Costume Sewing -- Three Blind Mice

At the moment I'm helping with costumes for a show.  I'm rushing those right out the door onto the performers without pausing to take pictures.  I hope to get some snapshots during rehearsals because it's really handy to have a record of these things for those future days when I'm wondering how in the world I came up with something or what alterations I made.  Here's a look back at some costumes I made nearly two years ago and never chronicled here.

Shrek was presented in Spring 2013 by a youth community theater group.  Annabeth played one of the Three Blind Mice.  I helped with costumes in general; one of the tasks was putting together the total look for the Blind Mice.

We painted dowel rods for the canes, and glued pink and white sparkles on them ("we" meaning Annabeth).  Gloves were cheapies from a party supply store. Wigs were borrowed from another theater group we work with.  Ears purchased.  Each mouse had her own hot pink hair piece.

Tails were a basic fuzzy fabric tail.  Annabeth has spent many Halloweens dressed as a cat, so making tails is pretty much second nature.  

(And, by the way, Donkey's costume, which you can see in some of these shots, is absolutely fabulous. The person who made it does amazing work. On the other hand, Donkey neglected to stay hydrated and ended up fainting from the heat during one of the performances.)

Pattern used for the dresses was Simplicity 1609.  Fabric was a pink brocade from Fashion Fabric Club.  Delivery from Fashion Fabric Club was very quick, by the way, but they ARE right here in town.  The dresses were lined with a basic pink lining fabric from JoAnn; the pattern doesn't call for lining, but I didn't want the brocade to stick to their tights while they were moving.  I bagged the lining.  I also left off all of the interfacing since this wasn't a garment for long term everyday wear (although Annabeth wore hers several times after the show).

As usual, Annabeth was smaller than the smallest size of the pattern, so that took some alteration time.  Really, it was interesting to make the exact same pattern for three differently shaped girls. I made muslins for all three so I could get the fit right.  The theater groups we're involved in generally skip that step, but I think it saved me time in the long run since I didn't have to go back and try to correct fitting errors after the dresses were made. 

I would recommend the pattern to others, although I'd recommend making a muslin first to check the fit.