Final Three Who Dresses

Okay, finishing up the little Who dresses for Seussical, which have been made using McCall's 6418.

The Eloise-style Who:

More fabric yoyo mania:

Thalia wanted one with a long droopy bow in front, so I switched up and made a Peter Pan collar:

(We may cut the ends shorter depending on the wearer's ability to stand on stage without messing with those long ribbons.)

The final three:

Previous dresses made from this pattern here.

Aaaaand, this part of the process is done!  Next up, make the hair clips for the 11 girls wearing the dresses (2 other moms made the other dresses).  The clips will have 3 yoyos of varying sizes, the same as on the center dress in the photo above.  Also, a couple more stacks of yoyos have been requested for older Who top hats.

More Who-wear

More iterations of McCall's 6418 for Seussical.

Here's the finished version of the one I was working on earlier this week:

It now has another row of ribbon on the bottom, a sash, and 2 of Annabeth's Who-buttons. This fabric has a lot of body, so it poofs out in a satisfying way.

And then one with softer, drapier fabric that just gets one Who-button:

Next we have our homage to the transformative power of fabric yo-yos, which really dressed this one up:

I took them partway around the back, but I decided the big sash will fill in the rest of the back.

I'd never made yo-yos before, and didn't realize that you're supposed to sew a hem on the inner edge.  After I realized my mistake I messed around with it both ways, and decided to go with the raw edge since I could get a consistently tighter yo-yo due to less fabric being pulled in.  I'm sure if I had time to develop my technique I could do the "real" way better, but the show is in about 3 weeks.

I love these on the sash -- I think it gives it a prom dress vibe.

Halfway done with the 8 I'm assigned to make!

I plan to send them to rehearsal today so we can see if the fit is anywhere in the ballpark of where it needs to be.

In the meantime, Thalia and Annabeth has decided they should've been Whos.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Two weeks ago we had a foot of snow, and now *BOOM* it's 80F and I'm trying to get all of the sweet gum balls out of the yard.  You know those big leaf bags? So far I've filled 8 or 9 of them, and the lawn is only half done.

When not out messing with those vile little fruits, I've been working on costumes for Seussical, specifically dresses for Whos.  I'm supposed to make 8 of the 12 dresses needed.

The original concept was to have these be yellow, but we're relying on donated fabric, so there is much orange in the mix.  The pattern is McCall's 6418.

This iteration features a fabric from Amy Butler.  Wow, I've never used this brand before -- it's really lovely to work with, and so very soft.

Version 2 leaves off a ruffle, and adds some yellow ribbon.  The sash will be bright yellow.

I thought some big yellow buttons would be a nice touch on this one, but have no budget for them.  But we DO have yellow Sculpey, so Annabeth used it to make a variety of buttons for me this afternoon.  Since it's for  Seuss it's appropriate that they be sort of organic in shape.  

Much more to come, obviously. 

Random Bits of Easter

We did the egg dying early in the week, which works out well in case something unexpected happens on the weekend; for example, if the rear passenger window of the car got stuck in the down position so the entire door needs to be taken apart and the mechanism repaired after a trip to Auto Zone on Saturday night right before Easter that would probably be really annoying, and it would be nice to already have the eggs done already as well as everything else ready to go early on Sunday, particularly if someone in the family need to be at church really, really early to warm up for singing.

Rat's eye view of the activity:

Note CheezIt box on the table.

Rat:

Some of Annabeth's creations, including a bacon egg in the foreground.  The Cat in the Hat egg is in the back.

One of Thalia's eggs featured a Les Miz theme.

On Easter Day we all donned our Easter finery:

and our Easter rat:

Rat group photo during the family photo shoot:

They love the boxes from those Dove mini ice cream bars.  It's a real sacrifice to keep eating all the little ice cream bars to keep the rats supplied with fresh boxes, but we're generous that way.

Cat that wandered through:

Easter Baskets, featuring flip flops, sunglasses, umbrellas, socks, duct tape, and various treats:

Then over to the relatives for the annual Easter luncheon and Peep cake: