Friday, June 19, 2009

Candy Apple Green

It started with the hat.

I fell in love with this hat... I have to get it on stage... I want to put it on the mother character in the prologue...

It's a 50's hat, so I want a 50's garden party dress to go with it... and I want the dress to be plaid so that she matches her husband (trust me it's that kind of a show)... I searched and searched and no candy apple green dresses, no plaid dresses, and certainly no 50's dresses in a size 12... for one thing this is a color that isn't manufactured anymore. I mean sure you can find things "close" but if you see this fabric up close it is luminous. It's the same green they used in Austrian Tyrolean coats as well. It's green but it glows with a golden secondary tone that you only notice when you hold it next to modern greens. The modern version always looks like a sad and flat rip off next to these old textiles. Anyway Plaid; the most difficult thing you can cut a pattern out with...

...and of corse I think that cutting it "on grain" (meaning the lines would go straight up and down) doesn't look good or period enough... so my designer side has a little fit and makes my stitcher self cut the whole thing on the bias (diagonal is a really tricky way to cut things, and extra tricky with plaid)...

... and as if that weren't enough my designer self insisted that I add green ribbon to the plaid so that it would match the accessories and that glorious hat!

I hate sewing for myself. I'm also making a crinoline...
Anyways... updates to come, wish me sanity.