The Show that Never Was

About two years ago I did an "amazing" show:  Jonah! A Whale of a Tail, An Exciting New Musical.  I cant make this shit up.   Well the show was for a Christian Dinner Theatre - that quickly closed a few months after the show. Well, it was the story of Jonah and the wale, but we set it a la Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well the show went great - and as is the goal of every job - I made a great contact with the director.  Cut to 2 years later and to my surprise i get a all from the director. He is now the director of summer entertainment for the Gaylord National Resort and this summer they were planning shows and wanted to have roaming characters to interact with the guests: sort of like at Disney.  So I was hired to build a male and a female pirate. 

  

I had 5 weeks, a huge budget and it was going to be an on going project, when new actors come in or things needed to be replaced, I would be making the replacement clothes as well. Great gig!

Then a few days later I got another call - another costume designer had dropped out, and they wanted me to make two more characters: Skip (a surfer dude) and Skittles (his bratty little sister)

Great  - more money! And who wouldn't love that?!

So I plunged ahead, swatched fabric, started making  patterns, budgeted for shoes, wigs, and accessories. I was set for a fitting the weekend of Mothers Day, so needless to say I was working like a dog days and late into the morning to get things ready.  And I have to say - this was some of my best work. All garments were very well made, and I thought looked great!

Well then I get the call. The whole event has been CANCELED! Yep all that work up in smoke. Well, after I stopped freaking out, I discovered that the Gaylor is actually owned by the Grand Ol' Oprey which was under 11 feet of water.  The flooding in Nashville had effected this project. They needed to redirect the money for the summer programs to help in the drying out of the theatre. I stopped all production and sent them what I had compleated. They agreed to pay me a third of my salary, and reimburse me for all the materials I had purchased - which so far was over $900.00. I manged to style the costumes in the shape they were in so I could at least have a record of what it was that I had done thus far.  With any luck the project will be remounted next year and we can pick up where we left off....

Until then, here are the pirate couple. I really hope one day I can revisit this project and see it through to completion. 

Adam - the male pirate - got a striped cotton "poet" shirt, blue/grey silk vest with real wooden buttons, black twill pants with a slight pattern to it and a coat of burgundy velveteen. NOTE - this was made to the point of fittings, so that is why it has no lapels, and only one sleeve. 

Morgan - the female pirate -  got a green cotton petticoat, and a great brown tweed wool overskirt. Her blouse was made of a light weight textured cotton. It is off the shoulder and I gave it elongated sleeves and tucked around the bust. The highlight of the costume is the corset. It is made of 2 different colors of pony ultra suede, backed onto denim and them boned. I wish I had gotten the chance to finish it with the trim and all that I had planned...hopefully next year I can post about that!!

I have been away too long - back to the clothes!

A lot has been happening with me and i have not been good about getting here to post things. Lets get back to the clothes!

Here are a few  more things that were made for Babes in Toyland. Mistress Mary I wanted to have a pretty "girly" dress as she is out ingenue. The girl cast was not a very feminine so I felt she needed as much help as possible!

The dress turned out pretty cute. I am very pleased with how it came out!

In the course of the play she runs away from home and I decided that she should have a cloak to wear when running away from home.  Still in the girly pink, the cape is a beautiful tweed with lace details. 

Halloween that never was

Heather has kept me on my toes for years now. Back in 1998 when we were but children in High School - Shakespeare in Love was released and Heather fell in love with the clothes. I mean can you blame her!  Just look at them!

So for Halloween, which we plan for WAY in advance every year, and still do to this day, Heather decided she wanted something like the ball gown in the picture above. If you know her, you know that she is pale and thus would not look good in peach or antique gold.

We decided to go toward a jewel tone and found a great emerald brocade with gold fleur-de-lis on it.  We paired the overskirt and bodice with a gold satin for the underskirt, and a dual layer of organza in green and gold for the sleeve puffs. Antique gold satin was used for pipping the edges and - in a bold move at that time -  I lined the WHOLE thing. It turned out pretty well I thought.

Here is a close up of the bodice: I have come along way my construction skills and can now see all the short cuts i gook in making this dress. But we all get better with time right?

So the dress was made, fit, and finished and hung up...and sadly that is where the story ends! The dress has not been worn yet. Now 10+ years later the dress has been outgrown and mostly forgotten until i was home recently for Babes in Toyland. I think I will take the dress and donate it to TDF costume collection. I have donated a few other things in the past and can use the credit when I design in the future.

My New Drapes

This is the similar fabric to the apron I  made for Heather last year. My new kitchen is red and I happen to find this great kitchy fabric and had to have it.  I think it goes well with the kitchen!

I LOVE THIS DRESS

So I had this red linen left over from Babes in Toyland, it was used for Little Red Ridding Hoods cape. I didnt know quite what to do with it until I found the pattern for this dress.  The reason being two fold: I had enough yardage for it, and the example on the pattern sleeve was a wool tweed dress.

You might not be able to see it, but this is a very open weave and kind of rough linen in a bright cherry red.  it has a boat neck and deep V back.  Double darts in the high waisted skirt that has a slight A line gives the dress a little swing.  The bodice has an over drape gathered down int he center (I added the brooch where they suggested another bow - that was too much even for me).

What I love so much about this dress is the way it hugs the form! even without fitting it it hugs my size 8 dress form like they were made to go together.  I I am putting this dress on my etsy account today and hope it goes to a good home.

MAD MEN

            The first new dress that I made for my Etsy shop is inspired by the hit show "Mad Men"

The clothes  for this show are so detailed and period specific. This show is really responsible for changing the way many women look at work clothes. There has been a huge return to "dressing" for work. Following on this trend I wanted to create something to pay homage to the beautiful costumes created by Janie Bryant.  Within my extensive pattern collection I have found a number of dresses that remind me of these clothes. So here is the first one I have created:

  

It is a tan cotton stretch, with a faint teal stripe.  I accented this with a great teal linen I found at a store here in the fashion district. The dress itself is a beautiful high waisted pencil skirt with a short sleeve louse on top, gathered over the bust and a deep keyhole  opening tied by a large bow. the back of the skirt has a hidden

kick pleat. For whatever reason the kick pleat was the hardest decision for me to make.
          My initial idea was to use the teal linen for this, as a splash of color when you walk.  But after I did this I was a little concerned it was to "costume" and not real enough. But my partner Richard convinced me the detail was cute and since the fabric was dark it would be a good way to brighten it. So I stuck with my plan and think it turned out rather cute!

     This is the first dress I made for my etsy shop, and hope that it is a good way to kick things off!

ETSY SHOP!

I have created an ETSY shop at the urging of Heather.
I am taking my love of vintage clothing, sewing, and my pattern collection and making these great dresses available for purchase!
RJINNY is my ETSY shop name. Only three things listed at this time, but more will be added soon!

Humpty Part Deux

                       So here is the final result of the Humpty Dumpty for "Babes in Toyland".


After it was all said and done I sketched him and actually sent it to the actor who was so excited to see me painting and working.  My mother thought it would be a nice thing, he is really interested in theatre and this was a great opportunity for him.   He was kind enough to send me a thank you and the pic of him in it.

I just got the CD of photos and have not had a chance to upload them yet, but when I do I will post them here for all to see how the show as a whole turned out!

Humpty Dumpty

It has been a long time since i posted on here about my goings on. With the holiday season following on the heels of my family health issues, and desiging a show for the Anoka Childrens Theatre's 20th Season, i have been a bit busy!
But here i am, back to tell you all about my adventures!
The first one is the one that gave me the most trouble: Humpty Dumpty

This costume soon became the bain of my existance.  The child had to be able to sit, so it cold not engulf him and make him a whole egg. He had other blocking, so we saw him in 3-D, thus he could not be a flad egg, that the child hid behind.  My original idea was to have a flat piece that the actor could hid behind (like in the photo)  and when he fell have him dressed as the egg yolk! I thought this was very cute and clever, they did not agree.                     

We decided to do a 3D egg, and decided to do it with the use of an egg crate - the kind you put on a bed.  Matt Lauer's costume from The Today Show a few years ago was the inpiration.

 

    I made the pattern, and fit the kid. But as i didnt have time to make the costume or the otpion of making it and sending it back from NYC.  So mom was hired to make the costume. With my fathers health issues, she didn't have time to do it and it was put off until 2 days before dress rehersal.   This left much to be done in not very much time.

While my fmaily gathered for Thanksgiving, I rushed to get the show ready. Sheila and Marlene got the egg ready.

Here are a few pics of Sheila and Marlene working on the egg:

                 After a few hours and a lot of glue, we got him together, and my sister, Erin, was kind enough to model it for me...

1950's Day Dress

I have been kicking around the fabric for awhile now. It is left over from a production of The Music Man i did many years ago and had bought to much of it. finally knew what I had to do with it when i cam across the patter for a beautiful 1954 day dress.

It is a rayon burnout of swirls, that I layed over white bridal satin. I played with other colors, but thought the white made it pop the most. The dress featured doleman sleeves, with a contrasting cuff. The skirt is the best part however, it has a slim fitting top with a circle bottom flounce. I just know my teacher would have been proud of this - i felled the seams and everything to keep the overlayer from fraying.

The satin collar and cuff i embroidered with a simple stitch on my new machine. . The back of the dress is a great detail: a series of matching buttons that run the length of the back. it really adds a nice period detail i think.

With enough materials left over, I will most likely be making more from this fabric. but we shall see! I am setting up a shop on Etsy.com where i am going to make dresses out of all these great patterns I have and sell them! This dress like the others has been donated to the TDF Costume Collection.

A Return!

So it has been awhile since i was here, personal things in my life going on. Among them I am in a new relationship and moving at the end of the month, plus work and things of that sort have kept me away.

But rest assured i am here and back at my game!

Right now i am designing a production of Babes in Toyland for the Anoka Childrens Theatre. They are a group i was a member of in my youth, and now in there 20th Anniversary Season they have asked alumni to return. So i am honored to be asked to design this season for them! I will be posting pics after thanksgiving of what i have done.

In the mean time the show so far is:

36 Kids (most playing more then one role)

around 70 costumes

15 being built from scratch

10-odds and ends

All being done by myself and an army of mothers!

WISH ME LUCK

Mermaid Parade

All my life i have had an affinity for mermaids. So it is no reason my bestie is also a HUGE mermaid fan, to the point she has a full back tattoo of one.
Well every year in at Coney Island NY, they kick off the summer beach season with the Mermaid Parade (http://www.coneyisland.com/mermaid.shtml for more information).
This year she decided we needed to go, and we both started working on our respective costumes from home - her in MN and I in Brooklyn.

I set out to find the perfect fabric = i wanted something kind of unusual but would convey scales. A few months ago i found a great snake skin printed cotton and thought that would be fun. along the way I came across a snake sin vinyl which was even better! it has a greenish grey hue to it and looked very masculine, which was perfect for the look I wanted.

The tail i made in a fitted trumpet style, with a HUGE train in the back, this I planned on dragging behind me so I would have a tail. I connected the skirt to a Y- back suspender of the same material, and then created a dorsal fin to ride up the back Y, and into the CB seam. I love how it turned out!


Heather is responsible for the beautiful crown, and i made the gauntlets of the same material. We had a lot of people taking pics of us, and got many compliments on both our tails! To see hers go to www.heathereve.blogspot.com

Tommy III

So the last dress I have to share today is the final dancer. Now this girl posed a challenge for me. She was a LOT taller, and bigger then the other girls. While not a BIG girl, she was the sort that obviously played sports. She was BUILT, almost 6 feet tall and very muscular. Not the typical dancer body I am used to dealing with.

I solved this body problem by creating a two piece ensemble that she could move it. Using the same fabric as the other dresses, i created the garment here. The blouse features a basque, and a top gathered over the breasts. The CF buttons are functioning, as well as a side zipper. I thought that would give her enough room to get it over her head, without messing up her hair/makeup

With this I made an A-Line skirt that moved very beautifully on stage. While being tall, I think it served her and the show well.

Sadly I could not get my hands on an appropriate sized dress form, so it looks a little odd here on a size 4...forgive me!

The Who's Tommy - II

Here is the second dress in the set. As told in my previous post, these dresses were constructed for a local HS in the spring of '09. I chose to make them of a matching Poly satin in different colors. Only 3 of the four survived the run, one barely made it to closing night....stupid girl...

This second dress is the orange one. It featured a "wrap around" bodice and skirt that features a cascade down one side. While the dress was made for a dancer, it and the others were all made from vintage patterns of the period. I have collected patterns for years, and love the chance to use a real source material when doing a period show.

The Who's Tommy

This past spring I designed a local HS production of The Who's Tommy.
If you know the show, there is a section during the Overture that involves women swing dancing with soldiers before they are shipped off to WWII. These are three of the four dresses I made for these ladies.

The director wanted them to look cohesive as a unit, while still have individual flare. I was fortunate to find this floral fabric in 4 colors so it was perfect. It is a polyester satin, which i was not all that jazzed about, gut then remembering that it was a HS and they did not have a wardrobe person on staff, I thought this would be better since it would not wrinkle, and at the end of the run it could be washed and not shrink or do weird things.






This is the first dress and a detail of the bodice.
It features 3/4 sleeves and a 4 gore flared skirt. The neckline is cut low, with an insert. I chose to accent it with cream covered buttons and a tiny bit of lace around the front neck edge. (You cant see it very well because the dress form is the same color, but trust me it is there!)

Teens Dress

This is based on a dress that was given me by the TDF Costume Collection here in NYC. It was too bad of repair for them to rent anymore, so I took it. knowing that it was once beautiful and I really liked the silhouette.

Here is a pic of the before dress. It WAS once a very lovely orange patterned silk, with an overlay of organza. The blouse was an overlay of organza on pale peach poly taffeta. To me the coat is the most impressive part of the dress - it has a very Funny Girl feeling to me.

The fabric I chose for my remake of it is left over from a wedding I did a few months ago. I have collected so much fabric over the years that I am trying to use it up and not spend any money - except for zippers and things like that.

The body of the remake is Tiffany Blue double-sided Duchess Satin (say that three times fast) and the blouse is pale blue taffeta. I decided for dramatic flare to accent it with black jet trim. (i have been collecting trim bits for years - and I dont want to move them any more!)

Here is where it stands so far - just about done! Ill post a pic of what it looks like with a body inside soon....

Lets start at the very beginning....

So inspired by my friend Heather Eve, i have decided to start telling the world about my craft!


I hold a MFA in costume design and have been sewing since I was in the second grade. For me it is like therapy: calming and something to occupy my hands! In my parents basement i have taken over two rooms and filled them with costumes (organized by period) hats, wigs, shoes, fabric, jewelry, patterns, and all sorts of inspiration!

So here we are - living and working in NYC - and i decided to post some of the stuff i am and have worked on. I hope others find this as an inspiration for ideas!