Blue plaid Edwardian Upcycle Blouse (Meet Me in St. Louis)
Example of upcycling a man’s dress shirt and a doily to make an Edwardian blouse.
Fiddler on the Roof: Peasant costume #4
I’m continuing to work on some potential chorus costumes for an upcoming production of “Fiddler on the Roof”. This project did not end up being one of my favorites, but the components have potential, even if the end outfit is lacking. I began with four pieces: a black/white stripe blouse, a cream knit peplum top,…
Bombie Samba Costume #2: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
This is the second Bombie Samba dress I made for the “backup dancers”. I was continuing with the theme of black dress and red ruffles. For this outfit, I began with a black sequin peplum top. The sleeveless top had a scoop neck, a zip back and an almost-circle peplum. My first step was to…
Bombie Samba, Chorus Dress #1: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
This Production is using five couples in addition to the Baron and Baroness for the Bombie Samba routine. I believe the guys are wearing black tux outfits. My instructions were to continue the red/black theme, and to give the girls hi-low skirts to accommodate the choreography. I opted to dress all the chorus dancers in…
Dressing Baroness Bomburst: Simple Costume Plot & Costume #1
Baroness Bomburst is a great character to costume. There are few preconceived standards (Belle she is not), and there are so many ways to play her that the possibilities are wide open. My instructions were red and black (with possibly some gray) and OVER-THE-TOP . . . think “Capitol City”. Since Vulgaria is an imaginary…
The Baron Bomburst Jacket/Pirate Jacket/Prince Jacket: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
One of my last projects was the formal jacket for Baron Bomburst (I’m going out-of-order . . I got tired of writing about Fun Fair costumes). My instructions were that it should be over-the-top and made in red & black, and it could have some gray, but no white. While my jacket works well for…
A Beach Dress for Jemima: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
My sister had sent a list with all of her costume “needs” on it and one of the items they still needed was a dress for Jemima to wear to the beach. They wanted something “beachy”, but leaning more dress than a bathing suit. I happened to see this dress at a thrift store and…
Turn-of-the-century (ish) costume: Gray & Red Plaid
After my last less-than-stellar blue outfit, I felt like I needed to make one more outfit in the same genre just to redeem myself in my own eyes. This would allow me to create some closure in my own brain and sleep at night. Seriously . . . costume induced insomnia is a real thing. During…
Turn-of-the-century (ish) women’s costume (1980’s upcycle): Blue Peplum Suit
Now that I bit the bullet and finished up with “High School Musical” I will turn back to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. This has been a different experience for me since I am trying to create costumes for someone elses show without direct access to the other costumes, the cast, the set, or the “vision”…
Lace and ribbon to the rescue: A historically inspired upcycle
This project began with a lovely burgundy colored satin skirt with a small train. The waist was smaller than the majority of the cast members on my list, so I wanted to make the skirt larger. I began digging in my “pieces of things” box and found a leftover skirt from a previous project to use…
costumecrazed 