Month: November 2018

October : Tonks Part 2 (and five cloaks)

To catch up with the first part of this post, click here. 

Cloak 1: To continue the Harry Potter Halloween fun, I whipped up some cloaks. While in the pictures in my previous post Tonks was wearing a lovely coat from Necessary Evil (see here), I also sewed her a large, black cloak that’s more traditional Harry Potter style, and that can (and has been) easily repurposed for a ghost, evil sorcerer, mysterious figure, and the unfortunate family member at every Halloween event who never got a costume together.

Cloak 2: In addition to the black cloak, I also did a classic Harry Potter cloak, with a more peach-skin type fabric, and a red Gryffindor lining for the hood. 

Cloak 3: And now we go Tolkien! Tolkien is my dearest literary love (sorry Harry Potter; I must admit that you are just a passing, yet pleasant, fancy), and I have made three cloaks inspired by his works as well. The first is a Bombur cloak, done in a woven, gray-blue fabric. This is probably honestly my favorite of all these cloaks; I like the naturalness of the fabric, and the versatility—it can be repurposed again and again. 

Cloak 4: Aragon’s. This cloak was inspired by those worn by the characters in Peter Jackson’s version of The Lord of the Rings; although Jackson’s costume makers used a fabulous, textured fabric (delicately “made by the elves”, also good for camouflage) for the Fellowship’s cloaks, I used a slighter more dusty green, heavy woven. Very utilitarian; which, I think, is what Aragorn would desire. It was my first cloak and perhaps worst—I sewed the clasp on the wrong place and the whole thing has the tendency to try and strangle me, but we’ve gotten along well together nevertheless.

(the movie fabric)

(my cloak)

(close-up on the elvish leaf pin)

Cloak 5: This is turning out to be something of a cloak marathon! For this we must go back beyond The Lord of the Rings into the depths of the amazing work, The Silmarillion, which covers ages of the history of Middle Earth—chock-full of more epic stories and characters. Fingon (also known as Findekano) is one of these, who ends up traveling all the way to the dreaded Morgoth’s (even worse than Sauron, if you can believe it) fortress to rescue his friend, Maedhros, who has been hanging off the side, chained by his hand, for quite some time. The cloak is shorter, because Fingon needs to be unencumbered; he’s a warrior and, more specifically, an archer. The cloak is blue, which goes with the blues (and silver) of the rest of the costume, as those are the colors of Fingon’s house (he is a member of the house of Finarfin), and has a more complex clasp idea. It is closed by a twisting panel of fabric, secured by sew-on snaps, and over that I pin a brooch I made, displaying the insignia of his house. 

(close-up on twist-closure and House of Finarfin brooch)

All the cloaks here (sans the Aragorn one), where made based on this pattern:

A truly excellent investment (I made the tunic too and it also rocks).

October : Necessary Evil

Introduction:

The Snottor and The Phlox are currently estranged. The Snottor always writes his posts on time (always). Always. However, he does not do the technology—that is in The Phlox’s job description. The Phlox has a myriad of excuses, but her general lateness has put The Snottor in high dudgeon. He has no regrets as to his harsh words with the little flower, considering the fact that, in addition to her lateness, she has been insisting, very juvenilely, upon wearing her skirt even during watering time, and then fretting when it becomes wet. The Snottor is only trying to be a good plant parent. 

As a result of this unfortunate but hopefully brief incident, the Snottor’s mind has gone down dark paths, and he has decided to reveal one of the darker members of his obsessions.

About this Company:

The Snottor does not generally wear clothes himself (except his apron, which he makes), but the Phlox does, and, if the reader will have been keeping up with her side of the posts, they might have noticed a certain dark coat. This article is from the gothic clothing company, Necessary Evil, which can be located at https://www.necessaryevilclothing.co.uk . 

Now, gothic clothing is certainly not for everyone, and some of these garbs are not even for The Phlox (who, at times, can be rather faint-hearted when it comes to baring her leafy skin), but, for those of his esteemed readers who are at all hams (flamboyant or, like The Phlox, secret hams), this company may be worthy of being looked into.

The Snottor finds their designs to be very fun, and well-made. The Phlox has had her particular coat for over two years, and it continues to function in optimal condition and bring quite a bit of joy to her be-petaled life. He hypothesizes that they can be utilized on Halloween, cosplay occasions, convention occasions, and, if the reader is anything like The Phlox, they can flounce about, demurely looking like an Auror/villain/badass character, for the daily grind. 

Holy Guacamole! And apologies

The Snottor does not know what to say.

Loyal followers of his musings have likely noticed the current lack of them. We are now, he pedantically observes, in the month of November, and his beloved readership remains deprived even of his October pearl. There is no one, of course, to blame, but The Phlox. 

The Phlox has recently been seized by the affliction commonly known as “college applications”—she explains to the Snottor, who, be-scaled eyebrow raised, remains unimpressed. 

Needless to say, she has been grounded. During her convalescence, The Snottor will politely hold her hand to aid her in updating this site, as he does not grace technology with his esteemed presence.

Again, apologies. The Snottor has tried to deliberately ‘lose’ The Phlox many times, in similar instances, but consistently with limited success. She likes him an inordinate amount, despite his scolding. Unfortunately, he doomfully informs his readers, she seems to be sticking around.