For 12 years I've been working for a dance company making costumes for ballet & modern dance, and several big productions including Dracula, Nutcracker, Coppellia, Don Q, among others. It started as just a small project. I was working on smocked dress for my newborn niece, and the next thing i knew i was being asked to make garments for two people whom i did not know, measurements were being sent to me from two different places, I had no patterns, and did not know the story. The only thing i knew was that i was chosen for my sewing abilities. Aagghh was all i could think. Then i was handed two of the ugliest pieces of fabric, one a sandwashed silk reminscent of puke green/gold and the other similar color but gold dominant, jacauard print for home decor. The individuals were to show up 3 days before the performances. so they had to mostly be done. I had made theatre costumes which are very different from ballet/dance costumes. Theatre costumes are usually made to be a bit sturdier than regular clothes every thing is faced, in ballet, everything is suppossed to flow and fit like a glove. Oh my, was all i could think. These fabrics don't offer flow nor would they be able to fit like a glove because of that. I also learned just how picky dancers can be.
The next year, i was working for a brand new dance company. The first show would be nutcracker, requiring tutu's romantic and pancake, fairys, party girls, soldiers, clowns, a mouse queen instead of king, basically a cast of 35 with most have 3-4 parts each, i designed and created over 120 costumes for that show. I found out several things about volunteer help. 1) its rarely enough. 2) NO ONE ADMITS TO KNOWING HOW TO SEW these days- not even hooks and eyes, its quite pathetic. 3) When someone tells you, that you will have lots of help, never ever believe them. 4) if you think someone can cut out fabric/patterns for you with out knowledge of sewing, think again. Oh these were just a few things i learned that year. I also learned that if you succeed at an impossible task, you will be asked to perform magic, and frequently heard coming from my mouth, was "am i suppossed to pull that out of my ass?" and somehow i almost always did. The director i worked for was full of impossibilities. She would forget that i was 1 person, i did not have a staff. Over the years i got used to it, but never accepted it. This year at the end of the season in June, i decided it was enough. Enough late nights, back aches, running around looking for fabric in the limited local shops we have here, and online. Time to move on.
So here i am, moving on. My daughter the High School Senior (often referred to as Red) is doing the same. She has danced with this company for 10+ years. But this summer while gone to san francisco she was asked to stay there for the school year to dance full time. This we could not agree to, she's not quite 18, but it made us all aware she needed to work into some other companies and gain a more varied experience. She is often my inspiration, or muse. I think of so many things i want to create when i'm working on something for her. So this year, i've decided i would come thru on many items that i have promised her the last few years. Including her own tutu- if you've made a pancake tutu -you know it can take a 100hours. the romantic tutus are much less complicated, and even though they are longer, are far easier in contrast. I have projects i want to finish for my home and myself. My drapes i started last year for my living room, in a beautiful botanical print on black. Small bags for girls with embroidered dancers and fairys with jewels of course and lots of trims- i made a mock up of one, and never found the time to finish. Some things are difficult and others easy. My one big challenge is to finish the quilt my mother in law was making when she passed away in june. She had made the quilt top, and got it onto her long arm quilting machine. She set the pattern for the quiliting on top, and then got very ill. And now I person who has never used a long arm am faced with finishing it.
Part of this mission is to make things for myself as i lose weight. Because i want these to be inbetween clothes, i want to makes things that i like and meet some of the design styles that i've been wanting to wear, but hoping during this year i can also lose 65 lbs. that have creeped back on my medium short frame. They hinder my outdoor activites, and i no longer want these pounds to be part of who i am. I know i can do this, as well as satisfy my creative needs and thats what this blog is all about.
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