Pyjamas!

I got my pjs finished with plenty of time left before Christmas and I was very pleased with how they turned out! My brother and new sister-in-law liked them too!










These ones were for my sister-in-law.

















These ones were for my brother!

Pre-Xmas "Do-Stuff" mode...

Okay, well yesterday started the pre-xmas clean the house thing. I did the lounge-room, office nook (which took ages it was an absolute mess) and some of the verandah. It was a long day.

Then I went out for our end of year staff dinner and had a lovely time! I don't get much of a chance to go out so when I do I like to dress up and look pretty! Yay!

Today, I put the xmas tree up and the other few decorations that we have. So that was the morning job. Then I continued on with my sewing projects I have underway. I cut out my boyfriend shirt that I am making him for Christmas and for once put all the little marks on it - usually I couldn't be bothered but since I want this shirt to turn out really nice I am putting more effort in than usual. I also cut out the other half of my sister-in-law's pj pant and as we speak I am nearly finished my brother's pj pants. I just have the button fly and the waistband/draw string to do. I will post some pics up when I am done!

I hope that everyone else pre-Christmas plans are going well!

A full on crazy week!

What a week! Ballet concert rehearsal and a wedding! phew!

Wednesday and Thursday saw the beginning of 3 days of rehearsal for our annual concert. Friday was another rehearsal day but I wasn't there for that one as I was on my way to Sydney for my brother's wedding which was on Saturday and in which I was a bridesmaid.

Anyway, the wedding went off well despite the fact that my dress was too big and I spent the night before taking the zipper out and moving it. And this was after we had paid a supposed professional to take in my dress. Ha! what a joke that was. I'm sorry but when you are wearing a strapless dress, your boobs in their bra should not be visable when your arms are put up in the air... anyway it was a good thing that I could fix it. The rain held off until all the important bits were over and everyone looked great.

Here is the lovely Bride and Groom.



Wow, my brother is now married. That is so weird!

Now onto the concert which from the reports that I have heard went well. I got all my costumes finished! Yay! and I am pretty sure they look good. Here are some pics so you can see for yourself.

First we have the lovely Tinker Bell. A stretch glitter velvet dress with mesh insert and sequin detail over the top of a nylon lycra leotard. And of course some wings. The wings were made from nylon net and pipecleaners pretty much.

























Very cute and it came out quite well I thought. I did have to modify the wings slightly as the nylon net scratched the dancer, so I just glued some gold ribbon around the edges and that seemed to do the trick.





Next we have Peter Pan. This started life as a plain white unitard. It then got dyed, and attacked with scissors, had mesh insert added in a few places and lots of things sewn on. I also added fabric paint in a few places for added depth to the costume.



















Here is a closer shot of the sleeve.




I was really very happy with how this came out as I didn't want it to look anything 'Disney'.


And last of all if Captain Hook. This one took a bit more fiddling to get right, but in the end I was quite happy. The jacket ended up with brocade godets, gold braid and gold buttons and looked great after a little bit of tweaking to the original pattern. This was only in the width of the sleeve near the cuff and the amount of fabric at the front of the jacket. As it was a men's pattern and the dancer is 14 understandably the type of body in it was very different to the type of body it was designed for. The base unitard came up really well and I was pleased that I decided to go that way with it. I ended up using a shirt from our 'costume cupboard' at work and pretty much just cut the whole front off and stitched it to the front section of the unitard. I made gauntlet type glove that came up the the elbow and had lots of lace on the end so it looked like there were actually sleeves on the top - you have no idea how much I hate putting sleeves in - and it would have been too hot for her in a long sleeve unitard under that big jacket that was made out of a heavy cotton drill. Unfortunately you can't see these in the picture! The boots were made out of 4-way stretch black vinyl and were like socks with a fold down bit that she wore under her jazz shoes. The wig, hat, belt and hook all came form the local fancy dress shop and the sword was made by the dancer's dad!
































So after weeks of hard work the above is the end result!