Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Let's keep it a family show!

Ordered Sunday night--4 pairs of bloomers.

No pictures of these, because they were cut out, sewed up and out the door in about an hour!

The Sound of Music play put on by our local Catholic high school alumni association will start tomorrow. This is the play that I worked on for the past few months making various costume pieces. Here was my part of the contribution:

Made 8 vonTrapp kids sailor outfits. Why 8? Well, I had to make a top and shorts over because they didn't fit right. These were light grey sailor tops, ties, and navy skirts/shorts.
Made 7 vonTrapp "curtain outfits" Blouse/weskit combo tops, gathered waist skirts for the girls, and brown "leiderhosen" type shorts with suspenders for the boys.

Sad note: One student had to drop out of the show family, so there will only be 6 vonTrapps in this version of the show!

Then I altered Maria's vintage wedding dress so she could change into it and button up the 36 buttons quickly. This required me to remove 24 of the buttons and sew them back on over the button loops, and then put velcro underneath so she could just slap the opening shut after she wiggled into the dress.

I altered the Baroness vonTrapp's dress for the wedding. I hadn't heard how that turned out, so I hope it worked.

I altered one of the wedding guest's formal dress, making a rather permanent shoulder wrap out of one she had to hold on to.

Fixed the suspenders on a pair of shorts for a contestant in the music contest, who has a 3 second on-stage appearance. They all hooted and hollered when she tried on her costume, because she is a mom, and is playing the part of a Tyrolean gentleman. The little green hat with a red feather really made the outfit!

Then the reality of the staging became an issue. This stage is built at the end of a gym, and is about 3 feet off the ground. This means that any person sitting within about 30 feet of the front of the stage will see UP the skirts of the female vonTrapp family members. We must have proper undergarments for this to remain a family show! So, an order was put in for 4 pairs of bloomers for the girls to wear under their costumes.

In my mind, bloomers are a must for any family show where a girl or woman is wearing anthing above ankle length skirts. This is especially true for stages above the eye level of the audience, even it if it only the front rows. So I've made my share of bloomers for shows. One day, while I was sewing for "The Music Man" I made 15 pairs in a day, this style included a double row of lace edged ruffles at the bottom. So I'm an expert at churning them out quickly.

So I whipped up the 4 pairs of bloomers Monday afternoon during the Oprah show! I didn't get a chance to thread the elastic through the waist casing, that was for some mom who was sitting there at play practice with nothing to do. Using a serger, the sewing takes absolutely no time at all (less than 10 minutes per pair.) And I have a package of various size of shorts patterns, which I made when I was making the 60 boxer shorts for my rainbow angel play about 5 years ago. I've used that package for many, many things! They sure come in handy for making bloomers of various sizes.

Now, the Sound of Music will remain a family show, not a strip show! The only issue now is the 3 day snow storm that has closed the school today, and probably tomorrow, when the first show was scheduled to be performed for elementary school kids. The director, who is short on hair as it is, doesn't even have much to pull out, but he has had his share of challenges this year. Hopefully, by Friday night, the show will go on, and it will turn out well! And I hope they all look great.

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