My roommate wanted to be something super awesome for Halloween, so naturally we turned to the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. Since any Martin character costume is a little hard to find in stores these days, I agreed to be her commissioned seamstress. After some thought, she chose a super awesome Crannogmen warrioress by the name of Meera Reed.

From what we knew of Meera’s appearance from the book, I made some preliminary sketches. (I’d post them, but I couldn’t find them now lol.) After doing some web searching, we found that my sketches actually closely resembled the portrait done by respected Martin fan-art guy Amok:

...except mine was sexier. Duh. <--point of Halloween.

With that I set out to gather what I needed. I started by finding sewing patterns that closely resembled my sketches.

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The one on the left was for the "boiled leather" vest, and the one on the right for the (what I thought would be) simple "shift" underneath. I got a dark, dark green faux alligator-skin type fabric for the vest, and a brown faux suede with feather shaped fringe for the shift, thinking that, in the swampy area where Meera lives, these would be the kind of materials she’d use.

Then I set about making her weapons.

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For the "frog spear" Mel got a devil's pitchfork. We then wrapped the trident part with duct tape to make it like steel, and wrapped the handle with extra faux suede and leather string.

I didn’t get the pictures of this back, unfortunately, but there was an attempt at making a net. I bought a spider-web shaped decorative net, that we were going to attach ornamental weights to the edges of, in order to make Meera’s throwing net. It was bright white though, and thinking I was being really creative, I tried to dye it to make it look work using Coffee. It was a great idea, really, till we realized that the net wasn’t woven together, it was glued, and not waterproof. In the end, we had one long dingy string that smelled like Starbucks… so that got scrapped.

Meera needed something in the way of defense, so I threw together a pattern for forearm guards to match the vest.

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Then, no matter how hard Swine Flu tried to keep me in bed, it was time to SEW!

After I was finished with those parts, we got a pair of green leggings, I loaned her my woodsy brown strappy boots, and voila! Meera Reed!

Then commenced one of the nerdiest photoshoots EVER.

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I was behind the camera with instructions like “Ok, so Bran’s behind you, and you heard a noise, so you’re jumping in readiness to protect him!” “nice, nice” “OK, now, you’re looking off in the distance…wondering…” “GOOD!”

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All the while I’m taking like, a billion blurry pictures because the heavy duty meds I was on made my hands shake uncontrollably. (…or should I say… uncontrolably? badum-ching!)

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Luckily my backyard is literally a mini-forest. I’m sure all kinds of mystical creatures live there.

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As for me, even though I had used this costume before, I chose to go as the very empress of female badassery, the Lady Lara Croft. See, I never got any pictures of it before... plus I love it, so I figured what's to keep me from a reprise?

Of all the looks of Lara Croft, I figured I would go with this one from the movie...mostly because I had most of the pieces already. Not much time to sew anything more this year! My hair was a bit more Tomb Raider: Underworld though... I like Lara with bangs, though I was mad that they let go of the signature braid, so I kept that.

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The garage never stood a chance.

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I tried to imitate the movie poster pose a couple times… but couldn’t quite remember what it looked like.

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…eh, close.

Gotta get an action shot…lol
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Mission: Badassexy Halloween?

…accomplished.

BLOOPER REEL!

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Lara and her Desert Eagles are not threatened.

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Ghost Meera and ghost Lara!
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Meera + Lara= bffs!

All in all, we spent the afternoon playing like kids and it was kinda like old days. I've been missing simpler times, back when Halloween was an excuse to play really elaborate dress up. Well, looks like it's never too late.

Happy Halloween!

PS... Poa and Journey dressed up too. :D

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kefkalives

Australia1272 Posts

November 09 2009 08:07 GMT

Sexy costumes. looks like you guys had fun.

caldo149

United States469 Posts

November 09 2009 08:10 GMT

nice pics, looks like you had a good Halloween ^^
I met a Laura Croft where I was for Halloween too, and she even had a lil' backpack XD

Boblion

France8043 Posts

November 09 2009 08:11 GMT

On November 09 2009 17:07 kefkalives wrote:
Sexy costumes. looks like you guys had fun.

i loled a bit :D

uNcontroLable

United States1180 Posts

November 09 2009 08:13 GMT

On November 09 2009 17:10 caldo149 wrote:
nice pics, looks like you had a good Halloween ^^
I met a Laura Croft where I was for Halloween too, and she even had a lil' backpack XD

Yeah, if I ever did it again, my goal would be a fully authentic getup based on the games.

nttea

Sweden4353 Posts

November 09 2009 08:15 GMT

rofl, epic nerdery indeed. Still, can't help but appreciate it.

DoctorHelvetica

United States15034 Posts

November 09 2009 08:16 GMT

for halloween i was a nerd who visits tl

pretty good costume, yours is better i guess.

meeple

Canada10211 Posts

November 09 2009 08:21 GMT

Why didn't we ever start a Halloween costume contest? Awesome photoshoot, I'm jealous of both you're craft-making abilities and your kick-ass LOTR-looking backyard

Nytefish

United Kingdom4282 Posts

November 09 2009 08:32 GMT

On November 09 2009 17:11 Boblion wrote:

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i loled a bit :D

I always thought guys could apply to male or females. At least the canadian teacher we had used it that way.

Heyoka

Katowice25012 Posts

November 09 2009 08:40 GMT

#10

Dogs prefer to dress up as bees

ShoCkeyy

7815 Posts

November 09 2009 08:42 GMT

#11

Aww, the dog ending was the best

Djabanete

United States2786 Posts

November 09 2009 08:45 GMT

#12

Sheesh... I wore a towel. I'm getting lazier every year.

GunSlinger

614 Posts

November 09 2009 08:48 GMT

#13

At first I was impressed with how sexy those costumes were... but in all seriousness, you should pursue a career in that sort of thing (unless you already are, I have no idea). The craftsmanship on those things were pro!

kvilx

Poland198 Posts

November 09 2009 08:56 GMT

#14

Sexy girls in sexy costumes, 5/5.

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

November 09 2009 09:00 GMT

#15

On November 09 2009 17:16 DoctorHelvetica wrote:
for halloween i was a nerd who visits tl

pretty good costume, yours is better i guess.

just like every other day lolol

don't hurt me :C

EvilTeletubby

Baltimore, USA22247 Posts

November 09 2009 09:08 GMT

#16

You guys look very cute - Good job Anna! I'm adding seamstress to the list after baker, super model, and all-around nerd enthusiast. You really are too good for him you know.

The wifey didn't want to go out for Halloween this year, so instead, I surprised her with a show. I managed to keep it a surprise until we entered the damn building.

The surprise was Disney On Ice; she's a huge Disney fan so this won me a lot of brownie points. For even more brownie points, I took her to this place for dinner. Cashed in the brownie points that night of course.