Robin Hood and Maid Marian from Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is one of my all time favorite movies. I watched it many, many times as a kid and an adult and I still find it brilliant. This pair has always been on my list of couple costumes (an eventually a group with my mom and sis as Broomhilde and Latrine!) to make someday. When 42 Lounge in Milwaukee announced a big trip to the Bristol Ren Faire I knew it was time to make this pair!

Robin Hood

I made Robin’s costume first as it was the most complicated and needed lots of small details. My favorite part of the costume is his hat, which is made from green suede and has a gigantic pheasant feather in it. I drafted the hat pattern myself. His cotton undershirt was constructed from an altered pirate shirt pattern. The shirt is completely open in the front and is just overlapped on itself before the tunic pulls over it. The pattern for the suede tunic was draped while my husband patiently stood there while I drafted it on him. The tunic has decorative pleather trim with gold painted studs (actually googley eyes) and a lace up grommet closure in front. The tights were made by copying a pair of leggings and made from a thick pique green knit and have an elastic waistband. The belt, pouch, sword holster, and bracer were all made out of pleather material and underlined in craft foam for added thickness. The sword is a foam practice sword that I painted to look more like the sword in the movie. Finally, his boots are suede boot covers with grommets and suede laces up the sides.

Maid Marian

Maid Marian’s dress is in two parts: a sleeve cropped bodice and an overdress that snaps onto the gown. I attempted to make the gown “tear-away” much like the gown in the movie does. I also had a lot of fun picking out shiny metallic lame and metallic white jacquard material to look the most like her over the top wedding dress from the movie. The bodice is made of a boned princess seamed bodice with silver pleated sleeves and yoke. The bodice is lined in white cotton. The neckline of the bodice has small pearls shaping the sweetheart neckline. The sleeve bands and banding on the dress are made of a grey velveteen home dec material. I stitched the square pattern onto the bands and then sewed a pearl on each of the intersections. I drafted the pattern for the bodice and over dress based on my sloper patterns. All of the edges of the bodice and overdress banding is bound in the metallic spandex. The overdress is unlined, but boned with plastic boning along the seams for added stability.