The Saga of Ruffles
Those who follow my Twitter may have seen me lamenting about ruffles over the past few weeks. Here is the Tale of Ruffles.
I decided to do the costume of one of the can-can girls from the "Lady Marmalade" scene in "Moulin Rouge!" I decided on Mome Fromage, because she's a big girl and one of the featured dancers in the scene. I feel for anybody who decides they want to costume one of the dancers who isn't featured in the scene, because the editing is such that it's pretty nigh impossible to see much of anything. (For instance, I'm also interested in the Pearly Queen, and the girl in the masculine gray costume, but I only barely just even saw her and I've watched this scene more times than I can count.)
Here is the scene. Mome Fromage is the lead dancer on the right- big girl, blonde hair, pink costume.
Although I wasn't able to find anyone on the web who's already done this costume, I did manage to find the description of it in the catalog of the museum that currently owns it. This has been amazingly helpful, except when it comes to the matter of the all-important cancan skirt ruffles. It's impossible to see much from watching the scene or from screencaps (THANK YOU lizzyhamham!!!) Here's what it says on the subject: "The skirt is lined with a very heavily flounced petticoat, made up of 14 flounces in turquoise and blue net and taffeta all embroidered with black and pink polka dots and edged with pink ribbon and black and pink scalloped edging braid."
I had trouble visualizing that, so I decided just to serge the edges of my ruffles with pink and black for now and hope for the best. Unfortunately (and here is the lesson here) I did not Do The Math to establish how wide I was going to have to cut the ruffles to make 14 rows, and I still couldn't really visualize how the trim should go. So I decided to wing it.
This was a mistake.
I ended up with about 60 yards of ruffles which are too narrow by half, and not anywhere near enough to cover the whole skirt (though probably I could have done 14 rows of them, the ruffles on the costume clearly overlap quite a bit). So I need to start that process all over again. Glad I used the cheap taffeta.
And only after I was halfway through doing all of that did I manage to come across this:
That would have been helpful to have found earlier.
So: no can-can @ Katsu. (Nuriko has arrived so I'll probably wear that instead, unless it's crazy cold or I don't feel like wearing a wig- my hair's super short now, so I don't know how well I'll do with a big updo- in which case I'll wear Debbie.) Can-can @ D*C though! With wider, decorated ruffles! Maybe 14 rows. I've never been that detail-oriented, so don't count 'em!
On the plus side, I have piled all the removed ruffles up on the papasan where they now make the Best Cat Bed Ever.
Likelihood of me finding black-dotted pink mesh to match the original is still pretty goshdarn low.
I decided to do the costume of one of the can-can girls from the "Lady Marmalade" scene in "Moulin Rouge!" I decided on Mome Fromage, because she's a big girl and one of the featured dancers in the scene. I feel for anybody who decides they want to costume one of the dancers who isn't featured in the scene, because the editing is such that it's pretty nigh impossible to see much of anything. (For instance, I'm also interested in the Pearly Queen, and the girl in the masculine gray costume, but I only barely just even saw her and I've watched this scene more times than I can count.)
Here is the scene. Mome Fromage is the lead dancer on the right- big girl, blonde hair, pink costume.
Click to viewAlthough I wasn't able to find anyone on the web who's already done this costume, I did manage to find the description of it in the catalog of the museum that currently owns it. This has been amazingly helpful, except when it comes to the matter of the all-important cancan skirt ruffles. It's impossible to see much from watching the scene or from screencaps (THANK YOU lizzyhamham!!!) Here's what it says on the subject: "The skirt is lined with a very heavily flounced petticoat, made up of 14 flounces in turquoise and blue net and taffeta all embroidered with black and pink polka dots and edged with pink ribbon and black and pink scalloped edging braid."
I had trouble visualizing that, so I decided just to serge the edges of my ruffles with pink and black for now and hope for the best. Unfortunately (and here is the lesson here) I did not Do The Math to establish how wide I was going to have to cut the ruffles to make 14 rows, and I still couldn't really visualize how the trim should go. So I decided to wing it.
This was a mistake.
I ended up with about 60 yards of ruffles which are too narrow by half, and not anywhere near enough to cover the whole skirt (though probably I could have done 14 rows of them, the ruffles on the costume clearly overlap quite a bit). So I need to start that process all over again. Glad I used the cheap taffeta.
And only after I was halfway through doing all of that did I manage to come across this:
That would have been helpful to have found earlier.
So: no can-can @ Katsu. (Nuriko has arrived so I'll probably wear that instead, unless it's crazy cold or I don't feel like wearing a wig- my hair's super short now, so I don't know how well I'll do with a big updo- in which case I'll wear Debbie.) Can-can @ D*C though! With wider, decorated ruffles! Maybe 14 rows. I've never been that detail-oriented, so don't count 'em!
On the plus side, I have piled all the removed ruffles up on the papasan where they now make the Best Cat Bed Ever.
Likelihood of me finding black-dotted pink mesh to match the original is still pretty goshdarn low.