Costuming for the New School Year

Nolan has a pretty main part in the fall play. Not too shabby for a freshman. We are, of course, very proud. I am, of course, very glad to be helping with costumes. Here's the start. Nolan is going to be dressing in a combination Dennis the Menace/Jug Head getup. The hat and slingshot need to be approved and may change before the end but I'm already having a blast!

 Wow. The last few weeks have been a blur. There is so much to say, so much to tell but I'll leave most of it for another post. I haven't been this exhausted for a long time. It's a good exhausted, from work that I love and gives me energy. I'm not exactly sure how something that gives me so much energy can make me so tired. I'm of course talking about helping to costume the 65 kids that are involved with Nolan in Beauty and the Beast. I have enjoyed it immensely but it has been non stop work. This is the first weekend of shows (so you'd think we'd be done costuming...but no). What a gift for our children. Nolan has made some new friends (as have I) and learned a little more about theater, working as a team, self sacrifice and many other traits that I'm too tired to think about.

These photos are of my sewing buddy. Last week I took home the Cogsworth costume to finish. I found Cloe in this position when I went into the sewing room to work on it. She is generally with me when I'm up there. Of course, she generally likes to sit on top of whatever fabric I'm using at the moment. But how can I be annoyed! It's nice to have a furry friend for company!

The Most Fun

 It's insane how much I love to help with costumes. Really I'm ripping almost more than sewing. Taking off trim, adding trim, ripping out sleeves and altering shoulders, waists and hems. I love it. I love seeing the actors transformed. I love being at the theater helping out. I love seeing the smiles on the children's faces when their costume goes from being a frumpy mess to fitting like a charm. I'll be disappointed when this is all over. It's a spectacular ride!

Costuming

I should be baking bread and cleaning and shopping for my little get together tonight. Instead I'm altering costumes. There's a lot to be done and I'd like to help as much as possible. We were at the theater for a LONG time last night trying to fit everyone. The budget is small so the theater is trying to use as many costumes that already exist as possible. That means lots of altering. I do have to get moving on my other chores but I think I'll do just one more costume. I think I'm addicted.

The Shop

My etsy shop that is. Mostly I'd like to make back the money I spent at Lancaster Creative Re-Use. No big deal if I don't. It's sort of a challenge to me. I sold things years ago on etsy when it wasn't such a huge site. After awhile I found that it would probably take a lot of work to get myself known and to get my product viewed so it could be bought. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to do it back then. 


Of course, I don't quite have the time now, but I have the inclination. So I'm spending a lot of my mornings and evenings on etsy, making treasury's and trying to figure out how to get my name out there. Of course, I need to be in the sewing room, too. Then there's Nolan's schooling. Fortunately, he is mostly independent on his school work. 


So here's a sample of my etsy shop. You can click here for the whole shop (which isn't too full). I'm still working out how to add my shop to my side bar. The world of social media has changed the way etsy (and everything else on the web) works so much that I'm having trouble finding the code I used in the past. Oh well. I guess I've got to learn something new.

Princess or Fairy cape. Fully lined with taffeta. Attached hood. closure is velcro on rickrack. 

Blue Knight. Hood "chain mail" is made of silver tulle. Tunic is some kind of poly/cotton light weight. Belt made of silver stretch. 

Here you can see the hood a little clearer.

Princess Belt

Here's the fancy belt for the princess. The belt is very sturdy. It has double thickness of interfacing.

Here's a closeup of the belt and button.

This is the back. The pattern called for velcro but I added grommets and satin cording. This way the belt will fit the wearer (or multiple wearers) for years.

The dress up basket. 

Lancaster Creative Re-use

I love a bargain. I also hate to waste things. So you can imagine my delight when a friend told me about the Lancaster Creative Re-Use store. Now, she told me they had used craft supplies that are donated and resold on the cheap. That was good. I sometimes need craft supplies, but not too often. Then I went to their web site and saw that they have....


F...A....B...R...I...C.


Ok, I'm hooked. 


Our youth leader at church recently put out the call for door prizes and baskets to be auctioned or for our basket bingo. These events will help fund our youth group on their trip to South Dakota. I thought I'd make a dress up basket and mozied on down to the Re-Use. Here's my haul.

And all for under $20. I've been slowly working away on the items for the basket. The difficulty lies in the fact that my darling husband has taken over my sewing room in order to paint our kitchen cabinet doors. So I've moved my sewing gear to the living room and the dinning room. I've come to appreciate those women who sew without a dedicated space. I've also come to appreciate my tiny sewing room. I love our small house and wouldn't trade it for the world but at times like these the house gets a *little* more cluttered than I like. I'll live.

Here are the photos of what I made yesterday. A princess hat just like I always wanted (but never had) when I was little. The bag is lined in satin and has a pretty print to show off. Notice the grommets. I'm getting good at attaching those things. I better watch my pride in my grommet attaching skills or the next time I go to grommet, it'll be a disaster.

Well, there will be more for your princess coming soon. If you are a St. Mary's family....be sure to watch for this basket of fun at one of the upcoming events. It could be yours!

Oscar Night Fun

The Oscar's are a week from tomorrow. Mike and I have only recently started going to see more movies. One time we even went to one movie while allowing the kids to see another movie. Wow. They are getting older! Mostly we watch our movies at home so we tend to be really behind the times when it comes to the Oscars.

Good friends from church have invited us again this year to their very fun and fabulous Oscar party. Everyone dresses up as a movie character. After perusing the movies of 2010, I took a trip to the local Goodwill to see what I could come up with. I had a hankering to make something not of this time period. I was able to find some great boots which sealed the deal to dress as Lucy from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was able to buy the aforementioned boots, a pair of greenish pants and a white top. 

You can see a little of the blouse in the above photo. I made the vest and the little pouch. The vest is in need of some gold accents if I want it to be a little more like the movie vest. I have to remember not to get too crazy about the details for this party but it is so much fun!

Above is a genuine leather skirt I found during my Goodwill run. I used it to make the little leather pouch. There was no way I was going to buy leather so I was pleased to find this much leather fabric for so little money. I've never sewn leather before and didn't know how well my machine needles would handle it. It actually went better than I expected. I only broke one needle. 

Now I just need to find a vial to fit into the pouch so I can heal any injuries during the party!

When I'm not painting....

This is the back of the dress.

I'm sewing. The homeschool music program is putting on Jane Eyre (yes, it's a musical. I didn't know either.). I offered to help make some costumes. I'm making the Lowood school dresses. Sixteen dresses. I have 13 finished and only 3 to go. It's been fun but I'm about ready to put away the drab grey! I also have this horrible problem when working on a project. I'm so excited about it at the beginning, start in like gang busters and then about 3/4 of the way to the end I can think of nothing but my next project. 

My next project has me fairly excited. We're going to an Oscar party at the end of the month and I need to finish my costume. Most of it came from a thrift store but there are a few parts that I need to (ok...want to) make. More on that in another post.

Here are a few dresses waiting to be delivered.