Astrid Costume

My daughter, Corrie, fell in love with my favorite movie How To Train Your Dragon (HTTYD 1). She often wears Disney princess character dresses and would say, "I wish I had an Astrid dress." So for 2 weeks her mother and I assembled her new Astrid costume in secret.

The fabric glue was still drying when we told Alexa to play "Test Drive" (from the HTTYD original sound track) on repeat, as we helped Corrie *test fit* her new costume. After 15 minutes and only 1 safety pin, she was young Astrid Hofferson. We then removed the skirt and should armor, drove to our trunk-or-treat event, reassembled the costume and gave Corrie Astrid's shield instead of her signature battle axe because, "if you must choose between a sword or a shield, take the shield."

Corrie championed the shield, carrying it right up until she needed a bucket for candy. We later removed her skirt and armor again so she could play in a bounce house. The highlight of the day was my daughter's unprovoked halt, eye contact and "Thank you for my Astrid dress."

HOW IT'S MADE
The skirt is made of brown felt, with 2" strips of reddish faux leather. We used air-dry foam clay to make the spikes (intentionally smaller than Astrid's for function) and bird skulls. My wife gets all the credit for those. She painted them brownish grey and black too. The spikes at metallic silver with black around the base. Everything was affixed with fabric glue and there is a gap for a belt (of twine) to hold her skirt on. I even made and additional 2" strip that can be added to extend the skirt.

The shirt is hand painted with love by Mama.

The armor I made of 4mm foam cut into specific strips (through trial and error) and heat shaped into a curve. I glued on the "homemade model magic" rivets and spray painted a few layers of metallic silver. Then I used a soldering iron to add damage along with black paint and silver Rub-N-Buff. I painted brown to add some rust. A last minute addition was some neodymium magnets to hold the 2 piece foam armor together and to the shirt.

We cut a leather strip in two and adorned it with silver bead halves. Mama fabric glued velcro to connect it in the back.

I used more foam and glue to make the basic shape of Astrid's oversized boots that fit over my daughter's Crocs. I added the brown felt and faux fur to the foam with fabric glue.

I bought 2x 21" circular wood pieces and 2x Christmas ornament halves for the shield. I spray painted the ornament halves metallic silver and my wife hand painted the shield, adding bead halves as rivets and painting those too.

I cut a roll of 2" self-adhesive bandage in half and used those for Astrid's arm wraps.

I plan to wrap some twine above her elbows for Halloween, but ran out of time for the trunk-or-treat event.

The stretchy blue jean pants were the only item we didn't customize. However I knew early on that they would work perfect, just as they are.