Jo's dress and Aunt March's and Amy's pantalets

I finished a dress for Jo this last week it is the dress she wears in act 1. Since the character Jo wants to be in the military.  I tried to make this have a little bit of a military feel to the dress.

 I used vintage military buttons as a pin at the neck and at the bottom of the collar and on the sleeves.   The buttons come from a great aunt of mine and my Vavo both of which are in heaven.  I am keeping the costumes after the play so I am not worried that I will not have them anymore.  There is only one of the eagle one I used at the collar.  The rest of the buttons all match each other and have anchors on them.

 The fringe on this dress (at the collar and hem) was given to me a few months ago by a dear friend of mine, we have been friends for over 20 years.  She gave me a lot of different fringes and trims so you will be seeing them a lot in this play.   The black you see on the collar is a black velvet ribbon I found thrift shopping a few years back.  The white braid around the black velvet is clearance trim from hobby lobby.  I have this habit of picking up things I think will be useful in the future just I never know when that is in the future.  Some times days or weeks sometimes years.  I also used black upholstery cording on the white collar and red around the sleeves just to give it added touches here and there.  Just because the item is made for furniture does not mean I can not use it in costumes you would be amazed at how many upholstery trims I use and how much upholstery and drapery fabrics I use.

The collar is made of two layers of velvet ribbon back to back with eyelet lace inserted between them. The zipper on the back is hard to see but it is a real dark dark pink almost looks red.  I found 2 backs 3 weeks ago thrift shopping that had about 40 zippers in them not back for about 6 dollars spent.  This is one of those.

It is hard to see in the photos but there are 4 growth pleats around the bottom of the hem of this dress.  Those pleats took up a total of 12 inches of fabric length to make this the right height for the player.

The petticoat you see is made from bleached muslin and also have 7 growth pleats in it.  It also has a red lace trim.  The lace was found the same time when I found the lace that I dyed gray for Aunt Marches cape I found a lot that day at a real good price.   The best way to costume is to go junking I would say you never know what you will find and how it will be used.  The tulle netting you see is to help keep the dress a little puffier at the waist it is also in the sleeves the sleeves and bodice are fully lined so you can not see the netting there but it serves its purpose to keep the sleeves puffier.  (sorry it was cold out so you also see my daughters flannel PJ's not part of the costume.  The picture to the right of my daughter in the petticoat is after being ironed.  The one below is before being ironed big difference in appearance.

The daughter wearing the above dress is a little too small for it and my oldest daughter is a little too big so it will look better on the actual person I made it for especially since she has raven black hair and is a very pretty person in general.


 I also finished a set of pantaloons for Aunt March.    This set of pantaloons is made from clean old sheets thus making them real soft to the wearer.  I also used that same sheet on Jo's dress above to make the collar and cuffs.  The lace at the hem of the pantalet is the same lace I used on the collar of the first dress for the Aunt March character.This is the first of 5 pantalets and 2 pantaloons I will need to make for the play.

I have another set of pantalets that I am making for the character Amy in the play.  Since that character likes nicer things hers will be made out of eyelet fabric.  As if she took the time to embroider her under garments because she wanted finer things is the thinking there.  I will update when they are done to this post.

Yes the photo is black and white.  I wanted it to have an older look to it looked to bright in color with a bright orange quilt behind her to hide me sewing table from the picture.  Silly but there you are.

Update say day:

This next set should have been ironed.  These are Amy's pantalets they are made with left over eyelet fabric from my daughters dress.  I only had enough fabric to make one set.  I have little bits left over still which might work for sleeves on a dress.  Because the fabric is a batiste it is rather sheer so my daughter is wearing her cross country shorts under these for the photo.  OK! I  know these look long but my daughter is 4 1/2 inches shorter in the leg than the person that plays Amy in the play and so of course these fit Amy's character not my oldest daughter.  I liker the heavier fabric I used earlier better.  But i thought the character of Amy would have added embroidery and eyelet to her underclothing to make it fancier ie. the use of the eyelet fabric.