Prom, Tom, and more pettiskirts!

These last few weeks have been filled with non-quilting activity but plenty of sewing. First of all, prom rolled around and Becca's dress had to be taken in a bit and shortened just a tad.

At the same time, I was working on the costume committee for Tom Sawyer, CYT's spring production. My task was to make three pair of overalls for the girls in the whitewash gang. A white pair for Hannah, blue for Courtney, and brown for Alyssa. They were only worn for one short scene, but they were cute as buttons. And each pair of overalls had eight buttonholes, so after 24, I became an expert.

Since I had bragged about making a pettiskirt for Hannah's tap performance, I was given a load of pettiskirts to spruce up for the eight Liberty dancers in Tom Sawyer. I lost some sleep over this project because we had five useable skirts and I wasn't sure how to make something as full and fluffy with what we had to work with. These skirts are time consuming to make from scratch...and we didn't have that kind of time or money for materials.

There was one very full pink skirt that I split into two. I added a stretch waistband with a buttonhole opening facing inside to insert the elastic. The opening makes adjustments easier.

Two more skirts were needed so I split a very full brown pettiskirt into two. I added a brown satin waistband to each, fusing a 1/2" strip of interfacing to the edge for reinforcement and to prevent fraying. Finished those just the night before school day shows. The girls were thrilled to have them and I breathed a hugh sigh of relief. Whew!

When not in overalls, my whitewasher wore a bright red, white and blue outfit as a schoolgirl. She was awarded the "sparkplug" award for bringing life and a lot of snappy lines to her character. That's my firecracker! shown here with Emily who knows how to reign her in when necessary.

Big props to our committee chair, Lowanna, who calmly figured out how to solve problems backstage, like "the mic guy broke my zipper!" And fixing Tom's straps so they wouldn't keep sliding off his shoulders by sewing tabs out of the shirt material to hold them into place. She also replaced the hook and eye closures on the liberty girls blouses with zippers to make the quick-change go more smoothly. Amazing work. Below is Lowanna, Lori, me, and Jennifer (not pictured is Dawnette)

 
Huckleberry Finn (Caleb A.) and Tom Sawyer (Austin P.) with two adoring fans.

We are finished with productions for the year, but we look forward to Oliver, the Wizard of Oz, and Snow White next year.

Copyright ©2011, Sharon Baggs