Thursday, January 15, 2009

I said I would show...


...and here they are. This was my big project for the holidays. The kids school had their Christmas show, and i volunteered to help with costuming. I started on Thanksgiving eve with these leafy headbands and bracelets for the bigger kids(4th & 5th grades). The materials were pretty much on sale at that time, so I started here.
The 24 sets of collars and bracers, done for the 2nd & 3rd grades, was started the day after Thanksgiving, after getting up on Black Friday, to stand in line for over an hour to buy felt, felt felt, and more felt. Oh yea, and some gold material for these. Who knew that was such a big day at the fabric stores! It was a good thing the skirts didn't have to be all the same color, I never would have made it.
Here was the big projects- 25 poodle/felt skirts and Elvis. In a sick way, this was quite fun to do. The skirts were the most time consuming- each skirt took 2-3 hours, and it was kind of hard to think of designs to put on the skirts. The design had to be kind of simple, but I wanted something kind of colorful (and no way could I have done them all as poodles...seamstress does not survive on poodle alone). Each design was stitched down for fear of bored little girls picking and pulling them off on stage(you might laugh, but the attention span of a five year old is only rivaled by that of a gnat!).

Elvis was something else. I didn't get the boys measurements until 3 days before the show. I got the suit pretty much done ( I would gave liked to have done more embellishments, but flat ran out of time)for dress rehearsal, just had to finish the buckle for the show. It might have been a little on the tight side, but was good enough for the show.

When we gave the suit to the young man, he took it off to try on. we waited and waited. Finally we sent someone in to get him, and all we got in return was "He's not coming out".

No, wait. I need to know if there's a problem. "Go tell him to come out here".

"He's not coming out!"

I follow him to where the kid is hiding, "Come on out, I need to know if there's a problem...."

Poor thing, when he finally came out- all the girls started giggling. The Moms all seem to have the knowing laugh (Yea, we remember who Elvis is...). He looked good for an Elvis impersonator...during the show, it was even funnier. The crowd howled! As the young man gained confidence, he began posing in Elvis type antics. A good time was had by all.

In the spring, the school is planning on doing "The Tale of Three Trees". My husband has requested that I NOT help with the costumes. We'll see. When the kids told the teacher what Daddy said, she just laughed and walked away.