Yesterday afternoon I went to see "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and let me just say I had a rollicking good time.  The movie was exceptionally enjoyable and when it comes down to it - a whole lot of fun. I recommend it to anyone looking for a precise blending of historical accuracy...and vampires. 

It is rated-R for blood, gore and violence. I think I heard one curse word in it the whole time. The action was fast paced and kept up the tension of the moment well. There are also some rocking guitar riffs to most of them, which is a style I actually love - the blending of historical and modern in a way that reaffirms what your eyes are telling you - that our 16th president wielded an axe like a badass! I have to say I walked out of the theatre jazzed and full of energy ready to take on the world, with an axe, which I may have then gone to a hardware store and purchased and then scrounged up a corset and combat boots and self-took a photo-shoot in my back yard, at midnight. Yeah, I might have done that. There might be pictures HERE. But, back to the movie...

Benjamin Walker played Abe Lincoln and I think wonderfully so. He completely filled his shoes - having a perfect frame to match our tall, dark and 16th. His voice and intonation sounded just as I'd like to remember Abe. He also kind of looks like Liam Neeson, but that is a compliment...yes, yes it is...mmm...add Abe Lincoln to the list of characters I wouldn't kick out of bed for eating crackers.
    Well, Benjamin Walker, you have now faced vampires, welcome to Geekdom. It's a friendly land full of Conventions and fans giving you inexplicable gifts at random times, possibly tiny knitted Abes. Also be ready for the meme of your Abe Lincoln going after Edward Cullen.

Thank you, good sir, for a fun movie experience and good luck in your future endeavors. Also, come to Dragon*Con, Atlanta, Labor Day Weekend! A Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention for the Fans by the Fans to celebrate the fantastical and wondrous. I, at least, would like to shake your hand, and buy you a beer in thanks for making my life better.

Anytime there is a new vampire book/movie I am always curious how they chose to interpret their vampires.  It is a wide field of numerous variations and it is always interesting to see what they stayed true to and where they set their vampires apart. A note - there might be a day-walking vampire trend - you also see it in the Sci-Fi show Being Human.
                 
Here's some more observations on their take on Vampire lore
(these probably aren't spoilers, probably):
        - Immortal;
        - they consider themselves the dead
        - drink human blood to survive (feeding off animals is not shown, so I                 don't know if they do or not.)
        - silver and beheadings seem the only way to kill them;
        - they have adapted to walk in the sun;
        - some get kind of vein-y when excited/angry/turning, they also get a                     mouth full of pointy evil teeth (not just the elongated canines) this is                 kind of 30 Days of Night-ish;
        - a single bite can turn someone, but it doesn't always work...something                 about "pure of heart not turning," maybe, I need to see the movie again             to be clear
        - they can disappear (veil their presence so that they are not seen -                     obfuscation or invisibility?)
        - heightened strength, perception and occasionally mixed martial arts.

Below is a Lincoln Park video that, I think, gives a good feel for the movie. There are potential spoilers (small ones) but it will let you know if this movie would be to your liking.

Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) number less than 200, but the number recently went up by one. (It felt kind of like in the first season of Battlestar Galactica where Laura Roslin approaches the white board with the number of humans left and she makes the change positive by one, rather than always decreasing the number.) 

This little guy is Andatu and he was born in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park.  This is the first birth of a Sumatran rhino in an Indonesian facility and this little guy arrived on June 23rd.  Woot for the genuinely happy moments.

You may notice he's a little harry. This species of rhino is the most closely related to the extinct Wooly Rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis).

Back at it for stage 2 of the Loki Dress.  Using the muslin pattern I created last time, I cut out another mock up, making the necessary adjustments to this one so that it can become my official pattern for the Loki Dress. 

Side note: NSA stands for No Seam Allowance, which means when you cut out the fabric from the pattern you are supposed to add in seam allowance so that you can sew it together correctly.  I'm just saying this, for no particular reason, it's not like I cut out my pattern for mock-up 2 without adding in the seam allowance and then had to re-cut it or anything...   /sigh. 

above: The lovely Madeline is working on a dress made out of Star Wars fabric. You can follow her sewing escapades on her Not Another Geek Girl Blog. The other pattern laid out is the wonderful Regina's pattern for her Star Wars fabric dress. She has a blog too... *looks pointedly at her* We sewed and ate cookies and had an awesome time. 

Once cut out, I pinned it together and then sat at the sewing machine for the first time in years. With the correctly cut fabric (adding in 3/8" for seam allowance) it didn't take me long to get it sewn together. I didn't even run over any pins. The bobbin went empty, though, and I had to get another.

Ta-Da! Mock-up 2 complete. Next I have to seam rip this apart and use it as my permanent pattern.  Now I get to to purchase my fashion fabric (the actual fabric that will make up the dress) and get down to making this thing for realz!

Once I had conquered the pattern (with the aid and guidance of my awesome friends) all that remained was a lonely pile of discarded muslin...

Total time worked on dress so far: ~8 hrs
Money spent so far: Patterns $15, Fabric $4, new pins $5, Socks/sleeves $15
Items still to get: Fashion fabric for Top, Skirt and underskirt, wonderflex for headband/necklace, gold shoes, 2 zippers (and I'm sure I'm missing something.)

So, about three weeks ago a friend of mine sends me this picture via Facebook. It's a drawing of avengers costumes, but re-imagined as dresses. My jaw dropped and my response was I MUST DO LOKI...then I said, oh and I want to make the costume as well.  My friend, who's tastes run more in the Thor variety, said - OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO DO THESE, MEET ME AT JoAnns 10 MINUTES AGO!  I told her I didn't have a Tardis and we took a moment of silent lamentation at never having met The Doctor.

Then we raced to our local fabric/sewing shop  and we flipped through books and books of patterns, McCall's, Simplicity, Vogue...until we found ones that would work for both Loki and Thor, because they are siblings and the dresses are almost the same design.

I want to point out that these are not my design, nor my friend's, they were created by Pink Striped Mellon on Tumblr.

Following the awesome guidance of my professional costuming friends, (- did I mention they are awesome and that I have only really quilted before this point, so any of this that sounds like I know what I am doing is because my awesome friends are helping me every step of the way) I cut out the jacket pattern, and made a mock-up in plain muslin since I needed to do some adjustments and I wanted to keep the paper pattern intact.  Turns out there was a lot of taking-in/adjustments to do, so mock up 1 is going to lead to mock-up 2 and from there, if it fits right, mock-up 2 will become the official pattern for the top layer of the dress. The picture is of me wearing the jacket pattern in the first pinning. From here we pinned and re-pinned to tailor it to my shape. I have a long skirt puled way up (over my boobs) so that we could see how it sits over a fuller skirt.

Once the jacket is complete then there is the skirt and the underskirt to make.  I've also included a picture of the over-the-knee socks I got off of ebay -  ordered from love-legware shop.

As a part of my insanity I thought, well, Thor gets a hammer so, if I am going to do Loki, I want to make his staff.  I am working on that project concurrently and plan on doing the walking stick version of the blue gem staff he carries when visiting the Opera.  It will get its own post, soon!