Peter and the Starcatcher Jacket

Peter and the Starcatcher is a play that speculates about the origin of Peter Pan and Neverland.  The play is based on the books written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  I have not read them yet but I plan to soon.  One of the characters the figures prominently in these stories is a pirate called Black Stash (for his formidable facial hair.)

 I am going to be building this jacket for both the Black Stash character and another character named Lord Astor (from whom it is stolen.) One of the more common things we do in our costume shop is repurpose or upcycle old clothes.  I am starting with a man's navy blue blazer as the foundation for Black Stash's coat.

Here are some sketches of ideas I had.

I decided that I would go with a series of graduated bars with pointed ends.  I've folded under where I'm planning to cut and laid the cardboard pattern pieces along the edge to see what it may look like.

Forgotten Tutorial - upcycled t-shirt

As I was uploading a bunch of photos to Flickr, I came across a set that I had done of an upcycling tutorial for a girl's fancy t-shirt.  I can't imagine why I never posted it because it came out really cute!  

So I had a few black long sleeve tees that were meant for my boys but were dubbed 'uncool' and a tank top that I'd bought on clearance the summer before that was now too small.

I took the two black tees and cut long strips of fabric to make a ruffle.  I gathered it and pinned it on diagonally.  Un-shown, I did the same with the bottom of the grey tank top and made an under ruffle. and another black ruffle for the hem of the shirt.

Then, using this tutorial from I Sew Do You some costume satin and some cool buttons that were given to me by my MIL, I made some fancy flowers.  I then made another flower out of some of the lacier part of the grey shirt and the black shirt fabrics using this tutorial from Gettin' By.  Both were really easy and quick.  Then I sewed them onto the shirt using cute buttons to fasten them.

 And here is Little Miss looking very fashionable in her new cute top.  She added black polka dot leggings and espadrilles to complete the look. 

Paisley of the Week! It just zipped by...

This week's Paisley of the Week! was actually SOLD before I could post about it!  That's no surprise, really, it was pretty awesome. One of the hottest trends out there right now is the use of zippers as a fancy trim rather than just as a garment closure. Luckily the shop where I found this felted zippy pin, Woollyfabulous, has many gorgeous offerings and all the paisleys weren't gone - yet.    Odile, the artist behind Woollyfabulous takes old wool sweaters felts and upcycles them into tiny works of art filled with color and swirl the zippers just take it up another notch! 

Blue Shirt + Blue Glue = Batik pt.1

I ruined my favorite blue shirt by being overzealous with bleach in my laundry.  Rather than use it as a rag or a grungy painting shirt I decided to give it a glue batik, a technique I've been wanting to try.  So this is step one, applying blue gel glue.  I have done traditional hot wax batik before and the glue acts pretty much the same only it takes 24 hours to dry.  On the other hand, no burns which is definitely a plus!  So when it dries and I paint it, I'll post the next part.  I'm thinking green and purple.