The last thing you really saw from me here was a costume I made last year for the Burlesque Ball, which I just loved and from which a serious crush on all things Burlesque and vintage took its hold over me. Needless to say a number of my brewing plans are vintage inspired. But! the project I have been working on, is of course, my new costume for:
Last year I stuck to the dress code/theme of Red, Black or Burlesque. This year I detected a real 'Air' theme in the style and marketing. The headline act is the fantastic Julie Atlas Muz who I looking forward to seeing (and hopefully having a moment to meet!). I was supposed to meet her on my trip to New York last year, but the world intervened and it just never happened. She is the face of this year's Ball and that glorious wind-sweeping hair just captured my imagination and I knew I wanted to make my costume as 'airy' as could.
I raided my stash and found some left over banner silk from a previous project, and I'm not sure where from, but a costume concept just barged in to my head!
I'm making it all up as I go along, which is half the fun. But the concept revolved around a tutu, frilly knickers and a corset... my problem is I owned none of these things. But I started on the skirt anyway.
With a white base, I had to pick blue as the accompanying colour, plus I know blue suits me. I wanted a short circle skirt style that in my crazy vision, sits horizontally out from my hips supported by a mega tutu. I started out by cutting out the skirt pieces from the lengths of left over silk and then stretched them on my silk painting frame (which I realised afterwards while taking the photos I should have done in the reverse order, talk about rusty brain!). I'd drawn swirly designs in an effort to be airy and had gutta-d the outlines in silver then took to the patterns with a fabulous azure.
I'm not even going to pretend it's perfect, and I'm not going to care it's not. I've thought about a number of ways to construct a tutu that will sit right, be comfortable for the night and have the right shape for my crazy vision. But I might leave that for the next post...
In the meantime I asked some of my fabulous burlesque performing friends about where to find the divine frilly knickers so many of them wear - Target and Cotton on Body for those out there about to go and find the same. I'm now the proud owner of not one but three pairs of frilly knickers, between which I can't decide! But I guess a girl can never have too many pairs eh?
I also wanted to track down a corset and would you believe my luck, a friend was in fact selling a bright blue corset which turned out to fit me and be the perfect colour (it must be a sign from the burlesque goddesses). So, while I have to finish the skirt and tutu, I'm also thinking about a set of pasties and fascinator to make. This costume just keeps growing and growing, and I'm really excited to see how it turns out! Let's not think about the fact that the ball is only 3 weekends away.
So next post, I'll have to tell you about how I went about starting my tutu and sewing together my skirt. I'll try to keep up regular posts so you can see how it all comes together in time for 20th February. Look out Luna Park, you won't know what hit you!
