No Sew Costume – Link (Legend of Zelda) / Robin Hood / Elf Warrior

Drama King loves playing Legend of Zelda on the NES so I wasn’t surprised when he adamantly insisted he wanted his Halloween costume to be Link this year. The only problem was his size as he barely fits into a size 6 and apparently young kids don’t pick Link as their favorite choice for Halloween. This left us with only one option: Make him a costume.

Link is commonly depicted as a child or teenager of the elf-like Hylian race, originating in the fictional land of Hyrule. Link often travels through Hyrule, defeating creatures, evil forces and the series’ primary antagonist, Ganon, while attempting to save Princess Zelda and her kingdom. To defeat him, Link usually requires the mystic Master Sword and Light Arrows, or a similar legendary weapon, obtained after many trials and battles gathering magical objects or using other items such as musical instruments and weaponry. Several different Incarnations of Link have been introduced throughout The Legend of Zelda series.

Now this is my first EVER attempt at making a costume so I used stuff we had around the house along with a few items you can pick up at dollar stores (Dollar Tree, 99¢ Only Stores , etc) or from dollar sections at stores like Wal-Mart or Target. Adjusting the weapons, you could also be Robin Hood or one of the other elf warriors in this no sew costume.

What you’ll need –

(1) White pull on pants one size too small or a pair of white tights – $1 and up
(1) White long sleeve shirt one size too small –  $1 and up
(2) Forest green shirts two sizes too big – On hand or $1 and up
(1) White stretch headband – On hand or $1 a pack
(1-2) Tan stretch headband or hair tie – On hand or $1 a pack
(1)  Brown belt your size – On hand, $3 and up
(1) Arm guards or gauntlets – $1
(1) Bow and arrow set, preferably one with a belt holder – $1
(1) Sword – $1
(1 pair) Brown boots OR brown socks large enough to fit over their normal shoes – On hand or $1

Step 1: The Base Look

Put on the white pants, then the white long sleeve shirt and tuck in the shirt. Put on one green shirts for the tunic. Use the other green shirt to make the flowing cap. Use the white stretch headband to secure the green shirt around head. Fold back part of the green shirt to cover the headband. Use the tan headband and wrap a few times around the flowing hat. Adults might need a second headband to tie a little farther down the flowing hat. You could also use a green bandana as seen in the photos below or a green hoodie but I think the green flowing hat looks better. Put on the child’s regular socks and shoes then put the brown socks over the shoes to create a brown boot.

Step 2: Add The Weaponry

Sword – Link typically carries his sword on his back so you can either tuck the sword into the white shirt or sling something across your back to hold the sword. In the photos we used a tripod carrying case with paper stuffed into the bottom to make sure the sword handle stuck out the top. You could tuck it into the belt if you prefer.

Bow & arrow set – If the arrows have a belt holder, put it on the belt. If not, put the arrows in the same cases as the sword. Sling the bow over your shoulder.

Arm guards – Add the arm guards over the white long sleeve shirt.

Step 3: Optional Stuff = More $$$

Shield – Completely optional but if you are trick or treating, it might be easier to skip this item and make the trick or treat bag look like a shield. One idea would be to trace a shield on poster board, color and design it like Link’s shield, cut it out and hot glue it to the lower half of a white pillowcase.

Elf ears – Link is an elf so picking up elf ears would help round out the look but these can sometimes be costly or not have the right fit so we skipped this part of the look.

Dirty Blonde Long Wig – If you don’t have long brownish blonde hair, a wig can help pull it all together.

Magic potion bottle – Use a small plastic bottle with a potion label and attach to the belt.

Wand – Tuck a magic wand into the belt.

That’s it! See it was super simple with very little out-of-pocket expense. Of course you can spend a bit more and make the costume more realistic but mostly the basics worked for our little guy as you can see.

Drama King is super soft-spoken so I fully expect to explain his outfit. Maybe I’ll print out a small business card for him to hand out with an image and description of the character.