Pointe Shoes

I am (was) a classically trained ballerina in the Vaganova (Russian) style and danced “en pointe” for 6+ years before and after college (when I took a ballet break). My ballet days are somewhat behind me – I still dance, but my focus is a little more on jazz now – but, ballet will always be a part of me, and I haven’t given it up entirely (see my Zombie Ballerina blog).

My first Pointe shoes were Capezio Aerial II’s (the old style – I don’t like the new style) and eventually I moved on to Grishkos or Russian Class. I kept my first pair for a long time and displayed them proudly, but eventually they died and I had to throw them out. When I moved home after college and had lots of free time to craft I decided to decorate a new pair to replace my first pair.

For one of our performances in high school three of us choreographed a dance to “The Phantom of the Opera.” We had pretty black costumes and wanted to have pretty black Pointe shoes to match. We bought some Rit and stirred up a pot of black Pointe shoe stew in my friend’s yard with her cat nearby to complete our witchy scene.

And after all the “Double double toil and trouble” we learned that you cannot dye Pointe shoes like that. The box of a Pointe shoe (the hard part that supports the toes) is made from rosin (tree sap) and melts in hot water (and the dryer). So we ended up with beautiful black Pointe shoes that were too small and way too mushy to dance on.

So, I had learned my lesson about dying and decided to try another approach when decorating my new shoes (from eBay). I bought some Rit and this time, made a watery paint and painted the dye on with a brush like watercolors. This allowed me to dye the fabric without ruining the shoes as long as I didn’t apply too much at one time to the box (it also came in handy when making my aforementioned zombie ballerina costume). It also let me do some neat things.

I was able to do shading and color variation – I used a bluish/purplish dye and I think I mixed it with some watercolors. Also, I added some glitter to give it a bit of sparkle. I also glued on some sequins, added a bit of pizzazz with some glittery puffy paint, painted the insole and added pretty lavender ribbons. This is how they came out:

I had all kinds of plans for different shoes, but never really kept up with it. The shoes now gracefully adorn the doorknob on my bedroom door.

Curtain Costumes

Some of the most important costumes in “The Sound of Music” are only worn on stage for about a minute – the infamous Curtain Costumes. Not only do the children have to look adorable in them, but they are an important plot point as well.

In the story, as you may recall, the Children – “little marching machines” – are somewhat ignored by their father, a former sea captain, who treats them like sailors on a ship rather than beloved offspring. Maria comes along and teaches the children how to be children and how to sing – the latter being what breaks their father out of his widowhood induced funk and brings the family together again.

The changing point for the captain comes when he returns home a month after Maria arrives to find his children romping about the estate dressed in play clothes made from old curtains. The clothes are made from curtains because he wouldn’t give Maria material to make them clothes, so like a true “make it work” crafter, she used what was available – the old curtains from her bedroom.

The curtain costumes spark a conflict between the Captain and Maria that helps the captain to realize what has happened to his family, and to start falling in love with Maria. So, even though they are seen on stage for only a brief moment, they are vital to the play.

Since the prospects of renting costumes for our production of “The Sound of Music” were rather slim, I decided that these would be built for the show. Originally the lady who was going to assist me was going to make them, but things didn’t work out, so I took on the task.

In an earlier post I mentioned the challenges I had finding fabric on the island, so I ended up ordering some online (from 2 different vendors because Fabric.com only had 11 yards)- Benartex Splendid Holiday Alpine Holiday Pine (Christmas fabric, but it works great). I love this fabric.

I used a variety of dress patterns (one old (1950’s), 2 new, and one I made myself) and copied the Lederhosen I had purchased on eBay for the boys. They are adorable costumes, if I do say so myself.




This picture was in the Maui News article about the show. You can’t really see all of them, but you get an idea of how the fabric worked out (the children were singing when the photo was taken – hence the odd expressions on their faces). I’ll post better ones if I ever get any.

Injuries

I recently re-posted an old blog entry from my Myspace page about sewing through my finger while costuming “Meshuggah-Nuns.” Well, that wasn’t my only crafting injury and not my worst either.

During my work for “The Sound of Music” I cut my finger pretty badly with a rotary cutter. This is a pretty common quilting injury as the rotary cutter is a very popular quilting tool. I was cutting strips to make suspenders for Lederhosen when the blade slipped over my straight-edge and through my left pointer finger. I cut a nice slice off, but not really enough to require stitches. It did however bleed a lot and I had to call a friend to come over and help me out because I was on the verge of passing out.

It was a huge inconvenience because I couldn’t use that finger for several weeks right in the middle of my big push to get all the costumes made. You never realize how important a finger is until you can’t use it. But it’s recovered quite nicely.

Some other injuries I have sustained while crafting include a nice burn on my forearm I received while ironing costumes for “The Foreigner.” I also had a significant hot glue burn on my leg from glue dripping on me while making a hat for “The Spirit of the Iao.”

Injuries happen and I find that most of mine have been due to rushing. If I had just pinned what I had been sewing rather than holding things in place, I wouldn’t have sewn through my finger – but I was rushing and trying to save time. And my advice for the rotary cutter is not to take it lightly and to make sure you think everything through before you do it – and be really cautious about finger placement.

The Sound of Music

I’ve been busy. Very, very busy. For the last two months (+) I have been sewing my ass off for last week’s opening of “The Sound of Music” at the Historic Iao Theater in Wailuku. I do a lot of costume design at the Iao Theater for Mau OnStage, but this is my biggest show by far.

Normally – because I have a full-time job and I don’t have the costuming experience of my colleagues – I get the smaller shows that tend to have more “pulled” costumes (costumes that are pulled from stock or purchased off-the-rack). The big-spring-musicals usually involve a lot of sewing, so for the 4+ years that I have been a costume designer they have always been given to someone else.

Well, this year apparently “they” didn’t want this show so I got it – it’s not like I was asking for it, I’ll pretty much do any show they give me. I knew going in that it was going to be tough and that I would need a lot of help, but I was confident that my persistence and “make it work” attitude would carry me through – plus I was planning on getting an assistant.

An assistant was found – she had previous experience and possible had a complete set of curtain costume for the children – but things didn’t work out entirely. And it took a month for them to not work out, so by the time I realized it, it was too late to get another one. I did have help from a lot of people, but I had been planning on having my assistant make a lot of the children’s clothes and now that I didn’t have one, I was going to have to do that myself.

So, I ended up making a lot more of the costumes than I had anticipated. But I learned a lot about dressmaking in the process. I am very proud of what I made and I think everyone was surprised at what I was able to accomplish. I will go into specifics about what I did for the show in other blogs, otherwise this one could end up being quite lengthy, but I do have a lot to say about what I did and what I learned in this process.