Belles of the ball

Every year our local home school group has a civil war ball as an alternative to the standard prom. The kids love it because it removes a lot of the pressure to find a date, boys and girls dancing together etc. but they can have a great time getting all dressed up and just having fun.
What the dance does require is an authentic looking dress. This year I am making two to serve as rentals (for this but they could also be for the party scene in the Nutcracker) and my daughter needed a new bodice as she had grown. It is a good idea (and authentic) to make a bodice and a skirt rather than a dress. This allows alterations to be made more easily, and you can switch bodices for a fresh look.

My daughter in last year's  plum colored dress

I drafted new bodice patterns for all three girls and cut out toiles out of an old sheet, then went back made adjustments and cut out the lining fabric (a heavy 100% cotton twill).
My daughter's new bodice was inspired by Janet Arnold's "patterns of fashion" illustrations, Travis Halsey's "Regal" bodice and my own reworking. I changed the neck line and added sleeves.

My daughter's bodice in plum colored taffeta

The bodices for the other two dresses were a reworking of a Tutus that dance pattern (#2102) with a different neckline and sleeves. One will be in a pretty lilac taffeta, the other in a duck-egg blue.

Lilac plaid taffeta for dress 1

The lilac taffeta will have a draped front neck, as shown in the Janet Arnold illustration, while the blue dress is going to have ruffles, ribbons and flowers. These dresses will also have some lovely headpieces: one a simple hair band of ribbon rose, the other a lace and flowered "bonnet".

Beginning of the duck egg blue faux silk dress.

I worked on my daughter's bodice first as I had her to try things on. I have also been taking an online class called the "Couture dress" with Susan Khalje on Craftsy and learned some new basting and ironing techniques to get the underlining piece nice and flat.

One issue with taffeta (and other fabrics such as silk satin) is that you have to be very careful not to make mistakes, or when pinning, as it can mar the fabric. I made such a mistake on the purple bodice with the right panel so that it is is not 100% smooth. Also, to get the bottom cording into a nice sharp point, it is important to clip seams, carefully (hand) baste down seam allowance etc. so that everything will lie flat.
I spent what seemed like forever ironing the fabric, pinning, repinning etc. but the end result was well worth it. With taffeta's, satin's etc. it helps not to actually place the iron on the fabric but hold the steam iron above the fabric to "relax" it and then gently smooth and pull. Again a too hot iron can mar that type of fabric.

my daughter's purple taffeta bodice

My daughter's bodice looks good but the second bodice I made looked better.

Bodice 2 in duck egg blue

The sleeves on the duck-egg blue dress are lined and gathered. Once I've done another fitting I will begin to add lace, ruffles and other decorations to this bodice. The third bodice is a plaid taffeta and I tried hard to match the plaid but due to the shape and the bias cut panels it just was not possible to match everything perfectly.

Bodice 3 in lilac, plaid taffeta

This third bodice will had a pleated front as decoration. Both skirts will be cartridge pleated unto a basque style waist.
It is hard to photograph cartridge pleating. It is a technique which allows a large amount of fabric to be neatly gathered into a very small space.

Cartridge pleated skirt

"Bertha" and some ruffles for dress

The duck egg blue dress will have several layers of ruffles and a ruffles "bertha" in soft pink and gold lace.

completed duck egg blue bodice

Most of the pieces for the dresses are now assembled and once I have sewn them up I'll post some photographs.

Dress skirt ruffled and pinned.

The dresses will also have complimenting headpieces made with ribbon embroidery and I'll include a little write up of that. Enjoy!

Seeing opportunities: turning thrift store finds into beautiful hats

I have seriously caught the hat making bug. I found a lovely Vogue pattern and wanted to make some cocktail hats:

http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v8868-products-44627.php?page_id=181
Big problem: the materials listed are either not available or only through a whole saler. To make one hat I would have had to buy over $300 worth of supplies. After that I could make about 70 hats, but unless I have buyers lined up, that wasn't economically viable.
I am a thrifty person and since starting on this costuming journey, I have developed an eye for opportunities. While at one of my favorite thrift stores, I found a hat, a very ugly hat, but I realized that the materials were good quality horsehair.

Ugly thrift store find=great materials

I bought the hat and then took it apart. With just a little work, some feathers from my stash within a short time I had a lovely hat.

This type of hat is great for dance too as it is light weight and can be securely pinned.

Emboldened by this success, I went on to look at other types of hats. I found a wonderful blog called Hatstruck, and read several posts and then watched a great collection of videos on different hat making techniques. Sinnamay or hand woven grass makes lovely hats, but is very expensive. Hat blocks also can run upwards of $130 and my budget just isn't up to that.

A sinnamay place mat, some wooden bowls will become a hat

Thanks to the ideas on Hatstruck, I looked at the thrift store for materials for the hats, and found some handwoven sinnamay placemats, a wooden bowl and a little wooden lid with a lip. I drew a pattern, steamed and blocked the sinamay and then cut it out.

Blocking sinnamay

The sinnamay needs to be stiffened with something because it does not hold its shape very well. I have some rice starch which I am going to try but it may be that I will have to order proper sizing.
Just blocking the sinnamay with water and steam does not work long term. I got a ice shape but when I tried sewing it, the sinnamay just lost its' shape. So, I tried the rice starch. This is called Nori past and is used by the Japanese in making Kansashi flowers. I figured since it is used for giving silk (a natural fiber) some body, it should work on grass.  the only down side I can see is long term. Since rice starch is a natural product it could become moldy of the hat every got damp. Eventually I will order the "proper" supplies but since I am learning techniques now I figured this was good enough.

Sinnemay blocked with Nori paste

I took my foam head, covered it in cling wrap and then took the sinnamay, which I had first moistened with warm water, and pinned it onto the the head. Then I used a foam brush and brushed the Nori paste onto it and let everything dry overnight. This worked very well; the sinnemay was firm but still pliable. I then cut out a tear drop shape, rolled the edges to form a bound edge, made a wire shape and sewed everything together. I then covered the edge with some rayon ribbon. You could also use millinery gross grain.
While "researching" hat making techniques I came across some images of french ombre flowers. They are made from millinery gross grain ribbon and French wired ribbon. These items are pretty pricey to buy, if you can find them. My great aunt at one time made hats and I had a big box of trims in the cupboard. I never knew what to do with it but now, endless possibilities.

Huge box of vintage trims, millinery ribbon, rickrack etc.

I used some of the ribbons to make some ribbon flowers and then added this to the hat. I am still playing around with where to place the flowers and what I want the hat to look like but I think this is a pretty good first run.

Front view of the cocktail l hat with flowers

Side view of cocktail hat

I'll be trying some other techniques, shapes and ideas and I'; keep you posted.

Making hats for ballet

Just this week I made a hat for a dancer sight unseen.  When making a headpiece or any costume item choosing the right materials and colors is very important. The hat I was making was going to be brown with cranberry colored flowers. Sounds easy, no? but what is cranberry or even brown for that matter? Here is just a small example of shades of cranberry:

 If we are really honest though, color choices are much more like this; just look at the bottom row for "brown":

Since I did not have any fabric swatches I just guessed and made what I thought looked good; a bit risky but I figured if it looked pretty and had several shades, even if it wasn't a perfect match it would still look good. A good way to help with choosing colors and being on the same page when it comes to talking about colors  is to go to the paint store and select some of those chips.
Due to time constraints I had to go with what I had available so I dug into my stash and found some lovely velvets and some lilac and "cranberry" red silk. The dancer and I decided on the brown velvet for the hat base and then I came up with the idea to take silk organza and dye it several shades of "cranberry".

Fabrics from stash

 The next challenge for a ballet hat was its design.

Brown velvet, wired buckram shape and cranberry silk organza for the flowers.

No one wants a hat to fall off but on a dancer staying on your head is a minimal requirement not just "would be nice". A ballet hat has to be fairly strong too. A while back I purchased an e-book from Prudence millenry to help me learn how to make couture flowers and headbands. Using the methods describe there I made a frame of wire and buckram, covered it with some flannel and then applied the velvet. The book called for ice-wool, a short of wool knit batting but that is very hard to find and expensive so I substituted flannel as the flalene. I then dyed horsehair (a nylon, millenry mesh braid which is very strong but will blend into the dancers hair) and some mesh elastic and sewed that onto the bottom of the hat.
The flowers were made by hand, using bias cut tubing and hand cut petals. I also made some Yo-yo style daisies and sewed glass beads into the center to simulate stamens.
Although there are specialize sewing machines to sew hats, you can use a regular machine, I ended up sewing everything by hand to get the tight, clean finish I wanted. The book also shows that to get the best results, the hat shape should be hand sewn.

Hat after blocking

I then blocked and shaped the hat form. To do this I pinned the shape to a foam head and using steam, which softened the glue in the buckram, I reshaped it. Once the hat cools down, the buckram stiffens up again so that the hat keeps it shape. The horsehair on the bottom of the hat and the mesh elastic strap (which runs along the back of the head at the base of the skull) allows the hat to be pinned all around so it will not come off.

Close up of the flowers and hat.

I was happy with the completed hat and after testing it (sounds silly but I feel an once of prevention is worth it), it was packed up and sent off. Another busy week but certainly not dull!

Odette, Odile and Diana: more tiaras, crowns and headpieces

Gold lace and Swarovski hot fix crystal headpiece in Tanzanite and pinks.

The last few weeks have been so much fun for me with designing and making more ballet headpieces. I continued to work on the headpieces I had been making and finished both the gold and fuschia princess ones and the silver Diana one.

Silver Diana headpiece with large crystals AB and Swarovski ligh sapphire stones

Then I received an order for an Odette (white swan queen) headpiece from a dancer in California, so I finally had enough in the kitty to purchase supplies. When the packages arrived from the whole salers it was just like Christmas: all those gorgeous sparkly stones, real Swarovski teardrops, briolets and several gross vintage Precosia rosee montese and snowy white hackle pads. While waiting for my packages I had made the felt shapes for the feathers and my husband had made the wire frame.
The day the supplies arrived I set to work and by early evening I had a feather shape and the beginnings of the jewel:

Start of an Odette headpiece

Ideally, you need to try the feather shape on the dancer so that you can trim the feathers but since I could not do that I tried the headpiece on my daughter and then carefully trimmed, glued and sewed the feathers in place. The difference between this head pieces and the original one I made for Leila was remarkable. Real stones are just so much more sparkly and having the right shape to the feathers is more elegant.
Don't get me wrong. Leila looked stunning in her costume and the headpiece was beautiful but the new headpiece was just more so. Judge for your self:

original Odette headpiece

new Odette, sent to California

Now that I have so many beautiful supplies I am going to create another Odile (black swan) headpiece and I have been drawing designs for a slew of other ones. I am especially inspired to make some beautiful  fairy ones. I'll keep you posted on how that  goes.

More headpieces: Raymonda, Le Corsaire, La Esmeralda, Diana and Acteaon etc.

I confess I went a little crazy the other day and started making some headpieces...at present I am up to 12 and counting. What brought this on? Cabin fever? (it is currently snowing and cold) Just my average over-enthusiasm? Huge popular demand? Well a little bit of everything. I received several request over at my Etsy store for (unusual) headpieces but had nothing to offer. Since everyone wanted them yesterday, well I was unable to oblige. Also, I like making headpieces: all that glitter, all those jewels and laces it is just the most fun about costuming.
I also discovered that I had materials, lots and lots of materials and dh said that I could not bring another item into the house without getting rid of something. So.....
Many of the basic headpiece shapes were made according to Claudia Folts' instructions for tulle princess headpieces, as described in her book "Finishing touches",  some headpieces I saw online and the rest came from my very active imagination.
Here are some of the finished ones:
Several could be for Arabian or Oriental themed ballet roles and depending on the colors of the  costume (pinks, purple, blues etc.) would work.

La Bayadiere, Arabian style headpiece in pink, burgundy and purple modeled by Lydia

La Bayadiere, Arabian etc. in pink/burgundy and purple tulle

I made two green and gold headpieces  that would be great for La Esmeralda.One is a wire circlet with flat sequins while the other is built on a horsehair frame and has coin trim on it.

Swarovski hot fix stones along the front.

Most of the crystals I used were sewn or wired by hand and were Chinese crystals. They had been sold to me as Swarovski but when I received them it was clear to me that they were not (the facets on the crystals were not uniform or the coatings looked "oily). It would have cost too much to send them back and I figured that if I clearly label them as what they are (i.e. made in China imitations) and charged a much lower price for these headpieces than it would be okay to use them. The stones do still sparkle more than acrylic and they look good especially when inter-spaced with real Swarovski.  From now on I will only order from companies that can guarantee that the crystals are Swarovski or Precosia (i.e. they only come in factory sealed packs).
I made two headpiece with different shades of blue tulle and gold or silver trim, which would look lovely with a blue and gold or a blue and silver tutu. Possible ballet roles would be Raymonda, Le Corsaire or even La Bayadere: 

This headpiece could be for and Arabian themed role such as Solor (if it was turned the other way or had a feather added, or even something like the Pharoh's daughter:

I was very happy that I received a request for a custom made Raymonda headpiece for a lovely dancer in Florida. I shipped it out this morning and I am hoping that she will be very happy with it because it was so much more beautiful than the photo lets on. I also hope that I will get some great press from it because if she likes it and her friends like it etc. than I might get a few more customers.

A Raymonda headpiece made for a customer in royal blue, black velvet and dark purple

Having a custom order and another sale motivated me to finish more.
The headpiece that is my current favorite is the Diana and Actaeon headpiece. It is a wreath of gold plastic leaves dotted with hand-sewn red Chinese bicone crystals.

Diana headpiece

After a lot of fiddeling around I made a redish-gold center moon applique and added some large crystal AB rhinestones to it. All of these items are so hard to photograph but I think this gives a pretty good idea of what it looks like.

Completed Diana headpiece with center moon shaped jewel

I am also working on one in silver and pale blue, possibly with some silver stars and a Talisman or other oriental princess crown using a very pretty lace.

Finally I have been learning how to make flowers using flower petals and making real silk flowers. I found an online book/picture tutorial from Prudence millinery (she makes hats for Vivienne Westwood among others) which was very good. I started by dying some silk organza I had into lovely sorbet colors and once I get my sewing room in a bit more shape, I'll start making the flowers. I'll keep you posted!

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.