Knight Party: How to Make a Knight's Tunic

If you're going to throw a medieval knight party, you have to have the traditional knightly garb, right? I mean, what is a knight without his tunic? Unfortunately, even little knights have expensive clothes. I hunted around the internet and found several outfits that were really great, but not so great on my budget. Rather than buying an expensive costume from a store, I dug into my fleece stash and came up with this awesome tunic. Why fleece? Mainly because the edges don't fray, so that meant no hemming for me and one less thing to worry about :)

Connor's been going through this stage where he sees his sister putting on princess dresses and little heels and wants to do the same, but of course my husband wants none of that. I'm hoping this little tunic will become one of his new favorite dress up outfits!


SUPPLIES: shirt to use as a template, paper for your pattern, fleece for the main fabric, 1 sheet of white felt, leather scraps, sewing machine and supplies.

Making Your Pattern:

ONE: fold your template shirt in half and place it on the edge of your paper. Trace around your shirt with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, and be sure to make the bottom longer (a little above the knees.)
TWO: cut out your template.
THREE: fold your fleece in half, right sides together. Place your pattern on the fold and trace around with chalk or disappearing ink marker.
FOUR: cut out and unfold your fabric. This is your back piece. Repeat to get your front piece but cut the neckline lower for the front.

Assembly:

FIVE: cut out a cross from some felt. Pin to the front of the tunic and sew around the edges to attach.
SIX: on the bottom of your tunic, find the middle and draw a line several inches long.
SEVEN: cut a slit as shown in the picture above, making sure to round the corners on the bottom.
EIGHT: pin the shoulders and sides together and sew the sides and shoulders only to attach.

Turn your tunic inside out and that's it! Again, since the tunic is made of fleece the edges won't fray, so I didn't bother hemming the bottom or finishing the neckline or armholes. For the belt, I simply cut a long strip of leather long enough to tie around his waist in a knot.

I made the tunic large on purpose so Connor could grow into it. It's really the perfect size for my almost 4-year-old, so hopefully it'll last him awhile. Layer a long sleeve gray shirt underneath to get more of an "armor" look. If it has a hood, even better! If you want to get really creative with everything, pair the outfit with some black leggings and boots. Since I had neither, gray pants and bare feet worked just fine for this little knight :)

Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!