My Fair Lady

A few years ago I did the costumes for "My Fair Lady" at The Plaza Theatre.  As usual, we had a limited budget, but I was determined to have professional looking costumes.  With a lot of hard work and penny pinching, we succeeded!  The most iconic scene is the Ascot scene.  

 Everyone was in black and white or gray.  The men were all wearing "morning suits" with gray or black top hats.

  I recreated the white lace dress with black and white ribbon worn by Eliza in the movie. 

Here is what the original looked like.

The following is a brief description of how I recreated the dress.  If you are in need of more detail, just email me and I'll try to help you out.

First I had to figure out how to do the black and white trim.  If you are lucky, maybe you will find a black and white striped fabric that you could use to make the trim.  Me, I wasn't so lucky.  It dawned on me that I could use grosgrain ribbon to recreate the look.  I took 7/8" black and white grosgrain ribbon and butted them up next to each other and sewed them together with a wide zigzag stitch.  I think I used white thread, but you could use black.  Either way, the stitching wouldn't show from the stage.  I used a whole lot of ribbon.  As you can see, the rows are black, white, black, white, black.  And there are bows involved.  You will have to do the math yourself to see how much ribbon is needed.  Once it was all sewn together, it was very easy to work with.

Then I had to make a lace dress.  I knew I needed a lot of lace fabric for this dress so I kept my eyes open for sales.  I stumbled across some lace fabric yardage that was very inexpensive (and looked very nice--also an important factor) for around $3 a yard.  At that price, I bought the whole bolt.


The next step was the pattern.  You see that dress Audrey Hepburn is wearing up there?  There is no currently available commercial pattern for that dress.  I had to create one.  It had to be modified to work with our production and our actress, but still evoke the original.  I went through my stash of patterns and put together parts of two or three different patterns that would result in the look I wanted.


I can't stress enough how important it is to have extensive measurements of your actress when you are making something this fitted.  Bust, waist, hip is not nearly enough.  You should measure across the shoulders in the back, above the bust, below the bust, neck to waist, and around the upper arm.  There is nothing worse than making a garment that fits everywhere except in the circumference of the sleeves.


Then I started thinking about how a sheer lace would work as a dress.  Obviously it would need a lining.  But if you put a white lining behind a white lace, then the lace will disappear (especially on stage).  I decided to use a beige or nude lining.  This allows the lace to be seen.  I did not line the sleeves or the lower ruffle.  Our dress did not have a train like the original because it didn't work with our production (our stage is not that big, so people would be walking on it when the actors moved around).


Once we added the purchased hat and parasol, I thought the effect was excellent.  


Later I will post some suggestions about how to purchase tuxedos very inexpensively.  You will be surprised at how cheap they can be gotten!


Happy costuming!
 

Frugal Costuming, Part I

Most of my sewing revolves around creating costumes for a community theater.  As a non-profit theater in a small town, we work on a tight budget.  I've come up with lots of techniques to minimize the cost of creating costumes without the costumes looking "cheap".   This will be the first in a series of articles about frugal costuming.  I hope some of these ideas will help other community theaters or schools.

• Always check your costume inventory.  You may have something that can be adapted or reused.  For example, I made a jacket for the Grasshopper in James and the Giant Peach by adapting a ladies green blazer I had by adding long green tails in the back made with matching fabric.
• Thrift stores are your best friends!  I spend a lot of time in Salvation Army, Goodwill, and other local thrift stores.  I always go armed with a list of what I need (including sizes).  Some of the thrift stores that I shop frequently will even sometimes send an employee to search the racks to see if they have a particular item I'm looking for.  They will also call me if they get in vintage items (which I always snap up if the price is right).
• Develop an inventory of sewing patterns.  I wait for the sales and then buy up dozens of patterns that I think might be useful.  Joann Fabrics frequently puts one brand of pattern or another on sale for 99 cents or $1.99.  I rarely pay list price for a pattern.  Especially look for costume patterns that are frequently used.  Sometimes I get them in several sizes.  If I'm only going to buy one size I get the larger one.  It's easier to make a pattern smaller than larger (in my opinion).
• Keep a stash of basic fabrics that you find on sale.  We have several area Wal-Mart stores that sell fabrics for $1 or $2 a yard.  If you find a nice men's suiting fabric or a crushed velvet or a nice satin in a good color, buy it!  Muslin can be used for lots of things (including costumes that you paint) so buy it up when you find it super-cheap.  When I'm buying fabric that I don't have a particular use for at the time, if it is really cheap, I buy a lot--at least 5 yards.  I've been known to buy a whole bolt of particularly nice fabric if it particularly cheap.  Of course, always check your stash to see if you have something that will work before you go out and buy fabric for a particular costume.
• E-bay is also your friend!  There is an amazing amount of clothing available on E-bay.  Search for what you are looking for and you are likely to find it.  I only buy things that are cheap.  I only deal with reputable dealers who have tons of positive ratings.  Don't forget about the E-bay stores.  A search for auction items might not find things that are available in E-bay stores, so search them separately.  
• Enlist the help of your actors and their families.  Especially for our children's productions, I request that the actors provide certain basic items (e.g., black tights, black or white t-shirts, black shoes, etc.).  I always give them written instructions on exactly what they need to bring with suggestions of where they might acquire the items if they don't already have them.  Ask if anyone knows how to sew and might be able to help.  You might be surprised at how much help you can get.
• When using costume web sites, be sure to comparison shop.  There are dozens of web sites that sell cheap costumes and most of them have very similar, if not identical, items.  Bookmark several different sites and search for your item on each of them.  You will find prices vary quite a bit.  Don't forget to factor in the shipping costs--those can make a big difference as well.  I don't buy much from the costume websites because the quality is usually quite poor and the costumes look cheap and don't stand up to the repeated wearing that is required when your show runs two or three weekends.
• Garage sales and church rummage sales are another good source for inventory.  Usually what I look for there are accessories like hats, purses, scarves, belts, ties, gloves, jewelry, and the like.  Look for things that are vintage or look vintage.  You will get a lot of use from them.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful.  I plan to start posting photos of productions we have done at our theater so you can see how our costumes look on stage.  I will also be posting detailed tutorials on how to make certain costumes.

Happy sewing! 

Welcome to my blog!  I hope you like my totally generic title.  It will have to do until I come up with something creative.  The generic template will have to do as well until I can get my computer-genius son to help me spiff it up.

As I said in my introduction,  I've been sewing for over 40 years and making costumes for community theater for the past ten years. I've made or adapted literally thousands of costumes over that time. And because we are a "community" theater, we don't have much money, so everything I do is done as cheaply as possible. I thought there might be others out there who could benefit from some of the tricks I've learned to create beautiful, professional-looking costumes on the cheap. I also like to sew things other than costumes, crochet, craft occasionally, and cook when I have time. I'll try to blog about all these things on a semi-regular basis.

I'll be happy to try and answer questions anyone has about any of my projects.  Sometimes I will just post a photo of something I've made with a link to the instructions or inspiration I used.  When I have time, I'll post detailed tutorials for particular projects.  I hope to be able to link my posts to Pinterest and Craftgawker, my two favorite sites for inspiration these days.

Here are a couple of photos of costumes I've made.  These are Captain Hook's coat and vest.

Happy blogging!