Farm Girl Got Geek: Bofur's Hat

I confess! I confess! 

I'm a fangirl. 

When it comes to anything Marvel or Tolkien, I will 'SQUEE!' very loudly.

You've been warned. 

And now I think I've taken my Hobbit fangirl-ing to a new level - I've created something from the movie. Bofur's hat is just too awesome. 

So I started shopping around. Unfortunately, the only ones on the market were either expensive or cheesy. I figured I could make one, I mean, really, how hard could it be to make a hat? Granted, I never recreated something from a movie before or made a hat before. This is going to be an adventure! 

With all the farming craziness of summer all finished, I now have more time to dedicate to geeky sewing experiments. ^_^

Looking at the hat, it looks like a bomber hat (I hope you didn't read that as Bombur...) with some serious dramatic dwarf flair to it.  But there's one problem: there aren't any bomber hat patterns. Anywhere. I did find a video tutorial on youtube, but still no pattern to work with. Drats. Being my stereotypical, crazy, crafting self, I jumped right in with making my own. Maybe one of these days, I'll get around to making a tutorial and printable pattern to share with y'all to fill that empty place in the cosplay universe.

 After making up the first draft for the pattern and then making the pre-mock-up mock-up out of some thread-bare, old sheets that I had stashed away for the sole purpose of being a mock-up, I felt comfortable moving on to the mock-up. (Wow, that was a run on sentence with a sad lack of vocabulary diversity. Ahem, anyway.) So I made the daring move to start working with the curly brown faux fur that I had  found at the fabric store. The final product certain had a Siberian hobo feel to it because of the fabrics I used. ;)

"Perfect chore hat," says I, "It'll be wonderfully warm for doing those winter tasks."

 And that's why they call it a mock-up. It's comfy and that's all that matters.

 It was finally time to move on to making Bofur's hat. I sewed up the leather exterior (it looked like a vintage football helmet), embroidered the crown seams, jimmy-rigged a frame/system to use to hold up the ear flaps. But I couldn't find the right kind of fur for the lining. Anywhere. Seeing a trend with this project? I checked the fabric stores in the area. Nada. Etsy? Zilch. Unless you wanted to pay an arm and a leg. Amazon? Same story there. :sigh: Then my brother played the Weird Al song, "eBay." Inspiration can come from anywhere I guess. So I checked the online auction house. Lo-and-behold, FUR! And I had choices too! And it was a 'purchase now' listing. Oh happiness! Guess where my perfect fur came from. South Korea. It was funny seeing my mom's face when she handed me the gray plastic package, 'Uh, what are you getting from South Korea?' 'Oh chill, Mom, it's North Korea that has nukes. It's my fur!' It takes a while to ship things across the great wide Pacific and to my front door step. I finished the rest of the hat that afternoon. 

Good luck trying to convince me to take it off. I LOVE it!

My dad was asking about my recent 'obsession' this bomber hats. I shrugged. Maybe I could turn it into a business of some sort. Hmm...

"I've got worms!"

If you've met my little brother, you'll know what sort of non-stop character he is. Anything can spark his imagination or pique his interest. We were at the county fair one summer meandering through the master gardener section, and someone was there with a booth about worms. No, not parasites... earth worms. The wriggling kind that aerate your soil, help eat the compost pile down, and become chicken fodder. Nothing exciting there. But he thought the idea of having a bin full of worms as pets was the coolest thing ever. We already had the tiered worm bin from our previous attempt at keeping worms, Dad ordered some worm bedding (I think we ended up with some coconut shell stuffs), and Eli was all set to welcome his worms home. He had studied the handout from the worm booth and some books that we had on the shelf. I think he memorized them actually... He saved up his tooth fairy money to buy himself some new pets. His box of worms finally arrived via mail carrier. Actually, there were some worms that worked their way out of the box and into the mail truck. I feel sorry the the mail lady. I'm sure we have developed a reputation at the local post office... He came running up yelling, "I've got more pets than you! Do we have anything we can feed them?Look at them! Aren't they cute?"

Fast-forward about a year. My dad's aunt is visiting (we hadn't seen her since... well... I think I was but a wee tot); she hadn't met the charismatic storm that is Eli. Immediately following introductions and welcomes, Eli comes bursting in saying proudly, "I've got worms."

...

The look on my poor aunt's face. You could tell that she was thinking the problematic kind of worms. The kind that plagues carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores alike. The symbiotic relationship that is rather one-sided. We couldn't fill her in immediately. We had to relish the moment. The thought of having parasites is not exactly pretty. Let alone being that enthusiastic to inform others to your, umm, plight. We all had a really good laugh after explaining that it wasn't what she thought it was. 

Anways.

Sorry, random story. That memory came flooding back after watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. 

The First Waltz

~*The Victoria and Albert Ball*~

November nineteen, two thousand and eleven

Victorian Era ball attire, or modern white tie required

A lovely chair in the bridal suite where we got ready for the ball

Waltzing

The ballgown

So many pretty dresses! I'm going to have to see if I can figure out how to draw this picture. Hmm...

There was even a billiards room

The ballroom

Hoop skirts and stairs don't work out too well.

Live music!

It was such a lovely evening! There's something about all the men wearing black tuxedo and all the ladies wearing their finest that made the entire night feel like a scene from a movie. We had all put so much time and effort into planning out gowns, and yet the evening flew by in an instant! I hope we can have more formal balls in the future!

Climbing towers

I probably wouldn't do a movie review on a normal day, but in all honesty... I can't help it! I saw Disney's new princess movie, Tangled, at a friend's house last week and absolutely loved it. I purchased it that night and waited patiently (as patiently as I could be anyway) for the package to arrive. It was well worth the wait. I think I watched it 4 or 5 times that week... ;) So here are some pictures to either wet your appetite to see it or to take you back to that wonderful fairy tale world. :) :singing: Flower, gleam and glow/Let your power shine/Make the clock reverse/Bring back what was mine/Heal what has been hurt/Change the Fate's design/Save what has been lost/Bring back what once was mine/What once was mine... :/singing:

Maximus is probably the most amazing horse EVER!

But Rapunzel's pet chameleon, Pascal, is so much better. :)

Something about this movie... something about how it struck such a chord... I had stopped 'believing' in the magic of Disney because of some of the latest films that they have come out with, the message that they were giving, how I felt after watching them (did I really just waste that much of my life!?) and how they really catered to the romantic worldview in us and had poorly developed plots, characters and morals. :-S

Critics have ranted against this film. I don't know why. Perhaps they are just doing what they're supposed to do - be critics. Well, Pshaw with their reviews!

When the movie finished I didn't want it to end. I wanted it to keep going. The evening after watching the film, I just felt so wonderfully happy and elated. The music just sweeps you off your feet, the plot is wonderfully crafted (it makes so much more sense than the original fairy tale!), the fairy tale world that the artists created is simply stunning, and you're left feeling like this is what Disney is supposed to be. This is, without a doubt, my favorite princess film - ever.