Link Costume

Okay, so the movie is supposed to come out at some point here soon, so there might be some out there who may need a little help with their son's Link costume.

Adam is our model. He is 4 years old (in these photos) and completely ecstatic about being Link from Legends of Zelda for Halloween. He's been smacking at the keyboard since he was 3 months old, and gaming since 2 years of age. What can I say? He games, and don't judge me, cause the kid's a fucking genius. I didn't like all the computer games at first, but my husband took over, promising me that Adam would not let his chores, grades, or behaviour slip and he was right. Then to top it off, he requests new games daily because he gets bored of the ones we give him. So Mike decided to try Super Smash Brothers, Mario Party, Mario Paper, Bomberman, Final Fantasy One, and a few others. I've never seen anything like it, not in a child, anyway. He scores really high and since I dont know the game, I look it up. Google will tell you just about anything you want to know. [Mike believes that Google will become a seperate artificial intelligence and try someday to take over civilization] And anyway, aparently Adam's skill level is about that of a 30 year old man who has been playing for 20 years. He beats Mike at Mario Racing. I wouldmention that he beats me everytime but that doesnt really say much. Mike plays MMORPGS, first person shooters, racing, rts (real time strategy games) and has been since he was 15 and my 5 year old son kicks his ass.

Ok okay I'll stop my bragging and get back to the point. Adam requested to be Mario for Halloween and he suggested that his little brother be Luigi and I should be Princess Peach (aka Princess Toadstool) I was rather happy that he changed his mind....

But then Link AND Princess Zelda was my new assignment. I never really did convince him that I didn't need to dress up, I kept him excited about his.

First of all, I did a google search for Link costume and found a chick who had made one for a convention (i still believe that rather nerdish and dont get that). She took the costume down to basic Link in green tunic but she went all out on the shield-his final level shield. We decided to go with a level 1 Link with cloth tunic, no chainmail.

I made a little money pouch with leftover brown fabric from the boots and stuffed it with batting. His hat was just 2 triangles sewn together with the bottom part being the diameter of his head. It was a little snug but it needed to be to keep it on...

The tunic was made using a t-shirt (with the sleeves folded in) as the pattern and I made it about 6 inches longer. I wanted it to remain "rough looking" so hems were few, and I fringed it where it didnt already do it by itself. I sewed the sides and shoulders and cut a v shape in the neck. I was thinking about shoelacing the v-neck but decided against it (laziness on my part).

His boots were the hardest and longest part. I took a pair of his rubber boots and put them on their sides on a piece of brown fabric and traced a boot shape with a 1 and a half inch seam (and mobility)allowance. I also made extra room at the top because his boots get folded down to reveal a buckle in the middle. I sewed the top of the boot part together and the back of the boot and slipped them over the rubbers. I warmed up the hot glue gun and glued the bottom to the bottom sides of his rubber boots and the top after i folded it down an inch and half. It was missing a buckle so I went to the dollar store and bought 2 of those leather watch straps. They were perfect! I hot glue gunned them into place under the fold and his boots were done.

I used two old belts to make the "sash" and belt and assembled it like so. While I was at the dollar store I picked up some yellow hair spray paint too. His ears were triangular pieces of felt sewn into a tiny cone shape and slipped onto the top of his ears. They fell off a lot, so I hand sewed them onto the hat where they stayed quite sturdy-like.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people knew who he was. Some said an elf because of his ears. Two teenage girls commented that he was "the coolest costume they ever saw" and that was enough for me :)

And Cody the sword wielding elephant....