Articulated Ken Doll Plays Mercutio in #StopMotion #Shakespeare Play @ ChellyWood.com #Theater

Image showing Ken doll in Renaissance clothing
Feel free to pin, post, or tweet my image.

I chose this picture of Mercutio, because you can kind of see how silly and fun his character is in my stop-motion film of Romeo and Juliet. In the original Shakespeare play, Mercutio is a relative of the prince, but his personality is goofy, silly, and just plain fun! I’m having a blast putting him in comical scenes with Benvolio as his sidekick.

I had to choose a highly articulated Ken doll for this role because Mercutio is one of the fencers in Act 3. He needed to be able to lunge, parry, and perform some Princess-Bride-like acrobatics. For these scenes, I’m using puppeting techniques. You can read more about my how-to methods on Toy Box Philosopher’s interview with me last May.

Anyway, here’s how you make his costume…

This is the pattern for his muffin cap, and here’s a tutorial showing you how to make it.

Here’s the actual pattern for his shirt, but I don’t especially like that pattern. What I recommend instead is that you use this pattern which was designed for Romeo’s outfit, and use this tutorial to show you how to make it.

This is the pattern for his bicolored trousers along with the doublet and sleeves, and here’s how you make Mercutio’s doublet and sleeves. Here’s the tutorial showing you how to make bicolored trousers. But please be aware: for Mercutio’s pants, I used a snap, not elastic. This tutorial shows you how to sew a snap onto fabric.

Here’s the pattern for Mercutio’s boots, and here’s a tutorial showing you how to make felt boots for Ken dolls.

As you may recall, you must enlarge my patterns to fit a full-sized piece of American computer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm) before printing. My designs use a 1/4 inch seam (standard for fashion doll sewing projects). If you have any questions about piecing this costume together, feel free to contact me, using my “Submit a Question” form. I’m always happy to help!

People have asked me why I offer my patterns and tutorials for free. There’s no catch. I just want people to know about my website; that’s all. So when you print my patterns, it’s always friendly and kind to like it on FB, tweet about it, and/or pin it to your Pinterest page. That way you’re helping to spread the word that these free, printable sewing patterns exist.

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