Special Feature: Cosplaying for Age of Ultron

The promised post, where I get to share you peeps' epic costumes worn for the premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Enjoy the awesomeness...

Faith (Leia, A Revival Warrior Princess), cosplaying Captain America:

Isabelle as Black Widow, Haven as Scarlet Witch, Henry as Quick Silver, and Marci as Bucky.

"It all started out as, "Wouldn't it be cool to dress up as Captain America from the Avengers for Halloween?" So, about three months before October 31st, I started making patterns and plans for this huge undertaking. First, there was some hoops to jump through: I had never sewn on Spandex before, and I made the most adjustments to a sewing pattern I have ever done -- but that was at least fun. Anyways, I got my fabric from Jo-Ann from their swim/active wear selection. I was easily able to get it done before Halloween. It was a lot of fun, most people recognized us and said, "It's Captain America and Bucky!" Then, several months later, due to Beth's awesome Captain America costume from Age of Ultron, I decided with about two weeks until the movie, to update my costume as much as I could to his new Avengers costume. Thankfully, I had fabric left over, and I added stripes on the shirt and pants, plus made arm guards left over from my Tauriel costume. It turned out great, and some of my friends and I went and saw the movie together. We all had an awesome time and got many stares, lol! Thank you Beth for letting me write a paragraph about my costume on your blog. Thank you all for reading!"

Bailey and Rachel, cosplaying Thor and Loki:

"Hi, Beth! I'm sending a collage of myself and my sister Rachel.  Thor's sleeves and shirt were made out of Duct tape, as were the gold strips on Loki's costume. Loki's coat was made of a Land's End dress, and the underclothes for both Thor and Loki were bought at a thrift store. Thanks for inspiring me!"

Sarah, cosplaying feminine Quicksilver:

Megan, cosplaying Scarlet Witch:

(From left to right) Lillie as Black Widow, Ella as Hawkeye, Grace as Steve Rogers, Chloe as Scarlet Witch, Juju as Thor, Callie as Vintage Cap, and Elijah and Alaina as The Twins:

"We had been planning months in advance for this! And now we basically don't know what to do with our lives now that it's over. :-( We laughed. We cried. It was amazing! The staff at the theater cheered for us as we left, and of course there was a couple people that asked to take pictures, which made us feel pretty awesome. XD XD We can't wait for next year! Bring it on Civil War! Avengers Assemble!"

Olivia, cosplaying Black Widow:

Thank you so much to all you peeps who sent me your cosplay pictures to share; y'all make me so happy, and I love that I can share your costumes. :D Everyone of you looked so great, and I'm sure you had a ton of fun cosplaying for the premiere as such great characters!! ;)

And to you other peeps who didn't cosplay for the premiere, thanks so much for reading this post anyway. Literally each comment, like, and pageview gives me such joy, and I am so thankful for you. Y'all rock and that is that. ^_^

That Day I Went to a Renaissance Faire

Over a month ago, on Saturday, April 18th, a few friends (recognize them from my Captain America photo shoot??) and I went to a Ren Faire for the very first time. And it was awesome. :D

We drove three hours to get to the faire (which was well worth it;), and to pass the time, we took selfies, played brain games on Karis' ipad, and talked about lots of stuff -- mostly stuff pertaining to our favorite fandoms. ;D

Then, after arriving at the festival at about 12:00, we spent the rest of the day doing lots of walking, laughing, picture-taking, window shopping, etc... :D

Walking and taking pictures around the extremely extensive grounds...

We met a brave knight.

Karis and I got locked up in the stocks -- I was arrested for being an outlaw, and Karis for fraternizing with the outlaw.

Visiting tons of the little shops...

Amber and I parry with LARP swords in one of the "armory" shops. My favorites were the leather shops, which ranged from selling epic leather dresses, tunics, coats, to books, bracers, boots, etc etc.

Going through the "haunted pirate ship," and scaring ourselves silly...

The thing was so cheesy, but it was 3 bucks and we couldn't resist. It was the inside of a "pirate ship," pitch black, filled with things like skeletons and treasure hoards, strobe lights, randomly [loudly] falling items, and antics by workers, who would bang super loudly on the walls, run at us in the dark, yell, etc...

P.S. A huge thank you to the guy banging on the wall right after Karis jumped me -- that basically gave me a heart attack. xD

Meeting some orcs...

When we saw these guys, we knew we absolutely had to get a picture with them.  I mean, look at that guy's costume -- convincing, much??? :O Probably my favorite costume of all that we saw throughout the day.

Oh, and, no, I did not know the other orc behind me was there -- the next frame was me screaming. xD

We definitely should look much more scared than we do... xD

And watching a few shows, the favorite of which was the live jousting...

It was set up like a play, with the three shows throughout the day furthering the story of two knights jousting to win the hand of the princess.  It was quite a hilarious spectacle, with the evil knight getting drug through the mud behind a chariot, a guys' eye getting "ripped out," and men getting killed right and left at the climax battle.  Plus, Karis, Amber, and I totally hammed it up cheering for our team's knight -- who ended up being the winner, of coooouuuurse! :D

It was so fun to witness. Quite amsuing. ;D

And of course we had to get costume pictures in front of the arena while we waited for the joust to start...

Totally foreshadowing our next costumes (superheroes for Avengers: Age of Ultron):

Scarlet Witch, Captain America, and Peggy Carter go to a renaissance festival???

And lastly, a few details on my costume I whipped up for the faire... because you know I'm all about the costumes. ;D

It was inspired by elven archers, Tauriel, Legolas, a little bit of Hawkeye -- you know, that sort of thing. ;)  You probably recognize the bracers and boots from my Tauriel cosplay. ;D

I whipped up the dress/tunic from an ugly, awkward length skirt I found at the thrift for $2.50. I was only looking for fabric, since I knew I'd be completely changing the style, and the fabric of it was perfect -- forest/olive suede with a gentle drape, and just enough of it for a tunic. :D

As for making the dress, it was about a day's worth of time, ripping/cutting old seams, fitting new seams for the neckline, arms, princess-style bodice, waist, and skirt. It was a really fun project -- just the right amount of difficulty and need for creativity to be a challenge, without being overwhelming.  Because the fabric has some stretch to it, I didn't have to put in any zippers, buttons, etc, which made the build even simpler. At the suggestion of my oldest sister, Alissa, I ended up not hemming the neckline and hem, and just left the raw edge, which helped the time crunch I was under (about a week, from getting the idea to going to the faire). Since the suede frays minimally, I just used my shears to keep all fraying at bay, and there was no problem.  This look also lent a bit of ruggedness to the dress, which was kind of fun. ;)

As for all the accessories: as I already said, the bracers and boots were the same I used for my Tauriel cosplay -- the boots I bought online, and the bracers I made from upholstery leather, dyed darker with shoe polish, embellished with an elvish design with a Sharpie marker (bahahha), and laced with suede string through brass grommets embedded in the bracers. I already had the braided belt, and I picked up the belt around my waist from a thrift store for 50 cents. And lastly, the leather pouches were the same upholstery leather, darkened with shoe polish, which I originally made for the first draft of my Captain America cosplay, but didn't end up using. They ended up working perfectly for the costume -- plus, removed the need for a bag: I kept my phone in the larger pouch, and money in the smaller one. Perfect, right?? xD

Overall, it was an absolutely *smashing* day, and I can't wait to go to another renaissance faire soon! ^_^

Avengers: Age of Ultron + A Call for Cosplayers!

ATTENTION: Important announcement for all my cosplaying followers!!!

I'm going to put together a blog post that will feature Avengers: Age of Ultron cosplays MADE/WORN BY YOU!

Send submissions to adventuresofanelvenprincess@gmail.com , including one picture of you/your group's cosplays, just to keep things simple (if you want to make a collage, that's totally cool!). Include whatever names you want to credit for le cosplayers and picture. If you want, and I totally encourage this, add a little paragraph with information on the costumes and experience! :)

Make sure you email your submission by Thursday, May 28th, as they will be posted midnight on Friday, May 29th.

I look forward to seeing and sharing your costumes!!! :)

Now, back to your regular programming. ;)

Today, it is time for my very last post concerning Age of Ultron. Basically, I had two last pictures I just had to share with you guys, and I figured I could share some of my fangirl-y thoughts on the movie to go with. ;D Oh, and also, this will be a no spoiler post, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, feel free to proceed. ;)

EXCITE

But before the photoshoot and the movie, I had to get ready... and I filmed the whole thing, sped it up and condensed it into 2.5 minutes, and now present to you a little behind-the-scenes look at what happened before I stepped in front of the camera. ;D

As for the movie experience, we went to the very first showing available at our favorite semi-local cinema: Thursday, April 30th, at 7:00pm in 2D, in case you wondered. ;) The whole theater was packed out, as you would expect, and it was such a great crowd. Everyone laughed so hard at the funny parts, there was definitely some audible sniffling at "THAT ONE PART," and almost everyone stayed for the mid-credits scene (literally only a family with kids left), and there were still quiet a few people who stayed with us for the non-existent post credits scene (hey, we had to make sure Joss Whedon wasn't lying! ;D)

And the movie... oh gosh I don't even know where to begin. The three new characters, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, and the Vision were all amazing, and I loved each one so much. There were so many absolutely hilarious lines and quips and antics, which were just perfect.

Okay basically Avengers: Age of Ultron (besides some choice language) is really, really awesome and I love it and it so totally lived up to the hype and it better make a ton of money or I will be upset because it deserves at least 1.5 billion. ^_^

Oh! And one final picture: us three with the paid cosplayers at the theater. That Iron Man was totally legit, and the guy dressed as Winter Soldier Captain America and I totally got a pic together (tho I'm not sure where that disappeared to.. :P). ;D

Okay okay, now, what did you guys think of the movie???????

Captain America Cosplay - The Photoshoot

I literally am completely blown away by you guys' reception of my fem Cap costume. Seriously!!! Like, what on earth y'all are amazing. I know I've said that way too much already. But it's the truth so it's worth saying a bunch of times. ;)

And now, I'm super excited to share with you a bunch more pictures from that photoshoot downtown, the afternoon before Avengers: Age of Ultron. And, ya know, if you want, feel free to pin, tweet, share, whatever. You would totally make my day. ^_^

Captain America Cosplay: Finished.

BONUS: Mah fellow cosplayers and I, Karis as Peggy Carter and Amber as Scarlet Witch. Oh! And you should definitely pop over to Karis' blog, where you can see the pictures of her cosplay from our shoot (pssst they're very cool).

First Full Look at My Fem Captain America Costume

Yesterday, it all went down at the premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

In a word, the whole experience was AMAZING. But there is tons more to say on that later, in another post, when I actually have some time to write coherently. ;) For now, I hope you enjoy finally seeing le finished costume... :D