Other styles of hair decorations

During the past few weeks I have been learning how to make a variety of (ballet) hair decorations.  One set is loosely based on the Japanese art called tsumani kanzashi, which uses silk and sometimes cotton fabric squares. There are a large number of tutorials on YouTube that show how to fold and pinch the flowers. I was truly inspired by this  kanzashi documentary. It is all in Japanese, no comments but I was still able to "understand" what they were doing by watching. Japaneses kanzashi uses habotai silk, a glue made from rice starch, and all the bases are hand-made of metal disks or even card board.
When I started I used mostly polyester and nylon organza and charmeuse, which you can melt to stop the edges fraying. What I ended up making was more traditional style flowers.
While digging through my vast fabric stash I found some real silk and started folding the tiny squares. I also ordered some of the special rice starch to make the glue but it has not yet arrived.

At my Etsy store I received a number of request for (uncommon) headpieces or head-dresses and I realized that I really needed to have more on offer so... After doing a lot of research into the various ballets (Talisman, Diana and Acteaon, the Pharoh's daughter, La Esmeralda etc.) I realized that several have "oriental" (in this case meaning other than Western) or "ethnic" themes. Ballet's interpretation of this is a sort of mis-mash nationalities. I loved some of the photos I found of traditional Thai, Chinese, Chaldean, Roman, Greek and Indonesian wedding headpieces and went a little crazy.

Start of a Diana (or Acteaon?) headpiece in gold

Besides discovering that I have too much stuff, I had a lot of fun and have put together some nice things. Some are built on light weight wire and fabric circles

Le Corsaire, or Gamzatti?

Solar?

Same headpiece but with gem down

or on horse hair

Flowers on horse hair

or on horse hair and rigelene frames:

La Esmeralda, not sure if I will add the coin trim

Possibly a Diana headpiece in silver with a diamante moon.

My husband makes most of my wire frames which are needed for the more heavily, jewel encrusted head dresses but I will have to wait for those.
None are finished yet but I will post photos once they are.

Side of the bun: fun little headpieces

During the last few weeks I have been trying my hand at making head pieces, that sit at the side of the bun.

Hand made organza rose with hot fix Swarovski crystals

The complete set of instructions on how to make these can be found in Claudia Folts book: Finishing Touches.  The flowers can be made of silk, organza or other polyester fabric. Individual petals are cut and then sewn or glued together and mounted on hair pins,  a decorated shape of lace, fabric and/or netting. Depending on the costume style crystals, lace, beads, sequins and trims can be added to embellish the headpiece.

For a Spanish style costume I made a mantilla and then added a fabric rose to it.

Spanish style mantilla with fabric rose

The Sleeping beauty awakes: creating a new ballet

Johann Studier and Beth Mochizuki rehearse the Rose Adagio

For the 2010-2011 season, Ithaca Ballet, was to stage a full length Sleeping Beauty for the first time (see this article).
Sleeping Beauty is one of the more popular and challenging ballets, with several acts.
Staging  a ballet of this size requires a huge amount of work by the choreographer, artistic director, set designers, costume designers, costumers, stage crew and dancers.
Scott Dolphin (www.scottdolphinstudio.com) took charge of the shows overall costume design because he had the most experience and expertise in this area. He contacted Cornell's theater department and arranged the rental of several gorgeous costumes for the King, Queen and courtiers.

Count and Countess costume

I together with my assistant Carrie set to work making a very large number of new tutus (24), refurbishing some of the existing tutus (4) and Carrie sewed prince Florimund's coat from a design Scott made.

Sleeping Beauty Act 1 Waltz costume

The wardrobe mistress began collecting existing costumes and sewing new costumes for the Act 1 Waltz and new bodices for the vision scene.

The ballet begins with a prologue in which there are several solos for Fairies who come to give gifts at the Christening of the Princess Aurora. For most of these we used existing costumes. For Crystal Fountain fairy we used the Dew Drop bodice and a Raymonda tutu. Fairy of the Enchanted garden was dressed in the Sugar Plum fairy costume and Fairy of the Woodland Glade wore the a Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers demi-solists costume.

 Sleeping beauty: refurbished Golden Vine, Crystal Fountain fairy, Enchanted garden Fairy, Woodland glade Fairy

For the Fairy of the Golden Vine, we used the Nutcracker's Ballerina doll tutu which I refurbished

 Old Golden Vine tutu before refurbishment, it also doubles as Nutcracker's ballerina doll tutu

 by adding several additional layers of hand dyed tutu net. I also added a double hand pleated top layer of green embroidered mirror organza decorated with hand-made golden leaf and vine appliques. This top layer was tacked on as a plate so that it could later be removed when the tutu needed to be used for Nutcracker.
I later created a matching bodice in mustard yellow velvet with a jacquard inset, with hand-made gold leaf vine appliques, green mirror organza leaves and a headpiece with several appliques and leaves sewn to horsehair braid.

Sleeping beauty: refurbished Fairy Goldenvine tutu with new bodice

An evil Fairy, Carabosse, appears with her retinue and curses the baby princess. The good Lilac fairy appears (with her six attendants) and changes the spell.

 Carabosse's dress was a dress created by my mother and then altered for the dancer.

Carabosse, the evil fairy, Ithaca ballet Sleeping beauty

Scott created the design for Carabosses's new dress, and the costumes for her attendants.

Scott also created a new bodice and plate and refurbished the head piece for the Lilac Fairy while I made a new Lilac fairy tutu and six new tutus for the attendants.

four of the six Lilac Fairy attendants tutus ready for tacking

sewing layers of hand dyed tutu net to pants

The attendants wore bodices made for Raymonda. Scott hand dyed the pants and many of the layers of netting lilac for me and I mixed tulle in rose pink, lilac and periwinkle to create the right shading of the tutus.

Lilac fairy tutu with a lilac attendant bodice

The bodice and basque were made of a lilac velveteen, six of the nine layers of the tutu were double hand pleated and the top layer was triple hand pleated.

Ithaca ballet Sleeping beauty: Lilac fairy (design Scott Dolphin) and two attendants, tutus by Hilary Sharp

During act 1 of the ballet, it is the princess Aurora's sixteenth birthday. There is a large birthday party with her parents, friends, courtiers, towns people and several suitors in attendance. It is also the day that Carabosse's spell was said to come true. The local peasants dance a flower waltz; Aurora's friends dance and the four suitors dance the famous Rose Adagio with Aurora. It is called the Rose adagio because each suitor hands her a rose.

Beth Mochizuki as Aurora in act 1 of Sleeping beauty

For this act, Scott created a beautiful silk velvet bodice for Aurora, a plate and a headpiece. I created a pink tutu with several shades of pink netting and tulle and a top layer of pink sparkle netting.
At the end of Act 1, Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle and everyone falls asleep. The Lilac fairy and her attendants come to put everyone to sleep and a huge wall of thorns grows up.
One hundred years later, Prince Florimund is in the forest hunting with his retinue. The Lilac fairy appears to him and shows him a vision of a beautiful sleeping princess, with whom he dances.

Scott Dolphin still sewing on the day of the performance

Ithaca ballet sleeping beauty, tutus by Hilary Sharp, photo by Johann Studier,

For this scene my assistant Carrie and I created 12 Romantic length, Williamsburg blue tutus which were worn as over skirts over the old snow tutus. The wardrobe mistress created 12 bodices. On the day of the performance, we also made 12 small headpieces for the dancers by ironing Wonder-under (tm) onto some metallic flower fabric and sewing/gluing ribbon to this with silver fabrics flowers and Swarovski crystals on to them.
My assistant Carrie Lampman created prince Florimund's velvet hunting vest after a scetch and pattern made by Scott.

Brent Whitney as Prince Florimund, coat design Scott Dolphin, made by Carrie Lampman

 After Prince Florimund see the sleeping Aurora, he awakens her with a kiss.
The final act of the ballet is often called Aurora's wedding is is sometimes performed as a short ballet.
During the wedding scene, many story book characters come to visit including the White Cat and Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, along with Jewels (Diamond, Silver, Gold and Sapphire) and Princess Florine and her Bluebird.
For Act three,  I: 1) refurbished the Red Riding Hood tutu with a new top layer

 Red Riding hood before refurbishment

Refurbished Red Riding Hood tutu

2) made new tutus for three of the jewels: Diamond, Silver and Gold and refurbished the Sapphire with a new top layer. All the new tutus had 5 layers of double hand-pleated, hand dyed tutu net or a mixture of tulle. The Diamond tutu had layers of pale blue tulle added in and had a sparkle tulle top layer. The Silver tutu was graded shades of platinum, silver, and graphite glimmer tulle, hand-dyed deep pearl grey pants and lower layers of tutu net and had a double hand pleated top layer of black glimmer tulle and silver sparkle tulle. The Gold tutu was graded shades of antique gold, lemon yellow, and gold tulle, hand dyed layers of golden yellow tutu net and a double hand pleated top layer of gold sparkle netting. The top plate-like layer on the Sapphire tutu consisted of two layers of double hand-pleated  silver sparkle tulle, royal blue, Williamsburg blue and jewel blue tulle.

 Sleeping Beauty Act 3: New Diamond, Silver and Gold tutu and a refurbished Sapphire tutu, tutus by Hilary Sharp

3) Re-beaded the Blue bird's jacket and refurbished Princess Florine's bodice and tutu by rebeading the decorations and adding several layers of fresh tutu net and a double hand pleated plate style top-layer of Royal blue, Williamsburg blue and jewel toned tulle. The dancer added feathers, made a new feather headpiece and arm bands herself.

re-beaded Princess Florine bodice

refurbished Florine tutu

Sleeping beauty: Refurbished Blue bird and Princess Florine, Aurora's wedding Act 3

Scott made a new bodice and plate for the White Cat and we used our new Dew Drop tutu. Scott made Puss in Boots new breeches, I knitted the tail out of rust colored fun fur and Scott ordered all the masks. Finally Scot and I made new costumes for Prince Florimund and Aurora. Scott designed and created Prince Florimund's coat, Aurora's bodice and plate. I created the tutu. It was completed double hand pleated white tutu net, with pale pink tulle "sandwich" layers with an off white velvet basque and bodice. The lace on the bodice and the plate was a re-embroidered bridal lace with Swarovski crystals and pearls with additional hot-fix crystals added on.

Ithaca ballet sleeping beauty: Aurora Act 3 bodice
design by Scott Dolpin

sleeping beauty: Aurora act 3 (Aurora's wedding) tutu

The tiara was purchased.
The production as a whole was simply stunning and a testament to what a small (town) ballet company can achieve when it puts all its talented people to work together. Something of this size cannot be done by one or two people but has to be a true team effort, with everyone contributing.

Sleeping beauty: Beth Mochizuki as Aurora, Brent Whitney as Prince Florimund

Flower circlets

Flower circlets are a very effective headpiece and relatively easy to make. Variations of these headpieces can be used for Nutcracker's Waltz of the flowers, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty but also for a bride or brides' maids.
How to make these circlets is described in detail in Claudia Folts book Finishing touches, so I cannot "share" those instructions here but I can describe some of how I made the circlets.

Materials for flower circlets

For my project, I choose pale pink silk flowers and leaves, some of which I dyed pale blue and pale lilac with RIT dye, to match the costumes I was making. I also had some artificial spring flowers (apple blossoms) in pale yellow and peach pink, which I used as is.
Most artificial flowers sold at craft stores such as Michaels, A.C. Moore and Jo-Annes are made of a polyester based fabric, which cannot be dyed with RIT or Dylon dyes. Polyester requires a special dye which is more difficult to use for the average non-professional user. You can use Design Master spray paint to color these types of artificial flowers.
I started by making a wire circlet and then covered it with strips of fabric. I used scraps of tulle because tulle does not ravel but ribbon, or bias cut strips of other fabric can be used.

Flower circlets wrapped with tulle and some flowers added

The flowers were sewn to the circlet using some milliners thread and then glued with Fabrictac (tm) glue.

loops for pinning

I also sewed on some millinery elastic loops to the circlets to make it even easier to pin the circlet to the head. The circlets are fairly flexible, so they can be pined without the loops but this way it is easier to do so invisibly.

Completed flower circlet

To finish the circlets and give them some sparkle, I added 4 mm hot fix Swarovski crystals in pastel shades to some of the centers and flower petals.

Odette-Odile headpieces

 Swan lake headpieces: Odette (Swan queen, white swan) and Odile (Black swan)
There are many different styles of headpieces for these two roles. Thanks to the movie  Black Swan,  the only style you can find via Google seems to be copies (both good, bad and ugly) of the ones seen in the movie.
Mine were inspired by Laura Cuthbertsons' Odette headpiece, as seen here:

 and Polina Seminova's Odile headpiece as seen here:

Chiffon dresses

I am slowly making progress on the chiffon dresses and rainbow colored skirts. What appeared to be relatively easy and straight forward was much more challenging than I thought. Maybe because it is the end of the school year/season, maybe because I simply underestimated the complexity of the task but for some reason progress is painfully slow.

I first made the mistake of miscalculating the amount of fabric needed for the circle skirts. I ended up with 6 half circles instead of 6 circle skirts. Thankfully that problem was easily solved and the skirts only required one fitting. Once the little girls were wearing them, they were so pretty and worth all the effort.

 The dresses turned out to be another matter. I started by pleating the chiffon for the bodice and broke several needles. This should not happen with a light fabric like chiffon but it did. After taking the pleater apart, and adding new needles it did not take long to re-pleat the fabric.

Adding new needles to the smocking

Next I managed to do something to my serger and it made a horrible rattling noise. Again, this is not supposed to happen with a light fabric such as chiffon but after some tinkering the noise went away and so I sewed on.
I decided to use French seams because I thought it would look better and be more durable. French seams do look better on chiffon but they make altering difficult. You also need to take into account that they reduce the size of the garment more than regular seams. I forgot both these things and ended up, unpicking the dresses several times.
I had drawn a new pattern because these dresses were meant for young women rather than children. This meant that the dresses needed some way of opening them, so as to be able to put them on (minor detail). After some fiddling, I worked out a way to open them under the arm, without distorting the lines of the ruching. This meant that I had to back smock (add smocking stitches invisibly to the back of the bodice front and back) all the rows of pleating, which takes a lot of time but in the end I think the result was better.

back of chiffon dress

front of chiffon dress

The final piece of equipment to give out was my ruffler; it just seemed to get stuck. After cleaning and oiling it, the ruffler was back to "normal" and I finally was able to assemble the dresses.

sky blue chiffon dress

lilac chiffon dress with headpiece

The dresses have little flounced sleeves and will be worn over leotards. I will also add some matching flowers to the left shoulder.
Despite all the hassles, I was very happy with the results and the dancers looked beautiful in their flowing dresses.
I think that is the best past of a project: if you can keep going through some (minor) frustrations to see the results at the end. A happy smiling dancer makes it all worth while.

Start of flower circlets

Flower circlet

 Finally I assembled the flower circlets, using directions from Claudia Folts' (Tutu.com) book Finishing touches. I hand dyed some of the silk flowers light blue or lilac to match the dresses, sewed on some little loops so that the circlets could be pinned onto the dancer's hair and added hot-fix Swarovski crystals in colors to match the flowers.

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.