Sew Fiddlesticks the Scarecrow (League of Legends)

If you ever need to make a scarecrow, or specifically Fiddlesticks from League of Legends, here is a fairly straightforward tutorial. The costume is almost entirely a sewing project, his accessories are paper mache and there is a little bit of paint involved. Here we go.

Step 1: Start With a Morphsuit and Make a "wood" Body

The costume is built on a black morphsuit. The first layer is the wooden scarecrow frame. The shoulders, hips, and legs just leather tubes. The upper and lower arm segments are just cuffs.

To make cuffs, fold the leather in half with the unfinished side out. Sew a straight line opposite the fold and then turn it inside out. Use light brown acrylic paint and a black paint pen to paint wood patterns on the leather.

To make tubes, fold the leather in half with the unfinished side out. Sew the side and one end closed then turn it inside out. Fill the tube with stuffing. Cut a circle just larger than the open end of the tube and tuck it into the open end. Sew the edges closed. Use light brown acrylic paint and a black pen to paint wood patterns on the leather.

Sew the shoulders and arm cuffs onto the morphsuit with a simple running stitch. Use rope to wrap the elbow twice for detailing and then sew the rope in place.

Sew the short hip tubes onto an elastic waistband. Sew the upper leg segments onto the hip tubes and then wrap and sew some rope trim into place. Sew an elastic strap onto the inside of each thigh. This allows the leg to move when your legs move, giving the effect of life-like walking.

Sew the lower leg onto the upper leg. You'll notice I sewed V's into the ends of the upper and lower leg to create a jointed knee. Sew the lower end of the lower leg into your shoe to create Fiddlesticks' signature walking style (a hopping wide-legged motion). You can just pin the leg to your shoelaces if you don't want to alter your shoes.

Step 2: The Ragged Tunic and Scarf

The tunic is an extremely simple piece. Just take a piece of cloth, fold it over and cut the fold creating two long, equal rectangles. Sew a the top of the rectangle closed just a few inches at the right and left shoulder. The sides are open except for a few inches that are sewn together just below the hip. This creates a drape for the tunic at the waist. After sewing the sides and shoulders turn the tunic inside out. Sew 2 or 3 patches onto the tunic to mimic Fiddlesticks' look. Next, use scissors to cut ragged edges and a few holes in the tunic, Complete the ragged look by dipping a paintbrush or rag in some black paint and smearing it haphazardly onto the tunic to make it look even more ragged and worn.

For the scarf, simply cut a long triangle out of red fabric and cut ragged edges into the fabric. Tie the scarf loosely around your neck.

Step 3: The Head/Face Hood

The head and face of this costume is a simple hood, pillow, and some LED eyes.

First sew a simple bag that fits snugly over your head. I sewed the seam at the bottom of the bag at a slight angle to create Fiddlesticks' pointy head. Next, sew a simple pillow approximately the size of the top of your head. This pillow won't show so it can be scrap material and simple seams. Stuff the pillow into the bottom of the bag and sew it into place. This pillow creates an upper head for your scarecrow, so when you put the bag over your head and cut an eye-hole it will become the scarecrow's mouth. To be sure you get the correct placement for the eye-hole, put the bag (with pillow in place) over your head and have someone else CAREFULLY cut a mouth opening that will allow you to see through. Take the hood off and then cut ragged edges in the mouth/eye-hole opening.

Now use your black paint and brush or rag to give your hood a worn appearance just like the tunic. When the paint is dry, sew on a pair of LED lights for Fiddlesticks' glowing green eyes. I used bike spoke lights that I bought at Walmart for about $7. They twist on and off so it is easy to save your battery until it it costume time. Also, when we're through with the costume they will be good safety lights for my bike.

Step 4: Gloves, Key, and Scythe

The accessories for this costume are the gloves, key, and scythe. We live in Texas so wearing gloves over a morphsuit gets sweaty so we cut the hands off of the morphsuit for comfort. I used a pair of work gloves and marked them up with a paint pen to give them a worn appearance.

For the key and the scythe I had to break out the paper mache. I insisted that the scythe must be overly large. I could not find a store bought, ready made scythe that was large enough (believe me, I tried very hard).

So, for the key and scythe blade I cut two layers of cardboard and wadded up newspaper to create a curved shape on the top of the blade and on the front of the key. I cut a tree branch from the yard for a shaft for the scythe and attached it to the blade with screws and washers to secure the cardboard blade.

For the paper mache, I mixed warm water and a big bottle of Elmer's glue to make the paste. I ripped newspaper strips and dipped them in the paste. I layered the strips over the blade and key. I applied 4 to 5 layers of newspaper to give the paper some thickness. When it dried, I painted the items gray and then smeared on white, black, and silver accents for a worn look. I also painted the branch a darker brown. I was pretty happy with the look, but the end results wasn't very durable. By the end of Halloween night the blade was a bit saggy. If I were to do it again I would follow the Instructable for a scythe with a wooden blade recently posted by DIYhaunter. Oh well, live and learn.

Overall this costume was a really fun project. Sewing the "wooden" frame pieces took the most time by far, and the scythe was pretty good but not great. The best part was definitely the LED eyes, something as simple as bicycle spoke lights made all the difference. I was thrilled with the results and that is one more Halloween in the bag.