Ta da!
So, the younger two boys and I are going to Comic Con in Denver. We're awesome, so we're dressing up as Thor, Loki and Frigga (mom of Thor & Loki). After a rather frustrating search online and locally for Loki costumes that weren't custom made and hundreds of dollars, I ended up making my own for Micah...jacket and scepter in any case.
In the hopes that it might come in handy for someone else...here's how:
1. Start with a child sized trench coat. This proved difficult until I realized that I needed to change my search to costumes that used trench coats. I ended up with this one.
2. Trim off the sleeves. (This, I suppose, is optional. I chose to cut them off given the season and anticipated heat at Comic Con. Instead, I just made arm guards from peewee soccer shin guards covered in gold duct tape.)
3. Cut off about a foot from the bottom, and set aside that material for later. (The coat was too long for Micah anyhow. Also, though, I needed the extra fabric for the shoulders. In retrospect, I could have cut a bit less, but I don't want Micah to trip up on the jacket anyhow.)
4. Fold back the center a couple inches and cut away the material, leaving just the lapel portion. (The fact that this was a trench that buttons all the way from neck to foot came in very handy with the extra material along the center.) Cover that in green duct tape. (Duct tape is your friend and is awesome. Thanks to the type of material, too, I didn't feel the need to hem any edges. Yay!)
Here's a sketch I made to work from. It's rough:
5. Trim the lower flaps and add gold duct tape stripes. (The gold duct tape was cut in half lengthwise...amazingly, Noah informed me that you can simply snip the tape and pull it apart evenly. Beautiful.)
6. Take that material you set aside earlier and cut out shoulder pieces. I made a pattern from foam sheets first and just messed around with it until it looked roughly right. It's not a match to the actual costume but worked for Micah's size and maintaining mobility. Stitch the shoulder pieces to the jacket. (I didn't stitch the entire piece...just along the inner edges where the stitch marks are.)
Done.
As for the scepter...
1. Get a pvc pipe, a cap and a 45 degree elbow. We cut it so that Micah's hand rested comfortably when he grasped it.
2. I found a bouncy ball that lights up and attached it with wire. (I had Nathan drill a few holes in the elbow to attach the wire to.) (Micah was resistant to this bouncy ball because he felt it was too big. The fact that it lights up when he stamps the scepter has now won him over, lol. Also, the spikes, while not really a replica, made it much easier to wrap wire around. We had a number of other ideas (like a shiny blue rock or blue light bulbs) for this part but this ended up working well.)
3. I sketched the blade design out on foam board then cut it out and covered the entire thing in silver duct tape. (This took awhile and I quickly gave up on trying to keep things smooth, opting instead for a battered look, lol.)
4. I attached the blade to the pipe with silver duct tape then covered the pipe part back up with gold duct tape.
Oh, and I found the awesome helmet on eBay. ;) I fully anticipate that Micah can use it this winter to keep his noggin warm also.
And that's how we created Loki. :)
Obviously I could have embellished things a great bit more if I had more time and cared enough. :) But. For our intents and purposes, this worked great. Whew.
Stay tuned for group pictures of the three of us...
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 12:56PM 
