Oktoberfest Zinzinnati!

so coming up in less than a week (4 days to be exact!) will be cincinnati, oh's Oktoberfest celebration. This is actually the largest Oktoberfest in the us, and second in the world ONLY to Munich Germany ya'll! In cas' conversation, it came out that our good girlfriend was lacking a suitable dirndl for the occasion. She has, in the past, worn a costumey thing bought on the cheap, but we were sure that we could whip something up that was a little more fabulous! we began with measurements, and then flat patterned to our hearts content as we lacked the appropriate dress form. to start there is a corset patterned from a turn of the century one found in norah waugh's corsets and crinolines. we then pivoted, transferred, slashed and spread til the wee hours to make a chamise pattern, vesty/bodice, and full circle skirt and petti coat for the off the chain look. here are pics from the fabric fitting:

so obviously, we have quite a bit of work to do in four days yet. the look also gets a stomacher of blue, hand embroidered, dupioni silk and an ass load of trim. haha, trim. the dress was a great practice in patterning for the plus sized figure. as i have written about in earlier blogs, i love the patterning/fitting challenges that come with creating a garment that not only fits, but flatters the wearer, regardless of shape. probably the most satisfying discovery for me was made during this fabric fitting, when i realized that you will literally reach a point on many figures when you have to throw out the fitting techniques that you learned on a size 2 musical theatre major. its kind of freeing. you just make it look hot.

UPDATE!!!: so here are some final pictures! She looked Fabulous!!!

The Long Way Home

Bwah!!!! So sorry, to both myself and you all out there in internet land, for my long lapse in blogging. Life and work caught up with me and i've been all over the place since the last we shared a moment! As my boyfriend would sing "Lets start at the very beginning.."

So at the end of the academic year, both mine and my boyfriends lives were overtaken by the gigantic Falstaff that was to be built by the two of us and a few grad students at CCM. I built 7 looks for the male principle's in a few short weeks. here's one for Master Ford (the role was double cast, and later included a velvet cloak).

and because i am a very proud boyfriend, here are some of the looks built by jonathan waters (all except the red)

after that lovely little number, it was off to magical santa fe new mexico for a summer of building costumes for a magnificent season. we did la traviata with natalie dessay, the elixer of love with the intoxicating jennifer black, a remount of don giovanni, a brand new production called the letter with costume designs by tom ford, and finally a marvelous baroque piece called Alceste - with the title role sung by the toooooo fabulous and lovely soprano to lead all sopranos Christine Brewer. i built mainly ladies wear, with a few fabulous mens coats and alterations. i did the first handing for pat racette - a wonderfully talented diva soprano - wearing some gorgeous 1930s pieces as seen below.

finally at the end of the summer i made a whirl wind trip to san antonio, to visit my beautiful family, then to new orleans for a night of debauchery and fun, to orlando to visit the inlaws and the happiest place on earth, and then finally back to our home! quite a time. will post more soon.