Busy year with YAGP and dance competitions.

Talk about luxury "problems". I have been lax with posting since this past season I have been kept busy with multiple fun projects for dancers around the world. Headpieces, especially the Swan lake ones, are consistently popular and in the past year I have sent them off to dancers in France, Singapore, Australia and all over the US. This year I also made a Blue bird headpiece which was a nice change, and I made a few headpiece for Gamzatti and of course the Cinderella headpieces (see post on this).

Blue bird headpiece with custom made jewel

Swan lake headpiece with custom made jewel

Blue version of a Gamzatti headpiece

Red version of a Gamzetti headpiece with a c hand beaded jewel

Bodice "leotard" back

In the Fall I made 22 bodice style leotards for a group of dancers in Wisconsin, starting at girl size 10 all the way up through womens large. It was a challenge since I could not do any fittings, did not have a pattern to work from (I  drew a new pattern using pieces from A Tutus that dance,Jalie and Kwik Sew pattern) and I had to dye the white powernet for the bodice to match the ivory lycra.

Bodice "leotard" front

The bodice leotard over a Romantic length pink tutu.

Also, my serger had a lot of trouble getting through 4 layers of lycra at times but I did get everything done on time and the dancers did have something to wear.



I learned a lot and if I ever have to do something like  this again, I will do a much better job.
The client was not unhappy as later in the year they ordered 18 pink tutus for their Spring competition and recital.
As Christmas approached I had a number of leotard orders which were fun to make. I plan to work on improving my leotards this summer as I am not totally happy with the fit and finishing of some models. I made a child size biketard and appliqued lace to the sleeves, front and back and I made a very pretty Royal blue and black child size leotard. Thanks to the many orders just after Christmas I was able to purchase an industrial serger so making high quality leotards will become much easier.

child size biketard with lace appliques

back of child sized biketard with lace appliques

child size leotard.

Just after Christmas I also received several orders for YAGP which is always exciting since there are so many different costumes to work on.
My first costume was a Fille Mal Garde, based on the Paris Opera's costume followed by a Flames of Paris, a Cupid with matching headpiece and a Talisman. I also sold the Esmeralda headpiece I had made. I used patterns by Travis Halsey (Flames of Paris bodice), Tutus that Dance (Fille costume) and drew my own patterns for the Cupid and Talisman tunics and over dress based partly on a Vogue dress pattern and a ballet tunic from the book "Dressing for the Ballet". I used Dani Legge's stretch tutu pattern for the leotard under both the Cupid and Talisman costume.

Fille Mal Garde

Cupid

Talisman

Cupid headpiece

Flames of Paris

Talsiman YAGP costume

Flames of Paris YAGP costume

Dancers on stage at YAGP in Cupid, Talisman and Flames of Paris

Cupid YAGP costume

 

Dancers at different YAGP competitions around the country.

Spanish Costume with couture bodice

After Christmas, I worked on a costume for a dancer in Canada. For her I recreated a Spanish costume I had made during tutu school. I used Travis Halsey's Elegent pattern and Claudia Folts '(Tutu.com) four tier Spanish skirt pattern. The skirt has over 42 yards of ruffled lace, 10+ yards of fabric, the bodice was made with silk brocades, silk Dupioni, hand painted glitter mesh lace and a red lace overlay. I added black lace sleeves and a red rose side of the bun headpiece.

Summer has arrived and I will be closing up shop for a few weeks so that I can try to finish a few rental costumes.
I also want to work on my leotard sewing technique and making up samples of each of the different models I want to have on offer for the Fall. I currently have been using a Tutus that dance pattern with modifications for a square neck and a sweetheart neckline leotard

Sweetheart leotard, Tutus that dance pattern

Square neck leotard, Tutus that dance

Kwik-Sew leotard pattern

 and several Kwik Sew patterns with modifications for tank, turtle neck and camisole leotard. I would like to get a better, more consistent fit and finishing but will need to work on sewing them with the serger, and coverstitch machine until I am really happy. I also want to make up some samples of little skirts, both mesh and fabric, and a stretch tutu using Dani Legge's pattern and instructions. I always have big plans but find that time and focus can be a problem.

Cinderella sparkles

I realize it has been a long time since I last posted anything. Honestly I have been so busy with a large number of projects that I have not had a lot of time.
Last year I took a tambour embroidery class with Robert Haven of the Bead Embroidery and Design studio, and since then (no pun intended) I have been hooked on this beautiful art form.
The same ballet company who contacted me last year, requested headpieces for their Cinderella ballet this time. I went to work collecting beads, sequins and lots of crystals.
The ballet's designer C.R. had sent me a very helpful set of fabric swatches and some photographs of the tutus so I had a bit more to work on this time.

I created an elaborate tiara for Cinderella to wear to the ball all done in gold and crystal aurora borealis (AB) crystals. I drew a crescent moon and used gold foiled lace flowers to create the base for the stars.

Moon and Star gold foiled lace appliques for Cinderella tiara

The lace was appliqued onto stretched tutu net, so that I could later trim away as much of the support fabric as possible. I also hand-dyed some of the same laces that I used in the seasons Fairies tiaras to use as trim on Cinderellas tiara, so that there was some continuity between the headpieces.

Moon and Stars for Cinderella tiara with crystal AB and rose crystal centers

In the ballet Cinderella, there are four fairies, one for each season Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Often the costumes are done in "seasonal" colors: white, pale blue for winter, pastels for spring, brighter colors for summer and reds, browns and oranges for autumn.

For this ballet, the designer choose various shades of pink for each season. At first that was a bit of a challenge but I decided to use similar botanical elements: Dogwood, Mountain Ash, and Oak leaves plus flowers to symbolize the seasons. I drew patterns for each tiara onto grid paper and repeated the branch and leaf structure for each tiara base.
After much searching I also found some beautiful laces, which I hand dyed and then tinted to act as my tiara bases. To give them a metallic look, I applied gold or silver foil to the laces and appliqued them onto tutu net.

Spring tiara and Cinderella's stars with beads and sequins

For Winter, I used mostly mountain ash and dogwood branches with clusters of berries. The outlines were done in silver thread and I used tiny silver lined bugle beads, seed beads and little pink iris sequins.

Winter fairy tiara base

Once the beads and sequins had been tamboured onto the lace back ground, I glued the crystals onto the shapes.

Adding crystals to Fairy Winter's tiara base

Fairy Winter in pale pink lace, silver beads and pink iris sequins

For Spring, I again used Dog Wood and Mountain ash but this time added leaves and flowers and some tulips.

Spring fairy tiara base, gold foiled lace ready for embroidery

 The embroidery was done in green bugle and seed beads, gold thread, orchid pink cup sequins and various shades of pink Swarovski crystals. Some of the flower centers were made with Lochrosen crystals.

Fairy Spring tiara, with orchid and emerald sequins, green seed beads and Swarovski and Precosia crystals

The Summer fairy tiara again had the basic branch structure but now it had Morning glory vines, and bright flowers. I did not use any greens for the leaves but instead used golds and reds. Fairy Summer had two attendants, so I created smaller versions of the principles tiara.

Fairy summer attendant tiara base.

Fairy Summer attendant

 

 

Fairy Summer tiara in fuschia, red and gold sequins, beads and fire opal Swarovski crystals

Finally Fairy Autumn, had leaves and branches and three large Aster's in gold, cranberry, burgundy sequins and silver lined brown bugle beads. Rose, silk and antique pink crystals were later added.

Fairy Autumn tiara with vintage gelatin sequins

 The beautiful cranberry sequins were vintage gelatin sequins purchased from Berger beads in Los Angeles. Normally I try not to use this type of sequins since they are unstable and can melt with warm water but since this was for a headpieces and the color was perfect, I was able to use them.

I also made a hat with matching mask for the Jester. For this I used Fosshape, a thermoplastic fleece-like fabric which shrinks and firms up when steamed. First I made a base, tines which I wired to help keep its' shape and then covered the hat with fabric.

Fosshape 600 hat base and Fosshape 300 mask

I made a silicone mold from a vintage button and used Friendly plastic pellets to cast the center jewel, which I then painted gold and added Swarovski crystals to. Finally I made "bells" using pompom trim and sequins.

For the mask I used Fosshape 300, a lighter weight version, and molded it over a foam head. My daughter painted a pattern of diamonds on paper with acrylic paints, and my husband spray panted the mask with gold paint. I then assembled the mask and decorated it with sequins and Swarovski crystals. Everything was packed up and shipped off.

Fosshape 300, spray painted and decorated with stickers, paper, sequins and crystlas

The items were a big success, complementing CR's and Halsey on Stage's beautiful costumes.
Here are a few photos from the show itself.

Winter, Autumn, Summer and Spring Fairies

Cinderella and Fairies in the coach

The Jester with his attendants on stage

I am already thinking about the next project for this company with several items for their Nutcracker in December.