Cookie - DESTROYER OF WORLDS

Now that we've been living with Cookie longer, the statistically less likely and less desirable things have happened on the carpet, which makes her more a member of the family.

I forget, though, that the behavior she bestows on people who are previously introduced is different than the way she treats every other living thing. Trees she tolerates as part of the landscape. Grass she nips at, but with a lazy futility, it being alternately too broad and too crispy for her to decimate. Things larger than her (like people or cats) she will bark at.

It is those things smaller, no matter how much, that are in true danger.

She snaps at flies. She storms after birds. Squirrels don't dare stir when she's about. And if any of these things are just a little bit slow, she'll maim and kill.

A far more fearsome opponent than either a spider or a cat for an Incredibly Shrinking Person would be Cookie. Relentless in the extreme, the only hope would be to climb higher than three feet up.

Sewing

Well, I've been sewing. It's been a constant learning experience (perhaps that's redundant).

It started sometime this spring when Becky and Leslie proposed going to Dragon*Con, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. I was up for it. They were planning on making costumes (Leslie will be an Autumn Fairy, very suiting for her), and there's been this one juggling through my mind for a while from a video game.

Dyne. He's an adventurer winging it as he goes along, until he meets up with three others and becomes a Dragonmaster to save the world from the Vile Tribe, a group of monsters in the Frontier who want their long banishment to end. Afterward he disappears, relinquishing his power so that the Goddess Althena can take human form and grow up amongst people. He then keeps an eye on them between adventures, and that's about where the game starts.

So what does he look like?

A small likeness.

And what does the costume look like?

(He's not a major character actually, hence why both images are disparate; there aren't many more than this.)

So far I've done the belt, the yellow/red sleeves, half the bandolier, the cloak, and the red trim on the shirt. Any ideas on where to get a beret? (I'm thinking military surplus.) Otherwise, I'm trying to figure out how to do the knee-high cuffs and the blue on the shirt. As for a sword... I'm not sure what I'll do. Any ideas there? I could just cut some wood to the shape of a scabbard, cover with cloth, and fenangle a hilt? I'm also not sure how it's secured to the the rest of the body. Artists don't have to think about that. ;)

But sewing's fun. Tough, especially when you make stupid mistakes or can't figure something out. (An example: I'd been trying to figure out why I'd sometimes get seams coming apart immediately the first few days. Then mom told me to adjust the tension and everything was well again.) I'm not near Leslie's skill level, as she's been making pants and such all summer, and is making an entire dress, where I'm adding on to a shirt I already have, which has gone from Zorro to Dread Pirate Roberts to this. But I can generally go in a pretty straight line. And I'm able to hide some of the seams. (I'm especially proud of the sleeves, where they're hidden entirely; much better than the red trim, where there's a erratic dancing red line all around.) One person in particular I knew had exorbitant standards for this sort of thing (think Project Runway), but as long as the costume doesn't fall apart while wearing it, it'll be worth it.