Astrid: How to Trian Your Dragon 2

Who and Why:

For Phoenix Comicon 2014, I picked Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon 2. She is one of my favorite characters from the movies and I was excited to see her again with the second movie being released the weekend after Comicon. I liked that she would be recognized by both kids and adults, but also not be a common costume because the movie was still a week away from being released. I also liked her clothes in the second movie and thought they were simple enough, but could provide some challenge.

What I Did:

I am really proud of how this costume turned out. For reference I primarily used all the movie trailers, the five minute clip, and her official movie poster. Her shirt, underskirt, and vest were bought at a second hand store and then altered. I bought the tights at Target. I bought the wig from eBay and styled it with knots and many small clear elastics to hold everything in place. At a fabric store, I bought brown vinyl for the skirt, brown fake suede for the arm and boot covers, white fur trim for the arms and boots, brown fur for the hood, and brown ribbon for the arm and head bands as well as the wraps for the boots and gloves. I used model magic and paint to craft the bird skulls, spikes, and center ring. The knee pads are made from cardboard and duct tape with ribbon ties. The shoulder bands are made from craft foam, hot glue, plastic gems, and spray paint. I used boots I already owned.

What I learned:

Nothing glues to vinyl. Originally I glued the spikes and skulls directly onto the skirt then painted the glue that showed. But they started coming off because the glue didn’t hold. I tried a number of different glues but eventually settled on super glue. This held firm, but I still made sure to carry the bottle around with me just in case. If I did this again I would like to glue the spikes with hot glue onto wax paper first to get the look I want, then glue those to the skirt.

I would also like to resize my boot covers so they are not as big because they kept falling down when I walked. After seeing the movie I would actually like to redo them to be more accurate. The hood could also use some modification for accuracy now that I have a better reference.

The skirt and vest are actually made of fur in the movie, but I liked the mobility I got from the knitting and the Velcro on the shoulder pads cling best to the knitted vest. Lastly, I used eye and hooks to tie the upper arm bands, but I think Velcro would have been a better choice.