SINGIN' IN THE RAIN costumes: SPIDER WEB DRESS

Wow, the first performance weekend of our "Singin' In The Rain" at Ponderosa High School Theatre has gone beautifully!  Really this is a stellar cast and crew and set of directors - I am so lucky to be working with!

I wanted to share one of my favorite dresses (it is hard to choose however, which one dress was the most favorite - that's like picking your favorite child when you have 6 of them.  Although, there are days...but I digress!)  

There are certain pieces I wanted to be just right for this play.  Iconic dresses and outfits that scream "Singin'" if you know what I mean!  Anyone who loves the movie or the play wants to see key things lit up for them - it brings joy and satisfaction to the viewer or audience member and my job as Costumer was to get those things right as much as I could!

Google image: Olga Mara's Spider Web dress on the red carpet in the opening scene is one of those iconic eye-catching pieces representing the outlandishness of the flapper era.  

So I set about to create my version of this showstopper. 

I found this dress for under $5 at Salvation Army.  It had "good bones" and a bit of a plunge neckline, backless to boot.  Perfect base for my dress.

I marked off lines with a soap chip for fringe placement.

Close-up view of my fringe lines.

I started by adding my first layer of black fringe - a fabulous 10" chainette fringe that I found only at Dove Originals Trims.  This was attached to the bottom hem of the dress. 

Then I added layers and layers of 4" black chainette fringe to all my soap lines.

Making the spider web was the trickiest part.  I drew out what I wanted the spider web to look like.  At first I tried knotting with a rayon cording - and it just did not hang right.  Then I tried a rhinestone trim that I had laying around from a previous project.  I thought maybe it would read well on the stage and catch the light to reflect it well.  

I tried sewing each intersection but it was a pain and I did not feel it would be secure.  So out came the glue gun.  I put globs on the front and back where they overlapped.  It dried clear and looked OK.  

So the spider web was going to be in back because that was my biggest area to work with.  (I couldn't really do quite the plunge in the front like the original - it's a high school show after all, people!)  Plus, I actually just thought it would look cooler with the spider web in the back.  

The front piece had it's own story: I made this piece at first, then the actress and I decided it would be hard to get in and out of the dress if we attached the front piece, so we gave her a cool beaded necklace with tons of strands that resembled the fringe.  But it was all plain and black and boring really.  Then the next rehearsal we both showed up and she really wanted the rhinestone front piece and so did I!  So we only attached it partway so she could get in and out of it and just attach the other part of it with safety pins each time.  A little extra work but worth it for the look!  I love it when little things like that fall into place!

Here she is, in all her Olga Mara glory!  This is the costume room.  She was great!

Rockin' the fringe!

Love the spider web on the back!  It's flexible enough to move with her as she dances.

Loved her attitude as Olga Mara!

Awesome!

Now time for performance!  Here are some pics of the scenes starring this beautiful girl and showstopping dress!

Her proud mom taking a picture onstage after a performance well done! 

THAT was fun!  Stay tuned for more...




{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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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 ;) ;) }

I link up to these parties. ~If you are interested in receiving updates and future posts from this blog, please sign up to "FOLLOW" on the top right of this page. Let's keep in touch!~

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.


 ~If you are interested in receiving updates and future posts from this blog, please sign up to "FOLLOW" on the top right of this page. Let's keep in touch!~