Sempstress

My Glamorous Life

During the week, when there are no shows going on, actors and most of the crew return to their regularly scheduled lives. Do you know what costumers do? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Costume, Laundry, Theater

New Demo: How to Make a Hair Wreath from Living Flowers

So there’s always that scene in midieval movies where the heroine is seen romping around a field with a wreath of real live flowers on her head, and maybe there’s someone shown doing some totally random bit of jiggery-pokery  that effortlessly causes flowers to form into a neat little chain. These scenes annoy me. I’ve tried everything I can think of to make flowers turn into neato little wreaths and chains — braiding, twisting, weird-pokey-stem-through-stem things, everything. And it never works. So I end up buying a dried flower wreath at faire. Well, no more… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: dandelions, hairwreath

A Pattern is More Like a Guideline, Really…

So, Laura said she was looking forward to a demo on how I made the Frock Coats for 1776.  I used a pattern. (What?! Missa? Are you feeling ok??) It’s not that I’m not all about cheating, or being creative, or drafting patterns. It’s just that it easier to a pattern that already exists and change it up. Here’s some ideas… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1700s, Colonial, Costume, Theater

New Demo: How to Turn Out a Passable Rev War Uniform Jacket from Goodwill

Have I mentioned that my show has, by and large, come from Goodwill? Yes, indeed. One of the characters in 1776 is “a courier”. (No, really, that’s all they call him in the script.) He’s an army courier who brings messages in to the continental congress. I need him to look like he’s a) military and b) really, really dirty. This means that I get to build the coat, and then I get to have a bit of fun with it… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1700s, Colonial, On the Cheap, Theater

New Demo: How to Find Colonial Britches at Goodwill

Oddly enough, I needed 19 pair of Colonial britches to go with my 25 Colonial vests. (Because I had much better luck renting britches than vests, not because I let anyone go pantless.) This is very similar to the trick I used for the Oliver! knickers, but they need a slimmer fit and different length. It goes like this: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1700s, Colonial, Costume, On the Cheap, Theater

New Demo: How to Find Colonial Waistcoats at Goodwill

I needed 25 Colonial-looking vests for 1776. Because I wasn’t sure that I’d get round to making a coat for everyone, I wanted vests that weren’t faked out in the back, and I needed them to have structure and to be long enough to cover the obviously modern fly fronts on the britches I was making them. Now, you can’t just trot off to the Goodwill and buy a real live Colonial vest. But you can pull off something passable, if you believe that that there are, in fact, user-serviceable parts inside of a jacket…. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1700s, Colonial, Costume, On the Cheap, Theater

Small Clarification…

I just realized there’s a pretty psychotic split between the last two posts – I love my job, my job is destroying my brain… What gives there? Read the rest of this entry »

New Demo: Eleventh Century German Multi-Needle Beadwork

So, I took a few hours break from my current bout of insane workaholism the other day and did a little beading. This is what programming does to me: my mind goes from being a marvelous realm of creative joy to being a twisted up little thing that can only think in terms of methodology and function. Hurts my soul a little, not gonna lie, but it’s quite useful to those who employ me. Also, it makes me say hopelessly silly things like “How about a small scale mockup of Eleventh century German multi-needle beadwork on 1/4th inch wide organdy ribbon?” I’m fairly convinced I would not be doing this if I were in my right mind. Darn you, temporary left-brain dominance! Here’s the method I used… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1000s, Beadwork

I have the coolest job EVER…

I know, I’ve said it before, and it probably sounds like I’m gloating a little bit. And I’m not gonna lie – I kinda am. Not only is it the coolest job ever, but my boss says I can use my exploits in the costume shop as blog fodder. Tee hee….  The downside is that I don’t really have any excuse to use a computer at work, so the actual physical reality of being at work sort takes me off the interwebs. That’s why missa hasn’t been around as much lately. But now I’m back, and I thought I’d share some more of the crazy things I actually get paid to do… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arts & Crafts, Modern, Theater, Tshirt-foo

What the Buske?!

Sarah posted a totally, fabulously, fantastically AMAZING bit of research based off Drea’s equally fabulously, fantastically AMAZING database of wardrobe warrants. (Seriously, is this the best time for a costumer to be alive or what?) Go read them both. I’ll wait till you’re done with with Sarah’s points about the “pair of busks” entries…. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1500s, Busk, Corsetry