mary's costuming page
I would in no way consider myself an expert in costuming or sewing. I am completely self-taught and have learned from trial and error. (Unfortunately, my memory is terrible, so I have a tendency to repeat the same mistakes over — and over — again.) But I have made several costumes for my family and friends, mostly for Renaissance Faires and mostly of the peasant/lower-class variety.
My daughter is a dancer and has been in The Nutcracker for the last seven years, so I have also had the opportunity to make some costumes for her school's production (see below). In 2004, I took on the task of making new petticoats for all the girls in the opening scene and came up with my own pattern, because I couldn't find any that were full enough.
I have also begun making Victorian costumes, which we wear to the Dicken's Christmas Fair in San Francisco. I'm also interested in Regency period costuming, but haven't quite gotten around to that yet.
Check out this article with suggestions on how to organize your sewing room & supplies:
- Finding Time to Sew, an article by Stephen Bergdahl
Historic Costumes
Victorian/Civil War Era
Go to my 19th Century Costuming page to see my work from that era.
Lizzie Bennett, c1810
Hannah's elementary school required halloween costumes that were based on literary characters. So we decided that she should go as Lizzie Bennett from "Pride & Prejudice." I started with a girls party dress pattern that basically had the look I wanted. I shortened the bodice length for the period style and widened the center front so that I could gather it. For the sleeves, the pattern came with several sleeves styles, so I combined a long straight sleeve with a short puff sleeve over it. You can't tell in the picture, but the fabric is a cotton print with a white on white pattern. All in all, I think it came out pretty good -- and Hannah looks pretty happy in it!
Renaissance Fair Costumes
These are miscellaneous costumes I have made for family & friends to wear to renaissance faires. I'm not going for authenticity here, just for fun!
The blue dress on the left is one I made for a little girl. It is simply a rectangle of upholstery fabric with straps and an attached skirt. No fuss, no muss, easy for a small child to put on and wear.
These are different views of an "Irish" dress and leine (chemise) that I made for my daughter to wear one year when we worked at a fair. The leine pattern was a combo of a whittled down adult pattern and some instructions that I found online. The dress was made from my own "basic bodice" pattern, with the bottom finished straight across and a skirt attached. The dress is made of linen, with the bodice lined in a linen/cotton blend for stability. The leine is made of cotton. With these lovely natural fabrics, my daughter stayed reasonably cool in 100° weather!
This is a plum colored Irish dress or kirtle that I made for myself, trimmed with beautiful ribbon that has a celtic design. I made it basically in the same manner as the Irish dress above (started with my own bodice pattern with the bottom straightened out, and attached skirt to bottom of bodice. It is made of a plum colored twill.
This is a purple peasant costume that I made for a family friend for her birthday. If you can't guess, purple is her favorite color! LOL
These are peasant costumes that I made for my daughter and her friend when they worked at the local renaissance fair. They came up with their own decorating schemes for their bodices and their own color combos.
Miscellaneous Costumes
I've made a lot of costumes for my daughter over the years, including an Egyptian costume for a school project, "genie" costumes for Halloween, etc. But I can't seem to find any pictures of most of them....
My daughter and her friend wanted to be the Easter Bunny & the Tooth Fairy for Halloween in 2002. Here's the results... (I'll be happy if I never have to sew with these fabrics ever again!! LOL)
Ballet Costumes
Red spanish style tutu for my daughter's performance of a piece from "Paquita." This is the first tutu I ever made! Started with a prom dress pattern for the bodice and improvised from there. (Bodice and tutu "plate" are shown over a purchased practice tutu.)
Black Swan tutu for my daughter's performance in "Swan Lake ." Second tutu that I made, but this time I made not only the bodice and plate, but the actual net tutu, too.
I used the patterns & instructions from tutu.com. The bodice is made from their 10-piece bodice pattern, with some minor modifications.
(Sorry for the blurry pictures, but they are all that I have at this time - they were taken from the back of the auditorium, with low light, and the wrong lens on my camera!)
This is one of two starfish costumes that I made in 2002 for the Sonoma County Ballet Company's "The Nutcracker." This company does the Arabian scene as The Sea Scene, with mermaids, starfish, a sea monster, etc.
The material is sequined dot material, attached to thin foam for the back layer. I never, ever want to sew with either of these materials again!
I didn't use any pattern, just drew large, elongated star shapes on muslin. The face holes came out too big, and I tried to fill in with some scraps. They now use drawstrings to close the opening up more.
I think they turned out pretty good for my first stab at this type of costume!
This is the man's Chinese costume that I made for the 2003 season. I'm sorry to say that I don't have any better photos of the costume at this time.
I traced a Chinese style dragon on the back of the shirts, outlined it with gold sequins, filled it in with black seqiuns, and used red seqiuns for the eyes, tongue and claws. You can barely see the dragon in the left photo, because Kojen's hair blocks most of it.
The costume is made from black satin with a (very shred-dy) metallic faric for trim. I used a Vogue pattern for the top and a scrubs pattern for the pants.
For the 2005 season, I made a new Clara dress for the party scene in Act I, because all of the old ones were too big for our tiny Clara! I started with a prom pattern that had a princess searm bodice similar to the shape that the director wanted and modified it "to taste."
The costume is made from fabrics found out the local chain fabric store: "antique gold" satin for the skirt and sleeves, red velvet and red brocade for the bodice, and miscellaneous gold trims for the decorations. I'm pretty proud of how it came out.
For the 2006 season, I made a new Sugar Plum Cavalier costume, to match the new Sugar Plum Fairy costume made by one of the teachers. The colors are off, as in real life they are more purple and the lighter color is actually silver.
The first picture shows the SPF tutu, so that you can see how they complement each other.
For 2004, I made 6 new petticoats for the girls in the opening party scene. Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles, ruffles... But no pictures! I came up with my own pattern, with its roots in a commercial pattern.
NOTE: Wash your fabrics before cutting, sewing, etc. In the long run, you'll be much happier with your results, especially if you are using cotton or any other fabric that has a tendency to shrink. I can't tell you how many times I've been too lazy or in too much of a hurry and skipped this step — and regretted it forever afterwards.
This page was last updated:
2008-05-05 ::
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