Results

I thought I'd finally post the results of what I've been doing lately. The dress rehearsal for Joseph was Sunday, and I did get my three costumes in (luckily, all the other costumes didn't have to be made, just put together from stuff we already have), although there are some tweaks I'd like to make before the next dress rehearsal Wednesday night. In several of the pictures, cast members have taped their microphones to their faces, which is the white stuff you see. I wish I could have gotten pictures without that, but maybe I can get better ones during the show itself.

This is Kelsey as the villainous Mrs. Potiphar (that's someone else's arm behind her, by the way). The most frustrating part about this was that my flash was too slow to get all her great facial expressions! Poor Joseph just didn't stand a chance.

I'm happy with the dress itself: It's panné velvet, with a basic scoop/square neck, empire waist, six-gored skirt. I used gold lamé bias tape around the neck (which was wonderful finishing, so I didn't have to worry about the facing) and around the sleeve on the upper arm. It doesn't show, but I also put it around the cuff. I didn't even bother to hem it--knits don't fray and I didn't have time, so I just cut it as evenly as possible.

This is Jeff as Pharaoh/Elvis. He has the most awesome dance moves--not that I'm biased at all . . . This is the costume that gave me the most difficulty in figuring out. I was seriously stumped for the longest time as to what to make.

I briefly considered making a full out jumpsuit, but it would have taken at least six or seven yards of fabric, and I just didn't have time. Also, he's wearing black pants anyway for the chorus and as Judah, a brother, so it wasn't even necessary. I finally remembered an Evel Kenievel costume my sister in law made for Jeff's brother one Halloween. She started with a white dress shirt and went from there with decorating it. At first I thought I might use a shirt as a pattern to make something totally from scratch, but then I came back to my senses. I got a nice, heavy shirt from Jeff's Dad. Someone had donated a few yards of a wavy gold tissue lamé, and I used that to cover the cuffs, collar, and front & bottom edges. I also made a short cape. Once I was done, I thought it might be more Liberace than Elvis, but I do think it works!

This is the one I want to fiddle with, though. The front doesn't lay flat the way I'd like. I'd originally wanted the shirt to close in front, with maybe an Egyptian style flap in front, but I ran out of time, and also couldn't figure out how to get it to fasten. I didn't want to sew it shut, because then he'd have to put it on & take it off over his head--awkward and slow. Velcro seems to be the obvious choice, but I've never liked it. In order for it to be really stable, I have to sew it down with many seams, and I don't want them to show. Also, I was afraid that the force might damage the lamé. Hooks on the front edges are a possibility, as are snaps if I want to overlap a little. I'm not sure that if it's closed, he'll be able to do all his moves in it, though. I also got a suggestion to put some extra white fabric between the gold on front and fasten it with tape. That's also in the running, because I could attach it to the white shirt fabric instead of the lamé. Whatever I choose, it has to be today or tomorrow, so we can see how it works tomorrow night.

This is Corey as Joseph. Although this coat took the longest to make (on Mom's recommendation, I made a muslin, which really was a huge help), it ended up not being all that difficult. Now, there were problems and there are things that I would do differently if I were to make another one.

Namely, I would use the gold lamé to underline the coat, not line it. In other words, I would cut out an identical piece of lamé for each part of the coat--fronts, back, sleeves--and sew the lining right to it, then sew the pieces together. Instead, I made essentially two coats and attached them to each other. The point was to make nice finished seams on the inside. The problem was that I didn't measure well enough and cut the lining too narrow. I had a miserable time fixing it. I ended up edging everything with more gold lamé bias tape (which Eagle Eyes Sarah saw--I didn't even know such a thing existed) anyway, so it all turned out ok.

I am happy with the basic design of the coat--I wanted it narrow at the top and flowy at the bottom, so I used 3.5" x 45" rectangles of the patterned fabric (a wild Hawaiian floral that was a bitch to cut and had to be interfaced), For the solid pieces in between, I made a trumpet shaped piece that was 1.5" at the top and 13" at the bottom, with the flare starting 18" down. My rotary cutter was a true blessing for this project. Also, making it only 45" long meant that I could use narrow pieces of fabric and cut selvage to selvage as the length. Each solid color only needed 3/8th of a yard of fabric. I only had a to buy a few pieces, since quite a bit was donated. Even the smaller donated pieces ended up working for the sleeves.

Originally, I was going to make top and bottom separately, then attach them. After much talking, my mom convinced me that one solid line would not only look better, it would be easier in the long run. As usual, she was totally right. Trying to match all those seams would have driven me to madness. She also talked me out of set in sleeves, instead just running one seam under the arm and down the side. I can't remember how many hours I spent talking to her on the phone about all the sewing I've done over the past month, but it's been a LOT. It's absolutely true that I never would have made it without her help. Thanks, Mom!