Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sword / Dagger Tutorial


I did a not so great job of drawing my sword to use as my template. I have no suggestion here to avoid a wonky shape except to find something to use as your pattern (unless you can draw well!). I did find that the sword was floppy despite the Peltex. I was hesitant to insert something like a popsicle stick to give it more stability. I saw trips to the ER … so I opted to only use the Peltex and cut the sword down to a dagger. The boys didn’t seem to mind a bit that their dagger wiggles and waggles – there were having too much fun slaying imaginary whatevers …

You will need:

Felt for sword / dagger
Contrasting felt for applique
Firm interfacing - I used Peltex 70
Glue stick like this (not mandatory but helps when assembling layers)


I am going to refer to the color scheme that I used for sake of ease. Gray felt for the sword and yellow for the handle.

Cut two rectangles from yellow. I made mind 4 ¼ inches by 1 ¼ inches.

Cut two rectangles from interfacing about 1/4 inches smaller than yellow.

Cut two daggers from felt. My suggestion is to make the dagger the same width the entire length. I made mine a bit narrow where I attached the yellow and I think this contributed to the wiggle and waggle. My daggers are 10 ¼ inches long and 1 ¾ inches wide. You are going to cut one continuous piece. The yellow is going to be placed over the dagger to give it more stability.

Cut two daggers from interfacing about ¼ inch smaller than the felt.

Make a sandwich of the gray felt, interfacing, interfacing, gray felt. I used the glue to hold it all together since it’s so thick. Double check to make sure no interfacing is showing; if so trim. Zig zag stitch (I used a very small /tight stitch) to close the gray felt around the interfacing.

Next is to add the yellow felt to the dagger. If you wish to embellish and add ‘jewels’ or squiggles now is the time.

Once you are done decorating your dagger’s handle (you see I chose the easy way – no embellishments) we are going to make another sandwich. Yellow felt, interfacing, dagger, interfacing, yellow felt. I placed the bottom of the yellow felt 3 inches up from the bottom of the dagger and double check to make sure no interfacing is showing:


Zig zag a small / tight stitch all the way around the yellow (and over the dagger) to attach the ‘handle’. Double check that you caught all the seams and if need be (I had to) restitch those areas that did not make the first round.


Pictured at the top is the sword which I then cut down to dagger size which is pictured right above. I hope this isn’t too confusing. If you little knights are like mine, they aren’t very discriminating and didn’t notice the flaws – they were too busy puffing out their chests and putting on their ‘soldier’ faces ~ remember, send me pics if you make these (smile).
Here are the links to the armor tutorial and the shield tutorial.

8 comments:

periwinkle said...

all added to my list of things to do :-)
lisa x

Michelle said...

Thanks for the great tutorials!

angela said...

Oh, thanks so much for all of the tutorials. Now, you know I'm going to have to make these for my girls....probably in shades of pink and purple, no doubt!

UK lass in US said...

My house has remained surprisingly injury free considering that my kids were given wooden swords...

What a cool idea. Maybe some of that plastic canvas that kids use for embroidery would help with the wiggle waggle - but still bend when needed to.

Polly @ Pieces by Polly said...

This is so good to see something crafty and useful to make for boys...so much of the ideas out there are for little girls. Thanks! I'm adding this to my list of projects to do.

Polly @ http://helpinglittlehands.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this cool idea. Now I'll be able to complete my costume without violating the weapon rules of conventions. Have you tried using cardboard to make it more sturdy? Thanks again for the idea.

linnellbelle said...

Fabulous sword/dagger! I love it! Thanks for sharing your tutorials!

perrin said...

Thanks for your tutorials
http://dubouhdesdoigts.overblog.com/le-défi-de-la-semaine