On Stage

Opportunity has come knocking once again.  That means there are a few different projects I get a chance to work on.

The Hudson Village Players are putting on a Spring production and I have been selected as costume mistress.  Most of the costumes will come out of the closet of my favourite supplier,Karen, but a few special items are required. In HVP style of course these fun little items are to design and make "quick release" pyjama bottoms with matching undies and of course two bustiers with animated bosoms and a school girl look.  To help is my good friend Valerie to make sure all the innuendos are not missed.  Should be fun!

The Hudson Village Players have been practicing so much for their upcoming production No Sex Please, We're British, it is only fair that their costumes be ready for the St. Patty's day parade in Hudson.  Many have come fit and chosen pieces.  Its the home stretch for this week and they are looking good!

Ms. Kerwin requested a custom look to complement her choreography of a lyrical number to be debuted recital night.

 Fittings for the 5 Hudson Dance girls.  DONE!  The practice dance looked awesome.  Now on the alterations and the dresses are all theirs!

On Fire or fizzled out?

The second of my four element tutus is, let's just say..on fire! 

As I have finished the skirt after a few modifications, it's on to the bodice.  

Originally trying an ombré effect from black to white,  I produced, instead something that looked dirty.  Next I died it to a full grey, but something still isn't right.  

Now it's time to take a step back and stick with the basics.  

            So back to basic black it is.

This tutu is definitely for show.  I love the texture of the skirt, but it is way to poofy to dance with.

The idea here was to emulate the movement of flames.  Inspired by the following picture, you can see the fire in a dance.

Captivated by this my first instinct was to emulate through layering of organza in order to provide a transparency and a blending orange, reds and yellows.  The plate was set on a plain black tule traditional built pancake skirt.  I think my colours were a good blend, but the depth and scale of the application is not giving me what I had hoped.

Unfortunately the plate ended up looking like a pile of leaves.  As a result the dress didn't make the keep it list and I will try again in the future to concur the movement of fire that will encapsulate the viewer as the dancer moves.

Just a little lace

Week Three...

Sometimes you just need to add a little lace.

This past week is the beginning of competition season for dancers.   That means Caroline is busy, busy picking out pieces and assigning alterations to fit the dancers and their choreography.
I have been assigned an all to familiar dress which brings me to reminisce back to last year when myself, Valerie and Kristine (fellow seamstresses extraordinaire) originally were approached for a number called The 5 Tutus.

Often we look at older, worn in tutus and see how we can alter then to fit our current needs.  You see  to make a well constructed tutu many hours and meters of tulle are put into it, so it at least deserves another look at before it is finished its usefulness.

The tutus in question certainly had been well worn and were somewhat out of date.  It was easy to tell that no one was in love these dresses, but we decided to give them a chance anyways. As we carefully removed the pieces that were torn or did not fit the vision of our director we uncovered (thanks to our guardian sewing angle Marie)  that the skirts were in decent condition and the bodices were made from beautiful fabric that was very well constructed.   We had a very good base to work with.


The three of us worked together removing all the parts carefully that no longer worked for the number in question.  At the same time we researched other peoples dresses, some tutus, some just spanish dresses, to pick and choose the element we wanted to emulate in our dresses.  Together we came up with four different designs representing a new tutu which was shared with the choreographers. 
And voila, a final design was selected to work towards.

The skirts were in relatively good shape and only two out five needed Kristine's touch in adding additional layers of tulle.  Quickly they became refreshed and full of life.

The bodices would require more time.  

After fitting the bodices to each of the five girls, a black lace was selected.  Many pieces of lace flowers and leaves were selected, cut and sewn to the basque and bust areas.                                                                                                                                                                         

As layer after layer of lace was applied by hand the look and feel of the bodice was transformed into something beautiful.  When enough lace had been sewn on, I knew it was time to add some small trim then sew the bodice and skirt parts together.



The results?

I was proud of the work we all did.  The time and effort was most worth it.  The girls left to their competitions with pride and confidence, each time returning with awards and praise of their costumes.

3 of "the 5 Tutus" competition number, Ballet Ouest.
Choreography by Claude Caron.

This year the dress will be used again, but for another number.  Again the dress will be modified to fit the choreography and vision of the dance.  This time, however, only a few pieces (flowers) are to be added in order to continue its use.  As time goes by I am sure that parts of the dresses will be added and subtracted each time making the dress work for the moment,  and that is just fine.  

Go with the Flow

Week Two

Capturing motion out of inanimate materials is a challenge.  Wanting to depict the movement of water I didn't want to just draw a picture of waves.  To me movement in this piece was to move colour from the deep dark depth of the ocean up to the peaks of a white cap.  This would enable to allow the dancer to bring the piece to life.

Water Tutu we made for my youngest. It features a lot of hand dyed tule and lace to ombré
a dark depth up to white caps.  All appliqué of lace is hand sewn. The inspiration of a white cap wave hits the outskirts of the plate and rolls upwards to onside of the sweetheart neck. 

Bodice fabric is a cotton with textured imprinted circles which to me represented bubbles rising from the bottom of the sea floor.

I think she loves it!

Water Tutu
photographed by Robert Steiner
steinerphoto@gmail.com

As promised the water tutu, the first in my 4 elements series.

Fire tutu.  Skirt is well on its way.

Coming soon......

One Good Pantomime!

 

Robin Hood- the Panto

Nestled near the tracks of the town of Hudson Quebec is the restored Hudson train Station now residing as the Hudson Village Theatre.   Here a good old fashioned British Pantomime has become an annual tradition.

This year I had the pleasure of working with the Hudson Village Players for the  Holiday fable of Robin Hood & His Merry Men, directed by Mary Vuorela.

The production hosted two sets of talent which meant a tone of green tights and of course in true  Panto fashion, boobs and bums.  All the fabric was donated.  Have a look below:

Thank you to my good friend, Valerie Baylis for helping with sewing and design and Karen Pearce for supplement costumes of those not made but still required.

Photographer: James McCafferty, jamesmccafferty@live.ca, 
(514) 207-5770

The Leads

Robin's vest and accessories dress him up over the 
other Merry Men

Marion is dressed as a Medieval Royal
using green fabric to show she her desire to be a Merry Man.

Robin's Crew

In getting to know these guys, it was capturing each of their individual personalities.  

They are funny and added some great entertainment for the audience's enjoyment.

The Friar: Glen's robe was made from burlap dyed darker to show better on stage.  He naturally has no hair, so the wig with the bald top was made just for him.

Little John: Adam is a Big guy and his costume was made to look like his character, a bit behind the others.

Will Scarlets: Dressed in red, Marc and Calvin were dressed to be a bit showy crediting his name.

The Merry Ladies

 Ellen-a-Dale is an entertainer so her costume  allows her to show off her artistic flair.
The actors each chose the colours and design elements from suggested ideas.  It was easy to see how they brought their characters alive through their choices.

Gymkhana Thatch was dressed to emphasize her desire to join the "Men".  Her colours and tunic were designed to allow her to blend in as one of the boys.

                                                                 

The Kids

My Fav was dressing this little guy.  His costume included a wig with elf ears.  His character was a reference to Lord of Rings.

The Law

The Sheriff's were quite dolled up.  

Chris wanted his character to be mashed up wth the wild west.  He wore a fringed shirt with a Medieval pant and tight.  His hat was a cowboy hat fascinator and of course he wore a cape.

Don played his Sheriff as an old fashioned villain.  His costume was more traditional, dark and adorned with silver jewelry so show status. 

Don's hat was more militant in a beret.

He was very snidely

The Ladies

Phil and Steve played the Nanny to Maid Marion.

Their costumes came with a two piece girdles to enhance their womanly features.

The dress is all one piece all attached.

The hair was sewn into the nanny bonnet.

Overall she was meant to look scattered and not at all put together.

On Stage 

Of Course there's a Cow!

T

his was my first attempt at making an animal.  It's played by two people and meant to look like a cartoon that could lend it's self to some mishaps.

I love the eyes and the snout.

The head is two layers of foam all stitched together with the top brown faux fur.

Merriment all together

The King and his Sheriff

The King was dressed to look ridiculous as if he did not fit the clothes.  The fabric we found was a stretch royal blue velveteen.  Trimmed with gold and white tights, he's surely not a respectable man.  

Glee "Oh what a Delight"

May 2014, It's Glee Season........who knew??

A good friend of mine, Karen, is a supreme  costume mistress.  She has turned a love and hobby into a warehouse of costumes like no other I've seen!  

This spring she is has been hired to outfit a private school in Mount Royal for their annual Glee season. 

My project included outfitting 8 adults for an Abba montage and 50 + teens for the song Jai Ho.

Who doesn't love ABBA??

With measurements provided I had 3 mens outfits and 5 women.  This was FUN!

For the Ladies:  Dressing all the girls but the front runner in a one piece stretch with frills and swag, the costumes were all made out of vibrant and eye-catching combos.  Oh and Bell Bottoms all the way baby!  Most of them were adorned with metallic ruffle, inserts or accessories giving them a feminine touch.

You can see here, my girls having little fun in them before they go to stage.

PS I  think "The King" was actually part of a Cinderella Pantomime I was working on at the same time, so he made it into the girls fashion/dance show.  LOL.

Now for the Fellas:  There were only three, so creativity was a must.  They each had a base of a basic elastic waist pant and a pull over in stretch.  From there they got all blinged out with Bell-Bottom inserts, metallic to match the ladies and one what fringed on shoulders, down the back and along the hem line.  My all time fav though was the one fella that wore the plunging "V" in nude mesh and applicade chest hair.  Oh how I couldn't stop laughing at how funny I thought I was.

And....Here's the the real show

I think they all carried the vibe quite well.

Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire)

The theme of this task for me was "speed assembly."  I didn't actually have traditional fabric for the Sari plus we wrestled with the idea of teen-Glee girls wearing the cropped top and the logistics of draping a long piece of fabric to:

A) stay in tact as they were dancing, 

B) be able to remember the sequence of assembling a Sari between numbers.

The solution was to assemble a circle skirt from donated organza with a metallic band around each bottom and at the waist.    The kids could all supply a matching T-shirt and a matching scarf was sashed shoulder to hip.

For the boys, it was easy to knock up a number of mix and match vests and sashes that were worn around their waists as a belt.  They each supplied a black legging and away they went.

I have to say, I love the concept on stage that begins with one or two entertainers and grows into a crowd. The power of the performance for the song, dance, whatever gives me shivers when everyone blends their individual contributions into one amazing message.

Easier to feel in a live performance, here's a glimpse of what this number grew into:

These kids were absolutely amazing.  I was mesmerized!

In the Christmas Spirit

 Fall/ Christmas of 2013 was a dream come true!

After several years of a very successful version of the Nutcracker preformed by Ballet de l'Ouest here I was at he right place at the right time.  Under new direction the companies Director, Claude Caron was to create a new choreography for the company.  As a highly imaginative artist, Claude's vision was to bring the production up to date with the addition of multimedia and magic throughout the story.  Along this vision came the opportunity to reimagine several of the costumes.  

Many moms for the sewing team collaborated and a core of us decided to make a little business out of it.  Born was Tutus4U.  I was granted two assignments:

1. To upgrade the traditional little child mice to a more animated RAT. 
2. To develop a junior demi-pointe Mint into a character that is transformed from a plain white candy  to a Starlight Mint on pointe.

Conditions to be met?  Oh boy!

• Cut down on alterations
• Have extras to fit a variety of body sizes 
• Travel well 
• Wash well
• Allow for flexible and creative movement 
• Be comfortable
• Enable the dancer to get lost in character in order to mesmerize the audience in the story.

The Starlight Mint

First things first the group decided to start designing and manufacturing the main body for group costumes out of a 4-way stretch.  This was we could meet all the above criteria.  Many templates were fumbled over until the final cut out in red was applied to a white body suit highlighting a sweetheart neck line that met up with a silver sparkle net.  

now the animation....

First we looked at having removable ribbon the dancer could spin out of.  Too fussy.

The solution?  A white heavy cotton apron lined with silver lining to ensure not red bread through.  This worked well because the fabric was heavy enough to hold its form without help.  the construction included a velcro fastening in the back.  The Confectioner (a newly added character)  danced around the Mint with  pulling on the velcro to release the apron, the Mint dancer twirled as the apron was collected in a large mixing bowl.  When I saw this number from the back of the theatre, my heart leapt out of my chest as the movement was just magic.

my eldest side stage 

from the back of theatre, Confectioner Dance

photo credit: Michael Slobodian 

                                   

The RAT!

In the previous production of the little mice, this character was played by very young dancers.  The costume likened an over sized faux fur sweat shirt with a hood.  Oh they were as cute as a button.

The new version of the story has updated the mice to Rats and boy did they have personality!  As an opener the Rats deliver a message to the audience to turn off their cell phones.  A small staged production is made by an audience member coming on stage with his phone to take a selfie.  The Rats trick him into the middle of their gang and teach him a lesson in putting the phone away.

Again this costume was to be updated to fit a larger, over dancer and one of the previous concerns we heard was the costume was hot and smelly.

Designed and manufactured was a one piece hooded body suit. Our group experimented with many versions of this as the design was to be used in the Snow as well.  After some failed attempts construction was solidified and production went into play.  Over 50 of these suits were made.  It was quite a task.

The stretch material was an ideal addition as it developed the appearance of a beat up RAT.  I used the stretch for the tail and it looked pretty gnarled.  

The old faux fur was re-purposed into pants and a demi-top.  This provided the look of a gnarled tummy and legs.  Over all this costume brought  a lot of character and life to the scenes they appeared in.  

Only lesson...... the ears were originally shaped using a natural fibre, stiff mesh.  Thank you to the moms on tour who later sewed in wires to define the ears after the mesh mushed in the wash.

                                               

photo credit: Michael Slobodian