Work in Progress Wednesday

Continuing work on Seussical.

A giant hat.

This year's version of Ruby Red Slippers.

More yoyos.  These are becoming hair clips for little Who girls.

Buttons for the Cat's vest.  McCall's 6143, fabric is from Robert Kaufmann's Seuss collection.

Starting to put it all together on stage this week.  You can see a couple of Who girls on the left of this photo.

Aaaaand, one more dress rehearsal, then the show opens!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Last week was spend ripping up  the bodice I made for Thalia to wear in Scarlet Pimpernel and revamping it -- better bows, better fit for the second weekend of performances.

 Too bad I didn't get many pictures of the production, in spite of spending hours at the theater -- most of  the time I was back stage helping repair zippers.   A while back I read somewhere that zippers aren't a good idea for theater costumes, and I really saw why during this -- we had a constant stream of broken or ripped out zippers.  

The final performance was cancelled because this happened on Sunday:

But it still felt like spring inside because I got started on Annabeth's Easter dress, which is Burda 9697 in some Lisette fabric from JoAnn.

Work in Progress Wednesday

McCall's 6141

This is one of Marguerite's dresses in Scarlet Pimpernel.  Although the pattern is supposed to be Renaissance, it gets used for Regency.    It still needs trim, which hasn't been purchased yet, mostly because no one's found anything that matches and looks appropriate.

For ease of quick changing between scenes we ditched the back laces called for in the pattern, and used velcro in back.

I semi-lined the bodice.  The pattern has a bagged bodice lining, but that would make alterations crazy. I sort of used the lining pieces as giant facing pieces -- I sewed them to the neck and back, then flipped them to the inside and serged them to the edges of the bodice pieces.  I then made darts and sewed seams with the 2 pieces (lining plus fashion fabric) held together.

I had to lengthen the lower sleeve.  I also took out some of the bust curve.

The solid blue is a stretch satin.  It wrinkles easily.  The brocade is surprisingly lightweight.  The fabrics are from Hancock.

The whole thing has sort of a dumpy nightgown vibe.  It looks okay when the actress puts it on, though.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I keep thinking that I'm going to start blogging on a more regular basis, but then I get caught up in the transient pleasures of having clean dishes or clean laundry or a balanced checkbook or all the math homework graded.  Silly me.

Most of my free time -- also known as "time I'm sitting around waiting for someone who is currently in a class to which I drove them" has been spent crocheting:

Yes, the world competition of Irish Dance is in Boston this year, and our former school would like to send lots of teams, which means they're making new ceili team dresses, which means they need 16 new collars.  They're using the same pattern as they used for the choreography team a couple of years ago.

I've posted the pattern online on Ravelry for all the world to see and use, but they called me to make them.  We didn't discuss price beyond "we'll pay you for this."  Last time I donated my time and materials; I'm not planning to do so this time, but I'm pondering what to set as a fair price.

I've also been amassing fabric.  Annabeth is playing the Cat in Seussical later this spring, and we thought it would be fun to make a skirt from this fabric.  The blue will be the main fabric, and the white-on-red will be insets.  We found it at Fabric.com.

Fabric.com had a big sale at the time, and I bought some other stuff to make tshirts and tops.  I also threw out an equivalent amount of fabric odds and ends from the closet where I store all of this stuff -- I took the Fabric.com box and filled it to overflowing with scraps, then pitched it all in the trash.  Yay me for not accumulating more than I'm using up, right?

Except JoAnn had a sale on character cottons, flannels, and fleece, PLUS had an extra 25% off if you showed your educator discount card.  Well, who could resist this stuff:

I would've bought more of that stuff on top, but someone else beat me to it.  I have no clue what I'm going to do with any of this except the red, which is flannel -- that is going to be jammy pants for Thalia.  Assuming I ever get around to sewing anything, that is, given that I' spending even less time sewing than I am blogging.  We'll see.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I've been sewing the Linda pant from StyleArc patterns.  I've made 3 pairs since Christmas, and am ready to start prepping fabric on pair number 4.

I'd made this pattern a couple of times last spring in some stretch bengaline from JoAnn Fabric -- stretch bengaline is the specific fabric called for on the pattern.  But, alas, the JoAnn version of that fabric ... has issues.  Specifically, the black dye rubs off on anything cotton I wear (yes, even months later and after being washed so many times), plus it feels prickly against my skin (probably a reaction to the dye).  

Then I'd made 3 cropped/capri versions over the summer in various lightweight stretch wovens.

On Christmas Day I started browsing my stash of bottomweights for anything appropriate for the pattern.  I found some black lightweight something-or-other from somewhere-or-other, then I stopped by Hancock's a few days later and found some grey stretch poly-rayon suiting on sale for about $9 total cost (I'm pretty sure that's what's in the photo), then stopped by JoAnn to discover a heavier mauve poly-rayon twill that I could use a 50%-off coupon to purchase (about $13 total cost for fabric), and then JoAnn put ALL of the suiting on sale this week, so I bought more.

I know the StyleArc pattern is pricey -- you have to pay shipping from Australia, plus they're more expensive than the 99 cent pattern sales at the stores.  But I'm able to make pants quickly for about $10-$15 per pair worth of fabric and notions.  I've made 8 pairs of pants off of this pattern so far, and have plans for at least 2 more., so cost of pattern per pair is looking better and better.

Also, I began the New Year using my new camera (a Christmas present) to photograph some of the yarn stash I'd totally forgotten about owning.  After I got the piles sorted, I browsed Ravelry for patterns that would match up with the piles.  Then I started swatching. 

That project got set aside, though, when a friend on an online forum had a crisis.  Several people decided to band together to make a quilt for her.  I said I'd make a square.

Unperturbed that I have no clue what I'm doing, I decided I wanted to embroider a labyrinth, since it might be meditative/interesting/fun/soothing to trace the path with a finger while wrapped in the quilt.  I chose multi-color floss in the appropriate colors. I found an image of a labyrinth online, and played around with re-sizing it until it looked right for going onto a 9 inch (finished size) quilt square.

I traced the pattern onto Sulky tear-away, sewed the stabilizer to some white muslin, and started back stitching the pattern by hand.

I originally started at the outside, and then realized that it made more sense to start in the middle and work my way out.  I confined all my stitching to the actual pattern lines -- that is, I didn't cross over the gaps on the backside.

Then I tore the Sulky away using tweezers to pick it all out (I think there are still shreds in this photo).

Then I picked out some fabric for a backing.  I thought I might have different ideas about appropriate color and pattern after the embroidery was done.

I turned under the edges and sewed the labyrinth onto the 9.5 inch square as a applique.  I also sewed some more lines of white stitching following some of the rings and cross bars -- I'm hoping these help stabilize it.

And just now I've folded it up, put it in an envelope, and am mailing it to someone who volunteered to put all of the squares together.

Things I probably could improve on:  I traced the pattern in plain ol' pencil, I didn't back the embroidery with any sort of stabilizer before sewing it on to the backing cloth, I could've done something slicker for the final step of getting-rid-of-raw-edges-and-affixing-to-backing. Also, I considered putting something in the center -- a heart or a word or something -- but decided that might be twee.

In the meantime, lots of school stuff has started back up, and various other lessons and theater productions are going on.  More on that later.

Work in Progress Wednesday

What I'm actually doing today is trying to pick up enough crap in the dining room/sewing room so I can sweep it, since the bits of thread and fabric have reached about ankle depth.  Here are some of the things I've accomplished in the past week while sewing way more than a person should in such a non-ergonomically correct environment.

Verges/Oatcake's shirt.  This has a pair of lavender stretch capris that go with it.  Or violently clash with it, as the case may be.  The top is product of an old OOP tunic pattern, McCall's 7518 that I narrowed down so much she can barely wiggle into it. 

This is for another member of the watch, based on Simplicity 2689, which is a very cute pattern, by the way.  She has brown linen short pants that tie below the knee.

Leonora's skirt.  We had more girls than boys, so we have Leonora rather than Leonato.  This is 2 layers.  The top layer of pink is godawful to work with.  We have yards and yards of it left, and I plan to pitch it in the trash so no one makes the mistake of trying to sew it again.

Leonora's bodice.  It needs something pink to balance it with the skirt.  It goes over a shirt ... I made 3 ladies shirts, and apparently took no pictures of them.  Anyway, this is based off of Simplicity 3782, and has the little peplum-tabs around the waist.  It laces up the back, which is why there's a pink ribbon hanging down from the back.  It will probably look horrendous on since the student was supposed to email her measurements (she was out of town), and sent numbers to me that were flights of fancy.  Really.  She said her waist was 35 inches, and we tried this bodice on and it was HUGE.  So I took a tape measure and measured her waist as about 30 inches.  "Oh, I guess we measured about here," she said, pointing to a place that was vaguely midway between her waist and hips.  Gah.  A high school student who doesn't know where her waist is.  I'm pretty sure her bust measurement was equally off.  I sort of want to stab her with my scissors.

Hero's skirt.  On layer, with the cream stuff sewn in to look as though it's two layers.  

Hero's bodice.  Same pattern,  except done to the correct measurements.

I didn't get any photos yet of Beatrice's outfit.  I hope to get more photos on Saturday during the play.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Just taking a quick break from sewing to show a few things....

Dogberry's tunic.  He'll have blue short pants to go with this. Simplicity 3519, size XL.  He's actually an XXL, but this thing is HUGE with all of these gathers, so it fits fine. 

Don Pedro's shirt.  He'll also have black pants and a long blue striped vest.  Simplicity 4923 in size M, which I hope isn't too big for him -- again, it looks HUGE.  Also, I was sort of startled that the front was shorter than the back, but someone with a clue explained that was fairly typical back in the day. 

Ursula's or Margaret's top.  There's another one of these awaiting the official elastic-threader (Annabeth) to get home from rehearsal.  This is a modified version of Simplicity 3809, much of the modification being to make it less slutty-looking.

Cutting out Verges/Oatcake's tunic (the 2 roles have been combined into 1).  Dogberry is the biggest person in the cast, and Verges is the smallest; we're dressing them to emphasize the discrepancy.  This is McCall's 7518, which is probably OOP since I purchased it sometime around 1994.

Random photo of trying to get musty smell out of fabric by hanging it over chairs and playground equipment.  This particular piece has already been soaked in vinegar water, then washed with Borax and rinsed with vinegar water.  It was making our noses run to be anywhere near it.  Maybe now someone can stand to be in the same room as it.

Okay, back to work.

Work in Progress Wednesday -- Skirts!

Five skirts so far.

Two of them are out of this lightweight perma press cotton.  It has a satin finish, and is 45 inches wide.  I have enough to make one more skirt out of it, which I'll start cutting out after I post this.  I'm making the waistbands on these very generous since this fabric is light enough to wrap around a smaller girl's waist, thus making it quite adjustable -- from about a 23 inch waist to a 38 inch waist. (Cast list still hasn't been posted - final audition today - so I still have no idea who I'm making costumes for. ) 

Two of the skirts are from this heavy fabric that tends to remind me of a shower curtain due to its shiny, plastic-y look.  This fabric is about 60 inches wide.  I have enough for another half-skirt; I'm thinking about taking these two apart, taking a half-panel from each of them, and then using those 2 halves to make the other half-skirt into a wearable skirt.  Each skirt is made of 3 panels, which means each has 6 half-panels; I have enough fabric to make a total of 7.5 panels, therefor I'm going to make each skirt of this fabric to be 2.5 panels.  They're so full - about 90 inches around the hem when all 3 panels are used - it isn't going to be terribly noticeable.  (Much of the time spent on this project has been taken up mulling over how to get the most costumes from the fabric supply.)

And the fifth skirt is the one from last week.

All of these are from Simplicity 3623.  I've got my process down pretty well by now.  I'm just serging the lower edge - no hem until we see the height of the cast members.  They may be left unhemmed for taller people.  I'm trying to convince myself that that's okay -- this is outdoor theater put on by students during a camp, so we don't have to be picky, right? Also, I'm doing all of this yards and yards of gathering by zigzagging over crochet cord.  I just do one line.  If this were regular clothing, or if we had more time to make these, I'd use 2 or 3 parallel lines for nicer gathers.

Additionally, last Wednesday my sewing machine, a Viking from the 1970s (actually my mom's) started making a terrible racket while Thalia was sewing the seam for the center drape-y thing for the spring recital (I think there's a word for "large drapey pieces of cloth hung from the ceiling above the stage" but I can't think of it right now).

I have no idea who this person standing there is, but it was impossible to get a stage shot without people milling around.

I eventually figured out that it was only happening when the bobbin case was in the machine, and wasn't dependent on whether or not a bobbin was in the case.  I managed to take much of that part of the machine apart, cleaned out an amazing amount of lint, put it all back together, and it worked fine for a week.  But now it's making that noise again.  So I've dragged up the other sewing machine, the Vigorelli from the 1980s.  Years ago Rick asked why we had to have 2 sewing machines -- couldn't we get rid of one? If you sew much you know that it's really nice to have a backup.

Work in Progress Wednesday, Shakespeare Edition

So far I've got a lady's blouse (Simplicity 3809)

a lower class man's shirt (Simplicity 3519)

a serving maid's skirt hung over the back of a chair, which is why it looks wonky (Simplicity 3623).

Of course, the cat is visible at the top of that skirt picture.  Because she's my constant companion, helping me, for example,  to figure out how much fabric I have vs. how much I need

We need at least 7 skirts, plus assorted overskirts and vests for the women.  Plus we need to clothe at least 5 guys.  Each shirt and each skirt takes about 3.5 to 4 yards of fabric.  WE NEED MORE FABRIC!  Aaaaaaargh!  Sooooo much fabric.  Especially white.

Okay, gotta go to auditions.  I'm toting this stuff along to show what it looks like so far, and what the size mediums come out to be.  Because we don't even know the sizes of the various characters yet, other than Don Pedro, who will be played by a professional actor.

Coming up:  where we're getting a lot of the fabric.  It's a great resource for any seamstresses in the area wanting to make things for charity (eg, Girl Scout troops, youth groups, theater groups).

Work in Progress Wednesday

Earlier this week I was seized by an urge to sew a sleeveless top.  Also, I wanted it to be woven.  Perhaps it was some subconscious memory of last summer when so many sewists made the Sorbetto top from Colette Patterns.  Really, if you type "colette sorbetto" into a Google image search you'll find dozens of the things.  Same with typing that search into Flickr.  

So, obviously, I downloaded the pattern, printed it out, went downstairs to poke around in the fabric, and found a box of fabric from my sister in which I discovered a lightweight seersucker which would be perfect for summer pajamas. The "pajama" idea is my fallback position if this turns out to be something I'd rather not wear in public, by the way.  Plenty of fabric is left to make jammy shorts.

The light streak is from sunlight streaming through the window.  Let's pretend that's an artsy element, okay?

Next, a trip to the store to purchase some single fold bias tape (and witness a very long, angst-filled session at the check out when the person in front of me didn't have her tax-exempt status paperwork nor was it on file, and all I wanted to do was purchase a $2 pack of bias tape, for pete's sake -- I was  starting to think I should pay her sales tax myself, which I estimated to be less than $3 on the jewelry beads she was purchasing for who-knows-what tax-exempt purpose).   That trip will probably end up to be the most significant time-suck of this entire project.  Also the most expensive, since other than printer ink and paper, plus thread purchased in bulk on sale months ago, the bias tape is the only thing I'm purchasing.

If this works I'll be churning these out as the weather heats up.  Onward!

Work in Progress Wednesday

The white crocheted cords that were too white have been dumped in a pan of tea

and hung out to dry.  

So now they look appropriately dirty.  And ready to be used in knapsacks for Von Trapp children to use while fleeing over the alps.

In the meantime, capes have been cut out.  I just messed with this lining pattern until it became the actual cape pattern.  Also, I didn't pin down the pattern -- just used various canned goods

and cut out a stack of capes for the Von Trapp children.  From various fabrics, which I think are all polyester.

I'm going to serge around the edges to give them more finish.  And I need to come up with some kind of fastener.  The director suggested a snap, but I think that will pull off almost instantly, or else rip out.

Elsa's ball gown is done.  If I take out the basting on the bodice folds they all fall out, so they'll stay basted. I really like this dress -- can't wait to get a picture of it on.

I'll be glad when this show is over.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Simplicity 2252 en route to being Elsa Schraeder's ballgown.

As you can (maybe) see, we're adding straps to it.  Also, if I take out the basting on those midriff folds, they all fall out due to the extreme drape-ability of the satin , so that's a little awkward; I guess if I cared deeply I'd put some interfacing in it.  But, hey, it's only worn in one scene in a 2-performance musical, so not worth getting too excited about.

Still to come:  the bodice lining (we've decided to not bother with the boning -- again, it's not like it's a "real" dress) and some sort of hem (probably just narrow serging).  And, obviously, ironing, since hung up like this you can see all sorts of wrinkles.  And some sort of blob of tulle up at the neckline, like the movie version.

Overall, this is a fun pattern.