ZinePak edition of HTTYD2's Soundtrack

I'll just say upfront, I'm not a music person.  That is, I've never really been musically inclined, though I think I do sing on key. ;-)   However, I do love listening to music and some of my favorites since in high school are soundtracks and film scores.  Needless to say, don't expect any music theory or correct usage of musical terms here.  =)

From Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, to The Chronicles of Narnia films ... I love it when a composer "reuses" or "reinterprets" memorable motifs and themes.  To me, it's like saying "hello" or "welcome back" to an old friend.  John Powell does something similar here with How to Train Your Dragon 2, but as with Howard Shore or John Williams, he also adds new pieces and themes that work wonderfully in the Viking world of Berk and beyond.  He doesn't just rehash.  But don't take my word for it, you can listen to it on SoundCloud, where the official publisher (Relativity Music Group) currently has the entire HTTYD2 film score streaming for free online.

Astrid, Toothless, Hiccup, and Snotlout sport new looks between the movies.

Shirt:
 Astrid wears a sleeveless red top.  It's a muted, kind of rust red and there's a similar texture to the fabric as her shirt from the first movie.  It's probably meant to simulate knitting or maybe nalbinding (a more ancient craft).  There is variety to the stitch size and sections of the fabric seem to shift their rust red tones subtly.  Her top has a jewel neckline, with a small slit in the center (probably for ease when dressing). 

  

Back of caplet with hood and hair detail

Caplet: 
Over this, she wears a new, short dark brown fur caplet.  It's fastened with four leather strips connected to a silver-gray ring (see above image).  The hem of the caplet looks like it's curved like the bottom half of a circle.  From certain images, it looks like the inside of her cape isn't fuzzy fur (see arm warmer reference image below).  It looks lined with a suede or perhaps the backing of the pelt she used, so it's smoother.  It could be fur in the lining, but I decided to make it suede for my costume --I'll find out for certain once the blu-Ray is released.

Hood detail, different angles.  Also can see the shape and length of the caplet.

Hood:

Arm warmer and caplet lining detail

Arm Warmers:
Her arm warmers are probably completely lined with the off-white fur that forms the cuffs, which would explain the bulk.  They completely cover the palm of her hand and run just to her elbow.  There are no individual finger slots, except for her thumbs.  Each arm warmer is likely patterned out of two pieces, since there is a seam on each side.  The seam is top-stitched on both sides of the seam with brown thread.  Brown leather lacing or cord binds the arm warmers in a particular pattern (as seen from the reference images).  The same type of leather lacing also binds her upper arms in the bicep area.
Her skirt is made of two layers.  The first layer is a tan colored fur.  The nap of the fur is short and probably close to the length of the nap on the dark brown fur of her caplet.  If you look at the full body image, the skirt sits on her natural waistline (around her bellybutton) and the hem ends at about her fingertips. 
The over-skirt is made of brown leather panels, which have rounded ends and narrow a bit to the waist.  If you look closely, it seems like the panels are held at about the "beak" section of the skulls which seem to attach the panels to the narrow brown leather waistband of her skirt.  In the movie, we see that the panels are completely sewn to the fur skirt, so they don't dangle from the waist, but I wouldn't suggest that for real-world practicality.  If you don't want to remain standing the entire time you cosplay Astrid, attach the panels only at the waist, so you can flip the spiked skirt panels out of way when you sit down!

Pouch detail

The skulls are similarly shaped, but have small organic differences.  They are about two times larger than the skulls on her caplet. There seems to be about 10-12 panels, with a skull attached on top of each, minus one on her right hand side, where it is replaced with an oval-shaped leather pouch.  It might be stretched or formed leather, since it looks quite structured.  There is a darker brown strip that seems to serve as the fastener to the pouch.  There are also four silver-gray spikes on each panel.  The two closest to the waistband the skirt are slightly smaller than the spikes near the wider bottoms of the panels.  There's a narrow "collar" or rim of sorts at the base of each spike (see skirt image), which probably have something to do with how the spikes are attached to the skirt.

Knee pad and pouch detail

Leggings and Knee Pads:
Her leggings are a dark indigo blue and they fold and crease around her legs above the knees a bit. 
Over her leggings she wears two brown leather knee pads.  There are no straps crossing the back of her knees, so they might be sewn to the leggings.  However, there are short little tabs or something on four sides of each knee pad ... I'm guessing that's the actual way they're rigged.  There are also two curved lines on each knee pad which are probably sewing or structural lines.

Boot detail, note bands on toe

Boots:
 Her boots are brown leather or suede.  They are flat, with no heel and the shaft of the boot is covered in fur.  Tan colored fur with a wide off-white fur cuff.  There are brown leather cord stitching and criss-cross designs on the front of the tan fur and there are three leather strips crossing at the toe of each boot.

Hair detail, click to enlarge

Hair (and Makeup?):
Finally, her hair.  Astrid's golden blonde hair is put in a much more elaborate style.  Her fringe (that is, her bangs) are shorter than in HTTYD and is swept to her left.  She also has some longer pieces framing her face on the sides.  On her right side, it seems those strands end just above her shoulder or barely brush them.  Her hair is parted at the top of her head, where a narrow knotty braid (perhaps a dis-proportioned three strand braid with one very narrow section) frames her face like a headband that joins into a side braid on the left side of her head.  It looks like either a knot braid, round braid or three strand braid, wrapped with a section of hair.  This main braid is tied off with brown leather cord.  She wears a leather headband (I believe it's called a kransen), a bit lighter brown than the rest of the leather in her outfit.  It goes under her bangs and the narrow braid, but over the rest of her hair.

I'm not sure what type of makeup Vikings may have had, but Astrid's eyelashes look like she used a bit of mascara!

My version of Astrid Hofferson --how'd I do?

A few more notes on proportions and colors:

- The width of the leather strips fastening her caplet seems to be the same width as the three strips covering the toe of each boot.

- Her caplet's hem ends just above or at her waist, above her skirt's waistband.

- The brown leather of knee pads and her over-skirt's panels look the same.

- All the silver-gray metal on her outfit is "worn" or "aged" ... not quite a gunmetal look, but almost.

- The fur used for the main part of her boot covers looks to be the same or a similar color to the fur used for her skirt.

- The fur used for her hood lining, cuffs on her arm warmers, and the cuffs on her boots are the same or similar.
- The tan suede-like material for her hood and her arm warmers look the same. 
- The brown leather cord on her arm warmers and tied on her upper arms are the same.

Stay tuned for more --I'll be posting on how I created my costume soon!  Be sure to link and comment if you use my research guide for your Astrid costume --I'd love to see it!

[Edit: updated labels Jan. 4, 2015]

The sheep is about 3"-4" and fits in my hand pretty well ...

Duck and Hide! (c.) Dreamworks Animation