Busy...

...We're a bod down at work and I've got lots of early starts and late finishes, and I just found out that Armageddon is on 8-9 March so Twisted Fate needs to happen faster!
On other fronts:

• Constance has her first gig in early April
•  The Play is happening in late April, some casting confirmed
• Twisted Fate's waistcoat is nearly done, pending photos
• Constance's fishtail skirt now has a foofully petticoat under it and a red lining! Photos to come

I hope you're busy and happy too!

My Twisted Fate

Well, after that flurry of activity, Constance gets some down time while I work on a project dear to my heart - a costume for my stepson. He is a very good magician and card trickster so he decided he wanted to go to Armageddon dressed as Twisted Fate, a character form League of Legends whose weapons of choice are special cards.

Isn't he scrumptious!!! I was both thrilled and terrified when I saw this picture. I love the styling, so tailored and chic, but SO MUCH WORK. Ah well! I cannot resist a challenge and this is the kind of challenge I thrive so there you go!
I'm tackling it like I do any big costume project (including wedding dresses) by unpacking it into modules. In this case that means:
1. Hat (done, photos soon)
2. Waistcoat
3. Coat
4. Cuffs, gaiters and shoulder guard
I don't have to do trousers, and he has some pointy shoes so I can make gaiters over them, the style absolutely lends itself to that approach.
Waistcoat first because it is smaller, and I can practise/experiment with binding techniques. Ironically, I've cut the coat out but not the waistcoat - while my fab brother in law worked out how to get the Constance video onto YouTube, I took advantage of their bigger lounge floor to cut out the outfit, but the stupid waistcoat pattern had a piece missing. Lesigh!
In outfits like this, I really enjoy the building bits, like the gaiters, cuffs and shoulder guard. I assume they are meant to be bark leather but the cost of that would be ridiculous, even at wholesale, so I may either make them in lamb nappa, or find another product entirely. But lamb has its advantages - it will need fusing as it is very soft but it will sew easily!
More soon...

Is That All There Is? Finally the Video

The Marion Room! AKA our studio in the shop teehee!

An Audience with Constance!

Well my sewing year hit a glitch pretty fast. Two dresses made, two more cut out but not yet made up. It's because I have been SIDETRACKED. Oh like that never happens! ;-)
It was a public holiday today (Thursday) and on Tuesday, yes 48 hours earlier, my friend Michael and I decided to turn the studio in the shop into a NIGHTCLUB and film Constance (My alter ego) in action. With audience!
So, I got online and rented a lovely crowd of supportive friends, Madame O came up with a mike, Michael had the music and sound covered, we hired a spotlight and other than that all there was to do was to:

• Rewrite a song and Learn the Words
• Finish a costume
• Rearrange the shop
• Organise drinks, nibbles and decoration.

Not to mention the hair and makeup marathon required to get ready! And rehearsing! But oh it was FUN!
Here are some photos taken by the lovely Conrad. A video was also taken, it was rather the point of the event, but that is not yet ready to view.

 Look at that lovely brick wall! It's always there in our studio, with only a mirror and a couple of boards hung on it, but somehow stripping it down and moving the couches just bring it to life.

 My mermaid skirt was a quickie - the full circle bottom is made from an obnoxious quilted lurex fabric. I corded the hem to give it body. Last night I joined it to a quick skirt of stretch woven suiting. It is so long I have to wear it under my bust! My intention is to add a bunch of fluff under it to make it stick out a lot more.

 Massive hair caused by putting a big clip on hair piece on top of my head, teasing my own hair to an inch of its life, and piling it over the hair piece. My other hair piece goes in the back. Result: Hair worthy of a country singer from the 1970's! Not sure how they would feel about the PVC jacket mind you...

 I can't get over how club-like our studio can become. Admittedly if you look slightly to the right, you see a bunch of haberdashery displays- not the usual view for a nightclub! But surprisingly, about 40 minutes reorganising and we can make a space that can seat maybe 35 people! We only had 12 for the filming, but it's a thought for the future...

 The PVC jacket has been seen before - it was gifted to me by my lovely friend Angela in Christchurch after she wore it in a show I directed. The red bustier under it was also gifted to me by a dear friend.

 Gold lurex velvet ribbon laces up the jacket.

 My favourite. What I am doing and why I have no idea!

 I bought the earrings at an Indian sari and bling shop in Newtown. LOVE THEM!!! They cost a fortune but they are TREBLE CLEFS, how perfect for a singer!!

 Under my overly long skirt, I am wearing fairly flat, evil looking boots. No high heels for this lady! I can't do them so neither can she. But I have two pair of awesome boots that work fine.

This is the long suffering Michael. We've been friends for 30 years - he wrote Lonely Hearts and is well known for MDing all of the big musicals that come to town and also around the world.I am SO LUCKY to know him - he has been working on my voice with me and is very supportive, in fact he convinced me I had a good singing voice in the first place! We laugh ourselves silly and go off on a tangent all the time so rehearsals do take a while. :)

So there you go! A fun way to make time pass on a closed public holiday! And hopefully soon there will be actual moving video! Squee!