this summer's costume project

Now that I've been playing with L200 foam (thanks again, Face Off) for Midsummer armour, I've decided that I want to try my hand at a larger project. I told Rob I would build him a full body suit of any character he chose this summer.  He thought about it for a day and a half and finally picked Gary Oldman's muscled armour from Dracula.  He went with Dracula over Bad Ash from Army of Darkness because it doesn't involve facial prosthetics.  So, I have to have a costume too.  I went with Lucy's nightgown when she's first seduced by Dracula.  I just can't do Mina Murray, she's too conservative for me: all long sleeved, high necked bodices, and besides, Winona Ryder was terrible in that film.  She and Keanu Reeves had no business being in that movie, or really any period costume drama, they just don't have the acting chops to pull it off.  Keanu should have stuck with projects like Bill and Ted and Winona should have stuck with Beetlejuice.  OK, I'm getting off my soapbox.  

I'm very excited about this project.  I'll have plenty of time over the summer with the kids off visiting their grandparents and neither of us doing summer school.   I've never done a full body armour before.  It's definitely going to require some research.  I imagine that the patterning will probably take a long time.  There are many pieces and they all have to fit together properly.  Then I'll have to figure out how they actually go on the body.   Rob keeps lobbying for a costume that's cool for the hot Texas weather, but then when I gave him absolute free reign, he picked this.  Oh well.  At least I'll be cool in my strapless chiffon nightgown.