Birthday Giveaway Time!

Oh hey, in all the school (teaching) and school (attending) hecticism (I know, that's not even a word), I almost forgot that it was my birthday! There's such a sharp contrast (in my mind at least; I don't think anyone else is concerned about it) between last year's birthday celebrations (all-out LOTR theme party!) and this year's (read: nothing in particular)*, but I'm fine with that; last year was more of an anomaly, if anything. Still, I would like to mark the occasion with some hobbit-ness of my own, i.e. giving away some mathom.

Whoa, what, is something wrong with these? Why are they mathom?

Having drafted my own perfect pants pattern (and failed to do anything else with it since; see first sentence of this post for reasons), I no longer need my copies of Colette Patterns' Clovers or Sewaholic Patterns' Thurlows. If you've a hankering to apply some of my pants-making tips, but haven't found a pattern that works for you yet, you may want to give these two indie patterns a try! Both patterns have been unfolded at some point, and the instructions flipped through, but they are still uncut.

Caveat emptor: both of these patterns are pretty hippy, so if you're not very pear-shaped you may need to do some adjusting. 

If you want to enter this giveaway, leave a comment below telling me your best sewing-related pickup line...or just tell me what kind of pants you'd like to make (actually, I'm just curious about whether there are any sewing-related pickup lines. My students have been talking about pickup lines and while there seem to be plenty of biology ones, but I've yet to come across a really good chemistry one. Wondering about sewing ones seems to be the next logical step). I'll close the giveaway and choose a winner on Sunday night, 11:59 PST.

*Same thing goes for the Catching Fire movie...when Hunger Games was released, I went all out with my friends and did a costumed photoshoot, but this year, pffft. Even though the costumes were arguably better this time around, and boy would I love to make a Mockingjay dress, but there's just no time!

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Half A Year of Stashbusting!

Pat yourself on the back, stashbusters! June is almost over and we've been (hopefully) working hard on using up the pieces of fabric we've hoarded curated for who knows how long. I hope it's been a good experience for you so far, and that you were able to rediscover treasures in your stash! I know I've been pushed to tackle pieces that I wouldn't otherwise have remembered or attempted (especially when it comes to things for the Historical Sew Fortnightly -- hello Great Gatsby and pirate coat!). Although I've only made up eight of the pieces I originally pledged to bust, I've also tackled a lot of un-pledged stash. It's been nice, actually, being forced to shop the stash to make the things I want. I've had to buy new fabric and notions to complete some of the projects, but mostly I've been pretty good about working with what I have.

In case you've forgotten, June's theme was containment, and I'll be honest -- I was supposed to have posted two projects that fit that theme, but I only had my gold placemat clutch. It was just difficult to think of projects that would actually come in handy, and not just be sewing-something-for-the-sake-of-sewing-something. Besides, I was caught up in endless research and hand-sewing for my pirate coat. After I finished it, though, I was ready for an entirely unrelated and less mentally taxing project -- enter PoldaPop's zippered wallet pattern!

Lisa contacted me to offer a free download of her PDF pattern, which comes with a very thorough instructions file with photos of the steps. This turned out to be very helpful, since apparently I can figure out the huge lined justaucorps cuffs, but rectangular wallet pieces were too much for me -- I'm a clothes sewer, not a wallet sewer! I sewed the pockets in wrong at first, at which point I realized that I should probably stop barging ahead of myself and actually look at the directions. Once I took the time to read through them, construction was straightforward, although near the end my machine rebelled at the task of sewing through something like twelve layers of fabric...I ended up using the hand-wheel for almost all of the final binding. Thankfully, the perimeter of the wallet is not a long one.

The completed wallet measures 9" x 5" and accommodates a smallish paperback book. 

It's the same book that I stuffed into my gold placemat clutch!

I went pastels/birds/florals for my inside fabrics. Somehow, I managed to cut it so that there are three bird butts front and center. 

A closer look at my clip-on wristlet loop thing. I did change the placement of this from the original pattern. 

My thoughts on the pattern:

• It's a great way to use up scraps! I used some fat quarters of quilting cotton for the pockets, originally purchased just because I liked the print, and before I realized that I had no use for them. Well, now they're nicely displayed! I also used leftovers from my gauchos, my one and only strapless dress, my deerstalker lining, and pencil skirt. I have dreams of making a supergeek wallet one day with pockets made of Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Star Wars, and Clone Wars fabric, and have a Lego Avengers minifig as a zipper pull...
• The final wallet is actually pretty large for a wallet; I'd say it's more of a clutch size. I could easily fit my phone and keys inside and still zip it up. This is pretty perfect for going out without a whole huge purse.
• It's easy to think oh, a zippered wallet, it's just rectangles...I could probably figure out the pattern myself. True, but take it from a diehard I-can-make-that-pattern-myself-er: it's worth it to have someone else figure out the dimensions and order of operations for you!
• I really like how the finished wallet looks "real," thanks to the binding and clip-on wristlet. Depending on your fabric choice, you could really make this wallet take on different looks!
• It was a satisfying, quick project -- I finished this in an evening, and the most difficult part was probably figuring out which fabrics would look good together.

Things I wasn't the hugest fan of:

• I would've liked markings on the pattern pieces to help line them up, as well as seam allowance markings but that's my personal preference. 
• At times, the instructions used different names for the pattern pieces than the ones that were actually marked on the pattern (e.g. "coin pouch" = "change pocket"), but this was pretty minor and easy to figure out if you're not brain-dead from figuring out pirate coat side pleats. 
• The materials list calls for a 7" zipper for the coin pouch, but it really needed to be a 5-6" one. I know that not all stores carry such short zippers, but it would have been nice to know the actual length in case one had access to a garment district ;)

Lisa also kindly offered a free pattern download to one of my readers, so we wrap up my month of random giveaways with one more chance to win something. Just leave a comment saying you'd like to enter (and maybe tell me what theme of fabrics you'd use for the inside pockets!), and I'll close it next Thursday, July 4, at 11:59 pm PST.

And hey, speaking of random giveaways here on the blog, congratulations to the winners: runlexlou (and her cute tidbit about buttonhole twist in the Tailor of Gloucester!) gets the Fashion A-Z dictionary,  and Alice of Heteronormativelovefest gets the interfacing swatch set. Winners, please shoot me an email at cationdesignsblog [at] gmail.com with your address so that I can get your packages to you before I get too swamped with moving! Everyone else, thanks for all your suggestions for revolutionary sewing tools! It looks like I'm going to need to give thread snips, a clear quilting ruler, and the Chakoner chalk marker a try. And of course, the learner in me loved reading all your favorite sewing terms. It's good to know I wasn't the only one confused about fichu/tissue and tarlatan/tartan!

This is an actual triangular lace fichu. 

Last of all the miscellaneous topics in this blog post: it's link party time! I feel bad requiring entries to be container-related, when I could barely think of things that fit that category myself, so this time we're going to leave it open to any kind of stashbusting that hasn't previously been featured in earlier link parties.

And if you're wondering what's up for the rest of the year, stay tuned...Emily will be posting on Monday about the rest of the themes for 2013! Keep up the good work, stashbusters!

Fashion A-Z, An Illustrated Dictionary

My very talented sister is in the middle of doing an illustrated alphabet of microbes, but was having trouble coming up with species for J, Q, and X, understandably. When I was doing an A-Z series on famous chemists/scientists for my AP class, I thankfully had Joule, but faltered after van der Waals. So I'm always impressed when alphabets related to a certain topic actually have representatives for the less common letters. The Fashion A-Z: An Illustrated Dictionary, is only missing entries for X, but frankly, I can't think of anything to go in that section, so they get a gold star from me.

Even wondered what a jemmy, qiviut, or zori are? Now you can look it up even when the system is down!

I received this book to review from Laurence King Publishing; it's a mini version of the (presumably) more extensive full-size dictionary. For someone like me, who's a voracious reader and trivia collector, this dictionary is a delight -- it's everything I didn't realize I wanted to know about not just fashion, but also fabric types and sewing terms. Even better, it's helpful for reading historical fiction! When Ida Brown gives Laura Ingalls a triangular fichu as a wedding gift, elementary school me always imagined a tissue. What can I say -- the words rhyme, and that logic made sense at the time! Now, though, I know that a fichu is "...worn by women during the 18th and 19th c.'s as a neckerchief or shawl...made of fine lightweight fabrics such as lace or linen." When Scarlett O'Hara contemplates and then dismisses the idea of the black bombazine dress for the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, I no longer have to try to imagine a combination-bomb-and-magazine in dress form; instead, I know bombazine is "a twill or plain weave fabric...originated in ancient China and is one of the oldest known fabrics...it began, almost exclusively, to be dyed black due to its popularity as mourningwear." And when Meg March laments her dowdy tarlatan at Annie Moffat's party, I can correct my mental picture of her in a tartan dress (because I totally didn't realize I was confusing the two words!) and put her in a dress of "coarse, sheer, gauze-like cotton fabric woven in an open plain weave and typically stiffened with size." In other words, a giant cheesecloth-esque dress. 

A tarlatan dress, from the Kyoto Costume Institute, from around the same era as Little Women. 

I also really appreciate that this dictionary not only has descriptions of types of fabric (polyamide? sarcenet? drugget, anyone?) and clothing (toga, anorak, even power dressing!), it also has quite a few "ethnic" entries as well. From the Chinese cheongsam to the Russian ushanka to the South Asian kurta to the Native American bietle, it's a good "Huh, so that's what it's called!" reference book. It might seem like this kind of book is rendered obsolete by the availability of information on teh interwebs, but let me tell you why I still love this: I'm all about maximizing reading/learning time (this is why I love listening to podcasts while sewing!), so this dictionary has been my toothbrushing-time reading. It's perfect because the entries are nice and short and obviously it's not the kind of book one sits and reads through from beginning to end, but I always learn something new in the two minutes before my Sonicare buzzes to let me know that time is up.

I love that the giant letter illustrations that open each new section are actually thoughtfully designed: a herringbone weave H, a striped S, a dotted D, etc.  And oh hey look, it's a deerstalker cap and mine looks just like the illustration!

My only gripes with this dictionary are that 1) the illustrations are frequently for entries that seem more "common", whereas I would prefer to have an illustration of one of the more rare terms (I mean, I know what a lapel looks like; could you illustrate a larrigan instead?), and 2) they don't have an entry for justaucorps. Why does #2, matter, you ask? Because that's what I was working on all last week, and I would've loved to be like, don't know what the heck that is? Then enter the giveaway and find out when you finally get to look it up in the dictionary! Or, you know, just wait until I post about it and just look at my photos. I guess you could also click on the link and find out now, but if you don't, it'll be more surprising when I finally get around to taking and posting photos of my justaucorps.

But hey, did you catch that? LK Publishing is sponsoring a giveaway of this book here at Cation Designs! Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite "obscure" sewing term is for a chance to win your own copy of this fantastic little dictionary. I'll close the giveaway on Friday, June 28 at 11:59 pm PST. And if you haven't entered the other giveaway for an interfacing swatch set, go do it! 

In Praise of Superior Materials

Since last week was my first totally free week (school was over for both myself and Mr. Cation, and end of the year meetings were finally done), I decided to take a little break from blogging and treat myself to a sewcation. You know, it's kind of like a staycation, but instead of going to local tourist spots, I just stayed home and sewed all day. Seriously, it was such. bliss. to be able to sew for hours without interruption! And I needed it, because it was a pretty involved project...but more about that in another blog post.

Here's a sneak peek!

One of my takeaways from my week of sewing (besides the fact that sewcations are awesome for introverts like me) was that it is totally worth it to spend money on quality items. A danger of my Very Thrifty Asian Upbringing is that I tend to think I can get away with the cheapest tools and materials; my  sewing machine is the lowest-of-the-line model I could find on Amazon and for the longest time I just used regular office scissors for cutting fabric (but I only used them for fabric, never for paper!). My threads were all the $0.25/spool ones from SAS, and come on, I sew with old sheets most of the time! Fabric that costs more than $8/yd is usually ruled out as too pricey. But I knew that good tools could revolutionalize my sewing (my rotary cutter and self-healing mat and magnetic pincushion are my favorite examples). So when Jo-ann's had its Firefly Frenzy sale, I took advantage of the deep discounts and flurry of coupons to treat myself to some better stuff:

1) Gingher dressmaking shears: Sewing bloggers I respect are always talking about how awesome these are, and I have to admit -- I scoffed. How awesome could a pair of scissors really be? FRIENDS, I WAS SO WRONG. I cannot get over how much I love these shears! They really do handle multiple layers of fabric beautifully, they cut all the way to the tippy tip, and it is like cutting through hot butter, it's so easy. I can't say it enough -- good tools can make an onerous task (does anyone actually enjoy cutting?) so much more tolerable. Between my rotary cutter and these shears, cutting out pattern pieces is almost borderline enjoyable. Between the coupons and teacher discounts, I got mine for $8, a price even I can stomach!

2) Silk thread and beeswax for hand-sewing: I've always just used cheap polyester all-purpose thread for all my hand-sewing (and machine sewing, for that matter), whether for blind-stitching hems, attaching trim and buttons, or basting (for the rare times I actually take the time to baste). And when it tangled up horribly or snapped, I always assumed that that's what people do!! errr, that's what thread just does. But the historical sewing bloggers I follow all talk about its superiority for hand-sewing, so I gave it a try. It wasn't quite the epiphany that the Gingher shears were, but it was still pretty impressive. I haven't hated hand-sewing for a while, but now I even find it relaxing and fun. Which is good, because there was a ton of hand-sewing involved in my week-long project. 

I love this tumblr and am so sad it's no longer updated.
But hey, I gave sewing with a thimble a try after a particularly painful needle jab!

3) Quality interfacing: I didn't get this at Jo-ann's, but from Fashion Sewing Supply. I've always used the cheap Pellon non-woven interfacing for my projects and would always get frustrated when it bubbled or peeled off or totally changed the hand and drape of my fabric. Honestly, when people talked about how interfacing was necessary for making coats, I just didn't get it. I didn't scoff, like I did with the shears, but I was just confused. How could it really make such a big difference? I finally sucked it up and got myself a couple of yards of Pro-Weft Supreme Medium-Weight Interfacing last year, but hadn't had a reason to use it until now. I was quickly blown away by how beautifully it stabilized my fabric without making it stiff, how much better it fused, and how freaking good it smelled while fusing. Okay, I know that last bit of praise probably concerns some people (I promise I'm not huffing interfacing fumes on purpose!), but seriously, this stuff smelled like an excellent mushroom puff pastry. Yes, I could really smell the umami and buttery flakiness. 

I had to fight the urge to make these instead of finishing my project. 

After I tried out the interfacing, I wrote a thank you note to FSS, because I was that taken with their product. To my surprise, Pam, the owner, personally wrote me back to say how glad she was that I enjoyed the interfacing and even offered to send me a swatch set so that I would have a better idea of the endless horizons of mushroom puff pastry before me types of interfacing they offered for various needs. Readers, in this day and age of anonymous online commerce, it was such a pleasant surprise to hear from Pam and be offered this kind of customer service. Even better, she's offered a swatch set for one of you lucky ducks to try! Seriously, if you've ever wondered what the big deal with interfacing is, or if you're just not sure what feels like what and need to figure out what works for your particular project, here's your chance! Leave a comment below telling me what sewing tool, notion, or material revolutionalized your sewing process, and I'll choose a winner on June 28, Friday night, at 11:59 pm PST. 

For a list of the swatches included, take a look over here. I'll be honest, I petted mine for quite a bit and then spent a good amount of time researching what kinds of projects each would be suited for. 

And if interfacing isn't your thing, stay tuned...I've got another giveaway coming! Gosh, this is the most giveaways I've ever done in a month, but then again, this month marks my second blogiversary and I didn't have my act together enough to make another pattern, so here, have a bunch of lotteries instead. Only it's not the kind where you draw a black spot and get stoned to death. Oops, should I have put a spoiler alert on that? 

Polyester Pillage Getting You Down?

Thank you for all of your sweet comments about yesterday's dinosaur dress! I don't know that they necessarily change Mr. Cation's mind about squiring me about town while I'm wearing it, but it's kind of comforting to know that Gingermakes' Man Friend feels the same. It's not just my guy that's put off by Jurassic Park on a dress that "needs" to be belted!

One thing you should know, though -- of all the sheets I've worked with (and I've worked with a lot!), these sheets were probably the worst when it came to polyester content. Usually, modern sheets are 100% cotton or 100% polyester, which makes it easy to tell content from the feel. Sheets from the 80s and before are usually 50/50 poly-cotton, which is not great but not bad either. This 1992 Jurassic Park sheet, though, was 70/30 poly-cotton, which meant that after years of wear by some little kid, it was pilling pretty badly.

I had to play around with the lighting so that you could see the pills, hence the shadowy-ness of the picture. 

Seriously, sewasauruses, is there anything worse than low-quality polyester pillage? And by pillage I don't mean raiding a village and burning it to the ground after making off with the sheep and cattle.

To clean it up for actual wearing in public, Mr. Cation's opinions notwithstanding, I used this handy little machine. 

See the blades and all the pills collected in the chamber?

I got this gadget from the Japanese dollar store (although everything there is actually more than a dollar, since it's imported from Japan), along with a bunch of other sewing goodies (I love that Japanese stores actually have a sewing and crafts section!). My mom had one of these when I was growing up for shaving sweaters with, and I used to love getting to use it. It's just satisfying to see all those little bits come off your clothing and gather up in the inner chamber, you know? Anyway, I figured that there must be other people out there who have pilly sheets from the 90s clothing, so I bought an extra to give away to one of you! Here's how you can enter:

1. Leave a comment saying that you're entering the shaving machine giveaway! 
2. Answer the question: what's the worst fabric you've had to rehab in order to make it wearable? I'm imagining red wine vomit, the smell of thrift stores and moth balls, a black fabric after a white cat's slept on it...
3. You should probably be a follower of my blog to enter. I'm not going to check your credentials, but hey, how else will you know if you've won unless you actually read my blog? 

I'll close the giveaway on Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST, and post a winner on Monday! Gaack, that's AP exam day!

So much better! All those colors look so much better when they're not covered with pills. Speaking of color, though, don't forget to enter the April Stashbusting link party!

Incidentally, if you didn't get to those vibrant colors this past month, that's okay, because May is here! May is all about using up the knits in your stash...go check out the details of the challenge over on EmSewCrazy's blog. She also posted some of the standouts from the Flickr Stashbusting group, so take a look and see if you're featured!

March Stashbusting: The Empress' New Dress

I left you all yesterday with some silly pictures of my first experiments with Hisako Sato's Drape Drape book. I'll be honest, after I finished those pants I was seriously doubting myself and wondering if I was missing something. I even lamented to Mr. Cation, is there something wrong with me? Everyone seems to love Drape Drape and I feel like I'm the little boy staring at the naked emperor, wondering why everyone's convinced that he's wearing the most spectacular outfit ever! Only thing is, I truly wanted to be convinced that the emperor really had some great clothes on.

Look! Look at the emperor and his gorgeous new clothes! *awkward pointing poses*

Mr. Cation and I looked through the book together and decided that no, I hadn't lost my sense of style; it's just that most of the styles in the book aren't right for me. They're still cleverly drafted and *ahem*, artistically photographed, but I know I look best in garments that have a defined waist, and most of the garments in the book don't fall into that category. Still, while looking through the book, we did identify one dress that looked like it would work for me -- the V-neck dress, No. 5 -- with its slightly Grecian feel. I set about highlighting, tracing, and cutting the pattern pieces, and to my surprise it went pretty quickly! Although the pattern sheets look daunting, they're not bad once you get the hang of it. Same goes for interpreting the pleating diagrams in the book, although the number of pins required is still ridiculous. 

I am so fascinated by the shapes of these pattern pieces!

I sewed up a size small, and once again I'm glad I didn't go with my recommended size. I ended up having to take in the side seams a little bit and do a SBA on the gathered bodice pieces, and even then, the stretchiness of my fabric means that it's almost indecently low-cut in front. Since I was working with a stretch fabric, I also didn't bother with the back zipper, and I also modified the back bodice pieces to be higher and overlap so that my bra strap wouldn't show. 

More white wall pictures. 

Summary: 

Fabric: 2 yards of 54" wide mystery knit from the FIDM scholarship store, purchased last year. It's part of my stashbusting challenge pledge, so I'm pretty excited about using up so much of it. I think I have enough left to squeeze out a long-sleeved not-a-Renfrew. 

Notions: Elastic to stabilize the waist seam

Hours: Seven? I spent quite a bit of time fiddling with the bodice fit. 

Will you make it again? Probably not, as it's a pretty unique look. 

Total cost: $3

Final thoughts: I've seen some really gorgeous versions of this dress out there, but it wasn't until I saw Amy's paisley version that it occurred to me that this could be made up in a patterned fabric. I know I'm totally succumbing to the put-a-bird-on-it trend, but I love how there are birds swooping all over this dress! The drapes are definitely a great design element on what could otherwise be a pretty ho-hum V-neck dress. It's comfortable (I tested it by wearing it to a ten course Chinese wedding banquet) and elegant without taking itself too seriously. 

So, the verdict is, I'm so glad I gave Drape Drape another chance! I may not quite be a convert to the whole draping cult, but at least the emperor appears to be clothed now. Now, if you are of the opinion that these patterns are all that, or if you're like me and want to give them a try, here's your chance: Laurence King Publishing not only gave me a copy to review, they graciously provided another copy for one of you! Leave a comment saying you'd like to enter the giveaway by 11:59 pm PST on Friday, March 22, for a shot at your own copy of Drape Drape. 

And because I couldn't resist, I had to do a (loving) mocking imitation of the model's awkward pointing poses. 

My theory is that the models didn't know what to do with their hands. Obvious solution: hold a cat. 

Last little bit of randomness: we were at a B&N killing time before a birthday party, and I came across a similar-looking (but unrelated) Japanese sewing book called Shape Shape. When I showed it to Mr. Cation, he proposed that somebody put out Japanese sewing books called Tape Tape (garments all made entirely from duct tape), Cape Cape (all capes, obviously), and Grape Grape (clothes made from grapes, like Lady GaGa's meat dress). You see, that is why I love this man. 

Sew Grateful Week + Giveaway

Many thanks to Debi for hosting Sew Grateful week every year to remind us how much there is to be grateful for in the sewing blogiverse! I feel like I've written pretty extensively fairly recently about how glad I am to have discovered sewing, and what sewing and the online community have done for me, so I won't rehash that here. I still wanted to reiterate, though, that I am still so incredibly thankful to Mr. Cation and my friends for their support, Walnut for being cute, and all of you out there who are encouraging and informative through your own blogs and your comments on mine. This community is a pretty special place, isn't it?

Walnut gives his best coy look. Dawwww...

There are some pretty amazing giveaways going on, and while I can't compete with say, a book on  tailoring or a new Colette pattern, I can throw in an assortment of goodies for multiple winners!

#1: The Sophia Trench Coat pattern by Serendipity Studio, uncut, sizes XXS-XXL. It's a raglan-sleeve coat, so it should be easier than one with set-in sleeves. I originally bought it as part of a coat-making class at my local sewing shop, but I ended up not being able to make the class dates. I still have the pattern, though, so this would be a good beginner coat project for you if you're looking for one! Here's an example of a less loud version of it.

#2: McCall's 7385, a raglan-sleeve knit dress pattern in petite. It's from the eighties, which was not the best era for fashion, but I liked the stripe/chevron version they picture. And again, since it's a raglan-sleeve, it should be an easy first dress. Don't forget the personalized instructions by Palmer & Pletsch!

#3: McCall's 9071, a 1967 sheath dress pattern with some cool seaming, in size 16 (bust 38). I originally got this as part of a whole packet of patterns, but the bust is much too big for me.

#4: Butterick 4790, a reprint of the 1952 walkaway dress, uncut, sizes 8-14. I'll be honest, it requires so much fabric I'm unlikely to ever make it up, but it's definitely a cute retro dress!

#5: A 1965 Simplicity sewing book. I came across it in one of my thrifting adventures, and while it's not in pristine condition, the information in it is still good. There are sections covering pattern and fabric choice, alterations for fit, step-by-step illustrated instructions for how to put together common items like dresses, skirts, blouses, and men's shirts. There are also sections covering useful things like types of fastenings, embroidery stitches, seam finishes, basic tailoring, etc.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment saying which set you would like. I'll even go so far as to say you can enter for multiple items if they all strike your fancy! And just out of curiosity, tell me what's your least favorite fashion era -- mine is, in fact, the 80s, which might explain why I'm giving away the second pattern! I'll close the giveaway on Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST and announce the winners on Monday.   This giveaway is now closed! Thanks for entering!

One more gratuitous cat picture. Sometimes I look at Walnut and think it's just unreal that he's so fluffy.

The Hobbit Midnight Showing

If you're tired of reading about hobbits and Tolkien, you can skip this post and the next one and then I promise I really will be done.

I've been to four midnight movie showings in my lifetime: The Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hunger Games, and now The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. With the exception of The Hunger Games, each experience was exponentially more awesome than the last.

Elaine and I got dressed and did a quick mini photo shoot before we left for Grauman's Chinese Theatre. As we got giddier, it quickly descended into madness.

We got to Grauman's at around 5 pm, where we attracted quite a few stares as we made our way over from the parking structure to the theatre. There, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we were not horribly late; there were only about 20 people in line ahead of us. I attribute this to the fact that, unlike the Deathly Hallows 2, it was 1) not summer, so kids weren't out of school yet, 2) not summer, so it was actually slightly unpleasantly cold and damp to be waiting outside, and 3) a much older audience, so presumably more people had jobs they needed to be at. This was very exciting, as it meant that we actually got the goodie bags that were reserved for the first 200 people in line! Not to mention the fact that since we were dressed up and near the front of the line (and the fact that I decided last minute to bring the Eye of Sauron balloon along, which I can honestly say was the only one of its kind there...there were lots of other hobbits, but no other eyeballs), we got interviewed several times about our costumes and how excited we were. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any clips of this anywhere, so unless you happen to have seen us on KTLA5 or KABC7, well, I guess I'll never know if I actually made it onto TV. Honestly, I'd much rather be on TV for something geeky like this, than for WoF.

It was so nice to meet other geeks and bond instantly over our love for Tolkien's work, costuming, and being obsessive enough to attend midnight showings in December (granted, it's not like we were in New York or someplace super cold). We met lots of lovely people during our seven hour wait, got to ooh and aah over each others' outfits, and chat up a storm about where we were when the original trilogy came out, all for a good seven hours before they finally let us inside to thaw. I was glad that my costume had multiple layers and that I wore tights and boots and had a wool cloak; some elves were not so fortunate.

Did you know that they have red holiday cups in Middle Earth? TheOneRing.net people were there, we made friends with other geeks who could boast about having seen the original Star Wars trilogy in theatres, and there were lots of ridiculously grinny pictures taken. 

But of course, the movie was the main event (although I did say to Elaine that I could probably go home after the line party and feel like it was an evening well spent)! Before I give you my review, though, I'll issue the disclaimer that I was predisposed to like it. I loved the books, the movies were a huge part of my college experience, and I have endless admiration for the conceptual artwork of Alan Lee and John Howe, so I was already looking to be pleased. With that said, I'll go ahead and say that I didn't like it as much as the original trilogy. But! I also don't like The Hobbit as a book as much as LOTR. I prefer the darker story of the latter, and wasn't a huge fan of the snot/fart jokes and Radagast's silliness that Peter Jackson threw into this first movie.

The main thing that bothered me about the movie, though, was the high frame rate and the 3D format. I'll be honest, though, I haven't ever seen a movie in 3D (except for about seven minutes in the beginning of the sixth Harry Potter movie), though, so part of my dislike might be the novelty of it. The HFR was distracting at first, but I mostly got over it after the first hour. I think the combination of the two all together for the first time made things more difficult to adjust. I want to see it again in 2D, at 24 fps, at a civilized time of day, and reevaluate.

So that might sound like I didn't really like the movie, but I did! I just wanted to get my gripes out of the way first. Things I did like [spoiler alerts!]:

• ZOMG HOWARD SHORE AND THE EPIC SCORE. Errr, soundtrack, but shore and score rhyme. I had such delicious shivers every time I heard the Misty Mountains theme. 
• Martin Freeman as John Watson Bilbo Baggins. His facial expressions, the timing of his lines, his reactions...perfection. While I loved Ian Holm in the original trilogy (please, PJ, don't pull a George Lucas and go back and replace the original Riddles in the Dark scene with Martin Freeman's!), Freeman is just so right for the role of a little hobbit trying to find his footing in a grand adventure. 
• More Gandalf the Grey. I like that he's sassy and funny and less serious than the white version.
• Dwarves are hot now. Hello, Thorin Epicsmolderingshield and your stubbornness and lofty ideals. Much appreciation for Kili and his Legolasian bow skills. 
• THRANDUIL. Love Lee Pace, love the elk, love the random tiara he wears (Thranduil, not the elk), can't wait to see more of him. 
• The elves and Rivendell! Gosh, I'm such a sucker for pretty people. And Figwit has a real name now: Lindir! Fangirling aside, though, it was lovely to see more of Rivendell and Alan Lee's hand in all of the architecture and decor. The little bit with the reading of the moon runes was gorgeous. And Cate Blanchett's return as Galadriel! It makes me want to run out and buy yards and yards of white chiffon. And learn metalsmithing/jewelry-making so that I can make elven tiaras for myself. 
• The wargs don't look like hyenas anymore. I know, that's so minor, but I appreciated it. 
• Riddles in the dark! Andy Serkis and the new motion capture technology really make Gollum so real and deliciously creepy. 
• Getting to see what Erebor looked like. If you thought Moria was cool, oh man, the inside of the Lonely Mountain = 10x better. 
• More Middle Earth history. I know a lot of people complained about how drawn out the exposition was, but I loved getting to see more, even if it did slow down the plot. 
• That tiny glimpse of Benedict Cumberbatch as the Necromancer. I know, it's so stereotypical, but after seeing him in BBC's Sherlock, mmmmm...can't decide who I like better, him or Tom Hiddleston. 

Things I didn't love, but also didn't mind: the new Azog storyline (I can see how it might be necessary in a movie adaptation), the video game quality of some of the CGI sequences (it was definitely there, but I didn't expect those battles to look perfectly realistic), and the crispness of the scenery (I'm just not a scenery person, so I don't feel the need to be transported per se). 

My TL:DR/no spoilers conclusion: An Unexpected Journey isn't as good as LOTR, but it's not The Phantom Menace and Tolkien fans will enjoy returning to Middle Earth as long as they remember that this movie is meant to have a different feel.

Lastly, I got tons of free goodies at the line party, thanks to TORn, the Chinese Theatre, and the 100.3 radio station, and I'd love to share the love with you guys! Don't worry, I've got my own set of these goodies; I'm giving away my husband's stuff since he didn't want his. I know there must be at least one of you out there geeky enough to want the following:

I'll mail you a mini-poster, kids' activity book, bookmark, promotional postcards, the Air New Zealand in-flight magazine with a special 25-page feature on the movie, a large t-shirt (hello, geeky t-shirt makeover!), and two sheets of  gift-wrapping paper featuring the 13 dwarves (one sheet to use for a geeky friend, one sheet to keep for yourself!).

Say so in a comment if you want to enter, and I'll pick a winner on Monday!