King Baldwin IV- the beginning

  My latest and greatest costume, the one that  made open this blog is King Baldwin IV from the film Kingdom of Heaven.  I saw the film in theaters with friends and afterwords I knew I wanted to do this character. Funny to think now  that my friends had to drag me to see it! They wanted to see Orlando Bloom but by the end of the film I loved it, because of Baldwin, and they didn't think much of the film at all . 

Of course not long after that I was busy tracking down everything I could about the real King Baldwin, he is an incredible person to read about, and while I know the film has it's inaccuracies it is what got me into learning about  the character.  It's funny too but I had met another costumer during Dragon*con  who had a beautiful Snape costume, when I went to her costume site she had the beginnings of a Baldwin Costume, I wrote to her and needless to say we became fast friends. Anyway....

I've  jumped back and forth between which costume of his I wanted to do,  and it finally came down to which of these can I make without breaking the bank and possibly out of found materials, since up till now that is how I've done my costumes.

The first costume he wears in the film (for the Chess scene)    filled the quota, it was recognizable,  simple in it's embellishments and could possibly be bought.  I decided early on to try making the mask, long before I thought the rest of the costume could be a reality. I must have worked on  the mask a hundred times, Knowing from the beginning this was likely going to have to be made by me, since the museum replica was no longer available and was not the one worn in this scene.

 Unfortunately I did not have a camera back then so I do not have documentation of these early attempts.  I put the project on hold for a very long time until we come to last month (July 2010).

 My LJ entry from July 11th
" It's been a great last few days for costume finds! I've bought the fabric for King Baldwin. YAY! ( I'll take pictures tomorrow once I've straighted up my room)  my friend and I went to Jo Ann's  where they had there brocades for 30% off  so with that and a 25 dollar gift card (Thank you Dia!) I bit the bullet and bought the fabric.  I love it too, I've been looking at lots of it on and off but this was the first one  for me that said Pick me! Pick me! I will probably not be bringing this one to Dragon Con this year,  But it is a step to making it (finally) 

I found a beautiful fabric that while not really matching the films fabric was a very rich and regal fabric, with the aide of a gift card a 30% off sign and some nudging from my friend I took the first step towards making the costume. Until finding the fabric at an affordable price I  had been searching sites hoping to find something I could alter to look like the costume.  I had never successfully made a full costume piece before, bits and pieces yes, but not the whole body of the costume. But now I was daring to think I could in fact sew and  thinking that there was no way I'd get it done time for this years Dragon Con... which brings me to the present day. See next entry.