Victorian tea party hat

Just in case you ever need an absurdly tall hat to wear to a Victorian demented mime tea party.

I made the animal head but I can see an upcycled version with a pre-existing stuffie.  Paint clings quite nicely to fabric and fake fur.  Use glue adhesive to secure to a painted cardboard base and decorate with frippery. Paste on a ribbon tie.

Alice meets Tom Sawyer

Girl child is performing in a youth theatre production of Tom Sawyer this fall.  I am helping out with costumes again, although, I find myself lacking my usual enthusiasm.  For this show, the costumes are probably the most cohesive I've ever done, aesthetically, but there has not been as many opportunities for knocking together some queenly steampunk, glamorous witch wear or sparkly, yet sturdy, fairy wings as with previous shows (Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel and Grimm, in order in you are interested).  In short, no bustles. 

For Tom I have sewn some dozen pairs of pantaloons and a few aprons, all in beautiful muted coloured, with lots of pin tucks and ruffles, as worn during the steaming hot summer heat in the mid nineteenth century southern USA. It's going to be a lovely show.

Girl child generously agreed to model her costume for me.  The dress is one of many, a mass gift of pastel coloured 'wedding cake' dresses (as girl child calls them) to the theatre from a dance troupe.  The dresses have cycled through a few shows now (and who knows how many dance performances), being pinned up, let down, and having all sorts of wackiness applied to them to make them fit children of all sizes.  I think, originally, this dress would of fit someone quite a bit older and wider than my girl but has been taken down so many sizes now that there is almost as many gathers on the inside of the dress as out.  Every show we end up fitting and altering nearly every outfit on each cast member, at least those we do not make from scratch.  The excess material along the neck gathered up in the fitting does make them look a little like they have puffy, ruffled wings coming over their back shoulder blades.  The striped wrist cuff is entirely girl child's and will most definitely not be worn on stage. 

Now, each little wedding cake gets a pinafore type apron and pantaloons.  Pillowcases and sheets were generously employed as raw material for these.

I think that she looks adorable.  For the record, ten year olds do not appreciate being called adorable.

Although not at all intended, girl child and I thought this little blue ruffled dealie would also make a great Alice costume.  As it so happens, the play opens on Halloween night and girl child must forgo Halloween activities this year (yes, she is devastated, but rallying marvelously for the sake of the show).  So we indulged in a little dress up play.

The white rabbit stuffie I made girl child last year. 

As you may guess, the dress is quite twirly.

For the record, ten year olds are so not over twirling.

We are moving into probably the most intense time for cast and costumes, rehearsal week before the opening night.  During the show's run, the costumers will be kept busy with the inevitable repairs and a few three alarm costume emergencies (yes, we run with scissors.  And needles, pins and, sometimes, glue guns.)  And then I can return to my regularly scheduled sewing.

living in a crooked house

We have this kooky plan for the next year.  We're thinking, since we live in a small and clownishly dimensioned house, we should embrace our ridiculousness and turn our home into theatre.  Or art.  What is life if not unscripted performance art anyway?

It was not hard to convince the childs to see our home as a stage.  But now what we need is some scenery and props.

To set some parameters, we thought we would pick a theme, something that appeals to all of us and has both natural and supernatural elements, and a deadline.  Next year, August, we plan to remove all our props and paint the walls to prepare for a new theme.  Or maybe some neutral time?  Anyway, nobody has to be too dedicated to any particular aesthetic in the house because a year from now it'll be gone.  Hopefully it will be a creatively freeing experience and we'll all get to practice some little used skills.

Like mural painting.

Some inspirations to use for our theme, Into the Woods.  I know that there is a play by that name and a movie being released soon also, but that's not exactly what we mean.  We are embracing the Grimm and Gothic woodland and all the dark and fantastic elements that implies, with a heavy leaning on literary references.  Because I like literary references.

We've been talking about this for a few weeks now and with the home school year officially starting next week, I thought I'd get us going with a bit of woodland ambiance in our dining cubby.

This is one of those times when having an overhead projector laying around is pretty handy.  The tree drawing is loosely based on an illustration by John Tenniel from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.  As you'll see, when I got it on the wall, it deviated from the original quickly.

First, though, boy child freshened the paint for me.

Then, with a deep breath, I started tracing and filling out the tree.

The idea was to create a look of a charcoal sketch reminiscent of older children's books, from the days when colour printing was prohibitively expensive and books were printed with just one or two colours.  So it's going to be a bit retro.  Hopefully.

Though I love the creepy elements of Grimm, Gorey and Poe, all influences for this theme, I wanted to keep our eating/learning/crafting/everything area uplifting and bright.   

Don't judge me too harshly (I'll do that!), it is my first mural ever.  I sort of wish I had stuck to the overhead drawing more carefully, but on the other hand, the point of all this is to try things out.  It's also nasty to try to paint a round thing over a corner.  What was I thinking?  Oh, I know, to hide the super crooked wall.

Stage two of the mural is painting the background.  Perhaps it should of been stage one? 

I've got another coat to do and some touch ups before I declare this particular base done. Tomorrow.  And the day after, who knows what we will add.  I will tell you now, though, that the rock is my favorite part and how it actually looks like a charcoal sketch.  Go me!