[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - The Photoshoot

177 days ago I wrote a post entitled BOTFA Cosplay Announcement. This was the beginning of a wonderful journey leading to the creation of my favorite costume that I've made yet.

It was bittersweet, though, as this costume was created for our final visit to Middle-earth -- the premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

That premiere happened a month and a half ago now, and is an amazing memory that I will never forget. Friends, costumes, and The Hobbit -- there's no way that couldn't be awesome. ;)

And now, I share with you the culmination of this journey. A collection of my favorite photos from a photoshoot of this costume. I had so much fun doing it, and the pictures are better than I even imagined.

But I must give credit where credit is due:

To Amber, Crystal, and Karis, for these pictures. The photoshoot could never have happened without you guys, and I so appreciate your insane talent. So thanks again, girls, for taking all of these!!!

And above all, to God. He gave me the talent for creating costumes. He gave me the body that I get to cosplay in. And lastly, He gave up His life, so that I can live and enjoy the life that He gives to me. I would be absolutely no where without Him. I would have no hope, no desire to live life if I didn't know that it is God who is in control of it all. And I hope, I pray that my costumes, my blog, my life gives glory to Him. Because He is the only thing that truly matters in this life on earth.

Weeping over Kili. Note: I was laughing. xD

Tell me this does not remind you of this.

Battle Tauriel: Finished.

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - Photoshoot Sneak Peak

So, to mix up my post topics a bit, I wanted to share with you all what I did last Sunday...

My two friends Amber and Karis, my older sister Crystal and I had a cosplay photoshoot!!! Yes, for battle Tauriel. And let me tell you, these three are incredible photographers.

Needless to say, with these talented peeps, three really nice cameras, beautiful weather, an epic location, and an elf for a subject, the photos turned out better than I even imagined -- though many turned out terrible and hilarious and hideous as well. You don't get to see those of course. Gotta maintain my image, right... jk, jk. ;D

There's around 400 photos in all, and I've narrowed it down to 150 favorites... SOOOOO I'm currently in the process of editing up my very favorite favorites. ;) But in the meantime, I wanted to give you guys a quick sneak peak picture of the shoot, courtesy of Karis.

More pictures coming soon -- from le cosplay photo shoot and New Zealand! :)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Well, the Battle of the Five Armies premiere was last night, and now the final Middle-earth chapter is complete.

It started with joy and ended in tears (and maybe a little laughter over Kili and Tauriel).

We set off from home, after a little hobbit feast that featured lembas bread, Smaug's gold, elven arrow fruit skewers, and BotFA-themed sugar cookies, homemade by my older sister Crystal and I that afternoon -- she was the baker and assistant-designer, and I was the designer and decorator. ;)

Sting, hobbit door, the Lonely Mountain, the One Ring, the eye of Sauron, and (my favorite) Smaug [the adorable]. ;D

One picture before we head off, in all our costumed glory. A ranger, elf of Rivendel, Arwen, battle Tauriel, a hobbit girl, movie Tauriel, and Gandalf the grey/white. ;)

We decided to stop by Walmart to get pics, be stared at, and kill some time. xD

Elves are very picky about their yogurt.

Gandalf wanders the aisles of wally world...

I explain, Amber dances, Crystal laughs...

"Cuties." (See what we did there? ;))

Gandalf and the elves show off their 3D-glasses swag.

But we elves can be very serious, too. ;)

Me and my 2 older sisters. ;) Funny thing as well: it features the costumes that I made for the 3 Hobbit films. Alissa, with much coaxing, donned my first Tauriel costume, Crystal wears Arwen's blood red dress, and, of course, I'm wearing my "battle Tauriel" design. ;)

And after a bit more goofing off, we were able to go get our seats in the theater, sit through 30 minutes of trailers (*eye roll*), and then watch the final Middle-earth movie of our time.

I'll just be honest -- I *sobbed* through the last 45 minutes; and you know a movie is good if it can make you cry that hard.

SPOILERS ahead, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, you'll want to skip the next 2 paragraphs...

While the beginning and middle and the "big battle" were wonderful and exciting and straight up awesome, the end is what really stands out. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking and everything it should have been. Peter Jackson did this final chapter of Middle-earth justice.

I felt Thorin and Kili's pain as they watched their brother and nephew brutally murdered before their very eyes. I cried with Tauriel as Kili lay dead in her arms. My heart hurt with Bilbo as Thorin spoke with him for the final time. I wept as Bilbo said farewell to the dwarves at the doors of Erebor. And when he journeyed back home to Bag-end, and as he began to "pick up the threads of an old life," I could feel the heaviness the adventure had laid on our dear Bilbo's heart.

And then "The Last Goodbye" played, and that was when I realized: it's over. We went "there and back again" with so many wonderful characters, and now it is time to bid Middle-earth a very fond farewell -- but really, it will always live on.

~          ~          ~

"To these memories I will hold.

With your blessing I will go,

To turn at last to paths that lead home.

And though where the road then takes me,

I cannot tell.

We came all this way,

But now comes the day

To bid you farewell."

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - The Final Update

Ahhhh major nostalgia coming on right now... 1 year ago I wrote "the final update" for my first Tauriel cosplay (her "archer" costume). And now here I am, writing the final update for my Tauriel inspired costume.

P.S. I'm really sick of how fast time flies. :P

Anyway. Here we go with this final update about the making of battle Tauriel! :)

Two changes occurred over the past week since my last post. One big one concerning the pop tab chainmail that I made a while back, and one small one of the waist cincher. ;)

After deciding that I didn't like the chainmail made into shoulder armor (I'm so wishy-washy, I know.. xD), my brilliant sister Danielle told me to turn them into bracers. I then told her that the backs of the pop tabs snag really bad on the fabric... to which she replied, "Why don't you just put them on upside down?"

Like I said, brilliant. They look really great with the dress and the cincher... they finish off the look quite nicely. AND it makes the whole cosplay reminiscent of Tauriel's spider dress! (You know, dress/waist cincher/bracers and all;) So I thought that was rather cool how that worked out. :)

Changed to bracers...

The second thing is about the waist cincher... it was really just a fitting issue; it didn't pull in my waist at all, making me look straight, kinda...? Anyway, it was really bothering me, and 2 very simple seams fixed it! So now it looks *so* much better, and I've got an actual waist now. Hah. XD

Welp, I'm gonna have to cut this short now; busy-ness has abounded for moi and I can't find much time to write... but I wanted to check in one last time before The Battle of the Five Armies with the final touches on my costume, so I hope you've enjoyed that. ;)

And, what are your plans for seeing le movie??? (Or, maybe you're not even planning on seeing it... *booooo*) Tell meh in the comments because I love to hear about my peeps. :) :)

Finally... JUST 3 DAYS UNTIL THE COUNTDOWN COMPLETES. Or 2 days, if you're going the night before (like me hehe)... or if you don't live in good ol 'Murica, then a completely different amount of time... but you know what I'm getting at. ;D

Bonus: Elfie. Featuring elf hairstyle and latex elf ears. ;D

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - Waist Cincher and How I Made It

So, that project I showed you guys' in last week's post and video... well, I finished it today, and am I so excited to show you how it turned out. :D

But I'd like to show you how I made it first.

So. This was my first time making a corset -- more specifically, working with boning.

It's kinda funny: on each of the three costumes I've made for Hobbit premieres, I've done at least one thing that I hadn't before. On my version of Arwen's blood red dress for An Unexpected Journey, I used a sewing pattern and worked with grommets for the first time. Then, I got to work with upholstery leather for the first time on Tauriel for Desolation of Smaug. And now, with battle Tauriel, I've been able to try out my corsetry skills! ;)

Just one of the many reasons why I love cosplay -- you're always learning and gaining new skills! I mean, if I didn't cosplay... I don't think I'd ever have decided to try make a corset... o.O ;D

Done with the little rabbit trail, now on to the details of the making-of:

I started out by getting the fabric in the mail, and really really not liking it. I was wanting a more metallic silver, like the brightness of my pop-tab chainmail. So I was kinda bummed, because I love the pattern of the fabric, and the different ways the pattern catches the light.

So, I sat on it for a few days (not literally), to think over it some more.

I then decided to go ahead and make a mock-up out of it, and if I ended up liking it for the real thing, then cool. If not, I've got a mock up. So, it was a win-win situation, and I began to brain storm, cut, and pin the monstrosity together.

At this point my oldest sister Alissa saw it, and remarked on how gorgeous the fabric was. It was actually already starting to grow on my, and I grudgingly liked how it looked against the dark blue of the dress part of the costume. And so, hearing this from Alissa whose opinion I of course respect, ;) I decide to use the fabric for real, and make this mock up actually be the real thing.

So then I sewed everything up, and, after over coming a few hiccups in the process, I was ready to figure out the boning aspect. I had seen an idea on Pinterest a while back to use heavy duty zip ties in place of boning for DIY corsets, and recalled this from my memory now as I went down to my dad's garage/work shop to see if he happened to have any.

Sure enough, and to my great delight, he did! Stuffed on an old shelf was a bag of super long, *very* heavy duty zip ties. Just what I needed! :)

All trimmed down to the correct sizes and ready to go!

Next up was sewing the channels for the "boning" to slide into. I had seen *another* idea on Pinterest when I was doing a bit of research on making the corset, that you could use the seam allowance of the seams for the boning channels. Simply fold them over to one side, sew it up, and slide your boning in. This idea was border-line brilliant, and saved me a lot of hassle.

So, after ironing the seam allowances down to one side, I pinned and sewed the channels, which were 10 in all, and then slid the zip ties in. This was probably my favorite part of the whole process, because at this point it kind of hit me: you're really making a corset, Beth! ;)

Next was just hemming the edges (which ended up being harder then I had originally thought). I was thinking of doing bias tape, but I decided it'd just be simpler to hem it.

The final thing to do was put the grommets in for the back lacing. I sewed an interfaced lining for where they would go to give the fabric a bit more strength. No, I didn't line the whole corset (do I ever line my costumes..? Uhm no... xD), but the fabric is nice and thick, and I'm only using the corset as a costume piece, so it just wasn't necessary.

And after putting these in, tick tick tick tick BOOM my medieval/elven waist cincher/corset was done! ;) Unless I find some ways to improve it within the next week... ;D

Which also means... I am now 100% ready for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies premiere!!!

8 days left in the countdown...

PS - The final post on the making-of Battle Tauriel will be up within the week! Hint: it's concerning my pop-tab chainmail. Time has altered my ideas for it... and this altered product look so much better than my original idea with the full costume. :D Until then!

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - More Fabric?!

Yes, guys, I know. There has been like absolutely zero cosplay happenings on my blog this past month, and I apologize for that. College plans kind of became the priority for me. ;D

However! This post will rectify that very sad deficit -- because, costume progress posts are just fun. :D

Fabric. That's what came in le mail last Monday (yeah, you've probably noticed by now that I do a lot of my shopping online... xD). And it's for my Battle Tauriel costume. Who wants to see???

And - aren't I adorable - I even made a little video while I was doing a bit of sewing with it... ;)

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - The Dress

Here arrives the promised post:

The dress for my battle Tauriel costume!

But first, some progress pics from the making of it.

The bodice, which really shows the importance of fitting pattern-made clothes before you sew them together. I lengthened the pattern piece so it would fall a bit below my waist, instead of right at it:

The collar, which I altered quite a bit from the original pattern piece:

Bodice + collar sewn together:

The skirt, which took an extremely long time (see how I didn't say "forever"? ;)) due to the huge hem and getting the correct length. And yes, it is split down the front and back.

The sleeves, which took a bit of time to fit as well. As you can [barely] see, they're split at the wrist:

And finally -- the finished product! It was so worth all the work, and I totally reccomend this pattern (McCall's 6818). Fairly simple to follow, and with a lovely outcome (okay with altering ;D).

(you can't tell very well, but the skirt really is split down the front and back, I promise;)

And one picture of me wearing it. :)

(excuse the no makeup ;))

P.S. 76 days in the countdown to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies!

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - Chainmail Completed!

Here's one {of many} things that've been happening since I last updated you guys on my battle Tauriel costume...

My pop-tab shoulder chainmail pauldrons are 100% finished (with the help of some donations from friends)! :D

As you can see, they're a general diamond shape, with some slight shaping at the upper top for the shoulder so they'll lay better.

Each piece is made of (to my best approximation) ~175 tabs.

Now, you might be wondering why I didn't just make the chain mail out of metal rings instead... which would arguably have looked better.  Well, guys, if you don't know by now, I'm a budget cosplayer [read: cheap]. When I can make something for a fraction of the cost it would have been, I go for it. And honestly, I enjoy costuming more when I can do it inexpensively. So, free chain mail? Yep, that fit my budget quite nicely! ;)

You might have noticed the fabric underneath the chain mail. Looks quite similar to the fabric for my battle Tauriel dress, doesn't it...? Well, I did say this costume would be completed way before December 17th, did I not...? Oh yes I did. :D

Prepare for the unveiling of the dress a week from today:

October 1st.

P.S. Thanks, you guys, for putting up with all my crazy shenanigans. You know I have way too fun with this stuff. ;D

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - Pattern Prep and Cutting

I've been so busy working on my battle Tauriel costume this week that I've neglected updating ya'll on my progress... ;)

Just a word in advance: I will have this cosplay completed way before the Hobbit 3 premiere on December 17th. Which just means... I'll have to figure something else out to keep me busy in the long months ahead. xD Maybe start working on Arwen's coronation dress? I mean, I've got the fabric already... :)

Anyway -- back to the pattern (McCall's 6818).

First up was reading over the instructions for making the pattern, to get an idea of what would be entailed here.

Next, was cutting out the individual pieces from the larger pattern sheets, and then taking some measurements for alterations.

Then ironing the pattern pieces out so everything would lie smoothly when I cut the fabric...

Prepping the fabric to be cut...

And finally, pinning and cutting the fabric. Which is most likely my least favorite part of sewing. That, and sleeves. xD

And here is the end of today's [rather short] post -- but don't worry, more updates coming soon! (;

P.S. THE COSTUME IS ACTUALLY COMING TOGETHER.