The Wonderful World of Costumes! Part Deux.

The Holiday Show! What a production! I'm so thankful that despite the long hours, shin splints, arguments, diva attitudes, the physical assault I endured and the creepy lighting guy, that I got to be a part of the most creative and fun show ever! People got to show off their writing/comedy skills as well as we branched out and got all sorts of new people involved!

I never would have thought I would be good at instructing people how to take their clothes off.

But what on earth does this have to do with sewing? I got to try my hand at making some costumes!

The first year I made stuff by hand. I hand dyed the pointe shoes and hand glued each crystal. The tops were seriously held together by a garbage twist tie in the front - I had no idea what I was doing!

I had sewed on dozens of little beads and sequins - I did that on the car ride to Idaho that the hubby and I took before opening. I was proud of the detail despite not being able to see it from the audience. I still owe major thanks to those girls for letting me dye their pointe shoes!

I even made those super cool fans! Do you know how hard it is to find peacock feathers? I think the bulk of the feathers were poorly dyed (not by me, thank you) b/c each time the girls used them, their hands ended up all black...oops.

PS - ask David or Brother Jeff about that Glorious bird cage in the background...

Billy-a-dick - the song didn't make any sense - but the costumes were pimp!

Everything for this costume was bought at the Dollar Store!

The skirts were Christmas tree skirts, shortened of course!

The tops were cloth napkins. FYI - cloth napkins are ribbon make great bikini tops if your boobs aren't DDs.

The tops had battery powered Christmas lights sewn in. I got beaded garland for necklaces and holly twigs to stick in our hair. This had to have been the most fun costume I've even had!

So Stephanie (the blond) had this really cute pink skirt from Fredericks or Victoria's Secret that Paula and I wanted for our Mr. Sandman number - well Paula and I are a little more Bootylicious than Miss Stephanie and the skirts didn't come in our sizes. Sad times - but never fear! Crafty Shannonegans is here!

So I took Stephanie's skirt to the fabric store and matched colors and got these cute little skirts made!

They have elastic waistbands, are full circle skirts and have a netted lining. Even Adorable bow details! I wish I had a reason to wear it again.

These aren't your average tap dancing penguins!

So yes, Linkin Park is uber lame, but "Cure for the Itch" is uber awesome and I had been waiting to choreograph something to it for YEARS! So how do you get weird techno tap into a holiday burlesque show? Penguins! And sine it's burlesque, who wants to be in a full tuxedo!?

So I made us costumed cummerbunds and bow ties (ie they Velcro in the back) and attached them to some white fabric, sewed some buttons on it and called it good. Pretty snazzy for such a cool number!

I'll let you use your imagination as to what I made for this number.

I wish more than anything that I was able to move back to Chico for two months every winter to be a part of this show - but alas! I will just remember the good times instead and leave the headaches to everyone else (and Phil's new "Shannon").