It finally happened – Mike dressed up for the ren faire. 🧙 For many years now, we’ve joked with our friends that he would dress up for the faire if I made him a Merlin costume. It had to be classic Merlin, but a little gritty, and the biggest sticking point was the hat – many times he described exactly how long, flaccid and sock-like it had to be. A few years ago I even tried to start making the costume, but he was so unsatisfied with the fabric options at jo-anns that we left empty handed.
Concept/Inspiration
The main keywords I had to go off of were “classic,” “gritty,” and “shifty” and “lots of fabric.” We ended up using a combination of Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White as inspiration haha (I’m so glad that the Alley Cat Scratch website is still live after all of these years ♡). Images below are from both Alley Cat Scratch and Arwen-Undomiel.com.
We based the robe off of Gandalf the Grey, and the cloak off of Gandalf the White. 🙂
Robe
I used the sleeved cloak of Simplicity 1582 (View A) from my collection as the base of the robe. Some alterations I made:
- I mainly only used the top portion of the pattern (cut straight instead of on an upward angle like the pattern photo) to create an open front for the robe, which I lined using the main fabric. I used button holes for the lacing for the first time, and I really like the technique as an alternative to metal grommets!
- I slimmed down the lower portion of the sleeves, and added fullness to the shoulder so that I could gather it to create more volume. This was my first time adding fullness to a sleeve the “right” way (using this tutorial), and I was pretty proud of how it turned out haha
- I pleated large pieces of fabric for the portion of the robe under the chest
The fabric for the robe was the Island Breeze Gauze in Navy from fabric.com. I was able to finish he robe in one weekend! (I’d budgeted two weekends for the entire costume and was very happy about this haha)
I can’t forget to add that I used one more new-to-me technique on the robe – a rolled hem foot on the machine! I’d recently learned about them by following @burieddiamond on instagram, and immediately ordered a set once I realized how much fabric I’d be using on this project. 😂
Cloak
The cloak was made by combining the basic Gandalf Cloak pattern by Fatimah on Alley Cat Scratch (as seen on the bottom of this page), and the triangle hood from this cape pattern by Fingerprint Props.
The cloak was made from the Telio Ballad Faux Linen in Bright Blue from fabric.com – 100% polyester 😬 but at it at least had a loose weave for air flow (we chose it for both its price and rough texture).
Here’s a try-on of the unhemmed cloak over the robe:
After marking the proper lengths from Mike’s try-on, I laid the cloak out flat so that I could trim off the excess fabric from the hem. The texture of the fabric was too rough to easily mark it without it constantly shifting, so I came up with what I considered a clever solution hahah – I laid down yarn along the cut line.
After hemming the cloak, I moved on to attaching the stars. They were cut out of a white version of the faux linen, and spray basted before using a zigzag stitch to applique them on. I think this the cloak, hood and hat had around 40 stars total. 🥲
Mike wasn’t a fan of the original fabric closure, so we ordered this fancy silver one online (I wasn’t joking when I said he was very serious about this costume 😂).
Hat
Yes, Mike wanted both a hat and a hood.
I.. don’t have any process photos of the hat aside from this shot of the aftermath. 😂 I was slightly over the costume at this point, and excited to finally be finished so I could clean things up haha.
I used the same Simplicity 1582 pattern, view A, as above for the base of the hat pattern. I made it longer, replaced the flat brim with a faux folded brim (just a band of fabric sewn on instead of folded over), and added a lining. I think I just managed to get the slightly-sticking-up but mostly droopy look that Mike was going for hahah.
Misc
After the ren faire, I knew I no longer needed the scraps leftover from the costume so I used the robe gauze to make this braided belt. We saw them being sold at the fair and it seemed like a great way to not waste any fabric. 🙂
And of course, Toast and Marlin were big help.
