My Iron Throne Cosplay

Holy January! It's hard to believe that the annual Hawthorne Masquerade Ball hosted by Creative Collective has once again come and gone.

Last year, I crafted a dress made out of playing cards for the masquerade ball - which was a big hit and won the costume contest.

This year's theme? Was Game of Thrones - Winds of Winter, and I'm sorry to say that the mister and I have not kept up with the show. We were both kind of scratching our heads re: what to wear.

All I knew is that I really wanted to wear something no one else would be wearing. So no Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen (there were tons), no Sansa or Cersei (again, very popular), etc. That left weirwoods (hmmm), the three eyed raven...

Then I had an idea. What if I could cosplay the iron throne?

 

And that's how I ended up with boxes and boxes of plastic swords.

I'd like to say I got to work right away, since I had the idea for my iron throne cosplay months before the masquerade ball. Unfortunately, life intervened and I only got started on my iron throne costume a couple of weeks before the big day.

That meant that I never had the time to put together the iron throne costume I was envisioning - a back piece and a skirt train - and had to go with just the back piece.

I started with a piece of stiff cardboard. I cut slits for the silk scarf that would be the straps before I started gluing the nicest swords with Gorilla Glue hot glue (the best kind of hot glue) together. Then I glued various other types and sizes of swords to the cardboard. Next I put the glued together nice swords on. With every step, I was terrified that the glue wouldn't hold since this would be on my back for five hours and bumped by other folks now and then throughout the night.

It held without me needing the mister to make repairs!

All in all, I'd say my iron throne costume turned out pretty well. It wasn't that heavy and with some padding, it didn't tear up my shoulders that much.

Hot iron throne on iron throne action

 Here's how my iron throne cosplay looked from the back:

Doorways were only slightly problematic. As for dancing on the dance floor? That didn't work out so well. We found other spots to dance in, though. And after a while I got used to moving through the crowd without stabbing everyone to my left and to my right.

As for the mister, he broke his right hand a few weeks before the masquerade ball and so we painted his cast gold and turned him into Jamie Lannister. I think we made a great pair, and we had an amazing time. I can't wait until they announce next year's theme. Maybe in 2020 I'll actually have enough time to make something really amazing.