Cinderella and the swans: the 2011-2012 season

Cinderella and the Swans: the 2011-2012 season

It has been a busy year for me with regards to SharpSewing-NY.  I had opened my shop on Etsy, SharpSewing http://www.etsy.com/people/SharpSewing and finally had enough items to actually list something and I was designing and creating costumes for a number of ballets.

June and July:

Throughout the summer I had meetings with the artistic director and wardrobe manager, drew sketches, made mock-ups, drafted patterns, searched for fabrics, e-mailed back and forth, placed orders and bought fabric. There is a sort of magic preparing for a new season, with lots of ideas going back and forth. Good costuming is a combined effort with everyone offering up their ideas, and sharing their opinions.

Designs for Cinderella Fairies

Around August, after the artistic director had picked designs, and I had made the first drapes and mock-ups of the bodices and Fairy Godmother attendants tutus I set to work in earnest cutting out tulle, tutu net and pants.
The plan for the season was exciting: 3 totally new costumes for three seasons fairies for Cinderella, updating of the 8 Fairy Godmother's attendants costumes and white swans for Swanlake.
During the previous season I had made many new tutus: 8 Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers, a Dewdrop fairy,  a Sugar plum, a Sleeping Beauty Lilac Fairy, 6 lilac attendants, Aurora act 1,  an Aurora wedding tutu, 12 Vision scene Romantic length tutus, a Gold, Silver and Diamond tutu. I had also refurbished the Fairy Golden Vine tutu, the Bluebird tutu and bodice, Red Riding hood tutu and the Sapphire tutu. (I'll write about all of that in another post). Scott Dolphin had made the shows' design and he had designed and created the bodices, plates and overlays. This season I was in charge of the designs, purchasing and creating of the new costumes.

August and September:

draping Cinderella fairy bodice

side view of Cinderella fairy bodice

back of Cinderella fairy bodice

 The new design for the Cinderella fairies called for longer bodices with a more cut out back and nude tops to be worn under the bodices. The tops were to be decorated with vines, leaves, flowers and icicles depending on the season. The old costumes had very plain bodices which were short and tended to ride up and netting arm puffs which the dancers found extremely itchy and uncomfortable.
After more than 30 years, the old costumes were worn and the colors were no longer vibrant. Even fabric colors follow a fashion and so the original olive greens, golden rod yellow and rust browns were no longer available. Instead fresh, vibrant greens, yellows and autumnal red were chosen. The Fairy Winter was to receive a complete face-lift with a new blue tutu and navy blue, sparkly velvet bodice instead of the original black and gold. For the fairy Summer it was decided to use one of the tutus I had made for the previous seasons' Sleeping beauty, and create a plate, overlay and new headpiece so that she would match the other costumes. I would also be making updated versions of the old Fairy headpieces. At first we discussed refurbishing them but they were so fragile, it was better to use them as inspiration for new headpieces.

pattern for Cinderella fairy bodice

beginning of the Fairy Autumn decorations mock-up

Before any of the dancers had auditioned for the company, I made a start on the tutus, cutting the tulle,  and netting. Fairy Winter was to be graded shades of blue: navy, deep sapphire blue, lighter royal blue and silver sparkle tulle to give the tutu an icy glittering look.
Fairy Spring was to be a mixture of fresh, vibrant greens: emerald, leaf green etc. Fairy Autumn would be shades of red, maroon, brown, gold, and orange just like the many leaves seen at that time of year.
To give tulle enough body for pleating I always sew several pieces together. Each tutu was to have the top 5 layers double hand pleated to given them a very even look. I sort the layers for each tutu into bags and baskets so that I can quickly pleat and then sew them. I cut and double hand pleated or machine pleated layers of white tutu net for each tutu, along with white power net panties and double hand pleated or machine the layers of tulle.

tulle for Cinderella fairies Winter, Spring & Autumn tutus

tulle layers for a Waltz, Fairy Spring, Autumn and Winter

 Next I hand dyed the white tutu net and powernet to the desired color, (I will write a special post all about dyeing fabrics, later) washed it, dried and then it was ready to be sewn into tutus.

hand dyed layers of tutu net

Autumn, Winter and Spring tutus ready for steaming and tacking

sewing on the final layer of the Spring tutu

I started making the tutus and bodices as soon as the new company dancers were announced. All the company dancers were measured and than fitting for specific costumes could be done.
Once the tutus were sewn I made the bodices and tops. The Spring bodice was made of a yellow cotton fabric with a layer of golden yellow organza over top to give the fabric some life and depth. The Winter bodice was made of a dark navy, stretch velvet with blue sparkles. The  Autumn bodice was made of  a pinwheel corduroy. Corduroy is an easier fabric to work with than velvet but on stage it looks like velvet.
 The eight Fairy Godmother's attendants were to wear bodices from the Sleeping beauty ballet's vision scene and I was to create Williamsburg blue Romantic length over-skirts to be worn over the Nutcracker snow tutus. To give them a distinct look, each tutu was to have a beaded plate.

Decorating:

 Finally it was time for the "fun" part of costuming: adding the decorations and making the headpieces. Decorations for stage costumes need to be striking, sparkly and stand-out otherwise the are pointless. To make it easy to wash, alter and repair costumes, it is a good idea to make so called "plates" (decorated top layer for a tutu) and overlays (decorated layer for a bodice)

Autumn, Winter  and Spring bodices

Cinderella  Fairy Autumn

  Autumn's decorations and head piece were autumn leaves in autumnal colors: reds, browns, yellow and oranges.  The top had brown ribbon appliqued onto the sleeves to simulate branches and fabric autumn leaves. The plate was a circle of red organza, with a swirl of sparkles and appliqued fabric leaves in autumn colors. The leaf appliques started on the bodice and then swirled around the tutu. Finally, Swarovski hot fix crystals in autumnal colors were applied to the bodice and tutu.












To decorate Winter, icicles were added to the top and snowflake appliques were added to a plate.
 Winter's appliques were created by drawing snowflake designs onto a white mesh fabric with a small sparkly snowflakes design and then cutting them out by hand. The plate was created by appliqueing six snowflakes onto a circle of navy blue and silver sparkle tulle.The bodice overlay was a silver mylar lace applique, enhanced with hand sewn crystal drops and Swarovski hot fix crystals in blues, and crystal AB.

Creating Winter's snowflake appliques

Fairy Winter as it appeared on stage

To decorate Spring, a simple green lace plate was made and spring flowers (daffodils, dogwood and apple blossoms) were appliqued onto a bodice overlay. The bodice had a matching petal shaped peplum, so that the whole costume looked like an inverted Daffodil. The flowers  on the bodice and top were decorated with Swarovski hot-fix crystals in complementary shades.

Cinderella Fairy Spring

 Finally to decorate Summer, roses, sweet peas and other summer flowers in pinks, yellows and soft mauves were chosen. Summer's plate was created by hand dying silk flowers, than sewing eight bunches onto a peach sparkle mesh plate. The plates edges were cut as scallops. An overlay of the same peach mesh, with a white sparkle lace braid and matching summer flowers was used to decorate and old Raymonda/Lilac attendant bodice.

Cinderella Fairy Summer

For the eight Fairy Godmother's attendants, I created pointed shaped, beaded applique plates. First I applied Wonderunder to a beaded silk fabric. Then I cut out individual designs, sorted, arranged and glued them onto a white and silver support fabric. A quick iron finished the process. Gross grain ribbon was sewn along the top, so that the plates could easily be attached and detached from the tutus. 

Appliques for the Fairy Godmother's 8 attendants

 

One of the eight Fairy Godmother's attendant's costume

The Headpieces: 

Three of the headpieces were made of wire circlets, wrapped with gold or silver effect braid and then crystal leaves, hand made silk and organza flowers or crystals were wired to the frames. Leaves and flowers were further decorated with hot-fix Swarovski crystals.

Autumn headpiece

Summer  headpiece

Winter headpiece

The only exception was Spring's  headpiece. It was made of heavy duty horsehair braid and rigilene plastic boning, which was then covered with leaves and spring flowers such as daffodils, dogwood and apple blossoms. The leaves and flowers were then embellished with hand beading and Swarovski hot-fix crystals.

Spring headpiece

 October:

Full cast of Cinderella

Finally it was show time and everything came together on stage. The dancers looked beautiful in their new costumes. I had also refurbished the fairy Godmother's tutu by adding a new top layers of Periwinkle glimmer and sparkle tulle, new trim adn hot-fix Swarovski crystals on the bodice and making her new wings. The Cinderella tutu was the first tutu I had ever made. It had sat in storage for a few years waiting for its' moment. I had originally created it for Nutcracker's Dewdrop fairy, with a silver brocade bodice and beaded, embroidered organza plate but it had not been used.

After Cinderella, it was time to begin work for Nutcracker and Swan lake, but that will be for another post.