Costuming again!

 Beauty and the Beast Silly Girls

Through my singing group Solstice Singers of Woods Hole, MA I met a woman who learned I made costumes. She's involved with the Falmouth Theater Guild  and asked if I'd be interested in helping with costumes for their production of Beauty and the Beast this spring. 

Lately I've been saying yes whenever something like this comes up. I had an opportunity to join the Solstice Singers last fall when I stumbled onto their signup booth at a music event near the public library. I hadn't planned on doing it right then... but there it was. I've found my life has been a series of these serendipitous events. I joined the group and made a costume:

Crocheted the snood, circlet is cardboard covered with fabric. The Giornea(overgown) is a heavy silk lined with a tablecloth. The belt is one I was given from a collection of jewelry and stuff, it has a shell on the front. I love the look but... the undershirt and yellow underdress are knit. Maybe OK if we were on a far away stage but our venue is small and we're pretty close to the audience... at least that was part of my rationale for not wearing it for the performances. Also, the combination of the silk and tablecloth was too much. It looks cool and swoopy outside but it would have been too hot indoors under stage lights and difficult to move around on the platforms we used. 

 

 

I ended up wearing a *gasp* Purchased Dress from China:

which you can see in the video. Wish I'd seen how it would look in pictures before I wore it. I find it a little too tight for my taste. I ordered it as 'insurance' in early November and it arrived Dec 13, the day of our dress rehearsal. The others in the group said it was flattering and encouraged me to wear it.

I also didn't like the snood look. I looked so washed out, so I made a stuffed circlet covered with pearl rope which matched the silk... but I ended up not wearing it so I made another thinner one covered with ribbon... hmm no pix of that.

But I have plans for this outfit. I want to make a shift and linen kirtle with tie-on sleeves. I've already bought the fabric, a gorgeous aqua color which matches a color in the silk. I'm going to try to follow Morgan Donner's tutorial. She has several different styles. I'm working on mock-ups until I can decide exactly how I want to proceed.

For the giornea I'm going to separate the tablecloth and the silk. The silk needs a much thinner lining. Also the v-neck needs to be much wider and go all the way to the waist. This will also lighten it a bit. The back is also supposed to be a V but I'm not sure it will stay on properly. I can make a second overdress from the tablecloth, which is gold brocade which you can barely see in the image on the right.

OK, back to BATB. I met the lead costumer and we decided I'd start with the Silly Girls. I'm worried about taking on too much and this seemed challenging enough but straightforward sewing and fitting, even though I'm not terribly experienced. 

So far I have the fabric and pattern.

Seersucker underdresses with vest and apron matching. I'm going to make the apron skirt gathered onto a waistband and put in casings and ribbons for cinching it up on the sides. The tricky part is fitting the lined vests. I only have measurements that someone else took. One person is about a 12-14, the others are larger, 22-ish and 26. I notice the pattern has a 10" difference between bust and waist, but most of the people have a thicker waist.... so I'm making mockups. Actually using drafting techniques I've seen but never used. I think it should work as I made one underdress and put it on my dress form and put the mockup vest over it and it looks ok.

So once I have the other dress and mockup made it will be fitting time. End of this week or next week depending on how much I get done today.... and I'm still waiting on the green seersucker which might arrive by the end of this week.

I'll update when there is more to show.