Ren Fairs

My children and myself recently joined a guild of fairies yep faeries and other mythical creatures The Court of the Elven Fae .  So if you see us at a Ren-Fair say Hi.

All photos in this post are taken by Rudy van Bree.   Here you see us in a few of our costumes and the other guild members in theirs.  A very nice group of people.

Photos from actual performances...

here is just a sample of the almost 1000 photos I took during the actual performances. The stage had a hazer going so it was more visual than in the tec rehearsals.

Aboveand to the side is the play within the play at the very end.

Above, below and to the side is puck and a few of the fairies the one in orange yellow and red is playing Mustardseed my daughter.  The pink and green fairy is Peasblossom and the dark fairy is Cobwed.  It was a lot of work making these costumes but I really like the way they came out on stage.

For those that do not know i have applied for a job as a stitcher doing sewing professionally for a theater company locally.  I am hoping to get the job but since I am self trained do not know what my chances are.  I hope good as the interview went well.  Wish me luck it means i can stay a full time mom and still earn some money all while working from home.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Only one cape left for me make and a few other little details dress rehearsal is Friday.  Let the fun begin

Puck

I have not quiet finished puck I am making this character a white fur cape to go with the costume and she has a leaf sleeve she wears too.  Her hair will look rumpled for the play.  But it is only partially made at this point in time.  So I will take photos when that part is done and on stage.
 

 I have assembled the rest of the costume for Puck.  I even was able to get some photos of this costume of the girl that is playing that character.  If you follow my blog i wanted all the faerie like people to have something that sparkles on them so when they are on stage they can glitter shimmer and or shine.  Hers is more shimmer and shine but her mask does have a glitter effect to it.  I like the way the mask horns and crown all worked together real well.  It was fun making the cast members lips match their costumes.  Originally the director wanted the faces painted for the faerie realm but I really did not want to deal with that much face painting it takes a long time to paint that many faces plus it never look is exactly the same from one day to the next.   I like the masks it is fast, easy and looks the same each day.

My middle daughter helped Puck put on the sleeve as I was chasing other costume things down. Little did my daughter know she put it on Puck upside down I will correct that for the play.  I also may move it to one leg instead of one arm.

Moth's / Mote's fairy costume

I am glad I did not make the costumes as soon as I new the actresses measurements and waited a few months as one of the main fairies dropped out of the play and was replaced by a girl with a very different physical  appearance than the first one.  I am happy with the new choice she has brown hair which I think will fit the character of Moth better.  Wish cobweb had black hair but she is a blond oh well that is how it goes.  Moth was a blond now she is a brunette.  It is something you may not have noticed but the costumes keep getting smaller and smaller you can tell by the way they change the way they fit on my middle daughter. I started out with the tallest actresses so I could keep cutting the pattern down.  So as I went threw the girls in the play I  could just keep trimming the pattern. This way I would not have to buy more than two of this pattern.  One to cut up and one to keep.  We started out in size 14 then 12 then 8 then 6 the next one is also a size 6 but with all the seams removed it will make since when you see Puck why there are no seams just tons of grommets about 80 of them.

Now on to describe Moth which is the fairy you see in these photos.  I wanted moon light and star light represented by this costume.  As Moths always fly at night and to lights and so on.  So this costume has way more glitter, sequins and gold on it than the other costumes have.  I wish I had a photo at night that had worked.  When this costume spins at night with a spot  light on it wow lots of sparkles.  She is actually wear two sets of wings at once  in these photos.  One is right on top of the other.  I wanted some fuzzy moth like wings and some sparkly like the stars.  So I mixed two to get a sort of look I was OK with.

The costume fits my youngest daughter the best but the photos of her did not come out as well as I would have liked.. So my middle daughter also was kind and put it on to take some photos for me  but it is not truly a good size for her unless she does not like to breath much.  But she said she felt pretty in it and would not mind wearing it in the future even if it was a little tight.  I use to donate the costumes to the school that I made but these days I make them but I keep them for my kids to have and use.  They get used more this way but they do not get as wrecked as easily as we can control their use.

Cobweb's fairy costume

This is the costume for cobweb that I made.  Can I just say I have a love hate relationship with the pattern I am using and modifying.  Every corset I have had to split up the back as they have all been about 2 to 4 inches to big.  Yes I  double checked the patterns and the measurements more like quintuple checked.  The pattern is just made all wrong in the corset area.  So I split them up the back which means 8 more grommets per corset and 2 more sets of boning per corset and more seams.  All that so I can make the corset 2 inches smaller and still then it is even too big on some.


 Absolutely ridiculous I would think a Simplicity Pattern (number 1550 for those that are curious) would have been tested better than this.  It is  a good thing I have no fear of modifications to patterns.

• When I did Peasblossom I used an entirely different skirt, and split the back and made multiple layers on shirt and corset where there wasn't to get the desired effect. 
• On Mustardseed I split the back of the corset and gathered the skirt and also did  multi layers where there wasn't any on the skirt. 
• Cobweb split the back, made multi layers on corset and multi layers on the skirt and added another set of extra grommet holes to the back of the corset different than the lacing ones to accommodate the cape/wings I made out of cobweb like fabric.  I also shredded the blazes out of the hem to give it a sort of tattered look that i want to this character. Then I sewed purple ribbons to the hips of the dress so that the black over lay of lace could be tied up on the skirt.  Which would then show the bright purple fabric under neath the black cobweb lace.

This costume does not have as much glitter as the others have but it does have a real sparkly shirt and I will spray all the costumes with glitter before the first show to add more.  This costume is actually one of my favorite so far for the play.  I really love the wings I found for this character it looks like a spider is sitting on her back its legs form the wings.

I am debating on going back to each character and adding a single grommet to each hip to make a hole in the corset as I would like each fairy to carry a little pouch and that is where it could tie onto the costume.  Costumes never have pockets and they are useful as usually any character in any play usually  have to carry props at some point in time.  I'd like to accommodate that need before it is discovered that there is a need for it.  Two of my daughters wanted to try this one one.  The girl playing the part is more the size of my youngest daughter the day time photos.   But it does fit the red headed one too, the night time photos, who is taller and more grown up in figure so it will work for multiple people over multiple school years.

Now off to make Moth's costume it is going to be very very sparkly because even though Moth's are active at night they like light so her costume reflects lots of light... Wish me luck!

Mustard seed costume

This is the costume that my middle daughter will wear in the play.  She was sick for some of the photos thus the reason some are on a dress form instead of her.  She of course is playing Mustard seed one of Queen Titania's main fairies.  Since mustered is read hot to some people we put in red and orange to symbolizes the hotness of the spice the yellow and shimmery red/brown/yellow is fabric is to represent the colors mustard comes in when made into a sauce.



The corset on this one also laces up the front and back we used red lacing cord.    I also wanted a little detail in the corset so we added white pieing just a little hardly noticeable from a distance which is what I wanted.  The corset is two fabrics a yellow silk like fabric covered with an organza fabric that has glitter on it to make it sparkle on stage.  This costume is more about shimmering than sparkling as Peas Blossom was more about sparkle.  My mannequin is bigger than my daughter is so if you happen to notice it is laced different when it is on her that is to make it smaller and yet still have growing room for her so she and her sisters can wear it for a few years.

I am not sure on these wings yet as I bought them and the elastic that came with them is not strong enough so I will have to replace it.  I am also not sure if  the wings are not too big may need smaller.    I also do not know if I like the fact that the glitter is on the back side of the wings not the front  In a play the back of a person is almost never supposed to face the audience so kind of annoying.  Wish I had know it was on the back when I bought them hard to tell in a package.

This dress we put a yellow crinoline under it to make the bottom have look more like a seed at least that was the goal not sure I achieved my goal or not.  But I think I did.  That was what the gathering was for too to make look like a curved seed or a flower bud facing down not opened yet.

My daughter said it would make a real good fall fairy too.  I think it might make a good witch if I change a few accessories.

update:
I tried it on my daughter later and took more photos decided the orange wings are just too big and the elastic in them is not strong enough so yes for now she gets black wings unless I can find a light weight set that is either red yellow or orange.  The black set bounce nicely when she walks looks like the wings are fluttering when she walks.  the orange did not do that and they dropped.  If any one knows of a place to get a set like the black one but red orange or yellow I would like to hear about it thank you.

My daughter was being a good sport in these photos as she was sick.

Peas Blossom Costume

This is one of several fairy costumes I am making for this years Shakespearian play a mid summer nights dream.  This is for Peas blossom it took about 20 hours to make.  The skirt was actually a dress I found thrift shopping  for 10 dollars that I cut off the top part of the dress to make the skirt added a new zipper and hook and eye and instant skirt.  I love the fact that all the fabrics have flowers on them.  Each fairy is going to have  a theme of sorts as described by that characters name  you will see what I mean as I make them.   Peas blossom is  pink flower with green leaves of course thus the color of this outfit.

We are planing a disco ball to be happening when ever the fairies are on stage and I wanted the sequins to reflect that light to make the stage more sparkling and to look like due on a flower.  I did not make the wings I bought them at Halloween time.

The corset and shirt part I made. The corset is unique in that it laces up the front and back to accommodate more sizes of person. The girl playing this character is taller than my tallest daughter so it is dragging in these photos bu tit will not be on the actual character.  My daughter's toes are freezing in these photos it was raining and the grass was cold and wet she was a good sport.  You can see in this last photo to the right she had jeans and was trying to stay warmer.  Nothing like spring in Utah to have hail snow rain and sunshine all in the same day.  We went out again to take photos later in the day and she put shoes on as her toes were still hurting.

The sequins on this dress are getting everywhere from cutting the fabric.  I will have to remember that for future reference cut and sew quickly or your house will get covered with sequins falling off of the fabric.  If any one has any tips on that not happening I would be glad to hear them.