I am a manly man!
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.