Jacket for a Little Prince

If you're familiar with The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry you know what a special gem of a story it is. There is nothing quite like it that I'm aware of. Well, I have been sewing day and night to come up with stage costumes for a show based on this book. They are mostly done but I've only had time to photograph one, the Prince jacket.
It's crushed velvet with chartreuse silk dupioni trim and red satin lining. He also wears a ruffled blouse (the lace ruffles of which I plan to replace with a subtle metallic gold silk organza...sometime in the next few hours), and wine red faux suede pants. On his head is an open turban of the same wine red. Actually he is a she, played quite professionally by an 8 year old actress!
I have also made 8 "cosmic clowns" and 8 "mirages" (sand creatures) for this show but it's been so crazy trying to get it all done that I haven't photographed them. I will try to take some pictures at the theater, though, the actors being children, I am not sure what I can post here. I may have to photograph empty costumes which is a shame, because they look wonderful on the kids, in motion, with head pieces and attitude!I am continually amazed at how these shows somehow manage to come together. In this particular one there is a full size bi-plane on the set! The kids have memorized hundreds and hundreds of lines and are even taught to improvise when something goes wrong on stage.
Here is one little theater secret...do you know that bows are choreographed? They are rehearsed as well! That's all I'm going to reveal though!

Stuff You (hopefully) Only Hear in a Theater

• "Where's my blood rags?"
• "The leaves are under the table in a box marked 'mushrooms'"
• "Remind John to stay out of the orchard when the door's open"
• "We accidentally ate a prop in the lighting booth."
• "Will you check out my tail?"
• "Can you glue me?!"
• "I can't find my nose!"
• "Someone needs to plug in the wedding dress."
• "There is no such thing as Spain."
• "She needs a smaller pocket, inside the big pocket, so she can find her cheese."
• "Push out the giant Coco Puffs ahead of you."
• "One of my screws is loose."
• "My mustache really hurts."
• "The rats are having a hard time seeing where they're going."
  
• "Please don't eat the props!"

Costume Crinkles

I recently finished this dress for a local show. The costume designer (who is an artist and fantastic costume designer, but not a sewer) drew me a picture of his vision - a simply shaped sleeveless dress, full at the hem and falling close to the body in the waist area, crinkly. The drawing looked to me like a dress done in pre-crinkled fabric, cut in a column, so that the crinkling would pull in naturally at the waist and release over the bust and hips. Except for the hem, which was A-line, not straight as a column cut would produce.

The fabric provided was a very lightweight embroidered satin with tiny bit of vertical crinkling, but just a mild texture, certainly not enough to contribute to any shaping. So my question was... how will we achieve the waist shaping? A midriff? Princess seams? Pleats or tucks? Elastic? None of that would have produced the look in the drawing. So we decided on random looking tucks, made to the outside, to mimic fabric crinkling.
I ruminated over how to do this....the original plan was to fuse the tucks, as I created them with my hands, to woven interfacing that had been shaped to her midriff. I had her come for a fitting and pin-fit muslin around her middle to make a pattern for the interfacing. Unfortunately, I forgot to mark, on the as yet unshaped dress, where the top and bottom of the muslin was placed when I did it. (Duh!) Also, when I experimented with fusing crinkled scraps to the interfacing, I found that it was quite tedious and it was difficult to get a lot of crinkling b/c the fusible surface of the interfacing gets quickly "taken up" or covered with the crinkles. Besides, I only had 4 days for the whole project and time was running out!
So I decided to just start folding and tucking the fabric. I made enough tucks that gave the dress some shape, but was not yet "fitted" to her body. That way, I could try the dress on her, and place the final couple dozen or so tucks just where they needed to be for the best fit. It took some patience on her part and and lots of pins, but I did just that...and only stuck her once.

You see the results (well, almost, no hem or pressing) here. It's not bad for 4 days I guess. It's definitely interesting.

Costuming Considerations for Live Theater

**Following is another excerpt from my recent class on costuming for community theater.

Freedom of Movement

• Dancing and fighting may necessitate building extra movement into costumes
• Try leaving bottom of armscyes unsewn or using gussets, even stretch fabric gussets
• Use stretch fabrics instead of wovens
• Use generous ease pleats at center back, back armholes

Modesty

• Teen boys will not want to show bare legs, and maybe not even arms
• Teen girls will need bras and should never be dressed suggestively
• Actors may need to change quickly backstage and may not have time to seek privacy...therefore they may want to wear leotards and legging under costumes
• Stage lights can render fabrics see-through, so you may need to add linings/underlinings at the last minute
• Straps and waistbands must remain secure during movement
• Tops should be long enough so that bellies and backs are not exposed when the actor bends.
  

Quick Changes

• Sometimes there is very little time to change b/w scenes, or an actor may even have to get dressed on stage
• Actors may be getting dressed in the dark
  
• Snaps may be better than hooks and eyes, velcro better than a zipper
• Note: Velcro is noisy
  
• Back closures may necessitate the actor have dressing help backstage
• Tied corsets, looped buttons, etc... are fine for effect, but a hidden zipper will make dressing easier.

Children

• Need secure, comfortable costumes that are easy to get in and out of and will stay on properly

Lights Change Everything!

• Be sure to watch first dress rehearsal
• Lights change colors and can make fabrics translucent
• Lights amplify wrinkles and other flaws
• White is glaring under stage lights

Small Details

• Do not spend an inordinate amount of time with small details, however exquisite, that will not be perceived from the audience.
• Patterns and prints may read as solids

Special Effects

• On stage, special effects are often disguised by costume
• A cape can cover the lower legs of a dwarf who is on her knees
• Long pants cover stilts and must open at the outseams or inseams in order for actor to get into stilts
• Costumes might need to disguise props or even electrical wires

Safety

• Actors need to be able to see where they are going
• Skirts should not be long enough to trip on
• Loosely woven, meshy fabrics will get caught on things on the set

Garments can look too good

• Costumes that are too pristine can give the scene a contrived look.
  
• Try "weathering" clothes with dust, paint, sandpaper