A Wicked Halloween - Galinda's Bubble Gown

Some friends asked me to make the Blue Galinda "Bubble" gown from the musical Wicked for their daughter for Halloween. She is a talented young actress and a big fan of Wicked. And if someone is willing to give me a fun challenge like that and buy me lots of pretty fabric, I'm certainly not going to say no!

Lots of pictures of the original gown can be found on this website. There have been many versions of the gown made for the many productions of the musical over the years. I was mostly using the original Kristen Chenoweth version of the gown for inspiration. However, I did incorporate the sweetheart neckline that appeared in later versions. And my reproduction doesn't involve quite as many sequins and sparkles.

The gown is made from a light blue polyester satin with a shimmery chiffon overlay that ended up being more of a periwinkle blue. I ordered the fabric online and wasn't sure of the exact color. But together, I think the it ended up being just the color I was going for.

The bodice of the gown is patterned in five pieces: two in the back, and three in the front, with princess seams creating a "V" shape that comes to a point at the waist. It's interlined with cotton canvas and lined with plain weave cotton. I thought about using some cable tie "bones", but with the stiffness of the canvas interlining, it wasn't necessary.

I attempted the super-poofy off-the-shoulder sleeves - they didn't end up quite as poofy as I was aiming for, but work nicely.

The skirt is cut as three separate full circle skirts that get progressively shorter. I wanted to have a couple more layers, but I ran out of fabric. Five yards only goes so far when you're cutting circle skirts! The "scallop" shapes were cut into the bottom of all three layers, hemmed, then all three layers were attached to each other, then attached to the bodice.

The neckline of the bodice and the hem of the skirt tiers were trimmed with a very simple, single row of silver sequins. The original gown appears to have rows of hand-applied individual sequins on the edge of each scallop. Since I wasn't going in that direction, I decided that less is more.

It laces up the back, as I couldn't muster my courage and get over my fear of installing invisible zippers. Some day I will master this skill!

For the accessories, she already had the Tiara, and her dad made the wand/scepter.

Pictures!

Here I've asked for a "Galinda" pose.

Here we're getting a simulated recreation of the highest, most dramatic note in the musical.

She's really very good at the "Regal" thing.

And to my favorite Galinda-in-miniature, I hope your gown made you feel even more Popular. :-D

Not a Costume - Birthday Present Playhouse

My grandmother gifted me with a bunch of circa early 90s Singer Sewing Reference Library books a couple of years ago. Many of them teach sewing techniques, and others give project ideas. In one of those books (Quick and Easy Sewing Projects, 1993), I ran across the instructions for this project.

Also, my nephew Jack had his first birthday in October, and I flew home to attend. After obtaining permission from my sister for bringing such a large present to her small house, I decided that I had to make this play tent for him.

All the fabric for this play tent is lightweight quilting cotton, in colors that match his room. I wanted it to be very breathable. The walls are made from four large triangles, with pole casings sewn between them. The poles are 3/4 inch PVC pipes with end caps on the top and bottom. They're held together at the top by a shoelace passed through a hole drilled a couple of inches from the top. When not in use, the entire tent collapses to a much smaller bundle of poles and fabric, and can be stored in a corner. It should also be fairly easy to take off the poles and wash when necessary.

He was a little afraid of the tent at first, but warmed up once my dad crawled in there with him. I think he likes it now. Hopefully he'll get a lot of use out of it over the next few years.

And while we're on the subject, I'll include an additional, proud Aunt, "Look how adorable my nephew is!!!" photo. Here, he's demonstrating his clapping skills:

Tutorial: Boxy Unisex T-shirt to Fitted Women's T-shirt

And Now for Something Completely Different: A tutorial!

I often buy geeky or SCA related t-shirts because I love the design. But I find that I rarely wear them. And that's mostly because of the boxy fit and crew neck. And the sleeves come almost to your elbows. Honestly, unisex t-shirts aren't the most flattering look for anyone with curves.

In an effort to make my t-shirts more wearable, I decided to try to make them more fitted. And, since I actually took pictures of all the steps this time, I'll share the steps.

Here's what I started out with. It's my "Going Hawking" shirt from Gulf War. Apologies for the crappy mirror picture:

Start by laying your t-shirt out flat, with no wrinkles.

To cut the correct armscye and side curve, I used another t-shirt that has the look I'm going for as the pattern. Lay it out flat on top of your boxy t-shirt, and make sure it's centered.

Then, cut it out. At this point, it helps to fold the t-shirt in half and make sure the sides match. Symmetry is a good thing. In addition to the sides, I cut a bit off the bottom, as the original t-shirt was too long.

If you want a tank top, you can stop here and just stitch up the sides. But I wanted to keep the sleeves, just make them smaller. For this, I took the old sleeve and lined it up with the armscye the way I wanted it to look on the final shirt. This also retains the original sleeve hem, so you don't have to re-hem. Then, cut along the armscye.

Next, we need to cut out the neck. It might be helpful to try on the shirt and mark how far down you want it to come. It's good to err on the side of caution. You can always cut the neck bigger, but you can't make it smaller. Fold the shirt so that the shoulders are together, then cut a line from just below the crew neck in the back to the spot you marked in the front. Try it on again. If it's too small, trim it a bit more.

Here's the shirt laid out with it's new neckline and new sleeves. Now we're ready to stitch it together.

Pin the sleeves into the armscye and make sure everything lines up, then stitch them on.

Likewise, pin the sides together, then through the sewing machine.

Here's what we've come up with so far. It's looking much better.

You can stop here if you like. T-Shirt fabric won't unravel much. However, I would like mine to look a bit more finished. I folded the hem over twice, and stitched it down. I was afraid the neckline would look funny with the fold-and-stitch method, so I unpicked the hem from the bit I cut from the bottom of the original t-shirt and made some "bias tape" with it (though of course it's not cut on the bias). I pinned this around the neckline and stitched it down.

And here's what we ended up with. A fitted t-shirt that looks finished, that I'm more likely to actually wear. Again, apologies for the mirror picture.

Detail shot!

Not a Costume - T-Shirt Quilt

Here's another non-costuming related project that I wanted to share. I realized a few months ago that I had an astounding number of t-shirts from high school, college, and grad school that I never wear, but am too nostalgic to throw out. Just as I was thinking about that I needed to do something about that, this link popped up on my Pinterest feed (don't you just love Pinterest?). And so, I decided I had to make one. Here's what I came up with.

Each square is made of three layers. The t-shirt fabric is on top, the middle layer is some inexpensive cotton flannel I ordered online, and the backing is a set of blue flannel sheets I found a thrift store. Each square is stitched, wrong sides together, with a larger-than-normal seam allowance. The seem allowances are cut into fringe. Since it's made of t-shirt fabric and flannel, fraying is minimal. I also stitched around the edge of the quilt and cut it into fringe, rather than binding it.

The back is smooth, since all the seam allowances are on the top. And, since each square is stitched all the way around the edges as it is assembled, you don't have to actually quilt it.

This particular quilt is made with 12.5" squares, and is 5 squares wide and 7 squares long. That ended up being the number of t-shirt squares I had. I highly recommend springing for a quilting square before you start trying to cut out the t-shirts. It made it so much easier.

I also made a couple of composite squares from smaller, front side t-shirt logos. Once again, the quilting square was invaluable. Four squares cut with the inside of the quilting square equal one of the larger squares with the seam allowance subtracted.

I'm happy to report that it's very cozy. And best of all, I can keep the memories while freeing the closet space. Back to costuming soon!

This is Not a Historical Costume - Christmas Aprons!

My sister Keela has a gluten free cooking blog called Keela's Konfections. For Christmas, I drew her name in our family gift exchange, and decided to stretch the budget limit by making her a few aprons. They're made of quilting fabric I found at Jo-Anns. I decided to keep with the color theme of her blog, which is done in bright pink and green. I didn't use any patterns - I googled "Cute Aprons", found a few styles that I liked, and figured out the shapes. Two of the skirts are cut on the bias, which makes a big difference on the way it hangs. The plain, bright pink one is embroidered with the name of her blog. I just took it to one of the places in town that embroiders things like hats and t-shirts. They charged $10, and had it finished in about 10 minutes. Pictures!

Thanks Keela! I hope you enjoy, and get a lot of good use out of them while figuring out how to make delicious things gluten free.