I am a manly man!

[kareina]

I have been preparing for this summer's NordanilLajv for months now--the two biggest projects were sewing my beard and building my man muscles.

The hair for the mustache came from my own head (collected from my comb or saved from going down the shower drain), but the beard is half (the lighter colour) from Paul, who grew his hair long (at my request) when he was my boyfriend, and then, years later he cut it off and sent it to me, since it was my idea for it to be long in the first place, and half from clovis_t, who already had long hair when we started dating, and who cut it off after we went our separate ways, and sent it to me.

The man muscles were made by making a linen under layer using the same techniques as for a Gothic fitted dress, except I inserted a zipper in the front center seam instead of lacing it. This took care of binding my breasts flat and supporting them. I then used a terrycloth towel for padding out my waist and adding shoulders. Finally I covered it all with an unbleached linen. The final step, which I can probably do while driving to the event this weekend, will be quilting in muscle lines. Not that anyone will ever notice the muscle lines while I am dressed, but there could be some occasion during the game where I take off my tunic in front of people, and if that happens I may as well show off nice, rippling muscles.

Comments

[fjorlief.livejournal.com]

what a startling transformation! Somehow even your face looks different with whiskers framing it, and the man-muscles change your outline to a much more manly one... I am impressed

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

They tell me that it was convincing enough that no one on site ever had to think twice, they just referred to my character as "he".

[darttn.livejournal.com]

Wow! Are you ever a manly man! I almost wouldn't have known it was you, you did such a good job on your bear/mustache.
Love you
Mom

[corvideye.livejournal.com]

Amazing!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Oh my. That is awesome! You make a beautiful man!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Then again, I am not surprised you think so, since the overall effect is rather like what yours would look like, if he wore his beard long with a braided mustache...

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, indeed. :)

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

So tell me: what is this event you are going to and why are you going as a man?

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I have just posted a post event summary here:

http://kareina.livejournal.com/355697.html

But as to why--when my friend told me last winter that they were going to do a Viking themed larp this summer I thought it would be fun to go, and I had recently finished a Viking tunic for myself. However, since I have no interest in ever wearing the beads, I did my tunic in the male style. Since I already had "man clothes", I decided I may as well play a man in the game. However, when I mentioned this to her, and she looked at the quality of the pretty wool twill fabric and the embroidered seams, she decided that I should play one of the Stormen (warrior chief). So then I decided that in that case I needed a beard. And a comfortable way to both flatten my breasts and pad out my waist and shoulders. And it all just sort of escalated...