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:

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

Scarlet Pimpernel is opening in a couple of days, and as of last weekend they didn't have enough dresses for the wedding scene.  Thalia suggested I make one for her.  The director wanted lime green, but JoAnn didn't have any lime green satin when I went on Saturday night, and I was determined to do buy fabric there since I had all of my 50% off Coupon Commotion coupons in hand.  So I went with celery.

I used the basic pattern from the Wicked Witch costume from 2011's Wizard of Oz.  A quick skirt, which has some cream brocade that I found in the basement -- I think it originally came from the charity fabric place for use, perhaps, in a Shakespeare costume or some other theater production -- okay, really, I have no clue why this piece of fabric exists in our house.  Anyway, it sort of works with the satin.

The top includes the same brocade.  I cut the neckline lower.  I purchased a yard of cheap lace, and used the ruffling foot of the serger to make lace for around the neckline.  I just cut a long strip, doubled it over so there wasn't a raw edge along the length of it, and ruffled it; then zigzagged to the neckline.

The sleeves also have some of the same lace.  In this case I used the selvedge to give a finished edge to the bottom of the lace.

And, there you have a dress. But it seems like it needs something more to look French Revolution era.

So, strips of the satin, narrow serging, and BOWS.  In this shot they're pinned onto the front and sleeves.  I think someone tacked them on during a dress rehearsal (another mom asked Thalia if I'd be offended if they tacked down the bows; Thalia told the mom that she'd need to try a lot harder if she wanted to offend me).

I also made a petticoat out of crinoline to wear under it.  It was a truly hack job, but helps the skirt poof out.

In other news, I gave Katie Watson's pattern for Little Hats (Ravelry link) a whirl.  I used size 7 needles, and Cascade 220 yarn. After one trip through the front loader it fits perfectly on a juice glass for blocking.

It also fits perfectly on a cat.

However, we were wanting something that could be fastened to a headband OR a hat for an American Girl doll.  This is too big for the headband idea, and too small for the doll.  So I'll try it again, but smaller.  Or bigger.

Work in Progress Wednesday

So far this week, aside from our usual falderal, we've had our phone line go out, and had a rat get sick.  We noticed both problems on the same day, as a matter of fact.

The phone seems to be working now; and the rat is on antibiotics, so we'll what comes of that (rats tend to get really sick really quickly, so who knows).

In the meantime, more sewing for Scarlet Pimpernel.

Two vests for who-knows-who.  Really, I've no clue where these will end up -- I was just handed fabric, buttons, and elastic.  I pondered it awhile, then asked if maybe this was McCall 8701.  Yes!  Woohoo -- I have a copy of that, so I could look up the instructions and see what these strangely shaped pieces meant!

The dickeys were left off.  Elastic was used in lieu of the twill tape. Velcro will be added as they're fitted to the actors.

Also, the eternal quest for sleazy-yet-modest tops continues.  I was given some embossed stretch velvet.  I cut out a shorter version of Kwik Sew 2325 (last seen here), and added some black lace hem tape we had.  

 I think it looks different enough from the lavender one to be okay on stage (the idea is to have a variety of colors and styles ... all of them modest yet at the same time risque, and like they could possibly have been worn at the time of the French Revolution). I hope it fits someone.