October Cornucopia

I made only a very few attempts at sewing in October besides the six-word memoir quiltlets.  First of all, I made this Halloween House quilt block for my Halloween Houses quilt-in-progress.  Yes, it is definitely supposed to wonky.  No I didn't measure or use a pattern.  I like this fabric combination a whole lot.  I've found there are two distinct colorways in my personal Halloween fabric collection.  The slightly dusky, muted, yet still bright  and then the just plain obnoxious, almost too bright.  Turns out they are hard to combine.  Going forward on this project I may have to rethink using them all together.  Or maybe one side of the quilt can be bright, and the other side can be dusky.

That makes 8 total house made now.  This Halloween Houses quilt is really taking a while to come together.  I know, I know, I write about it every year.  Some year (hopefully soon) I'll make a big effort and actually finish it.  (Hey, I have almost a year to get it done, right?!)  

 I especially still want to make houses with pictures of my boys in the costumes I've made them over the years in the doorways and windows.  Until then, it makes a nice, colorful, seasonal decoration in the studio when there isn't much else up on the design wall. 

Speaking of costumes I was only asked to make two this year for my son Alex and his friend CJ.  Alex found me the pattern online and we made these so he and his buddy could go as Finn the Human and Jake the Dog from their favorite cartoon show Adventure Time.  Have you ever seen this show? It is deeply strange, and very funny.  I can see why they like it!

 I had to do something with my favorite orange t-shirt, the collar was frayed all of a sudden.  The rest of it still looked fine.  This was one I overdyed a while ago, I think it used to be bright yellow and got very faded, very quickly, but the fabric was still in very good shape .

I just turned over the t-shirt neckline and stitched it down.  Mostly straight. ahem, don't look too closely please.  I'm pleased that it extends the use of one of my favorite shirts for a little bit longer.

Costume In Process

I was at Beverly's Fabrics a couple weeks ago to get some glue and decided to get some fabrics to make myself a Halloween costume. I didn't really have anything in mind, but went to the remnant table to see what was there and if any ideas would spark up.
I found these three fabrics which I think will work together really well for a gold witchy woman costume. (I was a green witch last year) The upper left is to be a tunic-y blouse, the gold on the bottom a skirt, and the gold lacey stuff a skirt overlay. All of this was super cheap since it was on the remnant table, maybe $15 for all of it.

These other various nettings and tuelle and so forth are from my stash, they may make it into the costume, I was seeing if they complemented the piece on the right that is to be the skirt overlay.

The blouse has turned out well so far, for sleeves I used an embroidered sheer, it has an overall pattern of various sized circles. the neckline is just an elastic gathered style, real simple but it suits the fabrics well. The fabric for the skirt worked out to be just the right size for the simple gathered waist style I wanted to make. The overlay part was a bit trickier, but I safety pinned it in place while I was wearing it to get the draping right. (safety pins instead of straight pins!) Yes a dressmaker's form would come in handy for something like this. Guess I should get around to making one of those duct tape ones.

Now for the sash/waist thing I had sketched out originally to pull the top and skirt together. Haven't made it quite yet, I have to search for that gold satin embroidered upholstery fabric to make an obi-type sash. Hopefully I can find it and get that done, because it is almost Halloween!

Oh and a hat of some type, I was unable to find a gold witch hat in the stores. Maybe some gold spray paint or gold netting over a plain black one? Or make my own? I don't know yet. I guess I could make a golden sparkly wand too, there are plenty of sticks all over the place because of this second very windy day in a row. I have the gold hair spray and gold shoes and nail polish already so I'll be good and sparkly.

Seminal Seussical

I finally took some pictures at the closing performance of my son's middle school drama class production of Seussical. Here is what the stage looked like as the show begins. We now have two of the trees at home, the boys are setting them up in their rooms. They're covered in fake fur (very sheddy and messy).

Here are the Sneetches and the Bird Girls, with Horton the Elephant in the middle. It was very hard to take pictures without flash, as the performers are moving around so much. So this one is fairly un-blurry.

Here's another shot of the BirdGirls in the center. Pretty colorful huh? I hope they can re-use the costumes for another production, most of the bloomers were plain white skirts used in two previous shows.

This was my first experience helping with costuming in any performance. I've done some backdrop/scenery stuff before, but this was different. As I think about it, I have to say it was a genuine thrill the first time I saw a stage filled with 20 performers wearing stuff I'd dyed. Usually I'm the only one wearing my dyed stuff, and I don't look at myself all that often. So it was fun and rewarding to see my work out there getting used and enjoyed by so many others.

Simply Sneetches

Do you remember the Sneetches from Dr. Seuss' "The Sneetches and Other Stories" ? The big-bellied yellow creatures with "stars on thars". Big stars on their bellies which they pay to have removed and then put back on again depending on the current fashion, a tale essentially about discrimination.This was one of the other costumes I got to work on for Seussical. I dyed nine x-large men's white t-shirts in mottled yellows. Another drama mom cut out the stars. I was worried that they were lame', you know the kind that shreds insanely, is terribly slippery and never looks good on the edges. But no, the stars were cut out of plastic-y, stretchy, thick, gold bathing suit material. So no worries about shredding or slipping. I did pin the heck out them though, since they did stretch quite a bit as I sewed, at a different rate than the very stretchy t-shirt. But my sewing machine didn't glide over the stars, it would get caught up about every inch or so. I got a workout with my knee-lift that day, let me tell you! Friend Jaye pointed out that there is a sewing machine foot for this exact problem, mainly for sewing leather, it is a roller foot. Not a standard foot that is included with most machines. But since I'm not anticipating sewing this type of material in the future I think I'll hold off on getting one.

So, here is what the shirt looks like after the star has been sewn on. Kinda cute, but not quite into costume territory. So that means, now onto the elasticisizing..The costume designer had the idea of using the existing hem at the sleeve and bottom as an elastic casing. It worked pretty well, just undid a little of the sewing and then ran the elastic through, sewed it up closed. The elasticsizing made these costumes really look like costumes on stage, instead of just decorated t-shirts. They bloused them up at the bottom so they poufed out like bellies, worn over black pants.
Here they are, all nine of them, stacked up and ready to go!

If you've never seen The Sneetches, which was a tv special, here is part one:

and part two:

Creating Costumes

Here's a bit more about the costumes I've been working on for Seussical. These are the tails that the bird girls will wear, they're the color inspiration for the dyeing that I was asked to do for the costumes. I was given cotton tank tops and long bloomers to dye. The bird girls are kind of a Greek Chorus for much of the play.
This is the Amazing Mayzie's tail, she is much more colorful than the other bird girls. She is basically the Carmen Miranda of the show, she thinks a whole lot of herself. If you've read Horton Hatches the Egg, you'll remember her, she's the bird who convinces Horton the elephant to egg-sit for her, and then flys off for an extended vacation ,abandoning her egg. Her costume will be two colors, purple on the bottom, ombre'd up to blue on the top.This is also part of Mayzie's tail, she really is the peacock of the show.

Here's how the dyeing looks while it is sitting and processing. I've been using the plastic containers we get our salad greens in from Costco. They're a great size for bigger pieces like these costumes. The colorful thing on top is a paper towel I used to wipe up drips of dye, I'll probably use it in collage somehow.

Here's how they turned out. Pretty bright, huh? And the flash kinda washed them out... They look really great on stage with the bright sets and props.

Finally, Some Grown-up Costumes

Every year or so I buy myself a new witch hat to wear around town on Halloween. This year I found this beauty at our drug store of all places. Isn't it divine?First of all I really dig the green olive color, and then there are all the great details, like the satin roses, the black feathers, the black veil complete with spiders, and the green net with olive teeny pompons. It's a millinery extravaganza! Here it is perched on my ceramic drum, which makes a great hat stand.

So far it has been free from cat attack although they have of course sniffed the feathers once or twice.

We're invited to a Halloween party (yippee!!), so I'm making a dress/costume to go with this fabulous hat. It may end up being something I can wear to non-costume parties, we'll see. I got some shiny olive green cotton sateen which looks like silk shantung, and dual color organza with some matching ribbon. I'm excited to get to make myself a costume for once, it has been many years! I bought some green hairspray, green fingernail polish and green skin glitter. Already have some green eye makeup and glow in the dark green lip gloss. So I guess I'm going as a poison green witch, better come up with a better back story than that, I'm sure I'll be asked.
Hopefully I got enough to make this (the shiny one on the left).
Or maybe this. The part I like best about this dress are the sleeves, but they're tie-on, which makes me think they'll not look very good on an actual person wearing them. So that's what I'm starting on today, the party is on Saturday night, hope I get it done in time!

For this party we're supposed to be our Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde alter ego bad guys. Marc picked Snidely Whiplash. So I made him a black georgette/satin cape from this pattern (the upper right view, but in black with black satin lining). Just have to do a bit of handsewing and it is done. Then I have to find him a top hat somewhere, already got the fake Snidely mustache.

It will be fun to pretend to be baddies for just a little while.

The boys are almost out-growing the mom-make-me-a-costume stage (sniff, sniff), Alex is borrowing a gorilla costume from a friend, and Zach is planning to be an 80's nerd with some of his buddies. (some of whom are actually nerds, but *cool* nerds).

But I'm going to help out with the costumes for Alex's drama class production of Seussical to get my costume making fix for the year. They're re--re-using parts of former costumes, gotta love that recycling, so some of the work will involve dyeing, so stay tuned for news about that endeavour.