DragonCon 2015

Last year we were unable to go to DragonCon due to the fact that we were taking a trip to the UK, so we were really looking forward to going this year.  It didn't disappoint!  We've been making friends in the con community for a few years, so we knew more people than just our roommates, and we were looking forward to seeing them.  (We only ran into a few, which just shows how large DragonCon is!)

We started out Thursday night as Burt Macklin and Janet Snakehole from Parks and Rec. (Thanks to @tiarala for this awesome photo!)

We also met this fantastic Ron and Tammy 2 pair.  They were spot on and stayed in character!

While we were out roaming the floor, we decided to get drinks, which we never do, as they're SO expensive.  Also, we're not huge drinkers, so we barely drink at DragonCon anyway.  However, I thought it would be appropriate for Janet Snakehole to have an old fashioned in her hand.  Matt went off to order our drinks at the bar in the Marriott Atrium, and I lounged against the railing with my best Janet Snakehole expression on my face.  A few minutes later, an older man walked away from the bar.  He was wearing a hat, had a drink in his hand, and carried a cane over his arm.  It was Sylvester McCoy!  I gave him a small wave of acknowledgement, and he looked right at me and said, "You look very elegant, my dear."  I replied loftily, "Thank you, Doctor."

So that was pretty amazing.

On Friday we went to several panels and met up with our friend Katie, who was at her first con ever.  She is an enthusiastic person, and on an enthusiasm scale of 1 to 10, she's at about an 8 on a normal day.  At DragonCon, she was peaking at about a 15.  As an introvert, I can only exert so much energy to deal with that level of energy before I start to wear out like a wind-up toy at the end of its wind.

Katie - Just looking at that smile makes me tired.

We got into our LOTR costumes and went out on the floor for a while.  We ran into Frank Ippolito  and Bill Doran, who Matt follows on YouTube.  He'd used some of their tutorials for his armor, so he talked to them for a bit.  Then I turned around and saw Norm from Tested with his camera.  He was facing away from us, but I hoping that if he turned around and saw Matt, he'd snap a photo, and that's exactly what happened!  Matt even made it into Norm's photo gallery, which is pretty epic!

As Matt, Katie, and I were heading to Evening at Bree, we got into an elevator that was going up, as we'd been unsuccessful at catching the ones going down.  A few floors up, Michael Trucco from Battlestar Galactica hopped on with a friend.  It was all I could do to keep myself from elbowing Matt.  For the last few floors, it was just us and Trucco and his friend.  We chatted about elevators and people taking too slow to jump on or something I don't know he smelled so good and I was being so chill and not at all star struck and he smelled so good ...

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  When we got out, I waited for the appropriate amount of distance to elapse between us and Trucco's retreating back before I squealed.  I've only seen the show briefly while Matt was watching it so I couldn't even tell you his character's name, but DAMN, he is one fine specimen.

Katie wore the Eowyn dress that I made her, and I'll blog about that soon.  Three of the dwarves from The Hobbit were at Evening at Bree: Stephen Hunter, who was the emcee for the costume contest (and added his own bits of humor to the contestants' costume descriptions), Dean O'Gorman, and Peter Hambleton.  I loved seeing all of the costumes in the contest.  The creativity of Tolkien fans is inspiring, and I'm always impressed by the dwarf costumes.  One of my favorite costumes this year was made by JediElfQueen: Galadriel's battle armor from The Hobbit, which is a costume that only ever existed as concept art.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  I'd been following her construction of the piece on Facebook, and was thrilled to see it in person!

On Saturday, we finally dressed up in our Narnia costumes.  We've been working our butts off to finish Queen Susan's upgrades and Prince Caspian's costume before DragonCon.  Matt's got some posts up about his Caspian costume as well as Susan's bow, so make sure you check those out.

A random Dustin/Starlord appears ...

That night, we went to the Middle Earth 90's Dance Party.  We'd been to the party in 2013, and it was a blast.  This year, though, it was held in the Marriott Atrium, which is drunk asshole central.  At one point I left, and had to wait in line almost 15 minutes to get back in.  There were more random drunk people than Tolkien track people, but it was still fun.  The best part was wearing our 90's costumes!  Matt was Grunge Eomer, and I was Goth Eowyn.  My friend Tiara was my fashion consultant, and I think I looked brilliant!  I wish I could wear this outfit somewhere else, because it was phenomenal.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knew I was supposed to be Eowyn.

On Sunday, we wore our Back to the Future costumes (Lorraine and Marty) in honor of 2015 (the year that Marty travels to in BTTF2).  We ran into Disney Robin Hood and Maid Marian (and Skippy the Rabbit?) as well as the 12th Doctor and a terrifying Headless Horseman.

We later changed back into Prince Caspian and Queen Susan, and went to the Hobbit Drinking Songs event with Katie, which was great fun!  Despite all of the empty chairs in the photo, it ended up being a packed room.

We didn't just walk around in costume, though.  We both went to some amazing panels, including Hobbit/LOTR cast members, Historic Haunts Investigations, Ghost Hunters, and various prop and costume panels.  At the Sleepy Hollow panel, a fan asked Tom Mison if he'd ever been called "Super Hot Jesus", and that became the theme for the rest of the panel.  He seemed alternately bothered and pleased by the title.  We also went to the Shawn Trpcic panel, which was fantastic, as I'd been hoping for years that she'd make it to DragonCon.  She was the costume designer on Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and many other shows and films that we watch.  Shawna is down-to-earth and encouraging, and a real inspiration.

One of my favorite moments this weekend was when someone asked at the Hobbit/LOTR panel if they were the Donner Party, who would they eat first?  After some explanation concerning the Donner Party, Stephen Hunter slunk off stage while Sylvester McCoy staggered zombie-like after him.  A few moments later, they both returned, Sylvester missing an arm and Stephen licking his fingers.  Those two make a phenomenal physical comedy team, and I would love to see them perform together.

As we left on Monday, we were both starting to feel a bit of con crud creeping up on us.  By the time we got home 13 hours later, we were both suffering from full-blown con crud, which struck us in the form of a severe head cold/flu.  Four days later, I am finally feeling well enough to get off the couch and write this up.  I might even start unpacking!  It seems like almost everyone we knew at DragonCon got hit really hard this year, so something a bit more potent than usual must have been going around.

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Velvet Galore!

I received my final four yards of red velvet from fabric.com yesterday, so today I set about finishing laying out the pattern for the overdress. Because of the way that the pattern is laid out, even though I didn't have enough material left for the final piece due to length, I now have enough velvet to clothe an army of midgets. I've got it all cut out, and now I'm putting it together, but the big question is ... where are all the splits on Susan's dress? Because I'm sewing the seams that will be split with a large stitch right now. Later I'll figure out how high the splits are, then rip the seams and fold and sew the edges.

You can see the splits in the above photo.

I think it's probably split either just on the side front seams, or the side front and the side back seams. I doubt it's every seam, otherwise the dress would hang differently off of Anna Popplewell. But, I'm not sure. I think for now I'll go with the side front and side back seam theory so that I can test it out later without too much ripping.

So, now the main bits of the dress are assembled. The next step is to attach the yoke and the sleeves, and then to create the splits in the dress.




You can see, however, that there is a bit of puckering in the bodice due to the velvet being a bitch to work with. Normally, I'd rip that out and resew it, but the entire bodice is going to be covered with chainmaile and leather corset, so I didn't bother. It's actually not as bad as it looks in this picture, it's just the way that I pinned the back to keep the dress tight against the dummy. The only puckering is just on the seam right on the bustline. But still, it's killing me. Heck, I spent a half hour trying to line up the center back correctly. I can't stand having these small imperfections, but the truth is, no one is going to know. Well, except for you guys.

Also, I'd like to point out that I didn't white balance my camera before taking these pictures. The velvet is NOT that orange, I promise!

Queen Susan ... The Journey Begins

Here's the dress - I guess I should say "costume", because the dress is the least of my concerns - I'm in the process of making for Dragon*Con. I don't think that "ambitious" even begins to cover it. This includes chain mail, bow and arrows, quiver, wrist guard, and a leather corset. Hang on ... getting lightheaded ... deep breaths ... This is why I'm starting this in May when Dragon*Con is in September! Not only do I have to make the dress and corset, I have to figure out how to put all those leather straps on! Can you dye finished leather? Although, the back of the material I purchased is raw, so maybe I can dye that? Who knows ... And then I have to somehow make the quiver - I think I'll just mod a store bought bow and arrows - but let's take one thing at a time!!



I'm using a pattern that I purchased for the red Belle dress that I started making over the winter and had to abandon after deciding to make a new costume for Dragon*Con. It's Simplicity 4940.
The only mod I have to do to it is the sleeves - I'm using Simplicity 9891 for those, minus the ruffle. This is the pattern that I used for the Luthien dress, and the only reason I'm not using the full pattern is that I'm *cough* in the next size bracket and I'm too cheap to purchase a new pattern, even if they are only $.99 on sale. The arms are hidden under the mail, anyway, so even if they aren't as gorgeous as I'd like, no one will know.



I have the leather already and modified a corset pattern that I already had to be the right shape. I did a mock-up with some vinyl scraps that I used as a mock-up for the Padme corset. Yes, I'm a good Bohemian who doesn't throw anything away! In fact, now that I think about it, I think I have some scrap leather laying around somewhere that I might be able to use for the corset ...