Wizard of Oz

I wrote this post once already and somehow managed to delete it shortly after posting it. Oops. So here's my second stab at this.

It's a little late coming since the Wizard of Oz closed weeks ago, but after working my ass off making the costumes I took a month off of lots of things including crafting and blogging. So, happy New Year!

At first I wasn't too thrilled about costuming this show. In general the shows that everyone knows are dull to do because everyone already knows what it's supposed to look like and that's what they are expecting. But I did manage to challenge myself with this show and I had a whole lot of fun. I did, however, take on a bit much and it was a lot more work than I was expecting. Especially since I had some huge shipping issues with some of the fabric I ordered and ended up having to make 10 Ozian costumes in a few days.

So here's the costumes and some anecdotes:

I made the four main characters' costumes (I did have a sewing assistant who assembled the Lion and a few others). The tin man was tricky and I'll probably write a whole separate post about that one since I didn't find much when I looked up ideas for how to do it.

I spent a lot of time on Glinda's dress and if I'd had more time and money I'd have spent more of each on this dress. It didn't turn out quite like what I wanted. The Wicked Witch costume was outsourced when a retired designer on the island volunteered his services (he did the Wizard's costume too). The Wicked Witch costume is amazing and sadly I can't take any credit for it.

Here munchkins, specifically the Lullaby League (or Tots as they are referred to in the script). I pulled most of the munchkin costumes, but I made the Lullabies elf hats and shoes (I'll post the hat pattern if I ever figure out where I put it).

The crows were pretty simple, but I think they look great. I borrowed the hats and just made them feathery bibs. I wanted them to have yellow rainboots too, but alas they didn't fit in the budget.

The monkeys were mostly my design (assembled by my assistant). I used an animal jumpsuit pattern and combined it with a fairly plain bodice pattern that would be the vest. They were pretty adorable

The Ozians are some of my favorites. Especially the green tunics and the dirndl dresses. If I'd had more time I'd have made them hats too. The Oz Guard is my absolute favorite costume of the show, and sadly I don't have a good picture of him alone. He's standing next to the Wizard in the picture with the balloon. I took an Uncle Sam costume pattern and altered it.

These are the Winkies (the Witch's guards). I enjoyed making these as well since I had to kind of figure it out on my own.

I don't have a picture of the Jitterbugs and they were also really cool - if I find one I'll add it. It's a scene that was cut from the movie so most people don't know it. The costumes were simple - black shirts and pants for the men, black leotards and skirts for the women. They had novelty antenna and maskes from Amazon. But the wings were what made the costume. It was black nylon with different colored organza spots on it. They only had color on the part facing the audience so the color would flash during the dancing, but they were mostly black.

The next show I'll be working on is Shout! The Mod Musical so next I'll post lots of cute 60's mod dresses.