Astrid's Fur Hood

My cosplay is starting to take shape and I'm really excited...and sad because I've been having so much fun making it but it's almost done.  All I have left to do is make the boot covers and wrist warmers.  Oh, and I need to make Astrid's ax.  I was at Home Depot today and I picked up a wooden dowel for under five dollars. I already had a little too much fun swinging it around and pretending is was already Astrid's ax. I didn't break anything but I may have annoyed my siblings a tad bit.

Anyway, I have tackled what I thought was going to be the hardest part of Astrid's outfit - her cape/hood.  First, I used one of those rings that scarves are hung on and painted it like metal.  A big thanks to my awesome friend who just happened to have a scarf ring for me!    

After examining Astrid's outfit I saw that she doesn't just have a hood but she has a short cape underneath the hood.  My sister has a lot of leftover fur from her projects and she let me use some of her dark brown fur.  It worked great and cost me nothing.  From some paper that was lying around I made myself a pattern.

I don't know how I would have been able to make this cosplay without a manikin dress form. It is so nice to be able to see how my costume is forming without actually having to put it on myself.

I used hot glue and leather strips to attach the cape and hood to the ring.  When I had sewed the lining onto the cape I left an opening so I could stick the leather strips into the seam and then secured it with hot glue.

           

The hood was the part I've been dreading.  I only had a limited amount of fur, so I didn't want to mess up. I used the Simplicity cape pattern that I had as a base and changed it to make it work for what I wanted.  I played around with scrap fabric until I had a design that I was happy with before cutting up my expensive fur.

After I used the pattern to make the fur hood, I folded the raw edges over and secured them with hot glue.  Hot glue works for pretty much everything - it's the best! I didn't give the hood an outside lining because the fur already had a nice leather backing and I really liked the look.

And yeah, if you haven't noticed yet, the craft room is the messiest room in our house.  We can clean the room but it only stays clean for a few days until my sister and I make it messy again.  I'm just glad we have a craft room.

I made the hood detachable by sewing snaps onto the leather strips instead of hot gluing it. That way it can be taken off of the ring. The skulls are attached by the wires I embedded into them when I molded them.  I plan on using Velcro to securely attach the shoulder pads to the brown cape.

Oh, and I ordered a blonde wig for my cosplay.  I spent more on it than I had initially planned.  I just really don't want a wig that obviously looks fake. I can't wait until it gets here and I can try my hand at styling it.

By the way,  you may have noticed that my blog design has changed.  I lost my background and for some strange reason I could not access the website where my original background came from. I'm not sure if I'll go back to my old background or keep the background I have up now.  To be honest, the background I have now is starting to grow on me.