Early 20th Century Circus Costumes: Research For A Play

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I work sporadically for a local theatre which has been in operation for many years. We have some very talented people invloved and the actors ( at least the ones I have spoken to,) don't mind the hour plus drive to Santa Paula from Los Angeles because our little theatre here puts on quality shows.

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I haven't blogged about my job as a costume designer at the theatre before and I thought some of you readers might be interested in what goes into putting up a show. I will be working hard for the next month on this project so if you are interested stick around to see my progress.
The play is called
The Elephant's Graveyard.
The tragic tale of a struggling circus in a small town in Tennessee in 1916.

Source: terrificnewtheatre.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

I am sharing some of my photos from research I have done from my Circus History Pinterest board.

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Enjoy these historic photos!

Source: shutterstock.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

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Les Petites Souers: My Signature Look? Vintage, French and Refashioned

I love creative challenges because they sometimes make you dig deep to figure out who you are creatively. Of course, as creative beings we are always changing but for me, there is one influence which often guides me.

I have been deeply influenced by France. When my older kids were little we bought a small 16th century village house in a town called Pezenas in the south of France in the Languedoc departement  and restored it. I was lucky enough to spend six summers there. They are some of the best memories for me.

I loved to sit in cafes and I loved the style of the French. Yes, they do really wear these striped tops ! I brought back some for the family and we have worn them out.

This dress I made for Gigi was inspired by the French Mariniere top originally made for French sailors.

It was made from a plain white adult t shirt I refashioned. I hand painted the stripes and added the small wooden anchor buttons.

The bistro chairs and table are from a real Parisian bistro and they are very old. I bought them in a little village called Isle Sur La Sorgue, which has a big outdoor antique show every August. 

The Ricard Pastis bottles were also brought back in my suitcase years ago. I used to love sitting at the Cafe Moliere in Pezenas to have a glass of the cloudy milky colored Pastis in the heat of summer.it was clear in the bottle but when mixed with water, it turned white. The licorice taste is such a specific one. It's so refreshing, mais tres forte!

This little dress was very time consuming! Painting the stripes took awhile but I love it!

Lily's ensemble is sewn from a 1943 sewing pattern. The shorts are made from vintage denim I bought at an estate sale . The fabric is a Japanese knit. I loved the hand painted look of the stripes. That and a post about hand painting stripes on fabric from one of my favorite children's wear bloggers You and Mie, inspired me to try hand painting the stripes on Gigi's t shirt dress .

Une belle jour chez nous!

P.S.

If you are stopping by to post on Sew & Tell saturday, sorry I didn't get the post up. This project took me until the last minute!

Have a bon week- end!

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1940's Romper For Me And Springtime In The Garden

The past few weeks I haven't made much for myself and I felt like making something fun for spring.

I have always wanted to make myself a romper so I did.

I have been working away on projects for Gigi and Lily's spring collection, entering them in The Project Run And Play Flickr pool and I have yet to win a challenge over there! It's good fun, anyway. This is the last week so hop by and check it out! I will be posting my project on Friday.

 I also have some guest post tutorials I am working which I am pretty excited about!

The weather has been gorgeous and we have been spending a lot of time outdoors with Gigi, our almost three year old, trying to savor the brief time of her early childhood while her siblings are at school. It goes so fast...

I have to show you one of Richard's roses. He is an amazing gardener.

Fun in the garden this week....

watercolor fun...

learning to catch the ball...

watering the tomatoes..... or is it tomatos?

Back to sewing now....

I quite like how my romper way turned out, as you can see from my pleased expression above.

Yes, I am over forty and  and no I don't give a hoot if people think over 40 is too old for a romper!

The description on the pattern from the 1940's describes this outfit as a "playsuit". Somehow those two words, playsuit and romper do feel a bit too, juvenile perhaps?

How about short suit ?

It was sheer luck it happened to fit almost perfectly as I cut it straight from the pattern and didn't fit it first. I wear a size 16 in 1940's patterns. After getting over the initial shock of wearing a size 16 in anything, I have realized that any size 16 patterns from the 40's always fit me pretty much perfectly and I rarely have to adjust them or make a muslin. 

Love that!

I usually have to adjust modern patterns a lot.

There is a tiny gap below my waist. I'll have to add a hook and eye or cut down on the bread!

I love how 40's patterns fit with the high waistline. And I love the sleeves from the forties!

I will have to wear this "playsuit" on my confident day as it is very LOUD!

The fabric is a vintage madras I had in my stash that I bought for around two dollars.

Once again, I was lucky as I didn't lay out my pattern on the fabric to see if I had enough. As it was, I had to piece together the scraps left to make the undercollar. I had literally NO FABRIC left after I cut all the pieces.

This is our dog Milo. We call him Smilo as you can see from his cheeky grin!

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Sewing With Kids: Easy Potholder

Do you like my old french enamel ware match holder? Allumettes.

A friend of mine was having a barbecue this weekend. I wanted to bring her a little gift but as usual, I hadn't planned anything, it was 4 o'clock and I didn't have time to buy something. So I made her a potholder!

I had to figure out the quickest one I could make in a hurry.

I took photos of the process and am sharing my tutorial with you.

If you are new to sewing or trying to teach your kids to sew, this is the perfect project.

The whole project is just a series of straight sewn lines. 

Since this is such a simple project I am teaching my daughter with this tutorial. 

Tutorial:

1. Cut two fabric square pieces 10 inches by 10 inches.

2. Cut two or three batting pieces depending on their thickness , 10 inches by 10 inches. My batting was very thin so I used 3 pieces.

3. Cut one strap 10 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

4. Fold the strap lengthwise. Sew the strap together lengthwise with a 3/8 inch seam allowance.

4. Take a safety pin , attach it to the end of the strap an pull the strap right side out.

5. Iron the strap.

6. Attach the batting pieces to the WRONG side of one of the fabric pieces.

7. Take the strap and lay it on the RIGHT side of the fabric piece like above.

8. Now lay the other piece of fabric on top of the fabric piece with the strap on it.

9. Pin all the layers together.

10. Sew all of the layers together with a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Leave a 3 inch opening on one of the sides. Sew straight off each side. 

11. Trim the corner edges of the potholder.

13. Pull the potholder through the gap you left unsewn. Use a point turner or the edges of your scissors to pop out the corners of the potholder.

14. Iron the potholder flat, ironing the little gap closed.

15. Topstitch around the potholder edges with a1/4 inch seam allowance, sewing the gap shut.

15. Draw straight lines in both directions on the potholder with chalk or water soluble marker. Make them evenly spaced, about 2 inches apart. Stitch on the lines, quilting the potholder.

16. Done!

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Do You like Google Plus And The New Blogger Interface?

Warning to my readers..... this is a major rant!!!
This weekend I jumped on the Google Plus Train and opened up a Google Plus profile and linked it to my Blogger account. My old Blogger profile was replaced by my Google Plus information. I didn't like how there was no option on Google Plus of not including my full name every time I left a comment on someone else's blog. When I left a comment on someone's blog my full name came up in the comment box. That just felt a little too......personal? So I switched back to my old Blogger profile. Apparently I will get left behind with all the rest of the old dinosaurs by doing this but for now, I really don't care.

I also don't like the new Blogger interface. It just doesn't seem very user friendly and the pages don't seem to load. I sit there looking at a blank page for ages! After groaning and screaming in frustration several times , I switched back to the old interface.

According to Google in the coming months you won't be able to switch back to the old interface and your old Blogger profiles will all be replaced by Google Plus profiles which reveal a lot of personal information, much like a Facebook Profile page. Be careful, big brother is watching you!

This whole situation has me feeling frustrated about blogging at all!

I am considering moving to a self hosted Wordpress site so I don't have to deal with all of these surprises from Google anymore. They feel like an invasion of privacy to me.

But guess what? If you switch to a self hosted blogging platform like Wordpress you don't get to bring any of your Google Friend Connect Followers with you. Getting followers on a blog is hard work so I'm sure a lot of bloggers who use Blogger blogs won't switch because of this single reason. Quite frankly, I don't want to switch either because I don't want to lose my GFC Followers.

Do I sound like a disgruntled employee or do I have a point here, folks?

To have a free blogging platform like Blogger you have to just put up or shut up I guess!

So have any of you switched to Google Plus and do you like it ?
What about switching to Wordpress and losing your GFC Followers? Any advice there?

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