Turning John Cleese into The Grim Reaper

Now that it is being broadcast on TV, I can finally reveal that I recently completed a commission for the one-and-only John Cleese! I was thrilled to have the chance to dress this comedy legend as the most gothic of characters: The Grim Reaper.

 His stylist provided me with fabric and trimmings and a tight deadline of 2 days! The requirement was a robe that looked luxurious, and had a train - quite a length for a man of 6 foot 5. 

I created a partially interfaced hood to ensure it draped over his head naturally, but didn't flop down over his face. The edges of the hood and centre-front opening were trimmed with a twisted black braid, and a decorative frog clasp was attached at the throat. The actual cloak was done up with about 25 hooks and eyes all running down the front and hidden.

The belt seen in the screen-shot was added on-set. You can see the cloak in action in the full commercial below. 

If in doubt, make it bigger and add more sparkle

I am always thrilled to hear that the truly divine Jonathan Mayor wants to talk to me about a design, so was there like a shot when, back in June he sent me a message asking to chat about something "fabulously Roman-esque" for his part in the Manchester Pride Parade.

Original sketch

Jonathan wanted to incorporate some red sequinned fabric into his dress, and true to form, wanted an absolute show stopper. "Think big, and then think bigger." With a reference image of Celine Dion in a Stephane Rolland gown for sleeve inspiration we sat down together and drew up a design with a huge, full skirt and kimono drop sleeves with massive shoulders. During his on-stage performances, Jonathan is very expressive with his arms so there needed to be lots of room to move.

As the dress was destined to be big and heavy, Jonathan chose a breathable silk fabric for the bodice part, lined with cotton, with a faux silk habutai for the billowing inserts and faux silk dupion sleeves. 

Sewing with sequinned fabric is always somewhat of an experience, and creating the size and shape of the sleeves was quite a challenge involving a large amount of crinoline and coils of boning all hand-stitched in.

Sparkly heart-shaped buttons were added all the way down the front, and the chest area was left intentionally empty to accommodate Jonathan's wide variety of spectacular jewellery. He also wanted the sleeves to not come higher than shoulder height to avoid crowding his head/headpiece.

To create even more fullness to the skirt part of the dress, a ready-made hooped petticoat was bought online, which also helps to ensure it doesn't get wrapped in his legs when moving around.

Seeing Jonathan parading down Deansgate for Manchester's Pride Parade leading the rugby Spartans, I was incredibly proud too! I can't wait for Jonathan's next vision! 

Back detail

Featured in the Manchester Evening News 

 

Hustling the bustle

The Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre's Costume Hire Department recently commissioned me to create this Victorian style corseted bustle dress in green duchesse satin. It is based on a costume that had been on their rails for 17 years was a very popular plus-sized pattern.

The dustle and draped apron front of this dress take up a lot of fabric, and the Victorians really liked all their trimmings and decorative touches and this dress is full of them. There is a velvet trim bordered with fringe as well as ribbon, and several feature buttons. The corseted bodice has satin covered piping at the seams and edges, and the sleeves have lace inserts and more buttons.

The lace-up back to the bodice means that it can be worn by people of a wide variety of sizes, which is very useful for Costume Hire as you never know who you'll be dressing.

The Costume Hire Department were thrilled with this revamped version of a favourite and have put in an order for another one in purple already!

Fetch my golfing knickers!

I'm still studying my 1945 tailoring book, though it's seriously hard going! When a friend asked me if I could make him some plus fours for a fancy dress do I jumped at the chance. As it's for fancy dress I don't have to be too worried if it's not perfect, so a great opportunity for me to try with not too much pressure.

The pattern was one that I'd bought over a year ago now, and the instructions consisted of nothing more than a badly scanned envelope from the 1920s! It didn't have any pictures, just 2 paragraphs of badly punctuated text. Needless to say, this was actually quite a challenge for my first pair of men's trousers and the fly is something I'm still not too sure I understand, let alone the crotch guard!

However, they were lined, and had fully working side- and back-pockets, as well as a watch pocket on the front right. I did have to leave the pattern behind towards the end and start improvising, but both I and my friend were really happy with the results - a pair of genuine 1920s plus-fours!

Steampunking it up in Whitby

Recently I went to Whitby with some die-hard steampunk friends for the steampunk social. It's a beautiful place and there were some really outstanding outfits on show.

At first I didn't think I'd have anything to wear, but then I recalled my old Victorian pieces I made for Halloween a couple of years ago. Combined with an underbust corset from one of my burlesque outfits that's made from burgundy taffeta with black beading on the upper trim and my red satin bolero style jacket I really started to look the part.

The underskirt is a wine coloured satin with corded gathering behind the knee and a small train, and the overskirt is made from brocade with a layer of dance net at the back to form a bustle effect with the ties inside giving it shape.

I also had a black furry shrug that I'd lined with red satin and had a red satin tie for when it got colder and a matching burgundy facinator made by a friend of mine (Chapeau Carmine on Etsy). The whole look was finished with a necklace made of keys and a brown leather satchel.

Girl with a punctured heart

For Halloween this year I wanted something suitably in theme, suitably rare, and suitably feminine. After a little bit of browsing the internet for inspiration I decided on this sassy little voodoo doll dress.

It's a smart fitted number, with a lovely flattering bias cut waist-band. Working with Buckram was not exactly a bag of laughs and my flat is now covered in wisps of the stuff which no hoover can conquer. Naturally it needed to be entirely lined with a thick black cotton to save me from itching my way through the party, it also meant that neckline and armholes were faced. Happy days. (If I were to make it again though I'd give it sleeves as my underarms were a little raw at the end of the night - ow!)

The heart is made from felt appliquéd on with a blanket stitch and the pins were a couple of ex-coat hangers with a painted paper-spun ball hot-glued to the end. It's quite odd coping with such a protrusion and trying to navigate a crowded room or take a sip of a drink but the pins were stitched in place and pretty sturdy.

Much back-combing and crimping later and just the right accessories and I'm so pleased I didn't do the tired sheet-over-the-head look!

Halloween in Mordor

A friend of mine had his heart set on a Ring Wraith costume from the Lord of The Rings films for this year's Halloween. I don't know the films that well but luckily he had a little toy figure for me to work the pattern from. The friend in question is very particular about accuracy of design and between us we finalised a design that was a little different in construction but exactly the same in appearance.

The final costume had 4 parts to it, including a top with 2 sets of sleeves to give a layered effect as despite buying a whopping 12 meters of fabric there wasn't enough to make a second top. Choosing the fabric was a bit of a challenge. We needed something with a really obvious sack-cloth type weave, but also close weave as we didn't want it see-through! A lot of the fabric we looked at was far to new looking, but finally we found some heavyweight upholstery fabric that fitted the bill.



It was made on a tight deadline but luckily the costume was supposed to look a little shapeless so precise measurements weren't needed so much. Part of the specification of the design was that it needed to be very flowing and incorporate a lot of fabric so the skirt part is in fact a circle skirt with a draw-string waist.

The cloak that goes over the top isn't actually attached to the hood, which is placed over the shoulders and has long flared parts that are almost knee length and adds even more to the layered look. The cloak itself has a small folded back capelet attached at the neckline and split at the shoulders, as well as having split sides from the shoulders downwards which I am reliably informed is to enable the Wraiths to draw and wield their swords! Both the skirt part and the cloak needed to be long enough to drag on the floor to give a 'floating' look when worn. I think it all came together pretty well!

They've got to be easy to remove...

So 2 new burlesque routines were put together recently, 1 of which was a double-act so lots of costuming has been a-foot.

The corset is entirely spiral steels to allow flexibility for dancing in. It doesn't have a busk as it stays on for the whole performance and as I had to make 2 of everything it kept cost down too! When I first made it I put 2 wide inflexible steels at the centre front which gave a lovely flat front but had a couple of drawbacks.
1. As it was based on the same pattern that I had made for an entirely spirals corset, the flats stopped it tightening quite so much at the waist and although the silhouette from the front was gorgeous, the back lacing had that upside-down 'V' of a poorly fitting corset.
2. It didn't work very well with a bra as it made the underwires dig in.
3. It was a lot more difficult to bend over in, which was essential for my solo act, which used the reverse side of the corset. (Yes, reversible too!)

The skirt is a riot of liquid satin and garish colour. The complimentary skirt was made with the blue satin that you can see in the trim and pink and yellow ruffles. Everything had to be overlocked or roll-hemmed, including the ruffles as liquid satin unravels quicker than a ball of wool in the clutches of a kitten. I was hoping my Ultimate Ruffler would make light work of this, but sadly it just wasn't up to the job and I had to gather by hand. It wraps around and the ribbon waistband turns into a side-tie for easy removal.

This is the reverse of the corset, which I designed to go with my other new costume. This saved me having to make yet another corset for the event, and saved money obviously. It was a little tricky trying to work out how to do the lacing panels without interfering with either side but I was very pleased with the final piece. Both outers are 100% cotton with a cotton coutil sandwiched in between.

I really didn't know what I was going to do about the modesty panel - in the end I just made a loose one that the person lacing me up could push into place for me. This corset was an absolute nightmare to lace as it had to be so loose in order to get it over my head, it needed so much tightening once on and I'd accidentally bought a new type of lace with no slide whatsoever. Trying to get it off in a hurry was no fun either as the easiest option was to just unlace -tricky on your own at the end of the night!

Dammit Janet

This was my very precise Janet Weiss outfit worn to see Rocky Horror in December. The pink dress was made from a 50's tennis dress pattern that I'd bought at a vintage fair a year or so ago. Cardigan is Primarni :)

The pattern was my first truly vintage pattern and didn't have any instructions or printed pattern pieces. Just pieces of tissue paper with variously sized holes punched in. It took me a while to figure it all out, not least because the previous owner had for some completely unknown reason chopped off the shoulder parts of the front pieces! There was some very creative cutting but it came out rather nicely.

I rounded the collar to match the shape of the dress in the film and added a belt. Both were made of pink gingham but sadly I couldn't get a 'Janet' necklace in the time I had.

I even had just enough time to knock together the white lace-trimmed split slip she wears underneath, which was lucky as I realised once I started walking around in it that I really could have gotten away with adding another button!

I even curled my hair and abandoned my signature red lipstick. I looked worryingly wholesome! Baby pink is not a colour I wear much, though I have got the perfect outfit should anyone wish to take me on a date to a milkshake bar...

Christmas burly clothes

The outfit for my xmas burlesque performance was pretty complicated and featured a heck of a lot of red satin! Obviously quick removal is fairly essential in these matters so almost everything was fastened with poppers or ribbon ties.

My choir girl outfit came together pretty well, though involves a hell of a lot of sheeting! With a combination of trims to make the neck ruffle.

Underneath that was a long red liquid satin crossed-halter-tie wrap around dress held closed by a popper over the bust and a wide ribbon belt (that was held shut with a chunky hook-and-eye). I made the pattern for this with just my bust, waits and hip measurements with which I made a basic undarted back panel and 2 identical front pieces with a few inches overlap and long ribbon shapes coming off the top. Originally it was going to be plain halter-style but the crossed-halter looked better and covered more of the outfit underneath. It falls open way too easily but then again it doesn't stay on very long anyway! I may well use some principles learned here for a formal dress in the future...


This is the final piece of the outfit I want to talk about. Red liquid satin side-tie french knickers with an elasticated waist. The white fluff at the side is the corset underneath. These knickers are tied either side by a thin white ribbon. I really liked the way these hung and will be making more, but without the side tie. I went for encased elastic at the waistband rather than stitched on. I might experiment with this. I may also try making them on the bias for a more floaty look.

All in all it went down a storm and I learned some good things making it.

Belated photos of my Halloween costume

It's taken me a while to get the pictures of my halloween costume uploaded. I was really pleased with the overskirt with built in bustle and underskirt with train. Both from Truly Victorian patterns. It's pictured with my black underbust cincher and a lovely hat made by a friend of mine.

Choir boys and corsets...

I've nearly finished a lovely blue satin underbust corset with black bone coverings (designed by the customer) so pictures will follow very shortly :)

I've started knitting some lace to try and relieve the boredom of the skinny scarf but it's slow progress - it takes a lot of concentration away from my M*A*S*H watching! A plus note on the knitting front however, my mother is visiting tomorrow and will be bringing me wool and doll patterns- christmas is saved!

I've been trawling the net for a free choir robe pattern and would you believe it? No-one wants to give away that little secret! Ho hum, doesn't look complicated - I think I can work it out easily enough.

I bought yet another roll of mock up fabric yesterday so looking forward to getting stuck into that, though lord only knows when I'll find the time! I'm away for a long weekend and I'm getting upset and being away from my sewing machine that long! I really must get a life...

Drindl dress finished!

So I finished the dress, complete with apron this evening. Originally I was going to put lace trim on the apron too but it looked too busy. The skirt is double-layered, both lace trimmed, with the underskirt being slightly longer which gives a nice effect.

I like the off-the-shoulder puff sleeves: very wenchy :)

Dirndl dress in red gingham

Right now I'm making a commision for a halloween costume. I do love a good circle skirt, though was quite annoyed that I could only get gingham in 44" width but solved it with some creative pattern placement :)

I've drafted the pattern from a dress the customer already had with a couple of minor adjustments. There's a heck of a lot of lace involved, which I didn't realise when I quoted a price for her - luckily I found some absolute bargain lace that was just perfect! (Though it did involve spending nearly an hour searching on my hands and knees in the trimmings dept of Abakhan - good job they like me there!)

It's all looking very pretty - there'll be some pictures soon.