Wedding splendor

My brother was recently married to a lovely young lady. To celebrate this happy occasion I pulled out all the stops to create some lovely clothing for myself, my mother and my sister-in-law. My brother's fiance now wife loves the "Roaring Twenties", so I offered to make her a 1920's inspired veil out of silk and some vintage lace I had.
When it comes to historical clothing, I try to be as authentic as possible. There is a lot of "flapper style" and 1920's  style clothing out there that no self respecting women of the time would have worn to a party, let alone to her wedding.

not 1920's style

Dresses in the 1920's had dropped waists (i.e. were not body hugging or tight fitting) came at least to the knee, and did not feature midriff baring cut-outs, plunging necklines or no backs. They tended to be very "demure". Wedding veils were a a type of mob cap with flowers on both sides of the head or large cloche hats.

A bride in 192o's on her wedding day

Not everyone looks good with a lace cap and some big bunches of flowers over their ears (let's face it it is a "different" look). Since I had some authentic 1920's lace I was able to simulate something that was closer to the period. My sister-in-law loves lotus flowers so I made one large lotus flower out of silk organza, with Swarovski crystals and pearls for the centers. I also added some authentic 1920's style ribbon work flowers in pale blue and ivory. The lace was no longer white but a lovely creamy ivory and I made a silk covered head band as the base. My sister-in-law did not want a long veil.

laces loosely pinned to head form

Not long ago I purchased an e-book from Prudence millinery  explaining how to make couture fabric flowers and headbands, and I used these instructions to construct the veil's base. 

Front view of completed veil

Side view of completed veil

 

 

 

 

After making the veil I made myself a dress and made matching hats for myself and my mother. My dress was made of a very pretty polyester chiffon and my mother's dress was a grey Duponi silk.

Beginnings of dress and hats

My hat was a large flower, while the two hats I made for my mother were a similar flower in grey and black silk and a large horse hair bow with netting on a silk base.

Black and grey Duponi silk hat

Chiffon and silk cocktail hat with veiling

Horsehair, black silk and Russian veiling hat

The wedding was lovely: my sister-in-law looked very beautiful and my brother was radiantly happy.

Swans and flowers and tutus oh my

 I haven't posted for a while due to the large amount of work I have had on recently.
After finishing the Civil war ball gowns I had to hustle to full fill an order for Swan lake bodice overlays and plates for a customer, make a dress, veil and hats for my brother's wedding, sew 20+ costumes for a local dance recital, work on a gold metallic tutu for a customer and work on an enormous number of alterations.
First things first. A customer contacted me about Swan lake tutu decorations. I began by drawing a number of sketches for the customer so that she could choose what she liked and could afford.

Sketches of bodice overlays.

After that I ordered the rhinestones (Rhinestone guy's premium hot-fix crystals which are awesome), selected trims, cut the bodice overlay shapes, cut out 164 fabric "feathers" and the wing shapes.

fabric "feathers" for San lake plates

To make the bodice overlays, I pinned then sewed a false nude panel and silver rim onto netting, then glued hackle feathers and applied hot-fix rhinestones.

Swan lake bodice decoration overlays

To make the swan wing shaped decorations, I pinned and appliqued the feathers to heavy duty interfacing shapes, sewed this onto netting plates and applied the hot-fix crystals.

One swan lake tutu plate.

The basic technique and patterns for these tutu decorations are described in Claudia Folts book: "Finishing touches".
Next I worked on several items including a 1920's inspired wedding veil for my brother's wedding. I will write a separate post on that.
Next I worked on a large project of 20+ costumes for a dance recital. The theme of the performance was the parable of the sower and the seeds. The smallest children in the recital were to represent seeds being planted in the earth and then sprouting into beautiful flowers. My idea for the costumes were earth toned t-shirt, tights and tutus with petals that would drop down to "reveal" tulips, roses, sunflowers, daisies, clover and morning glories. The middle group of students were to be dancing princesses and the oldest dancers were to represent a gardener tending flowers (hyacinth and lavender).

fabric petals for 9 children's sprouting flower costumes

For the little children's costumes I ruffled large amounts of earth toned tulle, which I sewed to elastic waists, over which two rows of brown and colored petals were stitched. Ribbon loops were attached to the brown side of the petals, and when they were tied up with ribbon, the children looked like little brown seeds. Once the ribbons were untied, the petals dropped down to reveal their "true" colors.
For each of the dancing princesses I made flowered circlets with hand-made ribbon flowers on them, and tulle and ribbon streamers (the technique for this is also described in Claudia Folts' book, "Finishing touches").

Flowered "princess" headpiece with ribbon work flowers

For the dresses I drew out a new pattern combining elements from an old "Gunny Sachs" and "Daisy Kingdom" pattern. The dresses were made of pink, lavender and cornflower blue crepe with wide chiffon "princess" sleeves.

The beginnings of six "princess" dresses

Finished princess dress with headpiece

Lavender dress

Cornflower blue

For the oldest group of dancers, I made two Romantic length "petaled" tutus, with green tights, and top and for the gardener a yellow cotton and chiffon dress. The dancers representing the flowers had green velvet and ribbon work headbands, while the gardener wore a purchased straw hat. To reduce the fullness of the petaled tutus, I quilted the tulle along the hip line.

"Hyacinth" petaled tutu

"Lavender" petaled tutu

Green velvet and "lavender" ribbon work flowers

Finally I received an order for a custom made, gold metallic tutu. I loosely based the coloring and design on the Gold Fairy tutu I had made for a performance of Sleeping Beauty.  Key difference were that this tutu did not have as many layers of double hand pleating in it (three layers instead of 6), used some gold metallic mesh, a different type of enhanced sparkle net (purchased from Tutu.com) and a black basque instead of a gold basque. 

Gold mesh and gold enhanced sparkle nets

Original design + notes for the "Gold" fairy from Sleeping beauty

As for the original tutu, I did dye some of the tutu net and the pants a rich gold. I also, spray painted plastic tacks with gold metallic paint to hide them during tacking.

Bottom of tutu with hand-pleated god mesh and dyed to match panties.

The finished tutu looks very even and will be going out to the customer in the next day or two.

 

Completed gold tutu with black powernet basque

My plans for this summer are to work on custom leotards (I will post about this soon as I have started on the first 4 samples), go to Tutu.com's tutu school again (this time to learn men's costuming) and finally work on building some rental costumes for the fall.

How much??? charging what your time and work is worth

In this post I am going to talk about a touchy subject. What should one charge for custom work and what are reasonable expectations that customers can and should have when working with a costumer?
Due to the internet and cheap imports of clothing from China, many of us have the expectation of being able to buy a dress, skirt or even ballet costume for $20.

 There is a huge difference though in quality and fit between something mass produced and an item made, by hand, by a costumer. "Internet" tutus are often made with inferior materials such as hexagonal "craft" net, or stiffened cotton fabric. "Real" tutu netting can cost any where from $1.25 p/y to $25.00 p/y (this depends on color, glitter, sparkles, and stiffness) and a proper, professional quality, tutu has about 10 yds of pleated netting in it. Professional tutus are "built" not just sewn on fabric panties. This fabric can cost between $10-$40 p/yd.
Like all beginning costumers, I know I do not charge enough for my work. I recently made some bodice overlays and tutu plates which ended up being just above cost.  For each step, I sat with a timer, timing how long it took me to cut out, pin, glue, sew etc.etc. I now know have a much more accurate idea of how much time it takes to make things and can charge accordingly. Minimum wage in NY is $7.50 p/h, I have always calculated $10.00 p/h as my work is more "skilled" labor but honestly, that is dirt, dirt cheap. My 14 year old daughter was hired to do a house cleaning job and got paid $15.00 p/h ?! so I think it is only right and proper that I will be charging more in the future.
How much time does it take to make a professional tutu? I recently created a tutu and it took me 8 hrs of cutting, pleating, sewing, steaming, tacking and finishing.  I have made over 100 tutus in the last few years so it takes me a lot less time than a novice to sew a tutu, but at $10 p/h that is still $80.00 just for the labor. To hand-pleat a (top) layer, it now takes me, about 20 minutes but if I am pleating tulle, it takes longer.
This tutu was also a "plain" tutu, without a bodice, hoop, hand tacking and no additional decorations.
Making a tutu plate, with lace, appliques, crystals, feathers or other decorations can take a few hours and the materials (lace, trims etc.) are not inexpensive. Rhinestones range in price from $20-$45.00 per gross (144 pieces) depending on color, size and brand.
What about headpieces? Again, when you buy something from a costumer, you are getting hand work. If the tiara is made on a wire frame, these frames are bent to shape and then the crystals are wired on, one by one, and by hand. Something as "simple" as a Swan headpiece, which consists of feathers on a felt shape, still has to be hand-sewn and glued. The shapes are cut by hand and have individual loops sewn to them so that the headpiece can be pinned to the dancer's hair. The "right" types of feathers are also expensive and are seasonal. At one point, my wholesaler had the hackle pads on back order for 3 months due to the bird flu scare in the Far East.
As with everything in life: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. A professional tutu (with a bodice, decorations etc.) will cost around $500 and up, headpieces $25.00 (super simple, with few, inexpensive decorations) and up.  Can you find something cheaper online? Probably, but will it really be worth it? probably not.