When the girls shouted:
"Let's hear it for the costume ladies!"
I think I almost cried a little bit. I love my [volunteer] job!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
And so...
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Yo-ho! Yo-ho! A Pirate's Life for Me!
Not Pirates of Penzance but piratey enough, yes?
Anyway, things are going fabulously, more or less, which means I'm going batty in direct proportion, more or less. Many, many long rehearsals (just had another full day Sunday rehearsal today, fun!) and a few yet to come before the shows start happening. Scary and exciting.
As soon as I got home from the school I had to start right to work on the Major General's hat, which I was going to make, and then rent, but am now making again.
It's working fairly well for someone who thought she was the worst at making hats. Amazing what you learn about yourself when under pressure! I'll have to finish it tomorrow, but definitely pictures to come.
Anyway, things are going fabulously, more or less, which means I'm going batty in direct proportion, more or less. Many, many long rehearsals (just had another full day Sunday rehearsal today, fun!) and a few yet to come before the shows start happening. Scary and exciting.
As soon as I got home from the school I had to start right to work on the Major General's hat, which I was going to make, and then rent, but am now making again.
It's working fairly well for someone who thought she was the worst at making hats. Amazing what you learn about yourself when under pressure! I'll have to finish it tomorrow, but definitely pictures to come.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Pirate Progress
Today I'm going to try my best to get all outstanding work that needs to be done for Pirates of Penzance out of the way. This includes fixing the Major-General coat, making more night caps for the daughters and finally finishing the Pirate King hat version 2-point-0. Heh.
So far I have two cap pinned and ready to be sewn, so around 50% complete. And I have cut open the undersides of the sleeves on the major coat, ready for the gussets to be sewn in once I cut them out.
So far I have two cap pinned and ready to be sewn, so around 50% complete. And I have cut open the undersides of the sleeves on the major coat, ready for the gussets to be sewn in once I cut them out.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Success!
Finished everything in time for the ball and had a blast! More details to come once I've recovered, heh.
Also, after a very long day of costuming PoP is coming along nicely... still quite a few pirates to finish getting costumed, a coat to alter, and a couple hats to throw together, but it's definitely all coming together. Very exciting! And probably more details to come on that one too in the near future.
Also, after a very long day of costuming PoP is coming along nicely... still quite a few pirates to finish getting costumed, a coat to alter, and a couple hats to throw together, but it's definitely all coming together. Very exciting! And probably more details to come on that one too in the near future.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
... Too Tired to be Creative
Crazy day. Spent five hours at the school sorting and assigning costumes to the kids in the show. Only got through about 10. Which means there's around another 50 to go for the rehearsal I'm attending on Sunday. I'm scared.
Managed to get some work done on the dress today, although progess was limited by the time spend at the school. I made and attached the back bow to the dress. The tails were a little bit of a challenge, though after some thought I was able to work it out. I just have a few more little stitches to make to hold it in place where I want it on the dress. I also secured the gathers in the back. I managed to get some work on the cascade ruffle, but it's not going as well as I'd like. Due to obvious time constraints I'm going to have to hold off on this until after Saturday. So much the better, probably.
Anyway, that means my to-do list for tomorrow is a little bit shorter:
Managed to get some work done on the dress today, although progess was limited by the time spend at the school. I made and attached the back bow to the dress. The tails were a little bit of a challenge, though after some thought I was able to work it out. I just have a few more little stitches to make to hold it in place where I want it on the dress. I also secured the gathers in the back. I managed to get some work on the cascade ruffle, but it's not going as well as I'd like. Due to obvious time constraints I'm going to have to hold off on this until after Saturday. So much the better, probably.
Anyway, that means my to-do list for tomorrow is a little bit shorter:
- 1) Attach the two rows of ruffles to the underskirt
2) Add the closure to the waistband
3) Secure the gathers in the front of the dress
4) Make those small back bow stitches
5) Sew a small gap near the zipper
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Ruffles, Bows and Flowers... Oh my!
I did my best to get an early start today. Despite this, I still feel like I didn't do as much as I should have... that being said, the day is not yet over.
First off, pressed my striped shirt. Opened up my bow tutorial on deviantArt (yeah, I haven't made a bow in awhile) and reviewed. Whipped that baby up fairly quickly, although I stupidly punched a hole in one of the corners, so fixing that slowed my momentum a little. Once the bow was all finished I handsewed the collar ruffle to the dress. This is what took up most of my time today. It was a pretty painful process. I had to keep it on the dressform while I was sewing it, so I did the whole job while standing. I had to use a stool to sew the back because I'm short, I guess. Afterwards I sewed the bow on to the dress and that looked pretty snazzy.
I was really at a loss as to how to add a flowers to the front of the bow. Then it came to me that I should do it like my Sailor Jupiter bows and make it detachable! So, there is a pin glued to a piece of felt on the back on the bow holding it in place. While attaching my little pin device my flower fell apart in my hands. This turned out to be blessing in disguise. When I went to reassemble it I actually decided to disassemble a second flower and use those petals in my flower too. So my front flower is actually two flowers in one! It looks so much better than it would have too! I'm so happy about that.
Afterwards I started experimenting with pinning up the front of the dress. I'm starting to realize it's a little bit too long. Unfortunately I cannot change this now. So it will have to suffice. It still looks fabulous, you just can't see the black ribbon/top of the ruffle on the underskirt on certain areas, notably the front centre. I will get over it.
I'm hoping to still make some more ruffles for the back of the underskirt tonight. Although I won't be able to finish them completely, because I am still out of black ribbon. I'm going to be picking that up tomorrow however, so it's all good.
Countdown to the Ball: 3 days.
ETA: Decided to call it a day at 10:30. I managed to whip out nine meters of my white broadcloth to make the last two underskirt ruffles. Also decided to try using a loose machine stitch to do the gathering. Not such a great idea. Might be an okay idea for one meter. Nine? not so much. Nevertheless I managed to wrestle out two seperate ruffles, each about 1/3 the circumfrance of the underskirt. I'm not going to do the ruffles all the way around for Saturday, perhaps for Anime North I will continue them, we'll see. Tomorrow once I get the black ribbon I will sew those rufflies on and the underskirt will be officially done. And it only, hmm, nine months? Whoo!
First off, pressed my striped shirt. Opened up my bow tutorial on deviantArt (yeah, I haven't made a bow in awhile) and reviewed. Whipped that baby up fairly quickly, although I stupidly punched a hole in one of the corners, so fixing that slowed my momentum a little. Once the bow was all finished I handsewed the collar ruffle to the dress. This is what took up most of my time today. It was a pretty painful process. I had to keep it on the dressform while I was sewing it, so I did the whole job while standing. I had to use a stool to sew the back because I'm short, I guess. Afterwards I sewed the bow on to the dress and that looked pretty snazzy.
I was really at a loss as to how to add a flowers to the front of the bow. Then it came to me that I should do it like my Sailor Jupiter bows and make it detachable! So, there is a pin glued to a piece of felt on the back on the bow holding it in place. While attaching my little pin device my flower fell apart in my hands. This turned out to be blessing in disguise. When I went to reassemble it I actually decided to disassemble a second flower and use those petals in my flower too. So my front flower is actually two flowers in one! It looks so much better than it would have too! I'm so happy about that.
Afterwards I started experimenting with pinning up the front of the dress. I'm starting to realize it's a little bit too long. Unfortunately I cannot change this now. So it will have to suffice. It still looks fabulous, you just can't see the black ribbon/top of the ruffle on the underskirt on certain areas, notably the front centre. I will get over it.
I'm hoping to still make some more ruffles for the back of the underskirt tonight. Although I won't be able to finish them completely, because I am still out of black ribbon. I'm going to be picking that up tomorrow however, so it's all good.
Countdown to the Ball: 3 days.
ETA: Decided to call it a day at 10:30. I managed to whip out nine meters of my white broadcloth to make the last two underskirt ruffles. Also decided to try using a loose machine stitch to do the gathering. Not such a great idea. Might be an okay idea for one meter. Nine? not so much. Nevertheless I managed to wrestle out two seperate ruffles, each about 1/3 the circumfrance of the underskirt. I'm not going to do the ruffles all the way around for Saturday, perhaps for Anime North I will continue them, we'll see. Tomorrow once I get the black ribbon I will sew those rufflies on and the underskirt will be officially done. And it only, hmm, nine months? Whoo!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Bertha Baby
I could easily call every entry about ballgown process from here on out "Ruffly Ruffly Time", but perhaps that is a tad too uncreative.
As I expected, on the weekend I spent several hours ironing out fabric. Torturous. Anyway, yesterday and today I put in a lot of work on the bertha - or neckline ruffles. As I believe I mentioned previously, it's made out of white silk taffeta. I made the ruffle 4 inches wide (not including seam allowances). For a little extra touch - which turned out to actually be an extra little nuisance - I decorated the edges of the ruffle with some decorative machine stitches: a little vine with leaves. I think it's cute and another little touch no one will ever see but turned out to be quite difficult. I still need to add the black ribbon to one section of the ruffle and then secure it all to the dress. But I think it's looking really good. Thank goodness, heh.
The front bow is black and white striped fabric. So, I've been hunting for this black and white striped fabric forever. I've never seen any. Well, I lie. I've seen thick black and white striped Halloween satin in the past, but what that stuff would be good for I have yet to find out, nor do I intend to. Now that time is running out, I was left with two options find another alternative or make the stiped fabric by hand. Well, option two may yet come to pass, but for now I've picked up a black and white striped blouse from Value Village that will soon become my front bow. It's kind of depressing to have to use someone's second hand rayon shirt on top of my beautiful silk, but times are desperate. I've prewashed it today, and hopefully it will be dry, pressed and bow-ified by tomorrow evening.
Countdown to the Ball: 4 Days
I also have to start the countdown to Pirates of Penzance which takes place the last couple days of April. I still have quite a bit to do, but at least in the last couple weeks we've been able to borrow a lot of costumes, so the list is getting shorter every day! Exciting. There's going to be a Sunday rehearsal this weekend, which would be very good for me to attend. Of course, it's the day after the ball. Hopefully all this costuming doesn't drive me crazy, because the countdown to Anime North begins as soon as PoP ends. Eep!
Countdown to PoP: 15 Days
As I expected, on the weekend I spent several hours ironing out fabric. Torturous. Anyway, yesterday and today I put in a lot of work on the bertha - or neckline ruffles. As I believe I mentioned previously, it's made out of white silk taffeta. I made the ruffle 4 inches wide (not including seam allowances). For a little extra touch - which turned out to actually be an extra little nuisance - I decorated the edges of the ruffle with some decorative machine stitches: a little vine with leaves. I think it's cute and another little touch no one will ever see but turned out to be quite difficult. I still need to add the black ribbon to one section of the ruffle and then secure it all to the dress. But I think it's looking really good. Thank goodness, heh.
The front bow is black and white striped fabric. So, I've been hunting for this black and white striped fabric forever. I've never seen any. Well, I lie. I've seen thick black and white striped Halloween satin in the past, but what that stuff would be good for I have yet to find out, nor do I intend to. Now that time is running out, I was left with two options find another alternative or make the stiped fabric by hand. Well, option two may yet come to pass, but for now I've picked up a black and white striped blouse from Value Village that will soon become my front bow. It's kind of depressing to have to use someone's second hand rayon shirt on top of my beautiful silk, but times are desperate. I've prewashed it today, and hopefully it will be dry, pressed and bow-ified by tomorrow evening.
Countdown to the Ball: 4 Days
I also have to start the countdown to Pirates of Penzance which takes place the last couple days of April. I still have quite a bit to do, but at least in the last couple weeks we've been able to borrow a lot of costumes, so the list is getting shorter every day! Exciting. There's going to be a Sunday rehearsal this weekend, which would be very good for me to attend. Of course, it's the day after the ball. Hopefully all this costuming doesn't drive me crazy, because the countdown to Anime North begins as soon as PoP ends. Eep!
Countdown to PoP: 15 Days
Friday, April 9, 2010
Pin Free Zone
Today I finished off the armscyes of the ballgown. There are officially no pins left holding my dress together! It's wearable.... but not wearable enough for my ball just quite yet. I've pressed all the ugly handsewn seams down too.
I also prewashed my white fabric for the bertha, which must now hang dry, and then probably be very meticulously ironed out before being bertha-ized.
I also prewashed my white fabric for the bertha, which must now hang dry, and then probably be very meticulously ironed out before being bertha-ized.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Redhead Ahead
My Mitsuru wig arrived this morning! It looks very awesome... but I'm reaaally going to have to do something about my eyebrows when I wear this wig. Seriously.
More pictures and information to come.
More pictures and information to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
