Naked Influence

Start with the usual suspects–an ugly beaded sweater vest, an old prom dress, a red velveteen jacket, trim and fabric.

Spend 4 hours beading Queen’s dress and 6 hours constructing King’s tunic, then show to happy kids!  These are for our middle school production of Once Upon a Mattress–hence the mouse and hawk theme for the cursed King.

Now, only 68 more kids to costume!!

Or, how to avoid tears in the morning of the kid.

So, last night my 5th grader tells me that she needs to construct a box to hold her valentines. No problem. It also must have a theme. What? Okay. We pull out a shoebox and paper and stickers. I suggest ‘Around the World’, because we have some free stickers with state names. She has some musical stickers, so the box is dubbed ‘Around the U.S.A. with Music’. We decorate, make a lid, she says (distinctly, I might add) that she loves the box. We go to bed.

This morning over breakfast, it is revealed that she is not too happy about the box. We have 45 minutes to come up with a solution to avoid unhappiness and stomach aches. So we google. Most boxes are construction papery and valentine colors. This will not do. We see a cupcake card. I say, “Hey, I have ice cream buckets.”  And we have our unique solution. Hers is turquoise. I did not get a photo before we dashed to school.  I came home, and instead of sewing costumes or cleaning, I spent some time doing one for myself. I like it.

Start with….

Gather, hot glue and squish like mad….base

top…

cherry…Finito!

Our opera house holds a fundraiser (2nd year) for renovations.  It is called Project Runway Repurposed.  The designers are able to choose from donated clothing and fabric and then make new garments to be worn in a fashion show that are then auctioned off.

I started with:

this pink sweater, floral shower curtain and a tweed jacket.  I also had a lime green fabric remnant, with a large tulip print and a green wraparound sweater.

When I saw them, I thought ‘Mad Men’, so I decided to make a lady’s wiggle dress, and a girl’s dress.  I decided to use the sweater to make little shrugs or jackets.

I really liked the neckline of the middle dress here…but wanted a bit of flair, so I added:

the kickpleat.

For the girl’s dress, I used this pattern, which apparently used to belong to Roseann:

Here are my daughters modeling the outfits…

My youngest (10yo) submitted two fairy costume designs in the Beginner category. I will post pics of that soon.

I have been spending time looking at so many inspiring blogs and thinking ‘Hey, I need to post this or that to my blog”.  I even signed up for the fabulous Wardrobe Refashion, so that I would be prompted to post my goings-on…

I ,  Dawn,   pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new”                 manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed, Dawn.

I do have so many projects in the air right now…a Project Runway Refashioned show at the end of the month and both Once Upon a Mattress and Music Man shows this spring! Lots of fun (and stress)!

Parting photos:

Inspiration for Marion the Librarian

And the dress Laurey wears in the “Dream Ballet” in Oklahoma!

Hope to keep a resolution to post more!

I am in the middle of organizing the basement (aka the hole under our house).  I have finally gone through costumes from the past, and boxed and labeled them, so that hopefully I won’t have to dig through boxes to find something.

This if from a middle school production of 42nd  Street. The actress and I loved this dress–after it was used for some time, I gave it to her!

Right now, I am gearing up for the following events for fall: Oklahoma!, our annual Madrigal Dinner at the middle school, and Schoolhouse Rock Live!

And, because I love the insanity, for spring: Music Man and Once Upon a Mattress.

Here are some inspiration photos that I have been collecting:I like the detail on the green suit…hope to modify for Oklahoma!

Also liking this one for Eulalie…

Well, back to the sorting!

I am swamped…and actually liking it!  I have a driveway full of mulch that needs a home by Friday; I have one more dress to sew for a local designer (more on that later); I have meetings for various projects scheduled (like Music Man):

I love this striped dress–maybe for Eulalie Shinn?

In other news, my attempts at breaking into the costume/wardrobe world in our movie industry here is proving futile.  Most likely, I will be attending an expo on Sunday, and maybe I can make some contacts there!