1862 lace headdress from Godey's Lady's Book
Sometimes, you have a very straightforward project that requires almost no troubleshooting to figure out.
For the current show in production, our costume designer provided me with a piece of research for a headdress from an 1862 edition of Godey's Lady's Book which had a set of instructions attached! All i really had to do was adjust the dimensions of the wire circlet a bit larger to accommodate a wig, and voila! Check it out:
Research with instructions provided by the designer.
She wanted ours made with a beautiful cream antique lace.
Antique lace fan motifs pinned into place on wire-frame base.
The same motifs were stitched into medallion and lappet shapes on a net base.
Detail shot of same. You can see a bit of the horsehair we added for support as well.
Done and done! Cute!
(Ours has less "frou" at center back than the one in Godey's.)
Of course, this character's hairstyle has since completely changed, negating the need for this headdress, so you won't see it onstage in the show. I tell my students, you cannot connect your estimation of the success of your work on the amount of stage time it receives. In this business, it's a crapshoot whether anything you do even makes it onstage by opening night. You have to love the doing of it, period. And, i loved the opportunity to make this super-cute 1862 lace headdress, and to share it with you!
For the current show in production, our costume designer provided me with a piece of research for a headdress from an 1862 edition of Godey's Lady's Book which had a set of instructions attached! All i really had to do was adjust the dimensions of the wire circlet a bit larger to accommodate a wig, and voila! Check it out:
Research with instructions provided by the designer.
She wanted ours made with a beautiful cream antique lace.
Antique lace fan motifs pinned into place on wire-frame base.
The same motifs were stitched into medallion and lappet shapes on a net base.
Detail shot of same. You can see a bit of the horsehair we added for support as well.
Done and done! Cute!
(Ours has less "frou" at center back than the one in Godey's.)
Of course, this character's hairstyle has since completely changed, negating the need for this headdress, so you won't see it onstage in the show. I tell my students, you cannot connect your estimation of the success of your work on the amount of stage time it receives. In this business, it's a crapshoot whether anything you do even makes it onstage by opening night. You have to love the doing of it, period. And, i loved the opportunity to make this super-cute 1862 lace headdress, and to share it with you!