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!

Spam relief

Dearest Readers, I have changed the comment setting to Registered Users including Open ID in an attempt to mitigate the now hundreds of spam messages I am receiving daily but still avoiding using the horrible Captcha.
I hope it doesn't inconvenience anyone and I will keep trying to work out a way of dealing with it.

The Meandering Vineyard Lunch - a Busman's Holiday

Isn't that an enticing name for an event - The Meandering Vineyard Lunch. But it is an accurate one. It happens every year on the Saturday of Wellington Anniversary Weekend, which gifts us all down here an extra Monday off.
Four buses of fifty people each travel around four vineyards, having a delicious entree-sized lunch course and the wines of said vineyard at each stop. Starting off at 10.30am, arriving back at 5.30pm. As each busload leaves, we strip the tables down, then reset them for the next busload. We then serve wine, fill water jugs, ferry plates of food to the tables, flirt and laugh and joke with the guests, and clean up afterwards. For all four visits!
MrC and I are friends with Kathryn and John who own Te Hera, and have volunteered the odd year to go over and skivvy for a couple of bottles of exquisite vino, plus the experience of doing something completely unlike anything else on offer for a day.

This is the Vineyard building at Te Hera -usually full of vats, they have been turfed out for the day in favour of tables, chairs and people! Just to the right you can see a sliver of the tent.

The "Kitchen" tent. There's no room inside for prepping food so it all happens out here. Gives the whole thing the feel of a circus!

Inside the tent - this is what around 50 servings of smoked breast of duck with tabbouleh looks like. And oh me oh my it tasted fantastic too! The guests thought so too - many reported that our course was the best they had had. There is a lot of friendly competition among the vineyards in regard to the food and entertainment offered.

One of the jobs for which I volunteer is washing up. It is not a very arduous task really, as it's all plates and cutlery. This is my station, behind the tent. A vat stand with a pallet on top! hehe. Lovely doing dishes out in the sunshine of a glorious day. Luckily the hire firm wash them again, it's just about getting them cleanish.

Meanwhile back in the winery, John is entertaining the guests with his funny banter while they taste test the Riesling and two Pinots Noirs he produces. MrC and other helpers listen and wait to jump in with a bottle.

The last busload of the day participating in a quiz. John the winemaker is in the foreground.

Hostess Kathryn, dishing out the vino. She thinks it is hilarious that we thank her for letting us slave away all day at the lunch, but it is so much fun!

Meet John Harter. John entertained us all with a great range of classic hits. He is as lovely a man as you would ever want to meet too, as well as being an AWESOME musician. While we were setting up for the first bus, John was mucking about playing blues riffs, and being me I started singing along, making up words about working at the lunch. He thought I have a great voice and challenged me to sing to the guests. So, I did. I did a wee set of 2-3 songs near the end of each sitting. I got some great feedback too. And I tried some scat singing, that was fun!
For those of you who have known me a looong time, you might be thinking Harter, now there's a name I remember and yes, John is Charlie's little brother. And that is only one of many, many examples of the two degrees of separation we noted over the weekend!

And finally around 5.15pm, the last sitting piled back into their bus and departed.
We did the final clean up, then headed back to The Straw Bale House  which is a great place to relax!
We spent two nights away, catching up with other friends, reading, sipping lovely wines and enjoying the fabulous weather.
And now we're home again, watching Sherlock and relaxing. I hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

The Watercolour Grecian Maxi Dress

I wanted to show you my newest make - from what I now call my Grecian Maxi Dress pattern, because it seems that patterns need names these days. and I can totally go with that! :)

I bought this fabric a couple of seasons ago at Arthur Toyes, which is sadly closing down soon. It is a soft, drapey cotton/rayon mix and it is a dream to wear. I lined it with cotton voile from Global-That-Was (must start calling it the Fabric Store) which was a hefty $16m. I did gasp, but Brooke the manager pointed out it is really good quality and you know what? She is SOOO right. Not all voiles are created equal at all, and this stuff is delicious. I can see it wearing really well, not pilling or getting out of shape, and helping my impossibly buttery rayon hold some shape too. But because it was pricey, I only lined it to the calf length and added a really wide lace trim to the bottom from my stash. Best decision ever as the fabric itself is so lovely against the legs...:) Funny though as the watercolour fabric was 50% off so it cost a lot less than the lining.
I am calling it my watercolour dress, even though it is about as watercoloury as the previous one, as used to illustrate the envelope I made for the pattern:

Left: Grecian Maxi pattern envelope, with original "As seen on TV" watercolour dress, now worn so thin I am reluctant to wear it!
This pattern I draped/drafted ages ago, and I made three dresses. The first was a mess, and I am remaking the bodice - more on that later. The second was the original watercolour dress as shown above. The third I have been living in, and never photographed. I will rectify this soon.

I also have another two dresses cut out, one in each style.

Tell me, is this a weird thing I do, falling for a couple of styles and just making them over and over? I find it difficult to come up with styles that suit my shape and lifestyle, and maxi dresses are so perfect for summer here, and for me, but a couple of people have pointed out they can't tell them apart hehe. At least I will now have a BLUE dress, and another one coming up not in red or purple or green too. (and yes, another one in red and green, I confess. At least I know what I like ;-))