Movie Review: Thoughts on the New Star Wars Film Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Spoilers ahead.

Completely glossing over the total disregard for science (absorbing a Main Sequence star in an hour), Adolph Shmitler & his Shmazis, Gollum on Sauron's throne (how did he get there? Did the Shmazis vote him in?), and Han "losing" the Falcon, I will cut to the main things that stuck with me as I walked out of the theater.


I liked the new characters. What I loved best about them were that the good guys were good. Rey and Finn both seem to be driven by doing things because "it was the right thing to do." But the emotional pacing & connectivity seemed kind of "off." That is, the timing, their crises, their lines--it felt horribly rushed, and that I wasn't given enough information to really care with the characters, but merely at them. When Rey was crying and running away from the lightsaber, instead of crying with her, I felt like an awkward person on public transportation witnessing a stranger's meltdown in the seat next to me. Pity, yes--connection, no.

Emotional pacing is basic script-writing, so I have no idea why it seems to be so lacking in recent movies in franchises (Age of Ultron, Voyage of the Dawn Treader). In short, I wanted to care about the new characters, but it felt like more of a cerebral choice.

When the Disney franchise decided to jettison one of the most compelling badguys in science fiction history (Thrawn, a highly intelligent & heroic alien, whose fatal flaw is that he believes evil must be done to achieve salvation of the galaxy), and create their own, I wasn't expecting much. Which goes to show that there is always something far, far, lower than rock bottom because GOLLUM ON SAURON'S THRONE was not even a faint image in my wildest nightmares.
I really have nothing to add to that, other than, naming him "Snoke" was the icing on the cake.

Weirdly enough, my least favorite scene of the movie was the one in which we meet Han again, caught between 2 pirate gangs he's ostensibly working for. It was the scene in which my suspension of disbelief crashed (even more than slurping up the sun in an hour)---because that scene was impossible for so many reasons. Once you leave the fringe, get all respectable, join an army, become a general, and marry a princess, there really isn't any going back. He's walking hostage-money to every gang, pirate, crime-ring, and bounty hunter out there. When he'd had Jabba's price on his head, you at least needed to get the slug to cough up the dough for a corpse, but when you've got a Han now with army intel in his head, and Princess/General Leia's heart---he is pure walking cash.

The fringe is all about who you know. When working with men who no longer fear the law, it all comes down to connections. Which rival gang will exact revenge if you torture him? What are the repercussions for not paying him for his work? How many real friends has he got who will come after you if you shoot him and take his stuff? Han has far too many connections now, even if his marriage is on the rocks and his generalship resigned, he's obviously worth something to somebody---too dangerous to operate as a free agent. The fringe is very unforgiving, respectability stains permanently.

And finally, at 70, you have neither the quick wit or physical agility that surviving in the fringe demands. Seeing them trying to make old Han act just like young Han hurt, like watching them trying to carve against the grain of the wood. Old Han is a much more interesting character than young Han, he's gone through life, suffering, fatherhood---Old Han is who we want to see. I wish they let us see him, they were stingy with the couple real glimpses they gave us of him between the one-liners. The two glimpses we got were his interaction with Leia about their son and his half-way apology for running away, and his interaction with Finn on the Death Star II, when he tells him a bit about the Force and how people are counting on them. I wanted more of that---real scenes with the Old Han. But what I desperately wanted was some actual fatherly dynamic with Rey. Instead, we are simply told that Rey feels that way about him when Kylo Ren is ripping info from her mind. (lazy scriptwriting! First law: Show, don't Tell!) Han barely interacts with her, merely on a proffessional/aquaintance level, before he's dead. All I needed was a 20 second scene, of Han teaching Rey something, or handing her tissues when she cried, or trying to encourage her to keep her chin up, and it would have been the emotional center of the movie for me...

Ok, one more thing that bugged me about Han back in the Fringe, I can see an embittered broken Han running away from Leia when things went south, but for crying out loud, he would have left Chewie to protect her. (Remember how protective he was of her he was in the Battle of Hoth?) And that is assuming Chewie would even let him run away from his wife. Chewie is a loyal sort, and also, over 7 feet tall. With claws.

When Carrie Fisher came on screen, I cried because she was so beautiful----etched in her face & eyes, the time passed, the pain, the struggle---life. I couldn't not care about all the horrible things they put her through, even though I tried not to be manipulated as they cavalierly sent her through a mother's worst nightmare. I cried in spite of my best attempts not to.

Which brings me to the biggest flaw in the movie, Ben didn't work. What would convince a kid with loving parents, his very own lightsaber & knighthood, and the reins of the rebellion to throw it all away to join the status quo empire? There had to be a compelling reason (perhaps a belief that this was the Only Way To Save The World, like Thrawn. Or a strange religion, like the Inquisitor. Or a desire for order & devotion to duty, like Agent Kallus. Or even a cynical child of idealists who thinks this is the only way to end the destructive conflict.). The scene where Kylo rips from Rey's brain, and thereby unwittingly opens his mind to her, could have been so compelling. But as I leaned forward to hear what secret drives Kylo/Ben/Jacen it fell completely flat.
"Afraid you'll never be as strong as Vader"

Sense this makes none.


Even supposing being the next Jedi of the Universe wasn't cool enough, or that everyone forgot to mention to him that Vader repented, and that Vader had repented out of love/weakness for his child in pain (bad role model for brutal strength), there has got to be an easier way of achieving awesomeness than being the pawn of a giant Gollum who makes you leave a crying Mom, ditch all your friends, execute civilian villages, and kill a loving Dad.


So what made him turn? Because I'm sure as heck it wasn't Snoke's charisma & vision.

The film completely lacked a compelling villain. Tarkin believed in what he was doing ("the fear of this battle station will keep the systems in line"), Vader believed in what he was doing ("join me...together we will end this destructive conflict and restore peace to the galaxy"), the Inquisitor believed in what he was doing ("There are things far worse than death"), Kallus believed in what he was doing (jumping on a moving train alone to fight jedis who had previously force-thrown him, to stall for time). Thrawn believed in what he was doing (unifying the galaxy under an empire to face an external horror).
So far the Force Awakens has given us a bunch of Shmatzis ruled by Gollum with an insane kid vaguely reminiscent of a school shooter.

The stormtrooper with the mask and the lightsaber-proof weapon that shouts "Traitor!" is a runaway fan favorite. Why? Because he obviously believed in what he was doing. He had conviction. It says something when a masked actor with a single word overshadows the entire cast of badguys.

Lastly, I never realized how much I loved Han until he got skewered. (Luke was my hero)
But seriously, Han is a gambler. A gambler knows exactly what he's wagering when he walks out on that bridge to an insane son with force-throwing skills waving a lightsaber.
His life: Ben's repentance.
So when he loses the gamble, he wouldn't have looked shocked, only sad.
I resented the shock, as if he were the pathetic dad blindsided by this awful turn of events. Han knew what he was doing.
But at least he touched Ben's face. There was that small crumb that kept me from turning over the theater chairs.
I would have preferred bopping his nose and saying "God'll get you yet", or whatever the force-equivalent is in this galaxy far far away. Because even then, Ben felt like such an incredibly pathetic little kid, even legally changing his name to something jazzy trying to feel cool.

Patricide is incredibly dark, to me, it is on the level of rape. If they actually want to hash out this incredibly dark thing for the benefit of truth and repentance and hope, then yes. But if they were flippantly throwing it in for shock value, then shame on them. Time will tell.

Then of course, there was all the recycled material from Episode IV. But look, if you're going to recycle Ep. IV then DO A GOOD JOB. When Han thinks Ben is too far gone that even Luke couldn't save him, and Leia says "Luke's a Jedi, you're his Father", I was deeply moved....and then he gets bumped off.
In the spirit of Ep IV, if they wanted Kylo Ren skewering someone for dramatic effect, it should have been Luke---his mentor and a great Jedi. And then Han, his lowly mechanic father, would have gotten him to repent in Ep IX. I would have cried. I would have cared so much.

And if you're going to jettison Thrawn and Mara and everything from the books, but keep creepy Jacen, you may as well keep Jaina. If Princess Leia is going to Eve crying over her dead beloved and her killer-son, then you need Seth. Rey needs to be Ben's sister, needs to be Han and Leia's lost daughter, and put a beautiful grandbaby into the empty arms of the grieving Leia. We need some new hope here.

Ultimately, what will jettison or salvage these movies for me, is if Han's final gamble pays off, and at the end of everything, Ben repents.

In the words of one of my best friends "If Kylo Ren is saved, I'll forgive a lot."
And there is a lot to forgive in Episode VII.

Brunette Eowyns and Human Heras: Thoughts on Cosplaying

Cosplaying is fun. I admit, I spent a good chunk of the last 5 years, saving pictures of really cool cosplays to my computer. I like dressing up, and I like stories. (Full disclaimer, despite spending hours of my life saving & researching cosplays, I have never actually been to a conference, or even a midnight showing, alas)


However, something I realized, sorting out the cosplays I particularly liked, is there are 2 things I value if I did cosplay--to look like the character, but also, to also be kind of like the character---if they were me. Sort of like capturing the "ethos" of the character, translated into the modern day me.


For example: An hours worth of make up on Princess Leia? Totally. Princesses have to keep up appearances. Princesses need to be careful how they dress, how they walk, how they look. So a princess would totally spend a lot of time on make up. Yes, Princess Leia is cool and independent. So that means she puts on her own makeup, and doesn't drag along a make-up assistant before battles. She's still a princess, you know.

So if I was pretending to be Princess Leia, then yes, I'd put on make up.

More than a minute's worth of makeup on Mara Jade? Think about it. Her idea of looking presentable when Luke was coming, was to wash her face in an icy creek when she hadn't had a shower in 2 weeks. (Specter of the Past). If Mara used make-up at all, she probably wouldn't put on any more than took 60 seconds....unless she was impersonating a duchess or something like in Allegiance. But most of her work seemed to be of the hijacking pirate ships and leaping over roof-struts to rescue hostages type of things.

I like this picture of her I found on the internet. Red gold hair on a blazingly idealistic 18 yr old.

So if I were pretending to be Mara, I wouldn't bother with make-up. (And whomever illustrated the cover of Choices of One should have thought about that triple-applied mascara....)

So for portraying an alien (like Hera Syndulla), a human girl wearing a realistic & weathered aviator suit feels much more "authentic" to me, than one wearing hours worth of make-up and prosthetics to look like a Twilek. (Because a Twilek wouldn't need prosthetics.)

That said, I think when I do get round to making Josh a Grand Admiral Uniform, we will go the whole 9 yards with the blue skin and red eyes and all, because Josh basically is Thrawn already. (minus the superhuman IQ. And Josh is a Christian. And a sort of imperialist libertarian. So not the totalitarian part either.) But when we do give Josh blue skin, we will do it authentically. So I will feed him colloidal silver, to turn his skin bluish-grey naturally.

That was a joke.
We will use make-up.

Ok, back to my pointless ramble....

When trying to be like Tolkien's characters, I feel like it somehow isn't really the ethos of the Elves of Middle Earth to be wearing lots of make-up or wigs.
To me, Tolkien's world is about the natural beauty of things, the grain of the wood, the rustle of leaves, the tangle of rocks and trees and stars, elven maidens clad in simple dresses, water bubbling over rocks from a mountain brook. (As much as I love the complicated velvet gowns of the movies, they don't seem to really match the people in the book). When cosplaying Lord of the Rings characters, I like it when cosplayers just showcase the beauty of their natural hair (even forgoing their "usual" modern hair products, straighteners, curling irons, etc) go light on the make-up, and leave the artificial wigs alone.
To me, a brunette Eowyn or a blonde Arwen is so much more "authentic" than one with a wig. And an Arwen or an Eowyn climbing a tree or making breakfast feels more "authentic" to me than one at a convention playing dress up (which I imagine would be very very fun, hanging out with like-minded people, and I would love to do some day. However, it's not capturing the "ethos" of the elves).

this cosplayer "Mela"dress made by "Gen", captures more of the "ethos" of the elves for me than any of the elves in the movies did with their make up artists and fake trees.

Same for medieval looks. I feel more medieval by trying to capture the ethos of it in my everyday clothing. For me, that means having Isaiah wearing a medieval tunic with his jeans as he climbs a tree, and wearing cotton tunics & belts with my modern day pants, as I play with the kids in the back yard, make dinner, and pray. Also while learning how to shoot. But we haven't got there yet....

**********************************************************************************
-------A long ramble on the subject of hair, probably of interest to very few-------------------------------

I prefer dark haired Eowyns to Eowyns with yellow wigs. (Practically, because you have to drop a good bit of money into a blonde wig for it not to look fake.) But also, I don't think Middle Earthers wore wigs, at least, not the rough-and-tumble early-medieval-Saxon-esque people of Rohan, living in wattle & daub halls (maybe flax or hair extensions, but definitely not wigs. That would be Roman).


For Star Wars, their technology is obviously very advanced, so wigs definitely existed. Princess Leia would be following in a long line of royal tradition to be wearing hair extensions & hair rats/padding. (Also, hair extensions have been around for as long as women have been able to cut off and save their own braids.)

Cosplaying realistic red hair is an issue unto itself. Sadly, a good chunk of awesome women in fiction have red hair :(
Black Widow does obviously dye her hair all sorts of colors, so dyed red hair for her makes perfect sense. (But why she straightened it in Cap 2, when they were running for their lives and hiding at Falcon's house, no one knows. She probably used an actual iron though, because she's awesome like that.)
However, with Mara, I wouldn't use dye. Firstly, because for a dark brunette to pull of red-gold, it would take something far far beyond my skill (probably professional chemicals at a salon). Secondly, because Mara would never have bothered to dye her hair, even when it would have been practical for camouflage (When she gets caught flat footed by a bounty hunter in Dark Force Rising who recognizes her by her hair). She wears a hood, though (Choices of One),so I would be a brunette Mara with a hood. But if you have blonde hair, and can pull off natural-looking red-gold hair......

How to Make Eowyn's Medallion Belt from Recycling: Analysis and Ideas

 I'll update this post with links to the finished belts as I make them.

I've been trying to figure out how to make Eowyn's Medallion belts for a while. Here is my write up and analysis of how to make Eowyn's belt. There's a full analysis on the alleyscratch website, which all these pictures are from.

Medallion Belt worn with her Green Gown

Medallion belt  on her White Wool Dress (really just a silver version of the Green Gown one, sewn onto a gold trimmed fabric belt)

Alleyscratch has a very good analysis, with diagrams and breakdowns of the medallions' constructions.

link to full page here.

The medallion belts are made of 2 medallions, a bigger central one, and a smaller side one.

front of belt.

Here are some nice fan-made examples that I have analyzed.

Yvette's Costume Site Example---clay and wire
Yvette (check out her amazing Arwen dresses, especially this one, scroll to the bottom of the page...) made them from metal clay and silver wire (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see them).
Like so.

close-up of Yvette's finished medallion, LINK HERE

Yvette's finished belt. LINK HERE

I don't think its necessary to make them from metal clay or silver wire, since baking the clay seems to tarnish the wire. Also, if you are going to paint it anyway, there isn't a need to use metallic clay.

 In my past obsession with wire-work, I've found steel utility wire is a lot cheaper than craft wire, and can be bent well with 2 pairs of pliers.
But if you want something that is really easy to bend with your fingers, skip the copper and get aluminum wire (which is still cheaper copper).

Yvette's version is lovely, and I like how she spaces the medallions nicely, it really gives it a medallion feel. Things I would do differently, is I like the medallions to be bigger, giving a visually thicker belt (which I think is slenderizing on fuller figures). I also would use a gauge 16 wire at least, as I think gauge 18 and above are a little thin for my taste, I like the wire flower loops to have more "pop."

Kairi G Design's version---3D printed plastic
LINK AND PICTURE FROM HERE. I really like the size of her medallions, they're a lot larger than Yvette's belt (perhaps even larger than in the film?). They were 3D printed from plastic, so its not an option for me

 Print my Props version---3D printed plastic.
You can hire people to do it for you....picture below

link to etsy shop here.

Mia's costume Site Violyns.tripod.com---metal rings and wire.
LINK HERE. This captures so much of the feel of Eowyn's belt, using instead of medallions, metal rings which the wire then is strung into, and spray painted.

Quite well done. LINK HERE. I like especially how she translated the medallion shapes to wires. I also like how nice and plump she made the "petals" of wire.

The finished look is quite good. I think the openness of the rings works especially well in the white belt version, since it works more on a lace-like feel.

From HERE on Mia's Costume site, more pictures and a write up

You could also do it with plastic rings for cheaper...

Cation designs ----Eowyn Inspired Belt from filigrees and jump rings
LINK HERE. I think this captures the most of the spirit of Eowyn's belt without having absolute screen accuracy. She simply strung together filigrees with jump rings (and also painted it a bit).

Pictures of her dress are here, her write up of the making of here.

It's real metal, so feels more authentic, and looks awesome. Filigrees are very thin stamped metal, that looks kinda like lace. Etsy is full of various filigrees, Hobby Lobby also has a fair amount.
I think this one especially looks reminiscient of Eowyn's belt. I wish it were just a tad larger though.

Antique gold scalloped round filigrees

I am going to make one using these filigrees. You can either string them together with jump rings and a lobster clasp (like her Green Gown belt) or sew them onto a fabric belt with trim/beading (like Eowyn's white wool gown belt) which gives you the option of more visually thickening the belt, if you would like.


Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from Plastic and aluminum wire.
If you are going to go the plastic route at home, I would think a good start is to look at the alleyscratch break down of the medallion, and cut out the base metal part from plastic sheeting with a utility knife (on a glass cutting mat!). You could use yogurt lids, or pretty much any rigid plastic in the recyclying bin. Or craft foam. I would like to do it with something a little more rigid than yogurt lid plastic, maybe the bottom of those big plastic icecream tubs??? If you have an idea, please let me know in the comments!

Then you'd sand the plastic pieces with sandpaper, to make them more textured (and hold paint).
The wire parts I'd make from gauge 16 or 14 aluminum wire (since the plastic is soft anyway), lightly hammered. I want to use thicker gauge wire, because to me, a lot of the beauty of the belt comes from the wire loops not looking spindly.
 
Then you'd stack the pieces together with rivets through the centers. (preferably the big sewology push on kinds? Or furniture tacks with the ends sanded off, and bent with pliers?)

Lastly, spray paint with a darker color, and rub progressively brighter layers of metallic gold acrylic paint on it ($2 for those little 4 oz bottles from Walmart or Hobby Lobby) to make it look like metal (you want to go from the most "antique" colors of gold, to the brightest color of gold last, to give it depth.)

Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from metal...recycling & steel utility wire! Cold forging!!
If you want to go the all-metal route, I would use can lids (6 oz. tomato paste, and frozen juice concentrate lids) opened with a NO SHARP EDGES CAN OPENER. (I don't know the correct name, except that there are sharp edges, just on the can, and not the lid, it cuts from the side, like this one). You don't want the lid part to have sharp edges, it will snag on your dress and cut your fingers)

You would punch the hole through the center with a hammer and nail (scrap wood underneath). This hole will be for the rivet, to hold it all together.

Because this is a sturdier version than the plastic, I am going to use real steel utility wire gauge 16 (so cheap at Lowes! BlueHawk brand at Lowes 100 ft for 8 bucks)
I've found with thicker gauge steel wire, the best shaping I get is with careful measuring, and using 2 sturdy pairs of pliers. I'd hammer it (carefully) lightly afterward, to help it keep its shape. The "seam" where the wire ends meet, will be at the center, where they will be covered up with the rivet.

I'd use real sturdy Tandy type of rivets for this, since I'm not as afraid to bang it with a hammer since its all metal.

Painting it, I'd spray paint it with Rustoleum matte dark colored spray paint, then build up brighter layers of gold with acrylic metallic paints and a rag.

Lastly, I'd string it together with jump rings.

This belt will not be screen authentic as it won't have large decorative holes in the medallions (if you had a punch and die set, you could do this easily), but the trade off is worth it to me to have something all metal, versus metal and plastic.

Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from filigrees and fabric trim.
This is inspired by the belt on her white wool gown. You can get a lot more "bang" visually, with fewer filigrees. I really like these versions from redrose-online.de,

Check out their galleries, they're beautiful.

Gorgeous dress MORE PICTURES HERE.

From redrose-online.de HERE,. This is under this gallery. I love how visually thick it is. The neckband is amazing too.

And the belt on this is just...wow.

From redrose-online.de HERE (this is under the historic gallery) I just love how they used the square medallions, matching the color perfectly with the trim on the dark red. I think I am going to try something like this, on a brown or black velveteen fabric. We'll see.

These ones from Fashionsintime are pretty good too. Although I think those are more medallions and not filigrees.

from HERE from fashions in time

So here are a few of my ideas. You would use trim or braid, sewn with thread onto the fabric (a techinque called "couching"). You would sew the filigrees on, and could even do rivets or beading if you were feeling up to it. One of the advantages of this method is you could control the visual "thickness" of the belt, even if your filigrees were small, by how you placed your trim or braid.

I'm even considering using my stencils and fabric paint for the central fabric part of the belt, with the filigrees sewn on in strategic places as accents. I'd border the whole thing with trim or braid.

I'll update this post with links to the finished belts as I make them.

Thoughts on Making a Mara Jade Outfit (Emporer's Hand) & Blaster Packs...

My awesome little sister has been kicking around the idea of dressing up as Mara Jade one day. Earlier this week I sketched out some ideas.

I love Mara Jade. She's just so...real.
 
I mean, you've got your stock sci-fi/fantasy women who run around with weapons & perfect makeup while doing cool things. Sometimes they don't make much sense.
The better written ones, the girls like too...
And then there's Mara.

She's so incredibly real. She thinks like a real girl. She acts like a real girl. She even picks fights (with Luke) like a real girl. I feel like I know her in real life. Actually, she constantly reminds me of my said younger sister...

Mara has self respect, is incredibly loyal but holds grudges more than she should, always keeps her word, can be a little bossy but knows how to take orders, outwardly seems unsentimental, has a thing about protecting families & babies, can be rather grumpy, and really really really cares about doing the right thing.
She's exactly who you want at your back in a firefight.


Anyways, I had some preliminary ideas for what her outfit would look like.
I looked up cosplayers versions and was underwhelmed. I don't think a lot of people understand her. They try to make her look kind of sexy & femme-fatal-ish, like Black Widow. Mara isn't Black Widow. (For one thing, she's a blazing idealist who crushes any feelings she has, and also whose version of letting a guy know she likes him is by listing all his faults and lecturing him on his character development...I love her)

And she doesn't have time to look sexy. She's too busy killing pirates. And she sure doesn't want them to think she looks sexy. She wants to be respected, and feared.

She does wear a tight-fitting black combat suit for practical reasons. But I didn't really like any of the cosplay versions I saw....they were all too busy trying to look hot, and didn't seem to think through the practical ramifications of it. I think the whole point of a leather combat outfit is to give minimal armour with maximal mobility.

But I thought this picture I thought was decent.

Mostly because it gets her face right, idealistic and not covered in make-up (seriously, who would Mara be trying to impress? I just can't see her pausing mid-mission to reapply lipstick. I mean, Princess Leia had to wear makeup because she was a Princess and all. But Mara was an judge & ninja & executioner. Its a different job description)


To maximize mobility, but still have some protection, I thought it would be a leather suit with padded leather panels in key places where they wouldn't hinder mobility as much. So that would be around her torso and thighs. (the calves would be protected by tall boots).

Because the removable sleeves did hinder mobility a bit (in Allegiance she keeps them in her backpack because of this, while taking out the pirate ship) I figured they would probably have more serious armor on them, like pauldrons and long bracers.

So here's my ideas

We'll see if I every manage to make something like this for my little sister. I know with all the leather, it will be hours of handstitching leather padding, etc. But it would be a labor of awesomeness, like the Imperial Grand Admiral uniform I hope to make for Josh one day....

I thought I'd start with the much more humble goal of working on a blaster pack/ thigh holster/ glorified non-dorky hip-pack.

Some thigh holsters from the star wars universe...

I loved the first season of this show so much. I really wasn't expecting too, but its so refreshingly heroic & idealistic, and the old-married-people vibe in it is priceless. A post will probably come soon.

The basic design is 2 straps from the belt, coming down at an angle to the holster/pack, which itself straps to the leg just above the knee.

on a person.

Han's holster, laid flat.

My idea, laid flat.

 So, off to find leather belts and learn how to sew and rivet leather....

I will probably spend a good amount of time on duck cloth mockups first. These are my (non-secret) Christmas Presents for my younger sisters, so I have a good bit of time to figure this out.

Arwen's Bridge Dress: Analysis and Planning

Analysis on Arwen's Bridge dress. (Analysis on Arwen's Bloodred dress here)
So here are some thoughts on making a cowl-neck, Arwen-inspired maternity dress.

I have now come to really like this dress, even though initially it was not my favorite from the movie. Maybe it was the fact it only showed up in a smooching scene.

Watching people kiss...especially when us as an audience is forced to be right up in their faces....is just, so, awkward for me. I mean, if its sillhouetted against a sunset, and we're kind of watching from a distance (like an unscrupulous 14 yr old might, say, watch the neighbor boy and his girlfriend kissing in his front yard, in this completely hypothetical situation...) then its kinda sweet.
But when we get camera angles like we're watching from 3 ft away while they're kissing....well...I'm pretty sure the hypothetical neighbor boy would have minded that....

Um, I love cowl necks.


This cosplayer made it so beautifully, she convinced me to try to make it.

Farothiel on Deviantart "Arwen's Bridge Dress"

Farothiel on Deviantart "Arwen's Bridge Dress 2"

Maybe its because the way she made it reminded me of my dream wedding dress (that, alas, I had neither the funds for nor the skill to make when I got married.)

From Carpetina.com here

from carpetina.com here

 Some other cosplayers who did a decent job...

Therese on the Alleyscratch Scrapbook

by Eryndis-Waldlichtung on Deviantart

Sidhe on the Alleyscratch Scrapbook

Sidhe on the alleyscratch scrapbook

Looking at all of these, I know I really like the cowl neck. 

I also like the look white chiffon hanging down....even in Therese's example with the little bit of chiffon, its still beautiful. I'll probably do sort of petal-like half sleeves...maybe removable...we'll see.

I think I prefer fitted bust, and empire line for this one...actually, I think I end up preferring that for all of Arwen's dresses....

While the exposed shoulder top looks lovely on these folks, I just can't get used to it on myself. Firstly, the tops of my shoulders BURN LIKE CRAZY (I don't even know why. But they do). And secondly, it looks (on me) a little too night-gownish, I think.

So, onto practical construction...

Ta'anit Isis made some cowl neck shirts, and made this handy infographic.

from Ta'anit Isis HERE

As you can see from her pictures, her cowl extends under the bust. 

As my bust will be full of milk, I don't think I want it accentuated any more...so I will only slash my pattern (the red lines) to above the bust apex point.

My favorite part of her design, is how the back shoulder extends to the front, where the cowl actually starts. This is an ideal way to add in a gathered shoulder, without having to worry about the shoulder, or the cowl, becoming all untucked, because they are actually separate pieces.

The other thing I love about this design, is I can make it nursing accessible by having 2 layers of "fronts", the under-front is just there to form the armhole and keep the shoulder line, its neckline will go under the bust. Then the over-front layer will be the cowl, but where the pleats are, its actually just hooked (2 sets of skirt hooks?), making it simple to open and nurse, and hook it up when you are done.

I will make my own infographic at some point to illustrate....

Baby Elven Dress and Baby Tunic Writeup; Small Human Being Sewalong Wrap up.

So, the Small Human Being Sewalong is over, and I accomplished at least half of my goals.

I am going to do a write up on the Baby Elven Dress that I made (I had written scattered posts on it, which I link to in this article)

I drafted the patterns for all of these things, just tracing (generously!) off of onesies and dresses that fit. I just sort of freehanded the bell sleeves.

I cut it out of a green men's T shirt that I got at the thrift store for $1.

It was not very stretchy, a stable-ish knit. (there's a slit at the back neck for a button and loop closure).
The belt is from (surprise) a brown T shirt I cut up from the thrift store. I hand-cut all the stencils and used Tulip gold metallic fabric paint (sponged on with cosmetic wedges from dollar tree) to make the trim.

The dress is actually a 6 month size, for the yet-to-be-born baby girl residing beneath my heart right now. But because I couldn't wait, I crammed it onto her almost-13 month old sister, and took some pictures.

There are more glam shots of her in the dress (sans belt) here. After I did that photoshoot I sewed on the belt, which I think really makes it "pop" more, and did a 2nd photoshoot here.

For myself, I also made a Gondor-Ranger Inspired Mei Tai Carrier with the write up here.

 AND, because mass-production is my new motto in getting anything done, while I was sewing up the baby elven dress, I sewed up 2 toddler elven dresses too (Although being greater than 12 months, they do not techinically count as part of the SHBsewalong).

(The red one is 3-4T, dark green one is 6 months, purple is 12-18 months) All ready for the 3 sisters to have a photoshoot when the mulberry leaves are golden in January...

The construction for the toddler dresses was very similar to the baby layout, except that I just cut the bodice and the skirt as one piece (really just an A-line dress), and for the red one, I had to cut into a second shirt to add 6" of length to the bottom of the dress.

I also used heat-n-bond ultrahold to back the belts on the purple and red dresses. In retrospect (and a few dull/broken needles later) I realized I probably should just have used the heat-n-bond "lite" instead of the "ultrahold". (I did not interface the sleeve bands, which would have made the sleeves too hard to get into. I did not interface the neck yokes, which only seemed to end up being a problem for the 3-4T dress)

The purple and green dresses I was happy with, but the red dress turned up to be looser than I wanted, and I had to sort of scrunch up the dress and sew the belt tighter in the back. Also, the red dress kept sort of slipping off her shoulders when she's running around. (I had made the neck scoop wide enough that it didn't need a button loop closure). Part of it is she's only 2 1/2, and I made it bigger as she's really tall, and I wanted it to fit her next year.

see the neck is too big?

I don't know how much of this is just a problem of the dress (Arwen's version looks like its falling off too), but I think whats going on is that I traced off a neckline that was for wovens, and this knit (the red t shirt this was from was more stretchy) is not as stable, and the weight of the sleeves kind of pull it down.

Next time: I would interface the neck yoke,

OR, if I'm sewing things for greater than 2T, I would prefer to make this in a woven material (or a VERY stable knit), with better fitting in the bodice and a real back closure (zipper), so that the belt can be snug if its sewn to the dress.

OR, I would make the belt separately, out of canvas or something, with some sort of button closure in the back, so it could be snug and she could still get into it easily. Then I would merely tack it to the sides of the dress to keep it from falling down.


I also made a little baby tunic (size 6-9 months, traced from a onesie) pieces cut out here...

Sewn up here (on the left).

I left a little opening in the back neck as well, to accommodate a big baby head.
The pants I simply used the Little Leggings free pattern.
All of this is cut out of green and brown T shirts from the thrift store.

As my motto is mass production, there is a size 7T t shirt, really meant as a toddler tunic (for my very tall 3, almost 4 yr old boy, who refused to model it for me), to match.

I never finished my goals of the baby ranger boots or the baby jerkin, partly due to the flu, partly due to finding out this baby was a girl, and losing some steam for the ranger outfit, alas.
But thinking about it, the Dunedain (wandering rangers) had families, and so there were definitely girls and little kids wandering over Eriador in ranger clothing....so I am going to finish it at some point.

I never got to the baby elven cloaks, mostly because I got frustrated with being able to find the "perfect" materials....

I also never finished (or started) my goal of my nursing-accessible & maternity friendly Arwen dress, but that was due to the flu, and it will happen at some point in the future.

All in all, here are the SHBsewalong + toddler stuff that I sewed this month,

and I am really thankful to how the SHBsewalong (and especially the boards on flickr) encouraged me, gave me a sense of camaraderie, gave me the push to sew it all up.

Cost: 
$6 for the used T-shirts from the thrift store
$3 worth of sewing machine needles
$3 for the heat-n-bond (I only used a little bit of it though)
$4 for the gold tulip fabric paint (although I bought it 4 yrs ago, and just finished off half the bottle)
under $1 for utility knife blades use up.

So that comes out to roughly $17 for 3 elven dresses and 2 tunics.

The stencil blanks (Show-Offs from Hobby Lobby $7) Utility knife ($2 from Home Depot) and re-positionable spray stencil adhesive ($6 from Hobby Lobby, it worked for fabric!), I am not counting since I have over 90% of all of that left.

Time:
I don't have logs on all the projects, but I think from cutting out all the elven dresses/tunics and sewing them up it was probably around 12 hours total. The Mei Tai carrier was 8ish hours total.

I made time by sewing in 15-30 minute snatches of the kids snack times (the sewing machine is in view of the kids high chairs), and 20 minute chunks of quiet play when the baby was napping. I really only made use of only a few donutman videos (probably totally under 5 hours for the whole month, never more than 1 hour in a day, I think).
At first I would get up a little early and get half an hour of sewing in in the morning, but due to the almost 13 month old deciding she was now an early riser, I just switched to sometimes sewing a little when all the kids were asleep.

The key for me, to get sewing done, was being able to walk away from my project. If a kid started to cry, if they lost interest in the video or wanted a book or something, I just quit and covered the sewing machine, knowing I would get back to it later, be it the next day or next week.

 In the past, I have this drive-drive-drive to finish, and I would sew while the kids were screaming, "just finish this seam, just 10 more minutes...." resulting in bad feelings all around for me (guilt) and frustration (I made a lot more mistakes with a background of unhappy neglected children), and anger (the kids would be mad), which would then lead to me having subconscious negative feelings about it all, and I just wouldn't sew, and instead waste time on pinterest....

The second key for me, to get sewing done, was to intentionally cut out pinterest/blogs on "sewing days". I realized often in my 15 minute chunks of free time, I would just waste it on pinterest as I felt it wasn't "long enough" to really "do" anything. But those chunks add up. Or then after we put the kids down, I would browse pinterest/blogs, then get inspired, but be too tired and sleepy.
So I realized, if I wanted to sew that day, I had to choose not to connect my computer to the internet, or better yet, not turn on the computer at all. I would pick (depending on how I was feeling) some days as "no interent" days, and I would get sewing done in my snatches of free time instead. Then, being tired, I would spend the next day's free time on the internet. I think this month my sewing days to internet days (subtracting out the flu days, in which I didn't even have energy for the internet, just for praying not to throw up...), was probably around 2:1.
So, all in all, I found probably 20 hours of sewing time this month, broken up into smaller chunks, never more than 2 hours in a day total, probably closer to 1 hour a day.

As a mom I don't have the 8-hr sewing sprees (I can't stay up much past 10pm anymore, I need to wake up at 7), but I also find that this sewing-in-little-chunks method, of being able to walk away, also means I spend ALOT less time frustrated and undoing mistakes with a stitch ripper.


:)

And the things do get done, just in lots of little chunks, and perhaps a little slower, than my old ways of sewing-sprees followed by burnouts.

And nothing beats the emotional satisfaction of seeing the kids in things I made...

She insisted on carrying around the empty saltine bag which she filled from the wading pool. I think she was amazed she could 'bag' water. It is quite cool when you think about it....even if it did somewhat ruin the photoshoot...