So, my friend and I have cosplayed Thor and Loki and occasionally we get into conversations where our inner Asgardian comes out to play.

-------

ArtandRhinos 
[mid-conversation about plans to see movies]…Alas, I cannot. I have other plans on Saturday night.

LottieGraceCosplay  
I HAS A SAD NOW HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO SEE THOR WITHOUT MY BROTHER? I feel like I need to see it again with ArtandRhinos then because she is the Loki to my Thor

ArtandRhinos 
Maybe I could meet you after for dessert and to discuss?

We could discuss it because...um...I have already seen it...twice. I could see it again, though...because Loki.

LottieGraceCosplay
HOW COULD YOU; GO AND SEE A MOVIE

ArtandRhinos 
I DO WHAT I WANT!!!!!!!!

LottieGraceCosplay
THAT'S CAUSE YOU'RE LOKI

AND AS THOR

I SHOULD BE SAD YOU SAW MY MOVIE WITHOUT ME

ArtandRhinos 
You mean I saw MY movie whenever I wanted?

LottieGraceCosplay 
NO BROTHER

IT IS CALLED

THOR: THE DARKWORLD

NOT LOKI: IN JAIL

ArtandRhinos 
I'm far more interesting in that Jail than you with that tiny, fragile Midgardian.

LottieGraceCosplay
LISTEN HERE YOU

I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR SASS

ArtandRhinos 
Besides, how long do you think this Jail cell will hold me...really?

LottieGraceCosplay
I'M STILL CLEANING UP YOUR MESS ON MIDGARD

WHAT DID I SAY?

NO

TIME

FOR

YOUR

SASS

ArtandRhinos
Oh, that'll make a great movie. Mighty Thor and his Broom of cleansing!

LottieGraceCosplay
BROTHER YOU KILLED PEOPLE

YOU'RE ADOPTED OKAY

BUT I LOVE YOU ANYWAYS

EVEN THOUGH YOU KILLED PEOPLE

SO STOP IT

ArtandRhinos 
Right, because you and Odin's hands are clean and you've never taken a life?

(you have NO idea how hard it is to not quote the movie here)

LottieGraceCosplay
(you better not or I will cry hot tears of betrayal)

LISTEN HERE YOU NO TIME

FOR YOU

OR YOUR SASS

ArtandRhinos
(That's why I am not! And that's one of the reasons I kind of had to see it. With Tumblr out there, it's not safe to wait too long to see anything in a fandom.)

You know, while you're in here yelling at me, you're not cleaning up, which is it going to be? Though, by all means stay, I so love these little talks.

LottieGraceCosplay
(I've somehow managed to steer clear of most major spoilers! I have no idea how that happened at all... )

ArtandRhinos
*Continues on in grand style.* Might Thor and his Hoover of Destiny!

*Quirks a smile.*

I ship it.

LottieGraceCosplay 
I ship it

I ship it so hard

DragonCon 2012 was amazing this year!  The Avengers costumes went over extremely well and when we finally made it to the Georgia Aquarium we were able to take some amazing shots.

Arriving by Thursday afternoon allowed us to get our rooms and badges in record time. (Walked right up to pre-registration booths, took less than 5 minutes! It was awesome.) We ended up back in our room wondering what we were going to do for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to go on an adventure - we fought demons, wandered lonely streets, climbed unimaginable heights, traveled to the end of the universe and, of course, saved the world, twice.

Dragon*Con Officially kicked off Friday at 10am - when the first panels started.
For celebrities I was able to make it to a Jason Momoa and a LOTR Panel and watched a Stargate and BSG panel on DCTV. I also made a few SF literature and writing panels. A good mix of the fun and the cerebral.

To complete the Loki Costume I needed a few finishing touches. The main one of course was the Helm.

The Helm is made out of a product called wonderflex. What is wonderflex, you ask?...WONDERFLEX is an extruded thermoplastic composite sheet. It is comprised of a unique synthetic polymer that when heated in the range of 150-170 degrees F (70-80 degrees C), will soften and activate a built in adhesive for molding and forming. A layer of polyester open weave scrim is located on both the top and bottom surface for strength, reinforcement and stability. 
Got that? great, moving on....

Note: I was guided and GREATLY assisted in this project by my wonderful professional seamstress/costumer extraordinaire Regina. She is awesome and this costume would not have happened without her. (Follow her at @Wyldehills on twitter)

We started with the circlet piece that became the base of the helm. I cut two strips measured to fit around my head, heated them in boiling water and then once heated the strips adhered to themselves.

Here's the final post for the Loki Dress itself. Where we last left off I had just cut into the fashion fabric and pinned it together. I had also created the green skirt. And you, of course, remember the Petticoat of Despair.

Well, I sat at my trusty Singer sewing machine (I inherited from my grandfather, I still need to name it...hmm...) and began to sew. I used a needle made for leather and heavier fabrics since the coat material is a leather-ish fabric.

Put it all together and...

In the process of making a Loki dress, I felt the odd compulsion to accessorize. And when you're talking Loki, what better than the scepter used in the Avengers movie?

I decided I wanted to make the walking stick version of the scepter seen in the German opera house scene. (When Loki is in that scrumptious suit.)

It started with a trip to Lowes (only reason I went to Lowes instead of Home Depot is because Lowes is on my side of the street.) I wandered through with the image of the walking stick on my phone and wondered how I was going to make it happen.

The final piece of the puzzle, since I had acquired clear quartz crystals, was to make them blue. I didn't get a blue LED so I decided to go with a blue gel (filter) made for professional stage lighting. The lovely people at Bay Stage Lighting were incredibly helpful. I secured the squares of blue plastic around the flashlights and Voila-

As a part of my Loki costume I needed to make a petticoat to go under the green skirt.  I wanted it to have some decent "pouf" - that's totally a technical term - and so I used a pattern intended to go under a 60s poodle skirt.  I used the same pattern to make the skirt as the base of the petticoat. See here it is, innocuous, quick, easy, but I should have listened to Admiral Ackbar because the simple beginnings of the petticoat... wait for it... It's a TRAP!!! 

For the next step I began to cut strips of tulle (the "pouf" of almost every petticoat.) I cut 36 strips 6 1/4" wide and as long as the normal bolt length they come in, so 54" in in this case. Again, very simple, even my cat and Duncan were helping. I then sewed the strips together (using a piece of the cotton skirt material to bind the tulle netting together at the seams.)   In order to accommodate the difference in circumference in skirt as it narrows to the hips I sewed 14, 12 and then 8 strips together to make giant loops of tulle. All the while being careful not to make mobius strips of tulle.)

Here is where our tale takes a darker turn.
For, in order to gather all of this light and airy tulle, you have to sew two line of thread into the tulle along one of the edges and then hold the string and pull, thus gathering one edge of the fabric together, where you then sew it to the base skirt.  So I started to do just that. Sew one line 1/4" from the edge, sew another 1/2" from the edge. OK, one piece done...sew one line, then sew another. I hadn't really thought through just how much thread and time it would take to sew essentially 54" x 36 strips x 2 lines of thread per individual piece = 50 miles of tulle, okay, maybe not that much, but that was what it felt like. Time flowed past like both water and sticky, hot tar as I sewed 324 feet (or 107 meters) of straight lines into the tulle. TV shows passed, I swear I could feel myself aging as I sat at my steadily growing warmer sewing machine for hours just sewing straight lines. The only punctuation to this activity would be when my bobbin would run out of thread and I'd have to stop, un-thread my machine, reload the bobbin, re-thread the machine and start back up on the endless desert of grey lines in the black tulle.

- it was at this stage, after it had been 8 hours of work and I still had miles of tulle to sew that I almost gave up. I almost went to Etsy or eBay and just ordered a damn petticoat. But I dug deep, like a marathon runner or that moment in action movies where the hero is down and has to make the choice to get back up just one more time, yeah, that was totally me. I ranted, raged and then returned to the sewing machine (who, I think, was getting close to forming a union against me) and I labored on. -

And as I was languishing away on the petticoat of despair...I ask you, where was my cat then, she who had been so eager to play in the tulle earlier?

Trying to catch lizards, that's where.

Me: "It's on the other side of the     window, you fluffy little deserter."
   
Her: "Then my actions are as futile as yours!" she quipped back.   

                                                          Me: "Touche"

To break the monotony, once finished with a full strip of tulle, I would stop and gather it into the smaller circles of pouf which were then ready to be sewed to the base skirt. This was only slightly less monotonous than the sewing. But I was starting to see some shape and form to my actions, I felt hope for the first time in days, and once gathered I began to sew the now puffy tulle to the skirt.

And then, all of a sudden, after 12 hours of work, like sunlight breaking through after a storm, it was done. All I had to do was trim the excess thread from the gathering process and I was done...and my evil little petticoat was even standing up on it's own tulle feet...they grow up so fast...*sniff*

To get some good pics I paired it with a black corset, which ends up looking a little Black Swan-ish, but still cool.  And when I am done hemming the skirt and jacket of my Loki outfit I will post the rest of the process "On the road to Dragon*Con 2012."

30 days left, holy God, OK, I'm going back to sewing now...

Here's proof that blood, sweat and tears is going into this thing. First blood goes to the costume; one of the pins got me as I tried it on.

See, isn't this as exciting as Hunger Games?

That's right Ladies and Gentlemen, you are getting a bonus edition to today's blog!  And it is rife with excitement. Not only did I cut out the pattern pieces and pin them to the fashion fabric of the skirt (the ones that goes with the Loki costume), I also cut out the fabric pieces and sewed that sum-of-a-beech together! 

The skirt is a basic circle skirt, in that is makes a full circle when you lay it out.  This will give lots of nice waviness and fullness to the skirt.

Cost: $18 top/coat fabric, $14 skirt fabric, $8 in zippers, $4 in thread

Time: 6hrs (for top and skirt)

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!

...in fact, if they preferred, I'd invite them into my bed to eat cookies instead, hmm...that sounded a little dirty. Good. Then the tone of this blog is properly set.
So, some villains are just sexy and, sadly, don't even seem to know it! Well, I am here to give them some love...no really...call me, text me, teleport to my lowly mortal plane of existence...walk through inter-dimensional portals, you know, whatever you gotta do, and I'll be all sweet and "let's dominate this world" up in here.

This list was spurred by my recent viewing of the Avengers - it is Amazing. I recommend EVERYONE see it. I mean it, step away from the computer and go see it. I'll wait right here. And ladies, you'll thank me. Oh, and make sure you stay all the way until the end; I mean completely to the end. After the 1st clip hidden in the credits there is another one, at the end. So keep your butt in the seat.  Ready?  OK, go, I'll be right here......

....It was Awesome wasn't it, yeah, I know. You are welcome.  So, there are some handsome lads in this film, but the one that warms my lady garden the most is, without a doubt, Loki.  (p.s. I stole the phrase "Lady Garden" from the Bloggess, she's awesome.)

Loki - aside from a desire for vengeance and a need for utter world domination so that he can finally get some respect, I bet he is an excellent kisser. The dark intensity surely carries over to other aspects of his life.  This particular demi-god could use with a little stress relief.  I mean, Point Break over here gets Natalie Portman and Loki gets diddly, nada, nothing?  I'd be off put too. Don't worry...I'll have shawarma with you.

Now, I want to be clear, this is about the villain themselves, not the actor playing them. I give due credit - Tom Hiddleston is the man who shapes that intensity and attractiveness, and who makes his interpretation of Loki scrumptious, but the actor is only playing the part, giving us a glimpse of who that villain could be. He is not, himself, the villain.  I do not mean to knock him, by any means, I am sure he is a stand up bloke, but I haven't met him in person to be able to say so with surety.  This is an infatuation with a fictional character (which is much healthier than crushing on an actor, cause, come on, my chances at getting a date with him, or any of the wonderful men in Avengers, sits somewhere between none to no-'effing-way, slim doesn't even enter into it. That and Loki is way more powerful, maybe he has a few issues...but he's a frakkin' demi-god! 
And to reiterate, I'm sure Mr. Hiddleston is a decent fellow. Thank you, good sir, for an excellent and immersive movie experience and also for the inspiration of this post.  You've made me smile.)

Now, son of Jor-El, kneel before- wait, wait, right...mmm, Loki, we could make such wonderful mischief together. 

And, in regard to the clip below... me, over here, I want to be shown what real power is.

Hans Gruber - Die Hard - Alan Rickman.  He had class. He had style. He was cool and calm in the face of adversity. Yeah, definitely not kicking him out of bed...cause I bet he has 1000 thread count sheets.
-to keep with the same actor, Snape would get an honorable mention; he's not really a villain, but he could use some love.

Dr. Jonathan Crane - Batman Begins - Cillian Murphy. This one's a little crazy, but unpredictability is the spice of life. Dark hair, clear blue eyes, cute glasses, wonderful depth and intensity...add in a little hallucinogenic, madness inducing chemicals and what more can a girl ask for?

Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - James Marsters.  I don't care if the British accent is real...talk dirty to me. He definitely knew how to have a good time.  It would be a blast to roll with him...right up until he drank you dry.

Sylar - Heroes - Zachary Quinto. Tall, dark and I'll eat your brain.  He kind of found love...then, maybe, he cut her skull open.  But up until that point this sexy villain was learning how to enjoy life with a lady friend. 

Jareth - Labyrinth - David Bowie.  Making androgyny sexy since 1986.  You do have power over me.
You remind me of the babe
What babe
The babe with the power
What power
The power of voodoo
Who do?
You do
Do what
Remind me of the babe

Sabretooth (Victor Creed)- Wolverine - Liev Schreiber. Let's dip back into the Marvel universe and if you can look past the hero-esque Aussie sporting the Adamantium,  you'll see another guy who really knows how to enjoy life.  He's not the nicest, maybe some anger issues, but a wild ride to be sure.  Say what you will about the movie, Liev Schreiber gave far more depth to that character than was expected. It was quite enjoyable. This is a sabretooth I could meet for a cup of coffee, fine conversation then a hunt in the woods...and hopefully I wouldn't be the prey.

OK, a note: the likes of Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds did not make the list because they are anti-heroes and not truly villainous.  They would most certainly be welcome to eat crackers on my coverlet.