What's next?
Now that the Ball is over, I can focus on other things like....
Tafe
We're gearing up for our next round of shows, so things are getting very crazy! Most of the class is working on Sweeny Todd, which looks to be freaking AWESOME! The costumes look amazing so far and on Friday I got to help with the breaking down of the 'beggar woman' dress. It was such a beautiful dress (gorgeous printed cotton) that it was really sad to be ripping into it with the grater, but it was also kinda fun! Though I felt sorry for the girl who made it! We used a grater on the hem to thoroughly shred it to pieces (she left it unhemmed) and sandpaper over the rest of the seams and the bodice. The designer was then going to take it down to scenic art and use some spray dyes to add dirt and age stains to it. YAY!
However, I'm not actually on the crew for Sweeny, I'm working on the dance show, which is called 'Uberbunk'. It's based on Andy Warhol and 'The Factory' and features some famous faces like Elvis, Edie Sedgwick and of course, Marilyn! Well, to be specific... THREE MARILYN's! Yup, THREE! Most of the stuff we've been making for the show is altering store bought clothes, but we've made the 3 iconic white Marilyn dresses from scratch. I made the 3 leotards which were used as a base (very simple halterneck leotard pattern), and then the 3 of us crewing the show each got one to take to the finished piece. We period pleated the fabric for the bodice (wet fabric, get two ppl to pleat it, twist it, nuke it for a min in microwave, then leave to dry over the weekend) and sent the skirts off to a professional to be sunray pleated. It all has to be hand tacked into place on a dummy, then stretched whilst sewn with a zigzag stretch stitch on the machine. The girls look absolutely amazing in them, and their dance number is fabulous! The dress I worked on is for the main Marilyn (she's Marilyn for the whole show), the other two are only worn during the Marilyn number. And here's a peak at my dress:
We put them on the male dance mannequin as his waist is much larger, so it made it easier to tack the skirt in place. I had to do some fixing of the bodice though, as the boobs were lopsided after we put in the padding! ooops! You can also see in the background, one of the other dresses in progress. It looks MUCH better on the dancer it's made for!
MelbGeddon
I only have one costume to make for Melbgeddon, as I spent way too much on my ballgown... ooops! But it's actually ok, because it means I will have to re-wear costumes :P At the moment I'm wearing my Classic Wonder Woman on the Sat, for which I'd like to finally make new bracers and I'll be buying a wig. Sunday I'm thinking of wearing my Sleeping Beauty costume, as I actually haven't worn her to a con yet and I really LOVE wearing her! I could wear Zatanna, but I wore her twice last year, so that's kind of boring, though I will have a new proper top-hat! I could also finally make my Rose Tyler costume, as that requires very little in the way of purchases and is very simple to make, but I'd have to find me a Doctor!
So the one new costume is for the 'Real Women of the DC Universe' group that we're doing. We'll be the first group to ever have ever single member, so it's pretty exciting! I am of course doing Wonder Woman and was absolutely Ecstatic when I discovered Adam Hughes had done a new artwork of her:
It shows so many more details of her costume, so yay! (I wish I'd known about this as I would have thrown money at ANYONE to get me a copy of this from SDCC.... *sigh*) I already have fabric in my stash for this: a microcrepe for the main dress and a double georgette for the back drapes. This is the main reason I want to make new bracers for my classic costume, as I'll be wearing them for this too. Well, that, and my old ones suck! I'm going to be making a special corset as a base for the dress, to give me the proper shape and support, so I'll have to get started working on that pretty soon. Once the corset base is done, I can drape the bodice and back drape, and then work out how flared I can make the skirt with what is left over (or actually, I might make the skirt first as I want a nice flared a-line, not the horribly unflattering straight thing in the picture). I also need to find a pair of appropriate shoes (I want gold heeled gladiators), appropriate jewellery, and work out the hair. If I decide to keep my hair black, I'll just need a hairpiece, but if I go a different colour, I'll need an entire wig. Hmmm... We'll see! I'm pretty excited about this now, especially with this new gorgeous artwork to work from! yay!
And erm... that's about it for the moment... I was going to write all bout my vintage inspiration but it was turning into such a long thing that I decided I'd leave it for a separate entry. YAY!
Tafe
We're gearing up for our next round of shows, so things are getting very crazy! Most of the class is working on Sweeny Todd, which looks to be freaking AWESOME! The costumes look amazing so far and on Friday I got to help with the breaking down of the 'beggar woman' dress. It was such a beautiful dress (gorgeous printed cotton) that it was really sad to be ripping into it with the grater, but it was also kinda fun! Though I felt sorry for the girl who made it! We used a grater on the hem to thoroughly shred it to pieces (she left it unhemmed) and sandpaper over the rest of the seams and the bodice. The designer was then going to take it down to scenic art and use some spray dyes to add dirt and age stains to it. YAY!
However, I'm not actually on the crew for Sweeny, I'm working on the dance show, which is called 'Uberbunk'. It's based on Andy Warhol and 'The Factory' and features some famous faces like Elvis, Edie Sedgwick and of course, Marilyn! Well, to be specific... THREE MARILYN's! Yup, THREE! Most of the stuff we've been making for the show is altering store bought clothes, but we've made the 3 iconic white Marilyn dresses from scratch. I made the 3 leotards which were used as a base (very simple halterneck leotard pattern), and then the 3 of us crewing the show each got one to take to the finished piece. We period pleated the fabric for the bodice (wet fabric, get two ppl to pleat it, twist it, nuke it for a min in microwave, then leave to dry over the weekend) and sent the skirts off to a professional to be sunray pleated. It all has to be hand tacked into place on a dummy, then stretched whilst sewn with a zigzag stretch stitch on the machine. The girls look absolutely amazing in them, and their dance number is fabulous! The dress I worked on is for the main Marilyn (she's Marilyn for the whole show), the other two are only worn during the Marilyn number. And here's a peak at my dress:
We put them on the male dance mannequin as his waist is much larger, so it made it easier to tack the skirt in place. I had to do some fixing of the bodice though, as the boobs were lopsided after we put in the padding! ooops! You can also see in the background, one of the other dresses in progress. It looks MUCH better on the dancer it's made for!
MelbGeddon
I only have one costume to make for Melbgeddon, as I spent way too much on my ballgown... ooops! But it's actually ok, because it means I will have to re-wear costumes :P At the moment I'm wearing my Classic Wonder Woman on the Sat, for which I'd like to finally make new bracers and I'll be buying a wig. Sunday I'm thinking of wearing my Sleeping Beauty costume, as I actually haven't worn her to a con yet and I really LOVE wearing her! I could wear Zatanna, but I wore her twice last year, so that's kind of boring, though I will have a new proper top-hat! I could also finally make my Rose Tyler costume, as that requires very little in the way of purchases and is very simple to make, but I'd have to find me a Doctor!
So the one new costume is for the 'Real Women of the DC Universe' group that we're doing. We'll be the first group to ever have ever single member, so it's pretty exciting! I am of course doing Wonder Woman and was absolutely Ecstatic when I discovered Adam Hughes had done a new artwork of her:
It shows so many more details of her costume, so yay! (I wish I'd known about this as I would have thrown money at ANYONE to get me a copy of this from SDCC.... *sigh*) I already have fabric in my stash for this: a microcrepe for the main dress and a double georgette for the back drapes. This is the main reason I want to make new bracers for my classic costume, as I'll be wearing them for this too. Well, that, and my old ones suck! I'm going to be making a special corset as a base for the dress, to give me the proper shape and support, so I'll have to get started working on that pretty soon. Once the corset base is done, I can drape the bodice and back drape, and then work out how flared I can make the skirt with what is left over (or actually, I might make the skirt first as I want a nice flared a-line, not the horribly unflattering straight thing in the picture). I also need to find a pair of appropriate shoes (I want gold heeled gladiators), appropriate jewellery, and work out the hair. If I decide to keep my hair black, I'll just need a hairpiece, but if I go a different colour, I'll need an entire wig. Hmmm... We'll see! I'm pretty excited about this now, especially with this new gorgeous artwork to work from! yay!
And erm... that's about it for the moment... I was going to write all bout my vintage inspiration but it was turning into such a long thing that I decided I'd leave it for a separate entry. YAY!