SINGIN' IN THE RAIN costumes: MAKE 'EM LAUGH dummy

Wow - I went straight from finishing one musical production to the next one!  

(Practically... I finished this one the first week in December, then my whole family got sick with 2 types of flu through Christmas, we were better by New Years, and I started THIS musical in January!)   

I was hired by Ponderosa High School Theatre to be the Costume Director for this show:

The interesting thing about working on costumes on a high school level is that my crew is students.  I get to train them by example, and on a practical level, teach them skills so they can one day do this themselves if they so desire.  I have a great set of 5 girls that I have gotten to know and hope to stay in touch with for years to come.     

One of the first things I sewed up for the show was the dummy from Cosmo's "Make 'Em Laugh" scene.

Here's the clip from the movie:  My 4-year old thinks this is funniest thing to watch!  Personally, I enjoy it more every time I see it.  Very catchy indeed.





Here's a few peeks into how I made it:

I had traced my 16-year old son's outline onto pattern paper to get proportions and an outline for size.  Then I made a few adaptations into a paper pattern and cut it out of a sturdy muslin.  2 body pieces on the fold, 4 arm pieces, and 4 lower leg pieces. 

After sewing each unit individually (lower legs, arms, body), I stuffed them, then joined the units into one headless body.  I used stuffing from old pillows that I took apart - gotta love recycling!

I used bed-size pillows to fill the body torso - they fit perfectly!  That pillow that looks like it could be a head for the dummy is NOT a head.  It is an extra pillow that we brought to rehearsal just in case it needed  to be "rounder" in the middle...we ended up using it.  I hand-sewed the top closed. 

Off to rehearsal to try it out!  

"Don'cha know everyone wants to laugh?"

It was a hit!  Our Cosmo loved it and his choregraphy is wonderful and hilarious - they make a beautiful scene together!

Stay tuned for more costume highlights to come...



UPDATE:  Here are some performance pictures of our famous dummy with Cosmo!

Curtain call!

Aren't they great?

And here is a link to the video of their performance.



{FYI, I was the Costume Director for Ponderosa High School's "Singin' In The Rain".  This play was directed by the fantastic Geoffrey Reynolds - look for us on Broadway one day ;) ;) }

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Costuming for a musical production

I realize I am super behind and have not posted for over a month but I have a few fun things coming...


Meanwhile, THIS is why I have been AWOL...

It has changed my life.


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Costume Collection Part 4: PEANUTS & CHOCOLATE BARS

This year, one of my favorite families came up with a very creative idea to showcase their family's personalities. 

And the story goes like this:

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar, and a handsome bag of Planter's Salted Peanuts.

They met and fell in love!

They had four delicious "babies":  Butterfingers, Snickers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and Peanut M & M's.

The Butterfinger bar was their firstborn.  He is very responsible and helpful with his younger "peanut & chocolate" siblings.  He is also very tall.

Then along came the next offspring.  The Snickers bar.  He provides a lot of chuckles to their family life.   

And of course, "Snickers really satisfies you!"

Then along came a single serving Peanut Butter Cup.  He is covered in cute chocolate and very sweet on the inside.

Lastly, a "FUN SIZE" addition to top off their family.  Peanut M & M's. She is fun and colorful and you just want to eat her all up!



Did you enjoy that story?

Now would you like to see a little bit of how they were created?

We started by assigning each family member to each treat.  And of course, I had to taste all of them, you know, to get into the characters - that's what a good "costumer" does, after all.

I took each person's measurements and estimated fabric yardage for main bodies and lettering and details.  

I graphed it out to get the right proportions.  This was to help in estimating size and how much fabric to buy.

Then I bought yards and yards of felt.  And some "WonderUnder" for fusing and applique.

I cut and sewed the main bodies to the proper size for each family member.  (See diagram below for specifics).

I went to my local copy center and enlarged those chocolate bar wrappers by 200%.  Then some by another 200%.  After piecing and cutting and taping, I arrived at the perfect-sized letters for each candy.  (Of course, this is just a sampling of the hundreds of pieces, as you can imagine.)  

I then painstakingly cut out those paper letters.  Then transferred those cuttings to the right felt colors.  

For the smaller letters, I fused the Wonder Under to the backside of the felt, then traced the letters backwards (mirror image) and cut those out.    

Then I just peeled off the paper backing and ironed (fused) them onto the main body in the correct position.  (I actually used a press cloth in between when I fused.)

I traced around the larger letters and just cut them inside the Sharpie line.  They were just held in position with pins and I sewed an outline around each letter.  

Yes, I sewed around every one of them, people!  Yeah, that's how I roll.  No cheapy-cheapy for me.  Or maybe that's the OCD part of me I cannot let go of.  Oh well, I think it was worth it.  This family can wear these costumes out, but those letters will never come off on the wash or play.

I added special details as needed, like the embroidered "m" on the Peanut M & M's.

I appliqued the m&m's and the peanuts on in a random fashion.

And the special face and arm details on Mr. Peanut.

I sewed across the top for the shoulders, leaving an opening for the head in the center.  Then bottom hem was just left open for walking.  I left armholes open.  And in the Planter's Peanuts, I cut side slits to access pockets.  Some of the wrappers got the raggedy-edge treatment just like the original wrappers.  

Then they purchased shirts, pants,and jammies to wear underneath.



Here are pictures of the candy before everyone tried them on!

Then it was time for the photo shoot.

And a recap of each one in costume!

Wouldn't you say this was ALL worth it?!


I will never look at these chocolate bars the same - EVER!

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