Burlesque show for Keune event

Last weekend I performed my burlesque inspired contortion show at the Keune event held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton hotel in Sydney. It was a super early morning start for me on a very cold and rainy Sunday. I arrived and went in to hair and makeup, workshopped the costumes backstage with the help of my amazing choreographer Ame Delves who helped me put the show together, had a quick rehearsal on stage, did the lighting checks and then it was show time!
I wore a custom made swarovski encrusted top, the Wheels and Dollbaby Oh La La knickers with fringe detail on the bottom and Peeptoe jewellry. My beautiful dancers Stacey and Priya wore a mix of Wheels and Dollbaby and Alannah Hill frilled and fringed knickers and bustiers.
Below is a little behind the scenes video and a sneak peek of the performance...stay tuned for the posting of the whole show which is coming soon!

 With my dancers Priya and Stacey

Whoops!

No blog today, folks, but the incomparable Sarita has agreed to provide some entertainment, complete with tassels.

See you tomorrow!

Making a Ginger Rogers Dress

What can you say about Ginger Rogers that hasn't already been said on a million other sewing/vintage style blogs?  I'll try to come up with something. I've actually written about her a few times, early on, here and here.

Growing up, I adored Ginger Rogers and the more I learned about her the less I liked her.   Aside from her politics -- don't get me started -- she apparently wasn't much fun to work/be/live with.  As recounted by someone I knew years ago who performed with her in Hello Dolly, she was very grand and very cheap, at least by that time in her life. 

But let's not let facts get in the way of fiction.  On screen, especially in the late-Thirties, early-Forties (her heyday), Ginger was wonderful fun.  Working women, especially, identified with her.  You always knew, whatever part she was playing in the film -- and she was usually a shop girl or dancer -- that she'd worked hard to get where she was.  Nothing had been handed to her, and she was tough, which endeared her to struggling Depression-era audiences.



And how lovely she looked.  Obviously she didn't dress herself, but she wore clothes beautifully, having been blessed with a lean and lithe dancer's body.   The films she made with Fred Astaire at RKO are classics and her on-screen contributions are equal to his, especially in the later films.  When they dance, I watch her.

Whatever her personality quirks, Ginger Rogers endured; she started in movies in the Twenties and was still working in the Eighties.  I saw her live at Radio City Music Hall in 1980 in her nostalgic one-woman (and a zillion effeminate chorus boys) show, and I remember being very entertained by it.  She even autographed my program!

Cathy has been begging me to make her a Ginger Rogers-style dress and I'm kind of eager to make one too.  The styles are easy to find: nearly any late-Thirties secretary dress from a pattern company like Hollywood or DuBarry fits the bill, and I recently found one that had a lot of the elements from the dress pictured up top, which Ginger wore in the Pick Yourself Up number in Swing Time, one of the very best of the RKO Astaire-Rogers musicals.

Here's what I recently bought on on Etsy:

Another shot of the Pick Yourself Up dress:

If you inspect Ginger's dress (you can click on it to supersize) you'll notice it has a fitted midriff yoke.  I may or may not try to recreate that.  This Hollywood pattern, currently for sale on Etsy, has a similar yoke, but I will not pay $35 for a vintage dress pattern.

Ginger's skirt is pleated and it seems to wrap across the front, below the midriff yoke (or does it?  If you inspect the top photo you'll see it looks like the layers overlap for additional fullness; in the video below not so much).  What do you think a dress like that was made out of, silk?

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking about sewing next, or soon, though things could change, as they sometimes do.

On an unrelated note, if you haven't contributed your recipe for a happy life on yesterday's post -- or you'd like some good instructions for whipping one up this weekend -- please have a look.  Some wonderful comments -- and a lot of wisdom -- were contributed.

Thoughts about Ginger/the Ginger dress?

Happy Friday, everybody!

Ginger as I saw her:



In her prime:

EAST nightclub performance

Titans Charity Ball

Last weekend I flew to the Gold Coast to perform at the Titans Charity Ball held in the Jupiters Casino Grand Ballroom. Guests included the Gold Coast Titans football players, ex rugby league players including Gorden Tallis and the Gold Coasts social set.

With Gorden Tallis

 

Peter in Pajamas!

Friends, there are two kinds of men: ones who wear pajamas and ones who don't.  I certainly don't want to reinforce stereotypes, but some men have pajamas written all over them. 

And some don't.

I never thought I liked pajamas until I made my own.  Now I don't want to get out of them.



For those arriving late to the pajama party, I made these short cotton pajamas out of three different soothing shades of seersucker: gray, lavender, and pale brown.





The pants, which I completed yesterday, have two front fly buttons (the pattern called for just one but I feel safer with two), and a waistband casing with a twill tape tie.


 



I've since replaced the twill tape, which felt flimsy, with wider, sturdier elastic, though the twill tape was a nice vintage touch.

Would my pattern,  Simplicity 9956 from 1990, be considered vintage?  I hope not, but maybe so.  Anyway, pajama patterns haven't changed much over the last century and why should they?

 

You're probably wondering if I slept in my pajamas last night.  Friends, I do think that crosses a line.  You'll just have to decide for yourselves.



And so, the pajama game has ended.

I hope you'll open your heart to pajamas if you haven't already.  They're really quite fun to make and even if they're never slept in, they're great for dress-up and let's not forget community theater.

Have a very Doris day, everybody!

Pajama Games

Readers, I know pajamas are not the most exciting sewing project in the world.  In fact, they may be one of the dullest, ranking just above sewing machine cover and baby diaper.

Still, I am thoroughly enjoying making these pajamas, though all the piddly details are making this take longer than I'd originally expected.  I'm just about done with the top and will make the bottoms today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm using three different colors of seersucker.  The differences are subtle, as you can see on the finished collar.



Rather than turning the shirt facings under, I cut them in contrasting colors and turned them over the top, topstitching them down like applique.  I love the result.



A few people had questions about ironing seersucker.  You can iron it, but the fabric will lose some of its characteristic pucker, which will only return after washing, so I avoid ironing/pressing entirely, except where there's a pronounced wrinkle in the fabric; it doesn't require ironing normally.  I finger-press and pin as much as possible. 

After all that taffeta and lace, cotton is such a pleasure to sew with -- no drama!

So here's how things stand as of this morning -- buttonholes are done, buttons are on (not visible here), sleeves hemmed.  I still have to hem the bottom.



There's something so comforting just looking at these pajamas; It's those salt-water taffy colors I think.

I've never thought of seersucker as a hard-to-find fabric but it sounds like some of you can't find any.  If someone has some good online seersucker sources and could share them here, that would be great!

I realized this sunny morning walking the dogs that it's almost time to wear my seersucker cabana set.  Woo hoo!



Friends, that's it.  The Pajama Game will finish tomorrow (I hope) and then we'll move on to other Doris Day-themed sewing projects.  Midnight Lace anyone?

Have a great day, everybody!

Pajama Party Tonight!

It's time to sew again, friends, and can you guess what I'm sewing?

Pajamas!

I don't sleep in pajamas very often, but I do like them for lounging around in.  So comfy and cozy, so My Three Sons.

I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to make my pajamas out of (I'd eliminated wool crepe and taffeta), so I high-tailed it over to my favorite fabric dive, H&M on 35th St., which has been going out of business for the last two years -- how long were they in business?  And whom should I bump into there but lovely Bloggette, Tricia, of Clio & Phineas!  I wish I'd shaved.

It's always a little unsettling to see someone I know at a place like that, where shopping is more akin to dumpster diving.  Still, I buy most of my fabric there and so far nothing has spontaneously combusted -- yet.

I found some great stuff for pajamas and a few other things.  One of my all-time favorite summer fabrics, perfect for pajamas, is cotton seersucker, and I picked up three different ice creamy colors.  My pajamas are going to incorporate all three!



Right next to the seersucker was a single bolt of the most amazing gray sea island cotton (it had its original label), as soft and as smooth as silk.  I have never seen stuff like that there before.  I picked up four yards and I'm not sure what it's going to become -- perhaps a shirt.  It's a little luxurious for pajamas -- unless you're Cary Grant.



Anyway, back at home, I dug through my pattern stash and discovered I have four pajama patterns -- not exactly sure how that happened.



At first I thought I'd use the vintage Simplicity pattern on the upper right, but I don't have enough fabric for it: they were designed to reach up to your armpits, apparently.   Even with pattern adjustments, I'm still short width.
 

A 14" fly?



Anyway, I'm settling for the more contemporary shorty pajamas using the newer Simplicity pattern. I'm hoping to finish them in just one day.  Now I need to get invited to some event where I could actually wear them.



In closing, friends, what's your take on pajamas?

Do you, or someone you love, actually wear them, or are they a leftover from more modest times?

Ever been to a pajama party?  (I don't think those ever caught on in New York City.)

Happy sewing, everybody -- do the frug!