vintage sewing and bloody shakespeare

Look at what I won!!! Remember that eBay moment I had with the cozies? Well I was sidetracked by some vintage patterns. And I am quite happy to have found and won these lovelies:
Some were still in the envelopes sent to the original owners back in 1962 and 1964 – though one of them is a bit 80’s. I am looking forward to making the short sleeve dress with the roll collar (top row, center). I’ll have to expand the pattern a bit too fit me of course….Perfect since I just joined SewRetro. I might make this for my first challenge, if I have time before the end of the month (read: next week). We shall see...wonder what the next challenge will be?

The other fun moment of the day was fun with bruises, blood and scars. My intern, Dietzy, is running the show backstage and Kym and I gave her a lesson in bruises and scars for one of the actors in the second Act…a little too much fun was had by all! I got her started with a few basic black and blue marks and Kym let her go with the bloody scars (made with spirit gum, red zinger tea leaves, and Ben Nye Stage blood – peppermint flavored,naturally) -Pics below not for the sensitive :)

where for art thou....

okay - i know that this line from shakespeare really means " why are you romeo?" (or so my shakepeare prof told me) but when taken literally, it works for my blog title . :)

So I have been a bit under the radar this week – lots going on in the costume shop. We opened THE BOROWERS on the 8th and then went right into the build for the high school summer camp Shakespeare show. And this is where things get a bit “craptastic.”

In one week, we, the 3 interns and me (or is it I? it's I, isn't it?), built three corsets (with rigilene, not steel boning) , 4 7-gored late-Victorian walking skirts, 1 reversible vest (so really 2-in-1), 2 matching vests (it’s 12th Night, so the twins), 4 more vests, a vest with tails (so not properly tailored in the slightest), and one other skirt which I whipped out one hour before tech last night…is that all?....oh and a 2 piece dress – a bit prom like, also boned with rigilene. And lots of alterations. The show opens on Friday and closes this Sunday.

It’s not that we don’t produce solid work for our student shows– we do – it’s just that we are given one week to produce a lot of garments - so hems are done by machine, jacket sleeve hems are folded under, not shortened at the top or properly at the hem. And the fact that i am admitting this in the blog-iverse...I am not proud, but you have to get dome what needs to be done - would not believe that i used to make proper steel boned corsets and paniers.....Just so you know, there is absolutely, positively, no hot glue gun in my costume shop!!!! Hahaha except in very rare moments of desperation and crafting moments.

I don’t know if I have explained this but – we produce 6 main stage shows a year plus over 20 student shows. Normally (not including summers) I am a shop of one plus the occasional over hire and the costume designer. This fall, I finally get a full- time assistant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!! If I could do a little dance in blog format – I would. La La la..Spin, twirl, dancing around the room with glee!

Here is a webpage, Demode that I am terribly envious of - Kendra is the blogger and she is amazing!!. She helps run this convention called COSTUME COLLEGE in California. A dream come true for me!! It is hosted by the Costumer's Guild West a chapter of the ICG (I want to go but it is already booked up and there are no more memberships left for this year. I am going to email and find out how early is too early for next year. I want to propose this to my boss and maybe get the company to subsidize the trip some how - you know to better my skills as desinger, technician and costume shop manager.

Sorry for the lack of knitting or personal sewing - there are pictures, but I left the camera in my knitting bag, which I left in the board room after a 2 hour design meeting this morning! I am so ashamed..to leave my knitting behind like that!

End note: PROJECT RUNWAY – I cannot believe that Milan was auf’ed!!! Okay the man is a bit creepy and that dress was a bit log-like…and jeffrey's dress was messy. Angela was a total be-atch! How could she dis her team leader like that on such a classic design – no not pageant style but totally classic (a bit 30’s style – would have been better had it been done on the bias - imho)

Cozies and other things

Apparently my cozy obsession has been considered odd…i'm cool with that :)
Well it might be a bit scary, but obvously there are people out there who are more obsessed than I am. I keep getting outbid on eBay. I have my limits and refuse to go above them (that is how eBay gets you...you feel the pressure and go over what any calm sane person is willing to spend in face to face combat shopping).
Has anyone seen that commercial for room fresheners, where grandma is crocheting cozies to cover the room freshener? Fritz is convinced that that is me (though I am much younger and probably taller than grandma). Besides, I draw the line at toilet paper cozies...What’s the point? You run out before you have a chance to get the cover on.

(And no comments from the knit-or-get-off-the–pot family tree – about the toilet paper or my hair. )

Not much crafting fun at the moment - hands have not been enjoying the humidity - all the swelling - so not doing much - especially since work has been so heavy.

But there was a lovely review in the Washington Post in Saturday's paper about THE BORROWERS. I wish the other pic that was in the paper was on the web - you could see the fabulous acorn hat that one of my interns made for me. Or you'll just have to se the show :)!

While the cat is away the mice will play…

Or in this case, Marietta will play on eBay…bad Marietta.
Every once in awhile I get on eBay and do damage to the bank account. This time is it vintage patterns for knitted tea and egg cozies. – cause who doesn’t want matching tea and egg cozies? Well I do. Egg cups are pretty hard to find in the states (at least for me anyway) and egg cozies are even harder. Yes, I can make up my own patterns and yes, there is that very cute pattern in WEEKEND KNITTING, but I want typical British looking egg and tea cozy covers like these:



But I lost this bid – and there are others! There are also tea cozy patterns that look like cottages. I swear there was that woman who made tea cozies that looked like the homes of famous women murderers. No I don’t need one of those - but I do like the idea. I am hardly domestic, but I like cozies for my kitchen appliances. There was that moment of unemployment where I had sewn covers for all the little appliances in the kitchen one afternoon. Fritz was a bit frightened…

And then there are the sewing patterns…don’t get me started – not like I do not have enough and I can’t make my own...but why should I when they are there…calling to me…saying…bid on me! Take me home…who cares what the shipping is….

My other favorite eBay search is Tigerente – trying to find someone who will ship to the US is not easy! It is not available here and I admit I am child-like in this way. All I want is that silly little tigerente necklace on a leather string – I have had one or two before and lost them – so sad! When we have our imaginary children (currently named: Maximillian and Helen – not my choices!) I will do the baby room in tigerente!

Oh an PROJECT RUNWAY started up again last night!!!!!!!!! that chick so deserve off - i mean industrial sewingmachines are not that scary (so they can sew through bone! - don;t ask me how i know!) And if you want to read some fun commentary, check these guys out!

I will end the post with this lovely statue of Empress Elizabeth (aka Sissi) at the Westbahnhof in Vienna, Austria. Can you guess what is so perfect about this picture?

just a quickie!

One of the things I do for the store is finishing. But I specialize in a particular type of finishing. We have a few customers who, as knitters, are technically quite capable but sometimes the math just gets away from them. So what does this mean? It means scissors! Yes kids, I take scissors to those knittd garments that you spent so much time screwing up knitting so meticulously. Because there are some yarns (whether you like them or not) that are not meant to be ripped out (even though should have neer been knitted in the first place).

so we have the before:











and the after:










love my sewing machine and i love my serger! The sweater was sewn together the "proper" way with yarn and needle. Once Fritz is back with the camera and the computer, I will gladly post the "how it looked on customer" pic :)

night!

Another opening, another show

Yippee!!! The show is open and here are the boys enjoying the party – can you guess which is which?
Adam, aka our best man, aka Fritz’s ATD (assistant Technical Director) is sitting house left and Fritz is house right. It is Adam’s last opening night with us – he is moving on to San Diego Rep as their TD – we are so proud of our boy! He’s ten years younger than Fritz and when we all lived together, we referred to him as “our teenage son” (okay, so he’s in his 20’s, but boys will be boys!)

Before Adam leaves in two weeks time, Fritz has decided to take some time off and go see his folks – read: leaving me to fend for myself for a few days.

Mar: When are you leaving?
Fritz: Why?
Mar: Well, I need to plan my affair.
Fritz: Affair?
Mar: Yes. I plan to have a hot and steamy affair while you are away…
Fritz: (raising one eyebrow – ‘cause he can do that) With yarn or fabric?
Mar: (BUSTED!!!)
Fritz: So while you are having your steamy affair with *enter fiber of choice here*, will you eat while I’m away?
Mar: (blank look)
Fritz: Will you feed the cats? Clean the kitchen?
Mar: (still a bit blank) I’ll feed the cats…Clean? Well if I don’t make anything then won’t have to clean…you got me yogurt and ice cream right?
Fritz: (walks away and shakes his head) Just remember to feed the cats.

As I have said – I do not cook, I do not clean. What’s the point? I was a very skinny single person and since there was no food in the house (does rice and yogurt count?) there was never any mess – well except for fabric and yarn – my single person apartment pretty much looked like this (our current guest/yarn/sewing room):

Maybe I’ll clean it while Fritz is away…
maybe.

Christmas in July!

I was show-shopping (again) -and this is what I saw. Yes, that’s right! Christmas fabric! “Christmas in July,” as they like to say – and if you want to be politically correct – it is Christma-hannu-kwanzu-kah in July! (Oh! and Ramadan falls somewhere in that time frame, but I haven’t quite figured out how to get that in there yet)


As you know – my July 4th was a bit sad. Thank you everyone for your sympathy and shared pain. I know that getting wrapped up in sports can be silly – but every once in awhile you have to believe that your favorite team is going to win something amazing. And this is only every four years – unlike American football’s Superbowl or the Baseball World Series (which as a cubs fan, is well, never quite …yeah, won’t go there – too much sports sadness for one summer). With all the craziness in the world – it is nice to get wrapped up in something as simple as Football (Soccer).

My show is opening this weekend – so if you are in the DC area…enter shameless plug here…check it out. And if you are 4 – 8 years old, you will really like it  Children’s theatre after all…

Finally, getting back to some sewing for me and knitting too. I am officially out of the knitting world cup – like my team I have been knocked out, but I do not think that I will even make it to the final round for an attempt at third place. With the show and the not sleeping there has also been the not knitting – but I have the weekend off and Monday too! Better late than never! Hopefully there will be sleeves then for me to show you. Fritz is going away for a few days and he is taking the laptop with, so if I probably won’t be able to post until Tuesday (after work hours of course).

Have a lovely weekend – and maybe if you are in New Jersey – the beaches will be open…