Costume Alteration

Here is a small costume alteration for a character in "Smoke on the Mountain" presented by Bank Street Players.  The waist of this 1930's-era dress needed to be expanded about 5 inches.  This is tricky in a cotton dress with a form-fitting bodice like this.

The director suggested I put a zipper down the back and add fabric there, so I went with that.

The cut down the back of the dress and widening of the waist created a diamond-shaped opening (below left).  I knew the inserted fabric following this shape would emphasize the waistline.   So I inverted the diamond, making the lower part wide enough to cover the waist expansion, with the upper part emphasizing width in the upper back instead, with the triangles somewhat echoing the triangle design on the front of the dress (right).

Below you can see the original opening.  On the right, the dotted lines show the raw edges of the dress underneath the insert.

Below I have placed the insert on top of the back of the dress, then pinned and top-stitched it on.  Note the zipper was put in the insert before it was placed on the dress.  Easier that way!

The dress originally had a side zipper.  I removed the side zipper and closed the seam.

Here are the front and back of the costume, pressed and ready to go.   The insert, cut on the bias, gave just the amount of stretch needed to fit the actress and give her room to move while retaining the form-fitted look.

Favorite Shrek pictures featuring Lord Farquaad costumes

Now that I have received the picture disc from the Shrek performance in April, I want to share some of my favorite pictures of Lord Farquaad.  This adult role was filled by a local teenager, whose portrayal of Farquaad was spot on.  He was very much in-character and funny, stealing the show whenever he was on stage!   I would not trade anything for the experience I had working with the actor, cast, and crew!

These pictures were taken at dress rehearsals.  They feature him in his Ruling and Wedding costumes, which I designed and made, as described in earlier blog posts.   As you can see when you look closely, throughout the performance the actor is on his knees, with his lower legs and feet camouflaged by Farquaad's cape  In the last picture, the cast are taking their bows, and the actor at last can stand up!.

Lord Farquaad Wedding costume completion, dress rehearsal

It is done!  Lord Farquaad’s costumes are ready for the first performance, tonight.   He has to be dressed four times:  Ruling costume, Exercise costume, Ruling costume, Wedding costume.  Lots of steps to get everything pulled together for each one!  It takes two of us to pull it off for his two quick changes. 

Let’s hope we do not have another wardrobe malfunction as occurred last night in rehearsal:  During one of his maneuvers, the sweatpants on the little legs dropped down, unbeknownst to the actor.  “Awkward!”  Hilarious to the lurking audience of moms in the auditorium and to those of us in the wings!  Some safety pins have been added to the Exercise costume.

Some have asked how the hat was made.  I started with 4” thick green foam I had left over from another project.  I drew a 12” diameter circle on the top of the foam and cut out a cylinder using an electric knife.  On the underside, I drew an oval that roughly matches the shape of a head, and with the circumference of the hat band.  (Here is the math teacher in me coming out!)  I used the electric knife to taper the hat from the upper brim to the hat band oval.  Then I used the electric knife and some scissors to hack out a cavity for the head.   To smooth out lines and roughness in the sides of the hat, I covered it with batting.  The sewn hat cover, using stretch panne velvet on the sides, went on next.   After some elastic and pearl trim it is ready to go.    Here are a few visuals:

Another challenge we had was keeping the little boots facing straight ahead.  We had a band of elastic round the actor's leg (above the knee pad) and around the fake leg ankles.  But the shoes tended to turn in and/or out while he was on stage.  We solved the problem by cutting a long u-shaped wire out of a coat hanger and punching it through the front of the knee pad.  The long metal spikes then go through holes we punched in the heel of the boot and run along the inside sole of the boot.  The fake leg foot keeps the metal spikes in place inside the boot.  Problem solved!

I wish I had more to show you at this point, but I am the worst person to charge with taking pictures!  However, there are a couple:  Below are shots of Farquaad having his makeup applied and being fitted with a mic.  This is dress rehearsal, so a few touches like black socks instead of white are still being worked out.

This young man, tall but still in middle school, is already an impressive actor.  Backstage, he is professional, courteous, and enduring all hardships of makeup, wig, hot and, in ways, uncomfortable and restricting costume (he has to perform on his knees!) with the comment “It’s worth it to be on stage.”  Onstage, he takes on Lord Farquaad’s demanding personality and quirky mannerisms perfectly!  It has been a pleasure to work with him.  I’ll get his autograph now while I can!

Lord Farquaad Ruling costume, start of Wedding costume

Lord Farquaad is coming together.   The Ruling costume is shown below, almost finished.  Still have to attach the cummerbund (pinned at this point), fix the cape attachment point, and finish up a few little things.

The Wedding costume will follow the same design, with white fleece instead of blue, cream corduroy instead of red, white satin instead of blue, cream crushed panne instead of red sparkle, and different trim.  Here are the fabrics:

I couldn't resist the fur for trimming the cape!  I hope it turns out as well as I have pictured it in my mind.

Here I want to show how the puffed sleeves are done.   The cutting layout for the sleeve is shown below, with the strips of corduroy used for the stripes pinned in place.  The lower edge of the sleeve is shown at the top.  It is pinned to the fleece band that will attach to the puff sleeve.   The stripes for the puffed sleeve will be turned under ¼” and sewn as shown in the next picture.

The Wedding costume has gone much quicker now that I am just copying the Ruling costume and using patterns  I made along the way.  Here is the finished tunic.  It is still on the female mannequin but I have it over the he-man chest padding costumer Paulette Morgan made.

Still to complete are the hat, cape, and attaching the gloves to the gauntlets.   And I still have to do the closures (ties) on the back of both tunics and fitting of the cape to the Ruling tunic.  So close! 

Dress rehearsal is Tuesday.  I am nervous about how the costumes will do when the actor is wearing them onstage.  Will they shift?  Twist?  Fall apart?  Have some malfunction?  Get dirty?  Get sweaty?  Luckily I will have costume master Michael Morgan on hand to advise!

Lord Farquaad fitting

The fitting for Lord Farquaad was Saturday morning.  I was able to pin and mark all crucial measurements using a hodge-podge of partially-completed pieces.  

This morning, I sorted through the pinned pieces and started putting them together.  There were only a few additional pieces to cut – the other upper sleeve and red stripes for the sleeve.  I sewed on the red stripes for the 2^nd upper sleeve, attached the yellow arm band to the knit lower sleeve, then attached that to the upper sleeve, tightly packing the gathers at the lower edge of the puff.  Then I sewed the arm seam, using a zig zag on the knit section.   Then I repeated these steps with the other sleeve.  After sewing the shoulder and side seams of the tunic, I set in the sleeves, working in the gathers at the top of the sleeve.   The gauntlets had to be interfaced, and the interfacing had to in turn be covered with more blue fleece so the white wouldn’t show.  So there were unanticipated additional steps, but the resulting stiffness of the gauntlet was worth it.  I had to sew on the gold braid by hand – something I usually avoid at all costs! – but it actually was quick and easy.   I sometimes dread what turns out to be the easiest thing.

I have to confess, as I worked I had delusions.    For example, each piece I worked on seemed the hardest.  “If I can just get this part finished, the rest will be easy.”   Hahaha!   Actually, some parts I dreaded ended up being easy (setting in the sleeve) and something that should have been easy seemed hard (the gauntlet!  Lack of planning on my part.).    Another delusion I had was “any regular clothing I make in the future will be easy compared to this!”  Hahaha again, I am sure!  But at least then I would have a pattern.  For this costume, I only had a pattern for the tunic.

Here is what I have so far:  The tunic, with skirt and sleeves attached, shown.  The gauntlets.  The hat (needing a shaped foam inside).   NOTE:  The tunic is draped over a FEMALE mannequin that is not the same size as our actor.  Just sayin.

Still to go:  The gloves (I hope to find some blue knit that matches, otherwise I will have to use the bulky blue fleece), the collar, the cape (needs additional width, black lining, and gold trim), the belt (maybe use the blue satin I have), the foam for the inside of the hat, and gold trim for the tunic, skirt, and hat.   And I thought I was halfway done – maybe not!

My goal is to complete these tomorrow, Tuesday, so I can begin the Wedding costume on Wednesday.  The show opens on April 3, a week from Thursday!

Planning Lord Farquaad costumes

The last few days I have been obsessing over the Lord Farquaad costumes I have been assigned.  This is for "Shrek the Musical" being staged by a local theater company, Bank Street Players.  I was able to watch the first full-cast read-through of the script a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by the talent!  This is going to be such a fun show!

In "Shrek the Musical," Lord Farquaad wears 3 costumes - an Exercise costume (sweatshirt, sweatpants, etc.), a Ruling costume (fancy royal outfit) and a Wedding costume (a short appearance at the end of the play).  I have been assigned the Ruling and Wedding costumes.

One interesting aspect of these costumes is that the actor will be on his knees for the entire performance!  There will be small fake legs hanging from his belt to the ground to represent Farquaad's disproportionately tiny legs, with the actor's real legs clothed in black and also hidden by a black cape.  Here is an image from
http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/Shrek-Farquaad-Landscape-we.jpg



Unfortunately, there is no standard, really, for these costumes.  So I browsed references and pictures of Lord Farquaad online, noted the different costume designs that have been used, consulted with the very talented and organized Costume Mistress Paulette Morgan, and surveyed the fabric and trim choices available in town.  Given that Farquaad will be onstage with red, blue, and yellow-clothed dancers as shown above, Paulette and I decided to use red, blue, and yellow for the Ruling costume.  We will go with a pleated skirt and use the puffed upper sleeves and round flared hat seen above.  We will get the best and cheapest (!) fabrics we can and use gold sparkly trim to give it the bling it needs.

The parts of his Ruling costume are:  Cape, tunic, pleated skirt, puffed upper sleeves, fitted lower sleeves, gloves with gauntlets, and hat.  After making a sketch of each one I estimated the amount of fabric needed and went shopping.

Below is a photo of the fabrics before I started cutting.  The red is a pretty corduroy from the clearance table, the large blue is fleece, the small blue is a satin remnant, and the small red fabric is a sparkly red stretch.  The yellow bundle is a fleece remnant.  Note:  Remnant = cheap!

I have measurements for the actor who will portray Farquaad, but a fitting will be needed fairly early in the process.  So, allowing for adjustment, I went ahead and cut and partially sewed as many pieces as I could.

 This weekend, when Paulette has Farquaad's puffy chest ready, I will fit the pieces to the actor and pin everywhere needed to make it fit.  Hopefully, no re-cutting or piecing will be needed!  I will also have to get a tracing of his hand for the gloves.   After that, I should be able to stitch the entire costume together and bling it up with the gold trim I got on sale. The only remaining really tricky part is to design the hat so that it stands up and holds its shape.

The Wedding costume is next.  I will be using the exact same design but with different fabrics - probably white with gold.  If I can keep good notes and patterns for the Ruling costume, the Wedding costume should be a snap.  But, as we know, the unexpected lurks around every corner.  So no relaxing here until it is done!