Playtime with Angelina

Hi

I've been busy trying to think of how to finish off the bodice I've started

 

I've used centred tucks as I like doing them and am going to do bowties, but I wasn't sure what to put at the centre of the bow tie.

Here's one I prepared earlier.... Sorry about the quality of the photo - it's gorgeous really - oops 

I was having a clear-out and found some Angelina fibres left over from when I was in the theatre and was using on one of the pantomime dresses for the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. Why not? I fancy either cutting out butterflies or small round petal flowers.

The piece here is a mixture of pink, silver and the gold and it goes quite well. I used purple in the end for the Fairy Godmother dress so the pink is going spare. I love a bit of sparkle!

 

I have these small Angelina Fibre flowers I have free embroidered on the machine which were left over from when I made Susie's wedding dress so I'm thinking of making some more like that as I don't have enough and they're the wrong colour

Perhaps I'll just cut them out without outlining - I'm not sure which way to do them yet, I'll have to have another play around. If I just cut them out I'll attach them with a bead or a sequin. Ah, decisions, decisions! As usual, another quite theatrical top - I just can't get away from it!

 

I found a picture of some butterflies I made for a wedding dress I made:

I'm not sure now, whether or not to do butterflies or flowers! I love the iridescence of the Angelina fibres - these were silver/white but for the top I think I'd do them in the pink/gold - still yet to decide!



Continuing with the new theme - greens and pinks!

Well, I've finally started again with earnest and am well on my way to making a few outfits ready for Susie to sell on her stalls.

The sun was finally shining and I found this taffeta fabric. I just thought it was a summer fabric and suddenly became excited about it. What to make? I haven't got a huge amount unfortunately so it would have to be a corset-type top using the flower fabric for the front piece and then the plain fabric for the rest of it as I have more of the plain than the rose

 

I then cut out some of the flowers and stiffened them ready to make another 3d effect (I seem to like that at the moment!)

I was going to use the pink netting but decided I wanted to go for a vibrant look and it was too pale. So I found some cerise ribbon I had and used that instead. I've sewn some of the roses on the bodice to make them stand out a bit more and added thinner ribbon down the front panel and then gathered the wider ribbon across the top. I'm going to add some of the cut-out roses along the gathered ribbon and added some beads - well, why not!!

 

This will be ready to sell hopefully tomorrow!

 

 

Up close and personal, change is good!

After much consideration, I have decided to stop making the costumes for Theatre Costume Hire and concentrate solely on my business 'Erienfys'. I am still making costumes and corsets but for sale rather than hire.

My corsets and costumes can be found on my good friend Suzie K Crafts's stalls at various events in and around the UK and I will soon be selling some of my others on Etsy.

So onwards and upwards! Here's a few photos of some work in progress

I am really enjoying this work and hope to post more things soon. I'm also uploading to interest and have a Facebook page for Erienfys as well as a website. Unfortunately the website isn't up and running yet, but hopefully it will be!

To compete or not to compete

I can't decide whether to compete or not. The thing is, the subject intrigues me and I'm extemely interested (which is always a good thing) but I'm not sure I have the time to give it 100% and I always try to give everything I can - which isn't necessarily a good thing!!

Let me explain, http://yourwardrobeunlockd.com/249-slideshow/616-annual-costume-competition has the Pomp and Court - 1730 - 1760 period and I LOVE that era.  The only thing is I've got an evening dress to do and then from Wednesday I start panto big-time. I know the panto starts 8th December so everything has to be done by then,  but that doesn't leave me alot of time after that (we're off to the inlaws in Ireland for the Christmas period) especially as I'd want to do a lot of hand embroidery. Still, I could do that when in Ireland - it's a possibility!

So I'm going to give it some thought - I have a few ideas I've always had in the back of my mind to do anyway and we'll see what happens....


16th December 2012

Well, life has now resumed as my panto costumes are all done and are now being used, photos to follow on the panto blog and so I'm now thinking seriously about doing a garment for the competition. 

It'll have to be quite theatrical I think, as that is more me and my style so I'm looking round as to what I can do.   Hhhmmm, thinking cap on!

It's Panto time!

Well, this year's flying past and Pantomime is creeping up on me already! So, it's time to think not only about what costumes I'm going to add to the Theatre Costume Hire wardrobe ready to place on hire but also Tip Top's panto this year which is Cinderella - one of my favourites!



Fairy Godmother ideas sheet



As we've already got some main Cinders dresses I've started playing around with some ideas for the Fairy Godmother and Buttons. I've been having thoughts about a Fifties style bodice and large skirt, mainly tulle but thought I'd go for a typical FG dress, based on the idea bottom right, but not exactly the same. I'll make one like that later when I have the time to embroider all the stars on. 

When I danced I always wanted to be the Sugar Plum Fairy but never got the part - always the baddie! Now I've got the chance to be closer to the part and so with that in mind I've decided to go for lilac/purple. I love shot taffeta and so the main body will be that with a dark purple skirt with an organza overlay. It's looking okay at the moment - I just need one of the girls to try it on to see how it's looking!


Toille basics 1 and 2



In the meantime I've been making basic patterns for the Principal Boy as we don't have many of those, especially Prince Charming for Cinderella. I've made up some toilles and got Alice to try some on for me to check the fit - and they didn't turn out too bad! No hems at this stage, it'll be easier to try them on whoever is going to be Prince Charming and also Dandini



Unfortunately my camera skills aren't great and she looks slightly wider than she is!  Behind her is the start of the FG dress, I'll take a photo of that again. 

I need to talk to the Director about how he wants his PC and Dandini to look before I can carry on too far with these - but at least they're started.

I've also started the Buttons costume. The actor who's playing him was with us last year and so luckily I've got his measurements.  I've drawn out the pattern and have cut out the fabric and lining. I'm just going to start putting it all together now. I love the colour of the material and the gold goes well so I'm hoping it's going to work well and go together quickly!  Yes, that's one of many cups of tea I have along with the chocolate - obviously no chocolate is allowed by my working material!

I'll update this as soon as I've got more movement on the costumes! Oh no you won't! Oh yes I will .....

Hello there!

Hi!

Just a quick word about myself as this is my first post - so be kind!

My name is Mel and I am currently a carer for my nephew but in my spare (!) time I love making costumes and corsets.

I make corsets and historical/wedding costumes from home and also hire out theatre costumes, from a theatre base in Chester. We specialise in Pantomime costumes - but have many other costumes and are constantly adding to the list!  I'm trying to work on my website and theirs, hopefully both will be up and running soon.

I hope to be sharing some costumes soon as the project I'm working on is for the Pantomime 'Cinderella'. I work closely with a local amateur theatrical group, Tip Top Productions and have started on designing and making some Fairy Godmother dresses in a variety of styles both for them and ready to hire out.

I especially enjoy working on the pantomime dame costumes and enjoy getting the script so that I can work through some design ideas around it. The writer of the script usually gives me some great ideas to work from and I love doing the research and my 'book', which is always crammed with ideas, fabrics and colours. I make sure that every colour is used, but not too many times.  The Dame for the group I work with uses 8 - 10 dresses and this year of course it'll be double for the Ugly Sisters!  I love it because I get to go  completely over the top and put colours together that wouldn't necessarily go! I love trying to be quite 'clever' with the outfits but it doesn't always work!

I not only design the costumes but make the patterns as I find it more enjoyable that way but time is always of the essence and around December I'm always extremely busy!

I'm lucky this year because one of our outfits has been used for the publicity photograph for a great friend of mine who is to be Dame in Chesterfield's pantomime 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.  He's a fantastic Dame so I wish him all the best - I know he's going to be fantastic!

Anyway, I hope you like my posts and I'll try to post often!