Link - foam shields

I made the shields out of a pack of four foam floor tiles, silver duct tape, E6000 craft adhesive from Walmart, and velcro packing straps, and craft paint from Dollarama. Like the Link costume itself, the shield has many variations. Once we had a picture of the variation she wanted, I drew a grid on it. Using the grid I transposed the pattern to a large sheet of paper.

Actually, I only transferred half the pattern, and then folded the paper and cut out the other side to match. I then used the larger paper to trace the pattern on to a floor tile and cut out the shape with an exacto knife. I cut out four notches for the arm straps and put the bands through.

Then we glued the cut shape to another floor tile using the E6000, sandwiching the back of the strap between the two tiles. We made sure to leave the ends with velcro on the outside. These were then stacked away overnight under some heavy books to dry.

The next day, I cut through the other tile using the first tile as a guide. I traced the rest of the pattern on the fronts of the shields. We edged the shields with chrome duct tape that we also got at Walmart, and the girls painted the fronts with Dollarama craft paint.

Link / Dark Link

My daughter finally came up with a costume idea about a month in advance of Keycon. She and her friend wanted to be Link and Dark Link. I had played the original Zelda on the Nintendo but I’m not a super huge Zelda fan. I much preferred the gameplay of Dragon Warriors – which is what Dragon Quest was called over here.
Due to my unfamiliarity with the character, and wanting her to be sure about what she wanted, I asked her to provide me with pictures of what she wanted.

With two weeks to go, we asked her again at the beginning of May and finally got her to sit down and print out some pictures to use. Shan found some a good site about making the costume. We picked up some fabric and tights at Walmart, and some boots and turtlenecks at Value Village.

We found large t-shirts to use as a guide and got the girls to lie down on the fabric and traced out the measurements for the tunics, and they cut out the rough pattern pieces for the tunics and hats. We tried using Gee’s sewing machine but ended up hand sewing the outfits. Gee sewed her hat while Shan did most of the sewing on the tunics. The girls also made some Navis and pouches.

We took some brown gardening gloves at Dollarama and cut off the fingers to get close-enough gloves. Gee wanted to get a blonde wig but we told her she didn’t need one. She pushed for it, so we made a trip to The Party Store to get wigs, and I have to admit it really does help to complete the look. We also picked up pointed ear tips that we ended up not using due to the fit.

She had foam swords from Keycon last year that she was going to use so we picked up some poster tubes at Dollarama to use as scabbards. These worked out very well as a quick substitute. I also made up some shields out of foam floor tiles and the kids painted them the day before the convention. I’ll post up a more detailed tutorial on the shields.

They were very well received at the convention. Most people overlooked the rough seams and the navis were a big hit for those who knew the character. For the two weeks of shopping and work I believe they did pretty well. We can revisit the costumes to hem the edges and add a proper collar. The girls ended up winning first place in the junior category.