potato sack

Girl child was cast as a potato sack for this session's go around with her youth theatre. So far, my only costume assignment has been to a potato sack costume. We're both trying not to take it personally.

Obviously I left it until the last day before the deadline because I was thinking, phhhst, how hard could sewing a potato sack be?

Y'all know how this one works, right?

The sack design was all good.  Where it went sideways was, unsurprisingly, the cussin' technology.  Upper loopers make me want to put my head through the wall.

I use my serger maybe twice a year now and the general rule for sewing machines is that every week they aren't pressed into service, they require two minutes in general maintenance and tweaking to get them going again.  My hour of necessary pre-work went into threading and re-threading that upper looper.  It's a good thing that I spent an entire year working my way through every possible serger problem the first year I had my machine (including having the factory settings being completely off at first, an unsolvable issue that had me needing to re-hydrate from my lost tears nightly with a bottle of wine).  All those problems learning opportunities left me with nearly instinctual ability to re-thread the machine and, I don't mean to brag, but an almost superhuman ability to stay calm under extreme serger provocation.  My serger zen does me proud.  I list it on my CV.

Once the serger was finally subdued, the potato sack was a fairly fast job.  Of course.  Because it's a sack.

Girl child is a better person than I.  Though she was initially disappointed, she has since embraced the sack. She works it.  I'm pretty sure that I couldn't pull of potato sack as well.  Her potato sackish-ness does me proud.  Obviously she'll have to list potato sack on her CV.

Victorian tea party hat

Just in case you ever need an absurdly tall hat to wear to a Victorian demented mime tea party.

I made the animal head but I can see an upcycled version with a pre-existing stuffie.  Paint clings quite nicely to fabric and fake fur.  Use glue adhesive to secure to a painted cardboard base and decorate with frippery. Paste on a ribbon tie.

fox mask

Today I got to put a few final touches on this little paper mache fox mask I made.  I wanted shiny fixative and I think I've got it.  It was boy child's idea that we all dress up around the house to compliment our Into the Woods life-is-theatre theme.  This was my first attempt at an actual paper mache mask.  Fairly mixed results, I think.  The curled ear did not please me, but it is strong and lightweight.  Next time I will probably use a thicker cardboard base; this this one I only used cardstock.  I can't say much about my painting, but, hey, you win some, you lose some.  The important part is to not look back and move on to the next project.

Speaking of paper mache, it was very sad for me to learn that my local library could not actually bring in a copy of Jonni Good's How to Make Masks book.  Still, I'm so very grateful to Jonni Good for her excellent video tutorials and all the fantastic information she shares online.  Bless the sharers.  Seriously, free tutorials - people sharing information on making, using, hacking, eating, listening, inspiring - helps me feel optimistic about humanity.  Thank you Internet freebies for restoring my faith in people.

And now, I'm going to try out my new mask and maybe sample a cider.  Foxes, like rats, love fine alcoholic cider. 

today in the 'hood

cloak, pants, cat

Girl child has asked for a cloak just like Thorn has.  Thorn is apparently some sort of character from the Bone graphic novels.  I know nothing about this Thorn person other than she wears a green cloak and then a red one later on.  Or is it a red one and then a green one later?  And when you Google her, you will get some well rendered fan art of a woman in a green (or red) cloak intimately involved with some white blobby creature.  Bless fan art.  It's why I have to use the safe search option.

Anyway.  I've made up a tester cloak from some lightweight woven fabric that The Man's grandma gave me a little while back.  I've lined the hood with some dark blue poly-cotton blend of unknown origin to give it a bit of structure.  The result is a cloak that girl child has failed to take off in two days.  Even after the neighborhood kids made fun of it.  (I've taken note of which kids insulted my cloak, said it looked like a kindergartner's tie dye experiment gone wrong they did, and they will bereft of treats in my yard this summer.)

The cloak.  The edges are just serged.  Since it is a tester I didn't want to get too carried away.  Plus more effort I put into something, the less girl cihld seems to like it.

That is not an outdoor toilet in the background.  Just in case you were wondering about us in Canada.

It seems cloaks are terribly comfortable, casual summer wear.  Behold girl child hiding under the gazebo, reading Bone and eating macaroni and cheese. 

Which, having at least one distracted child, also explains how I've had time to even make boy child some super jump pants.

They are actually Thai fisherman style pants with an elasticized waist modification in the purple version of the cloak fabric, but in order to even get them on him I had to tell him that they'd make him jump higher on the trampoline.  I am not above such deception.  Boy child is not much of a poser so this is the only shot I have of them.

These Thai pants were a bit of an experiment, which I think turned out pretty well, considering I put in an elastic waist instead of the usual ties.  Boy child will have nothing to do with ties as of yet, but we do like the relaxed fit and geometric construction.  I'm going to make him another pair or two for the summer.  Perhaps I'll be able to get a better picture of the next one.  But I won't hold my breath.

Instead of more boy child pictures, I do have one that is evidence that he has been about.  I walked into the living room to find this little tableau on the couch.

That is a mammoth (fake) on a cat (living) on my book (Victorian tailoring) on a tee shirt (dirty) on a blanket (handmade) on the couch (from the dump).  I happen to know that the boy had left the room at least twenty minutes before I wandered in.  The cat is a saint.

jabots, corselets, bustle and the flu

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post about writing more on our homeschooling adventures. I think I shall share more about that as we go. On a side note, girl child, we've discovered, loves to make book recommendations so if anyone wants to know what my nine year old like to read, just ask.

But enough about that, I have some sewing to share!

This past weekend I had, ay, a costume assignment for Sweeney Todd and, bee, the flu. Oh, the flu was a wicked old thing. Both girl child and I were down for most of the time. I am only now starting to feel a bit better. When I wasn't laying in bed, weeping from the pain of my swollen glands (no, really, it was horrible), I lurched myself out to the kitchen table to sew. I would like to say it was a welcome distraction but, honestly, it was only my fear of disappointing people that forced me to finish the projects. I really couldn't let the kids go on stage without jabots, could I?

What, you now want to know, is a jabot? Unless you already know, in which case you are a clever one and can skip the rest of this informational text and go straight to the pictures. For the rest of us, a jabot, pronounced ja-bow (as near as I can make out), is that ruffly collar thingee that judges wear. They have been popular, in various forms, on and off throughout the last few centuries and even, perhaps, briefly for a time in the eighties with secretaries. For the costumes here, it serves as a period piece for the Victorian era setting.

It was exciting to design a jabot pattern because I got to do math for the curves (that was sarcasm, actually - my flu fevered brain short circuited once or twice).

Here is girl child wearing my tester jabot, now a part of her dress up wardrobe.  (See her smile through her fevered pain?  She's a trooper, she is.)

Worked fairly well, at least for the play's purposes.  (Don't talk to me about the direction of the stripes - it's a tester, ok?)

And the jabots for the play.  In case you are wondering, the serged edges are a part of the deconstructed look of the costumes. 

A larger jabot for another character.

I made a couple of corselets also. 

Both corselets are the same except one was about seven inches smaller than the other. I was given a pattern for the larger one but, to resize for the smaller, I wanted to make sure my pattern adjustments were going to work so I made a tester corselet for girl child.  I figured she could to add to her (extensive) dress up collection as well as the pink jabot.  But then I just went ahead and made the full bustle piece for girl child.  Out of brocade.  Because sewing for the theatre has made me lose almost all touch with reality.

I don't know why my nine year old would need a brocade bustle, but I think that it's cute as hell on her anyway. 

Even in the smaller size, I had to cinch in the waist even more to fit girl child.  I made a secondary tie in the back to take in the extra fabric.  With a bit of luck, this one should fit her for a few years.

Although, maybe not.  Look at how small her sequined princess dress is on her - I made that just last summer.  I feed them coffee and everything and they still keep growing!  

I would like to maybe make a dress that properly works with the bustle.  Something with big puffy sleeves, a high collar and lots of lace.  Girl child has been asking for a crinoline (that's normal, right?) so it may be a good excuse to get that particular accessory. 

This youth theatre production of Sweeney Todd is going to be amazing.  I can't wait to see it in a week and a half.  If you are in my area, you should definitely get some tickets.  Below is a picture of some linen that I have been told is a hundred years old.  Today I turned it into some barber shop props.  It gives you an idea of the sort of detail that is being taken care with for this production.   

I also have a story to share about how I fought my serger and won, but it'll have to wait until my heads clears a bit more and I finally shake off this flu.  Also, girl child has finally convinced me to cut into the red velvet we've been keeping for something special.  You will not be surprised at what she wants me to make.  Until next time, take your vitamins and make sure you wash your hands often!

strapless fairy wings: a tutorial of sorts

Perhaps this comes naturally to some people but I had to seriously think my way through making five sets of fairy wings for girl child's Grimm play. Actually, it was even worse; I needed The Man to help me figure out how to attach the darn things.

The problem was two fold. First there was the wings, which couldn't be any old wings, given that this is for the theatre and not Halloween dress up (the difference I'm still a bit hazy on but have been assured that they are not the same). The five fairy girls, who are to float around the fairy godmother, are all wearing identical, beautiful, dance dresses.

That is girl child in her costume, looking very much like a urchin who has just stepped out of a rain shower. Seeing her all week in full make up and hair and now in this picture looking like a damp dishrag is creating a little cognitive dissonance in me but since the girl wakes up looking like this in last night's hair:

I think we can all agree she could use some freshening.

And, here are the wings:

You can see by the style of dress that we could not use straps to secure the wings to the fairies.  In fact, given that the fairies do cartwheels, dance and even lay down, having secure, durable yet flexible wings were the only thing that would work for eleven shows.  Also, the wings had to be quickly removable during the second act when the fairies would have to be in close proximity with other cast members without taking out some one's eye.

First, was to make the wings.  These wings are a cut out of a non-fraying polyester weave, secured to wire only along the top edge.  The material has just a bit of weight and it holds the shape well while allowing floaty, ethereal movement.  They look incredibly twinkly under theatre lights.

The base of the wing, as you can see, is a coat hanger.  To make a fairy wing base,

Duct tape worked well to tape the sharp end of the the bent hook end of the hanger and add a bit of strength to that post, which is important for securing the wings into position. 

To attach the wing, cut your desired shape of wing out times two and then either sew down a fold on the top portion of the wing to create a tube to slip over the wire frame or use a glue gun to secure the material.  I did both.

For rigging the wings to the dresses, I used a double ring looped around the base of the straps in the back.  The straps are attached in the middle of the back.  If you have your own dress or top where straps are not attached in the middle, you can sew on your double ring or, even better, a D-ring in the center.  The post of the wings are inserted down through the ring between the dress and the back.  A tight dress is best.

The wings are prevented from twisting or shifting by a couple of small lanyard hooks that hook directly to the wire arms of the wings. 

And there you have it, fairy wings, attached without straps.  Times five.

Joan of Arc tunic

I am calling this girl child's Joan of Arc tunic, but girl child likes to refer to it as her princess warrior jacket.  Either way, the idea was for me to figure out how to do princess sleeves with godets (that's probably not the right term since godets are circular... somebody help me here) and give girl child a piece for her dress up collection.

Girl child has a long skirt that she pairs with this tunic in the same dark blue fabric and parades around as a princess.  When it comes time to fight - girl child believes, mainly due to modern literature, all princesses wield swords competently and fight ogres or march into battle whenever the occasion calls - the skirt is pulled off, leaving a short tunic with leggings.  The tunic has a jagged edge to suggest that the long skirt was cut away hastily to free the legs. Perfect for sword fighting.

I think I've done what I wanted to do with the sleeves and am ready to tackle the main costume piece I need to make for girl child's theatre group, the frog prince's jacket.  Unfortunately for girl child's tunic, I wasn't very careful drafting her bodice and I wish I had taken more time because the shoulders are too long.  Oh, well, all the better to swing the sword, I suppose.

In case you are wondering, girl child had rehearsals today and was wearing her fairy make up.  She has to do all her own make up.  One beautiful day, she'll also have to do her own hair. 

I have a couple of prom dresses hanging in my living room, a whole lot of satin material, and some great ideas for the ugly step sisters, also characters in the play.  I'll keep you updated as the costume sewing progresses.

Meowlody costume for party

I think I've seen a half dozen pictures on Facebook this year alone of people's children dressed up in Monster High costumes for birthday parties. 

Today was girl child's turn at her very good friend's ninth themed birthday party.  She decided she wanted to go as Meowlody, a werecat sister.  Whoever that is.  I admit a whole lot of ignorance when it comes this particular line of marketing.

After a bit of Googling, Girl child and I decided to collaborate on her party outfit.  The shirt and skirt were sort of whipped together by me during odd moments of the week from whatever fabric I happen to have laying around.  (Confession: I have an obscene amount of fabric just 'laying around'.) 

The shirt actually came together just a hour or so before the party.  Because we like to live dangerously.  I also did the ears this morning, though, I wish I had more time to do a better job.  Surely, I can do better work on the ears (although boy child has already broken the band on it so at least I won't have to see these ones anymore).

Girl child pulled the vest out her brother's drawer, found the leggings, attached earrings to the ears and stitched the ribbon onto her socks to serve as boots.  She also designed and put together the ball of yarn purse.  I think, other than the kid herself of course, that the purse is the cutest bit.

Without further ado, girl child, I mean, Meowlody, posing for the camera:

This kid of mine may be all tween and mature and whatnot, but she is so not done with dress up.  And that makes me happy.