave børnekostumer. På et tidspunkt linkede Jen til en mor, der havde syet et Tandløs kostume, hvor hun havde brugt en købt heldragt som “bund”. Det var startskuddet på mine egne overvejelser.
Jeg har ikke taget billeder hele vejen gennem processen, men prøver så godt som muligt at beskrive, hvad jeg har gjort, hvis der nu er andre drageelskere derude.

I happen to think I succeeded pretty well. During that last few years, I’ve been getting a lot of inspiration from Jen from Epbot, who (among other things) show incredible pictures of cosplay from a select number of conventions in US (she also makes really beautiful and ingenious things and costumes herself), but also from a lot of her followers, who make some really cool children’s costumes. I especially remember one time, where Jen linked to a mom, who had made a Toothless costume, where she had used a jump suit as the “base” for the costume. That was what triggered me into making one myself.
I haven’t taken pictures all the way through (was more focused on finishing the costume), but I’ll try to explain, what I’ve done, so as to help other dragon lovers out there.

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Jeg var heldig og fandt en sort heldragt med hætte uden diverse skæmmende tryk på. Godt nok er lynlåsen lilla, men det levede vi med. Dernæst tegnede jeg en løs skitse af hvilke dele, jeg skulle bruge. Jeg købte en tynd fleece til vinger, hale, “ører” og fødder – købte 2 meter og har brugt ganske meget af det. Jeg købte selvfølgelig også et stykke i rødt i samme kvalitet (25 cm). Derudover brugte jeg quiltefor, pladevat (til at udstoppe halen) og sådan nogle stivere, som man bruger i corsager og lignende til at stive vingerne af med. Jeg købte kun 3 m stivere, men fandt ud af at det var for lidt, så jeg vil anbefale, at du køber mere, hvis du går i gang.

Ud fra skitsen tegnede jeg alle vinge- og øredelene og klippede dem ud af to lag fleece og et lag quiltefor på en gang. Dernæst syede jeg rundt om de yderste kanter (dem, der ikke skulle sidde fast på halen) og vendte dem om før jeg satte stivere i.

I was lucky to find a black one-piece with a hood and without any annoying prints. We lived with the purple zipper. I then drew a sketch of what parts I needed to make. I bought a thin fleece for wings, tail, “ears” and feet – I bought 2 m and have used most of it. I also bought a matching red piece for the “torn” tail (25 cm). For the rest, I used quilt padding, toy stuffing (for the tail) and the kind stays used for corsets, which I used to support the wings. I bought 3 m, but that was too little, so I’d suggest to buy more, if you want to make a similar dragon.

From the sketch I drew the pattern pieces for all the wing and “ear” parts. I cut all the parts from a tripple layer (two layers of fleece and one of quilt padding) at once and sewed around the outer edge (not where the parts were to be sewn to the tail). Then I turned the pieces inside out and put in the boning.

???????????????????????????????Masken blev lavet i papmache. MM syntes, det var meget klamt, men varmede op i løbet af processen. Vi brugte et par store balloner til formen og lavede to for en sikkerheds skyld. Vær opmærksom på, at det kan tage lang tid for papmacheen at tørre.

The mask is made from papier mache. MM didn’t like to help in the beginning, but as we got down to it, he bought into the fun. We used a couple of big ballons as base and made two for safety (which was good as one didn’t make it in the drying). Remember that it can take quite a while for the papier mache to dry.

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Jeg brugte køkkenrulle og malertape til at forme lidt konturer på masken (øjenbryn og takker). Dernæst blev masken grundet og malet. Endelig limede jeg lidt detaljer i fleece på. På indersiden har jeg foret med lidt skumgummi og dernæst fleece hele vejen rundt, for papmache er ikke blødt at have som kant.

I used kitchen towels and masking tape to form the contures (the eyebrows and tips). Then I painted the mask with a white for a grounder and then painted the eyes and then the rest of the mask. As a final detail, I hot glued a couple of fleece details. On the inside, I cushioned the sides with foam and then hot glued a strip of fleece all the way round to soften the edge.

???????????????????????????????Vingerne er stivet i ribberne og oversiden. Vingerne er syet direkte på dragten. Halen er lavet i 6 separate dele. Først de to halevinger, dernæst de to halespidser. Så bunden af halen, og endelig toppen af halen. Bunden af halen går kun fra halevingerne og til spidsen, mens toppen af halen går helt oppe fra de øverste vinger og dermed skjuler påsyningen. Toppen af halen er syet sammen af to stykker, sådan at jeg kunne sætte takkerne ind mellem retsiderne. Halen er syet fast omkring de øverste halevinger og op til de rigtige vinger. Jeg syede alle vingestykkerne på halens bund og lagde derefter toppen af halen ovenpå og syede den sammen. Ellers kunne jeg ikke få vingerne til at sidde ordenligt.
Detaljen på den røde halespids er lavet ved at tegne motivet på et stykke selvklæbende bogbind og skære det ud. Dernæst klæbede jeg det på det færdige halestykke og brugte noget hvidt stoftryk til at duppe motivet på.
“Ørerne” er syet direkte på hver side af hætten. Der er fire stykker på hver side.

The wings are supported by boning in the ribs and at the top. The main wings are sewn directly onto the suit. The tail is made in 6 seperate pieces. First the two top tail wings, then the two tail ends, then the bottom piece of the tail, and finally the top of the tail. The bottom piece of the tail only goes from the tail wings to the tip, while the top goes all the way from the main wings to the tail tip, thus hiding the fixture on the suit. The top piece of the tail is sewn together from two pieces so I could sew the tips into the seam. I sewed the tail wings and tail ends to the bottom tail first, and then sewed this to the top tail up to the place where it was fixed to the suit.
I drew the detail for the red piece on some self adhesive plastic book bind (the one with a sticky side) and cut it out. I stuck the cut out on the finished tail piece and then used a white fabric paint to stencil the detail onto the fabric.
The “ears” are sewn directly onto each side of the hood. There are four pieces on each side.

dr6Endelig skal jeg da lige fortælle, at LB ikke blev glemt i denne sammenhæng. Mens storebror var dragen, så var den lille såmæn dragetræneren, nemlig Hikke. Han var i stort humør og kommanderede rundt med sin “Tandløs” under hele tøndeslagningen.

Finally, I have to tell you that LB wasn’t forgotten in all this. While his big brother was the dragon, the little one was the dragon trainer, Hiccup himself. LB was in high spirit all the afternoon and ordered his “Toothless” around.

 

Et noget forsinket fastelavnsindlæg. Men søde børn i kostumer kan vel altid bruges som blogfoder.

MM er dyrefascineret, og det kommer tydeligt til udtryk i hans ønsker til fastelavnskostumer. Sidste år var det krokodillen, og i år ville han så gerne være leopard (næste år har han snakket om at være isbjørn, Lynet McQueen, triceratops eller en ilddrage – så der er da udvikling i ønskerne). 2 meter fake fur blev indkøbt i god tid, så jeg kunne sy henover juleferien, men i vanlig stil, lykkedes planerne ikke. Dagen før børnehaven skulle fejre fastelavn var der stadig ikke gjort noget, og MM var meget bekymret for, om hans leoparddragt nu blev færdig. Det blev den.

This is a quite late blog post about Fastelavn (Fastelavn=Lent, which is celebrated with costumes and trick or treating in Denmark). But a sweet kid in a costume is always appropriated on a craft blog, right?

MM loves animals, which rather influences his wishes for Lent costumes. Last year he was a crocodile, and this year he wished to be a leopard (he’s already talking about next year, though he wavers between a polar bear, Lightning McQueen, a triceratops or a fire dragon). I bougth 2 meter fake fur in good time, as I had plans to sew the costume during the Christmas holiday. But in usual style, my well laid plans didn’t bear fruit. The evening before the celebration in MM’s kindergarten I still hadn’t sewn a stitch, and MM was very worried about whether his leopard costume would be ready or not. It was.

Mønsteret er fra Stof2000, hvor jeg også købte leopard fake fur. Mønsteret er en dyreheldragt, hvor der er mange variantmuligheder. Jeg lavede et par ændringer, bl.a. er dragten udstyret med lynlås i stedet for velcro, og så har ørene fået totter af ræveskind for at give det rigtige udtryk. Det var et ganske glimrende mønster (jeg klarede klipning og syning på ca. 5 timer), men hvor er fake fur dog en forfærdelig ting at klippe/sy i. Der var fnuller overalt! Men MM blev glad og var en lykkelig leopard både i børnehaven og i Zoologisk have den efterfølgende weekend. Dragten viste sig heldigvis at være rummelig nok til, at han kunne have flyverdragten på indenunder, hvilket var godt sådan en råkold februardag.

The pattern is from Stof2000 as is the fake fur. It is a body suit with a lot of different possibilities for alterations. I made a couple of changes to the pattern as is, among these was to change the closure to a zipper instead of velcro, and I also added some fox fur to the ears to give the correct “fluff” effect. It was a pretty good pattern (I managed the cutting out and sewing together in approximately 5 hours), but oh my, fake fur is possibly the worst thing ever to cut/sew. There was fluff everywhere! But MM was happy and a bouncing leopard in kindergarten and also in Copenhagen Zoo during the weekend. It turned out that there was room for his outerwear underneath the leopard, which was a good thing on a frosty February day.

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I dag fejrer MMs børnehave fastelavn med hele udtrækket, og jeg har lige afleveret en glad og jublende og meget sød krokodille dernede, hvor han straks gik i gang med at “jage” de andre børn til stor jubel for alle. Gad vide, hvor meget tid han ender med at have tilbragt på maven i dag, når jeg henter ham i eftermiddag. Kostumet blev færdigt i går, hvor jeg endelig fik syet bukserne sammen.

Today MM’s kindergarten celebrates fastelav (shroveltide) with all that this entails, and I have just handed over a happy, singing and very sweet crocodile. He immediately started “hunting” the other kids to squeals of laughter and much fun for all. I wonder how much time he’ll have spent gliding along his belly when I pick him up in the afternoon. The costume was finished yesterday, where I finally sat down and sewed the pants together.

Bukserne er syet efter MiniKreas grundmodel for posebuks og resten af kostumet er syet efter fri fantasi. Bukser og (de mange, mange) takker er af fleece, mens “skindet” til hoved, hale og arme er kogt uld. Halen tages på som en kappe, der lukkes over brystet med velcro, armene lukkes også med velcro om underarmene. Hovedstykket er monteret løst ovenpå en kasket og har et kraftigt stykke pap som afstivning af munden. Tænder og øjne er også af kogt uld (herligt materiale). Jeg købte alt stoffet hos Fingerbøllet i Farum. Det er det allerførste fastelavnskostume, jeg har syet, og jeg synes, at det tegner godt for fremtiden.

The pants are sewn after the basic baggy pants pattern from MiniKrea and the rest of the costume is sewn from fantasy. The pants and the (many, many) pieces of ridge are made of fleece, while the “skin” for head, tail and arm pieces are made in a felted wool fabric. The tail is made as a cape and closed on the front with velcro, and the arm pieces are likewise closed with velcro. The head is mounted on a cap and has a sturdy piece of cardboard to hold out the snout. Both eyes and teeth are from felted wool too (wonderful material). I bought all the fabric at Fingerbøllet in Farum. It is the very first costume I’ve ever sewn, and I think it bodes very well for the future.

Der skal mange små stykker til at skabe en god krokodille. Men MMs krokodillekostume er godt på vej. Nu mangler jeg bare bukserne og ærmeskånerne og så er kan klar til at gå til angreb på fastelavn i børnehaven om en uge. Jeg glæder mig meget til at se, hvad han siger til det, når han kommer hjem i dag. Indtil da vil jeg sy videre og nynne alle de børnesange jeg kender, hvor der indgår krokodiller … “Hvis du ser en krokodille i dit badekar…”

… are needed to create a good crocodile. But the costume for MM is almost done (we celebrate “Fastelavn” with costumes and dressing up and trick or treating in February). I just need to sew the pants and the arm decoration and he’ll be set to attack at the celebration in the kindergarten next week. I really look forward to seeing his face, when he sees it later today. Until then, I’ll sew on and sing all the childrens songs I know featuring crocodiles.

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