Shadowing Day 6

Today Claire was going through the garment bags making sure each dancer had every piece and accessory they needed. While she was doing this, she realized a majority of the pieces that were missing from garment bags were pieces that needed to be altered and were set aside in the alterations section in the back.

Claire also showed me this really cool little piece called a clip-on converter. This piece is used to convert an earring meant for pierced ears into a clip-on so it is easy to quick change for the dancers. 

Here you can see how the little plastic back piece for the earring goes onto the back of the earring, leaving the clipped portion at the top of the earring.

Jocelyn was working on these blue dresses for a dance number, fixing a few things. First, they found that the buttons on these dresses they ordered were breaking and falling off. So to fix this, Jocelyn was removing the buttons off of the front of the dress, then taking off the back piece of the button so the back was flat and could lay flush with the fabric. 

She would then sew down the front of the dress that originally would open and secure using the buttons. This was no longer necessary, as there was a zipper on the side of the dress. Next, Jocelyn would glue the buttons down onto the fabric where they used to be sewn on. Last, she would tack down the collar to make sure it stayed in place.

Jocelyn was sewing elastics into the backs of the dresses to make them look a little ore fitted in the waist. She accomplished this by taking a thinner piece of elastic and sew it onto the seam allowance of the back of the dress. She used a serger machine to do this so it looked clean and like it was a part of the dress. When she sewed the elastic in with the fabric laying flush, once finished, the fabric would bunch up with the elastic to give it a gathered look. This was a much simpler way to do this, than needing to add a whole new waistband piece between the bodice and skirt.

There was a small hole discovered in one of the tuts. Because the dance costume shop doesn't have an unlimited budget, and because it is so close to showtime where there are bound to be many wardrobe damages during, this requires a simpler solution than redoing the entire tutu. The solution that was decided, was to cut out just a portion of the tutu in a rectangular shape from the bottom of the dress up to the waist. This would blend in with the rest of the layers of the tutu and would be totally unnoticeable. The bottom of the tutu also had to be trimmed a bit to match the length of the rest of the skirt. Kat was put in charge of this alteration.

Today the shop also went over the alterations that still needed to be done before the Extravadance dress rehearsal. They talked about replacing the side panels on the blouse of this dress to make more room for the dancer to fit. They decided adding in stretch fabric would also leave room for some movement, as the blouse was too small for the dancer.

They also discussed adding more fringe to this dress to lengthen it a bit. The fringe would add more body to the bottom and make it seem a part of the dress without needing to completely redo the full bottom of the dress.

The last alteration that was talked about, was this red dress that needed to be lengthened and the hem levelled out. To solve this issue, they would remove the skirt portion and sew it lower using the extra seam allowance. They would then hem the bottom of the dress, making sure it stays level with the floor, so it stays even.

Abby was taking the sleeve out of the toga that was sewn a few weeks back, that accidentally got a slit in it. The mending that was done was good, but was still noticeable when worn, so it was decided it should be replaced with a new sleeve. So Abby had to cut out a new sleeve from the fabric, using the old sleeve as a pattern. When doing this, she used these little weights to keep the fabric pattern on the fabric she was cutting, to avoid needing to pin all around the sleeve. This method saves a lot of time and is still just as effective.

At this point in the semester, we are getting really close to the Extravadance performance. Alterations are being completed, and soon the shows will be in production. The second preparations for Extravadance are done, preparations for the Christmas show will start.