Whew...what a month
After a month of crazy amounts of sewing, I am taking the morning to just piddle around on the web and catch up on some TV. I just finished putting up the Opera production of Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor. We decided on a Elizabethan inspired design. The director wanted it to have a storybook/fairytale feel. So, I used Elizabethan silhouette with bright colors in non period fabrics. The budget was tight, but luckily I was able to borrow a good portion of the outfits for free. That helped a lot, but it also made it a little more difficult because I couldn't get exactly what I wanted color wise, so I had to make more pieces than I had originally planned. To make matters worse, my machine crapped out on me in the last couple weeks and had to go into the shop, which really slowed me down. So, I wasn't able to finish some of the outfits with all the trim and such that I had originally planned. But, I am overall very happy with it. There was only a couple of outfits that I felt didn't work so well with the feel of the show, but I was so happy with some of the others.
I ended up making quite a lot of pieces. I made 4 skirts: two knife pleated and two cartridge pleated, 4 corsets and 3 boned bodices, Pansied slops, doublet and jerkin, 3 simple jerkins, 3 shirts, a ladies doublet and a robe, 5 fairy dresses, 3 tabards with wings, 5 mens coifs and 5 women's coifs, a couple hats, a mask and some antlers. All in one month!
My absolute favorite outfits were for the two principal ladies and the romantic young male lead.
Yelena Dyacheck and Hannah Ludwig as Mrs Page and Mrs Ford. I made every piece that that they are wearing with the exception of the ruffs and the petticoats. The color combinations ended up working really well for the stage and really was a great look to open the show with. I made the green and blue doublet forever ago and it was what inspired the look for this scene. I have always loved middle class Elizabethan, so that is what I went with. The purple doublet was supposed to have tabs and shoulder rolls, but I ran out of time. Overall though, I am pretty pleased with how these turned out.
This is a picture from the Act 1 finale. You can get an idea of the intensity and amount of color that went into the design.
So that's done and I am already in tech for my next show. Luckily it is only a two person show, which all the pieces could be purchased. Such a different speed from this one!
I ended up making quite a lot of pieces. I made 4 skirts: two knife pleated and two cartridge pleated, 4 corsets and 3 boned bodices, Pansied slops, doublet and jerkin, 3 simple jerkins, 3 shirts, a ladies doublet and a robe, 5 fairy dresses, 3 tabards with wings, 5 mens coifs and 5 women's coifs, a couple hats, a mask and some antlers. All in one month!
My absolute favorite outfits were for the two principal ladies and the romantic young male lead.
Yelena Dyacheck and Hannah Ludwig as Mrs Page and Mrs Ford. I made every piece that that they are wearing with the exception of the ruffs and the petticoats. The color combinations ended up working really well for the stage and really was a great look to open the show with. I made the green and blue doublet forever ago and it was what inspired the look for this scene. I have always loved middle class Elizabethan, so that is what I went with. The purple doublet was supposed to have tabs and shoulder rolls, but I ran out of time. Overall though, I am pretty pleased with how these turned out.
This is a picture from the Act 1 finale. You can get an idea of the intensity and amount of color that went into the design.
So that's done and I am already in tech for my next show. Luckily it is only a two person show, which all the pieces could be purchased. Such a different speed from this one!