Willy Wonka Jr. or The Month of July

This is the explanation post for my month off of blogging. I was costume designing! I had the pleasure of working with a talented cast and dedicated crew to pull off a production of Willy Wonka, Jr. The "Junior" part entails that all the cast was age 18 and under. The real work started in July with making patterns for the Oompa-Loompas and recruiting four very talented seamstresses to create 60-some white suspendered pants and skirts with bloomers. It took up almost all of my time for the month of July, so I was barely even leisure computering at all!

The ginger in the pink sweater is my go-to hair stylist! She works with my sister and I on photoshoots and filming projects. She's awesome!

Most of the main characters' specialty costumes were made or altered by myelf. The wardorbe of Wonka, Charlie, Mrs. Gloop, Augustus Gloop, Ms. Teavee, and Mrs. Bucket took over my life for a few weeks. There are a few of our adorable Oompas below :)

I don't know why this picture is off to the side :P

 Above is Wonka entertaining some of the younger kids; below is me altering Augustus Gloop's lederhosen.

[L-R: Mr. Bucket, Mr. Salt, Ms. Teavee, Grandma Georgina and Mrs. Gloop]

Wonka and the Candyman get along quite well; they're business partners, you know. I had the fun of making Wonka's waistcoat, frock coat and bowtie. The buttons down his waistcoat spell out "Wonka" :) 

Most of the Bucket family [L-R: Grandpa George, Grandpa Joe, Charlie, Grandma Georgina, Mrs. Bucket]

Amazing picture Marley got of the curtain ropes!!!

 Below is me and the cast singing at the top of our lungs, "Nilla Wafer Top Hat Time" by Rhett and Link. [L-R: Veruca Salt, Mr. Salt, Mike Teavee, The Candyman, Willy Wonka, Grandma Josephina, me]

What a set! Our set guys were AWESOME!

The Reporter "Phineous Trout"

"Charlie, would you like to have my factory?" It was such a fun project to help with. Working with the cast to build up their costumes was especially rewarding. To a costume designer, there is nothing better than hearing from the actor, "I wish I could keep the costume" or "I don't want to take it off!". And I had the joy of hearing that over and over! All these pictures were taken at the dress rehearsal, so not all of the characters were fully dressed until the next day. I wish I had more pictures to share! If I ever get my hands on some from the parents and audience, I will certainly share them with you! There have to be more, because there were 1,399 audience members between the three performances!!!

And finally, Charlie, Augustus and I. I know I look like Gazerbeam, but I was unable to fix my redeye :P 

The Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #26-Celebrate!

This is a post concerning the two dresses I made for seeing the first and second HOBBIT movies. The blue one (an original design, since I went as Gilraen, Aragorn's mother) was made last December for "The HOBBIT: An Unexpected Journey" and doesn't count for the HSF challenge, but I'm including it just for fun. But first, the Challenge gown. Then, I promise you'll get more photos of the blue one below :) 

This here is the gown I made for seeing "The HOBBIT: Desolation of Smaug" 2 weeks ago. It's mostly a self-drafted pattern...which explains why I spent most of my time altering it! It's made of Wine-Colored Velveteen and Soft Pink Silk. The Velveteen dress has cap sleeves with double Princess-Seams (like Susan Pevensie's green archery gown from LWW). The pink under-sleeves are attached to the cap sleeves and end in a point at the knuckles. It's medieval-inspired but I'm not entirely sure how historically accurate it is. As for the shoes, they were a miracle of a Goodwill find from this Summer and I couldn't resist their charm! They go really well with my Regency dresses!
What's that? Oh! You like my new haircut? Why, thank you! I think it will go with my 1930s and '40s plans for the HSF 2014 very nicely!

Sleeve Detail

Yeah, I'm a foot and ankle model like Black and Tan

Shoe detail

Marley (My sister/photographer) was jumping up and down with excitement over how well this shot turned out!

The Challenge: #26-Celebrate! I am celebrating the release of The HOBBIT films!!!

Fabric: 3 yards Velveteen, 1 yard raw silk

Pattern: Hand-Drafted

Year: 1200s?

Notions: Thread

How historically accurate is it?: Not sure so...not very...I suppose ;)

Hours to complete: 4ish

First worn: December 14th to "The HOBBIT: Desolation of Smaug"

Total cost: Stash Fabric so $0!

Now, on to my Gilraen gown! It's made of about 4 yards of an unknown rather sparkly dark blue fabric (a rayon/cotton blend, perhaps?) with a yard of stretch lace for the sleeve extensions. There is a separate shirt underneath made of another unknown fabric (I'm really bad about the proper names! It's ribbed with a silky quality to it. If you have any thoughts, please comment!). This dress is also self-designed and self-drafted and I purposely made it too big so that it would gather underneath the girdle that is made of the same stretch lace as the sleeve extensions. It went really well with the red cape I made this Spring (Oh, the blessings of being a costume designer for the stage and screen!) The cape is made of red velveteen and is (you guessed it) a self-drafted pattern. 
I was inspired by the Renaissance gowns of the 1500s and thought that Gilraen's age of Middle Earth might have reflected a different time period than that of her son's.

It was SOOOO cold this noon!

Closeup of the bodice and the tricky fabric

Lace details

There you have it! Two Lord of the Rings/Medieval/Renaissance-Inspired gowns. Perhaps something you might find straight out of a Waterhouse painting, if I do say so myself. Which do you like better? And do you have any ideas as to what the mystery fabrics really are? I wish I could give them a title! Please comment below if you have any thoughts on the matter or if you want to give me a virtual pat on the back for the blood, sweat and tears that is the life of any seamstress!