The Michigan Renaissance Festival - I think it’s a blast, NA Slacker barely tolerates it, and Little Buddy thinks it’s fucking magical. There’s a castle! And jugglers! And fairies! So we once a year we leave the curmudgeon at home to enjoy some peace and quiet while the boys and I head out for a morning of muddy, loud 16th century-esque fun.

As a former professional draper, I simply couldn’t let my sons experience it without some sort of historically inaccurate garb. And while I would have loved to pull out my research books to develop some wonderfully complex doublets, breeches, and codpieces; I also knew that there was approximately a 50% chance of costume rejection so I settled on some tabards and crowns. They can easily be worn over a Spiderman shirt, and that alone take the chances of the costume being worn to about 80-85%. Adding the sword then pretty much sealed the deal. For about 20 minutes.

For the actual tabards I didn’t use a pattern and basically just made things up as I went along; partly to keep things simple but mostly to help keep the cost down. We’re now a one income household so I needed to scrounge a bit, luckily everything but the linen for the tabards was in my stash. (as any seamstress will tell you, it’s not the fabric that makes sewing expensive – it’s the interfacing, zippers, embellishments, and closures that will break you).

You will notice that the costume is no longer on….

A great time was had by all, and the costume prep prompted Little Buddy to start thinking about Halloween. He made an excellent choice, I’m very excited.