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.

Spanish skirts and practice tutus

Several weeks ago, I blogged about the Spanish skirts and the practice tutus I had been making. Thanks to Stephanie Harris of Harris photographyhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Harris-Photgraphy/366353280120806?ref=ts&fref=ts and Annelise, Catherine, Bridget and Gabrielle, soloists and senior dancers at the Ithaca Ballet for participating in my first photo shoot.
The costumes highlighted each individual dancers unique beauty and style (and I ran out of adjectives to describe them; I mean how many ways can you state the obvious that these girls look magnificent?!)

Bridget and Catherine look gorgeous in these Spanish skirts

 Bridget looks regal and beautiful in this four tiered Spanish skirt in black and

Soloist Catherine embodies a Spanish princess in this Spanish skirt with matching mantilla and rose headpiece

Annelise personifies the icy beauty of the Snow Queen.
This costume includes a stunning Russian style headpiece

Practice tutus are available for sale at my Etsy site or via SharpSewingNY facebook page.

These tutus are perfect for class: 

Practice tutus in pink, white and black
Perfect for class 

 

Rehearsal: 

Catherine soars in her practice tutu, customized with a double hand-pleated top layer.

Or Performance:

Catherine, Bridget and Annelise take a bow

Catherine, Bridget and Annelise

Soloists Catherine (at left) and Annelise (at right) model their practice tutus
Catherine's tutu has a double hand-pleated top layer and Annelelise's tutu is custom sized.

The dancer's also modeled some of the custom made items that I offer:

Annelise models a custom made Sugar plum performance tutu

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

ruffle, ruffle, ruffle= new tutus and some Spanish skirts

I finally bit the bullet and have made a start on new tutus. One of my big dreams is to build a collection of costumes to offer for rent or sale and have real live people rent or buy them. My dreams are big but my budget and wallet are not. Also, very few people "know" my work.  Seriously, would you shell out upwards of $500 to a complete stranger to make something for you? No, neither would I.
I am hoping though that a few people might be willing to take a chance of renting something, see the quality of my work and then decide to buy.
Efin, what have I started making?
Over the summer I attended Tutu.com's tutu school and besides working really really hard, I learned to make some beautiful items including Spanish skirts. I also went to a mill store with my mother and found some wonderful black and burgundy fabric which just had that Latin feel to it.

A Spanish skirt takes between 40-42 yards of ruffled lace trim which even at the low price of 50 cents a yard gets pricy. You can imagine how  happy I was to find several yards of lovely burgundy lace at a thrift store for next to nothing. All it required was for me to cut it into strips and ruffle it.

Strips of lace to be ruffled for trim

Next I cut out the fabric for the under skirt and the four tiers of ruffles and started ruffling.

Underskirt, lace strips and fabric ruffles

Ruffling lace for trim

After ruffling lace for what seemed like days, I sewed my trim to the fabric layers of the skirt and then went back to ruffling the fabric layers.

First ruffled layer sewn onto underskirt

After each layer was ruffled, it had to be pinned and sewn onto the underskirt. The fabric I used didn't ruffle as tightly as the sparkle organza I had used previously so I spent a lot of time pulling up the gathering threads. Still as each layer was sewn on the skirt began to take on a lovely shape.

layer 2 sewn on, half way there

Layer 3, one more layer to go!

Once I reached the top layer, there was a lot of lace and fabric but the skirts really looked good. After the top layer was sewn on, the basque was attached, then hooks and eyes and voila, a super ruffly Spanish skirt.

The other projects I worked on was a tutu for a competition. I decide to use a stretch satin to make the bodice and basque since i had found 12 yards of it a local thrift store again for next to nothing. The fabric was great to work with (surprisingly easy) but once made I was not happy with how it looked.

The Snow Queen (by Hans Christen Anderson )

costume

The sheen on the satin made the whole ensemble a little too Halloween costume like. Good news was that the costume was for a Halloween contest but it wasn't what I had originally envisioned. I may some day remake this in a silk chiffon.

Kokoshnick style headpiece

Together with dh, I did make a stunning headpiece. It was done as a Russian kokshnik, with silver mesh, diamante jewels, crystals and some lovely trims. The front diamond was made of a vintage diamante triangle (possibly it was a brooch or a belt buckle).

white practice tutu

The final thing I worked on were three practice tutus, two black and one white. Thanks to all I had learned at tutu school (and the fact that I had surpassed the 90th tutu mark) these went together much, much easier than in the past and the result was even better.
My next project will be to finally take the online craftsy class, the couture dress, I started on this summer and give tutus a rest for a few weeks.

It is not a dream: How to clean (ballet) costumes

 There was a time when people were afraid to wash: themselves, their homes, their clothing. As a result people well, ...stank. At some point in time we discovered that by washing our bodies, our clothing and our homes we not only smelt better, we prevented disease and clothing lasted longer.
In the ballet world there was (and sad to say still is) a superstition or false belief among some that washing is bad for costumes.
Incorrect cleaning could potentially damage a costume but not cleaning, well it is simply disgusting as dancers sweat, a lot. If an item of clothing is simply hung back into storage after wearing, it can accumulate mold and bacterial growth, besides the worst b.o. imaginable.
Can and should you clean costumes?
The simple answer is yes; the more complicated answer follows.
Besides general hygiene, cleaning a costume before it is returned to storage greatly increases the life expectancy of the costumes. Sweat, oils from the skin and other bodily secretions rot fabrics, especially natural fabrics (silk, rayon, cotton). Synthetics such as polyester, nylon and acetate will also deteriorate over time when not cleaned. This is more due to the bacteria and molds that grow and feed on the sweat and skin cells than the bodily fluids themselves.
A ballet tutu is largely made up of nylon net and the pants are either nylon/spandex or cotton bobbin-net. The basque (part at the waist) can be made from silk, cotton, cotton/rayon or nylon; again all washable. Bodices can be made of a wide range of fabrics, most of which can be washed but here it can get tricky. If the fabrics were not washed before being made into the bodice they could potentially run or shrink. Often spot cleaning or dry-cleaning can be used.
To clean a ballet costume first find out what it is made of. Next if possible remove any decorations. Often decorations are applied to a plate or overlay that is tacked to the tutu and the bodice.  Only Swarovski hot-fix crystals have a patented glue that is dry-cleanable.
For the tutu, soaping and then thoroughly rinsing the crotches with warm water is usually sufficient. A mild soap such as Orvus (OrvusWA paste, purchased at the tractor supply store) or hand soap such as Ivory works well. If needed (for blood, urine or other stains) you can make a paste or soak the crotch in a product such as Biz or Oxyclean. Rarely do you need to wash the whole tutu. If you do, soak in the bath tub or a small kiddy pool. Use a minimum of soap because the tutu net works as a huge bath scrubby and produces a lot of bubbles.
Always air dry costumes and if possible expose the items to sunlight for several hours. Just sunlight will kill both bacteria and mold if given enough time. The only down side of this is that (high doses of) U.V. light will over time break down synthetic fibers such as nylon, acetate and polyester.
For spot cleaning again Orvus or Quick and Brite work well. Quick and Brite is very good for wiping lipstick and other make-up stains off of tights and leotards.
For silk, adding a table spoon or two of distilled, white vinegar to the rinse water also helps to clean them.

Blue silk and lace peignoir from the 1930's, with original vintage buttons

I recently was given a large number of vintage items. All had been stored in a box in a basement and they smelled of mildew. I carefully hand washed every single item using Orvus soap, luke-warm or cold water and air + sun drying. Not only are they clean and no longer smell, their colors are brighter, the fabric is crisper and they will last for many more years.

A 1970's pants suit made of Indonesian Batik

Edwardian (1900's) black silk tulle with tambour style lace embroidery.

Cleaning ones costumes and Vintage items is simply protecting an investment of time and money.

What else is new?

I haven't posted for a while but I have been sewing a few things. I have been fortunate to have had a lot of (local) business lately both alterations and custom work.

African batik fabric, cut to be sewn into skirt

The custom work has been fun because I got to work with some gorgeous African Batiks. I made two skirts. One (which I did not photograph, sorry) required a careful matching of the intricate pattern. It turned out very well and was definetly not an "off the rack" item. The other skirt needed the "right" pattern to display the beautiful colors and unique patterns of the fabric. Together the cutomer and I choose a tiered skirt with a yoke waist and ruffled lower edge.  The skirt was more than a full circle which allowed us to show off the fabric's beauty but did not make a skirt that was so large to overwhelm the petite wearer.

Finished skirt

Today, I was able to hand over the skirt to the customer and not only did it fit perfectly, it looked stunning, so I was very happy with the result.
My next major project will be to start building tutus for my (rental) business. I have three dancer's who have volunteered to be models. Yesterday and today I drew new basque patterns using the techniques I learned at tutu school and I made some adjustments to the panty patterns I had made to get a better fit. I'll keep you posted about this process as I go along.