Maid Marian/Nightwatchman

This is one of my favorite outfits of Marian in the entire Robin Hood series! I love how they gave the show's wardobe a modernized twist. It still had a medieval feel to it, but it didn't scream "Outdated 1st Century clothing".

Ok, so this outfit is made up of seven pieces. The base long-sleeved shirt, the reversible vest, the cape/skirt, the pants, the boots, the scarf, and the mask. First, I researched the costume, looking up and studying several pictures of the costume. I began with the pants. Now, I didn't use exact colors (hard to find sometimes) but it's still reasonably close.



Simplicity 3936



They were really straight forward to make, I just used the blue jeans pattern from Simplicity 3936. 

The skirt/cape was very simple as well. I just cut out a rectangular piece of fabric, deminsions appr. 9"x14". Hem on all sides. On the front of the skirt, I sewed two bar hook-and-eyes. The eyes get sewn on the top right edge (skirt is facing up) and the bar hooks get placed at the top left. The hooks don't get placed right on the edge however, they have to be a little inset in order for the skirt to close properly.

 Now, onto the long sleeved shirt. This was a challenge for me because of the draped hood. I have a pattern for a hoodie jacket, (McCall's M4896) but the hood is to close-fitting. So, I made my own pattern, inspired by another set of Simplicity patterns I have for human-scale cloaks and capes. Simplicity 9887. The pattern is almost a square. My deminsions were 8"(left side)x8"(top side)x8and1/2"(right side).

 With the left, right, and top sides measured out, the bottom side must be a little sloped, as shown (the bottom is the side that attaches to the sholders, that is why it is sloped). Other than down-sizing it, the pattern does not belong to me. All copyrights for this pattern goes to Simplicity. I just made it work for my purposes. I don't think I can give instructions on how to make the hood, since those belong to Simplicity. 

For the sleeves, I used the sweater sleeves from Outfit F from Simplicity 3936. (in the same set as the pants pattern =)) I think I used the entire sweater pattern, but I had to make modifications since I added the hood. Which was no small feat. =/ When I first connected the hood, there was no possible way the hoodie would slip over the dolls head, so I opened up the front of the shirt.



Now, both the front and the back are open, giving the dolls head enough room to fit through. The back closes with three regular hook/eye clasps, and the front laces closed. I made the scarf from the same material as the hoodie. The scarf deminsions are appr. 27"x4".

The vest was, without a doubt, the hardest piece to make. Because, my dear friends, it must be reversible, and I don't have a pattern for a reversible vest. So, I used the vest pattern from Simplicity 3936 for starters. I had to make modifications to the pattern because it needs to close in the front. I traced the basic shape of the pattern, cut it into three pieces, then redrew all the sides, making it longer and shaping it exactly how I wanted it. For the record, I followed the instructions for making the bodice of Dress D from Simplicity 2768 in order to make the sholder and arm skye seams look reversed.

 In order to make the vest reversible, I hemmed the sides inward, and then stitched them together with the brown thread. 

 One side of the vest is green, and the other side (same fabric) is a tanish color. I found some fancy buttons at JoAnn's, and sewed three per side. Now, the buttons are for looks, they don't function. (Because I don't know how to make functioning buttons like that.) So, I hid eyes under the buttons, the added the hooks to the opposite sides of the vest. Two hook/eyes per side.

For the boots, I was able to Google a free downloadable shoe (not boot) pattern and used it. I had to Google images of boot patterns to find the deminsions for the leg piece. I closed the back with a hook/eye.

Lastly, we come to the mask. It took me a long while to figure out how I would make the mask. I finally just measured the length of a pair of doll glasses and that was my scale size.

 The length of the mask is 10cm, and the maximum height (the highest point above the eyes) is 3cm. I made two cutouts from a stiff lining, colored them brown with marker, and hot glued them together, sandwiching the ends of two pieces of 11inch string at the corners of the eyes.



Maid Marian




The Nightwatchman



 I hope this was at least a little understandable. I have never given instructions like this before. If you have any further questions, please ask and I will try and answer the best I can. Thanks for reading and happy sewing!