Let's Get Back To Business!

Hello my dears!  Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time.

2013 into the beginning of 2014 was a super busy time for me with my work which put a bit of a dampener on my crafting time.  I had some great experiences but some great challenges as well.....

.... As you might notice above the blog has had a name change.... I can no longer call myself a crafter at sea because I am no longer at sea!  That's right, my land legs have called me home and I am now a land-locked sailor.  I am currently looking to get into the theatre scene here in England.  It's all a bit scary but what I needed to do in life.  It has given me time to craft and catch up the blog though!

I have a few projects on the go right now and I have a few things to catch you guys up on that I worked on but didn't get chance to blog about.  Keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for posts on the following projects:

I finished adding the second layer to my beer cap belt.

My friend had a baby and I made her an embroidered gift.

My friends got married and I made them an embroidered wedding album.

I played around with eco-dying some fabric from natural elements I found on a walk.

I made a necklace organiser for my travels.  It is now going to be very useful at home as well!

I have an embroidery based on a song by The Band Perry... this is still a work in progress....

And finally, I worked on Legally Blonde: The Musical.  It was a very interesting challenge but I made it work!

I am also working on some online courses which I would love to share with you so there is a lot to come!!

Exhibition Report: Harry Potter - The Exhibition

This week it was my birthday - yay!! I treated myself to the Harry Potter Exhibition that is currently at the Discovery Center in New York, just off of Times Square.

If you haven't managed to catch this exhibition as it tours the US, you are missing out! As a complete costume geek this exhibition was a real treat. The displays are set out in groups based on areas of the movies, for example, Griffindor Tower, Hagrid's Hut, The Forbidden Forest, Herbology etc. In each section there is a very well presented display of props, costumes and artifacts from the Harry Potter movies. Now, I am not a big fan of the movies, preferring the books instead, but it is the attention to detail that has made these movies successful despite my own opinions of them. Mostly, the costumes are well designed (I have a personal problem with the 'school uniform' aspect though) and there are quirky little touches that destinquish the wizards and witches from the muggles. For me, these were the most interesting things on display at the exhibition. Things like Sirius Black having a double collar on his button down shirt, Bellatrix Lastrange having a leather wand sheath sewn into the design of her corset, the intricate engravings on the Deatheater masks and the overlaid dyeing on the invisibility cloak are just a few I picked up.

This exhibition is fun and a visual feast. The props and sets are just as detailed as the costumes to create a world that you wish was real. The one thing that really surprised me was how big Hagrid actually was. I expected his size to be camera tricks and therefore the actually costume to be regular human sized. This is not the case! Hagrid is actually bigger than the other humans so Robbie Coltraine has a huge costume that must have been padded and stilted to the nines! Very interesting indeed!

Nick N-Nick Nick N-Nick Nick Nick.... Nickelodeon!

I know, I know, I've been missing for a whole week, well it's because we had a Nickelodeon All Access cruise last week on my ship. That means there were costume characters everywhere and slime.... lots and lots of slime!! Here are a few photos I managed to nab while running around after Sponge Bob:

Character Meet & Greets:

Oh! It's Dora!


Fanboy and Chum Chum


Cosmo and Wanda


Geo and Millie


I got my picture with Squidward!

The Sponge Bob Show with Tom Kenny


Patchy The Pirate getting ready for the show


The voices of Patrick and Sponge Bob, Bill & Tom and Andy Pally who writes the music



The cast of the Sponge Bob Show


Tom Kenny, the voice of Sponge Bob - what a lovely man!

Well, those are my Nickelodeon adventures for now, more soon!

Ashamed to Kiss? Certainly Not!!

Remember the show I designed for Theatre Nomad back in August? You can read about it here if you don't!

My friend and the artistic director, Luke Dixon, just sent me photos of the performance of Ashamed to Kiss - they are brilliant! I don't think I need many words here, just enjoy the photos.

Oh, and Happy Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukah etc and have a great New Year!!!

A Truly Outrageous Samhain!

Truly Outrageous!

Finally! Here are my halloween photos!

I made the Halloween costume I wore this year for last Halloween. Check out this post from last year to see what I ended up wearing and the story behind it.

Next year I might have to make a Jerrica costume...

It ended up being a good thing that I pushed back wearing this year's costume as I was able to get the PERFECT wig! It is from the California Costume Co. and it is called the Truly Outrageous wig... for Jem from Jem & The Holograms! I am all about the 80s costumes right now :-)

As Jem at the crew Halloween party

I made the dress and belt myself. The shoes are from Payless and were only $14. It took me a while to find just the right tights, but finally I found white glitter ones.

Jem make-up test

I searched online for a Jem make-up tutorial and found a great one that used tape to get the right shape. I then used a bright pink blusher from Make-up Forever to create the geometric shapes she has. I added blue eyeliner and eyelashes. I had big pink ones but they were too much so I kept my usual diamante corner lashes instead.

Jem Star earrings

The final touch was my Jem Star earrings. I made them myself from old Christmas badges with red flashing lights, red foam and glitter. I had them flashing for most of the night and they still work!

Jem and Lady Gaga having a rock star moment

I ♥ this costume! The wig really sets it off and I think I will be using it for years to come!

Jem likes a good beer after a hard day rocking out


With my Nickelodeon cast


Jem hanging out with the drag queens!

We have two Halloween parties when working on cruise ships - a crew party and a passenger party. I wore the Jem costume for the crew party and then went as a vampire for the passenger party. I was a judge for the costume contest for both parties - who is more qualified to judge a costume contest than the wardrobe supervisor?! All in all Halloween was pretty awesome this year - in fact it was Truly Outrageous!!

My vampire costume for the passenger party


Lady Gaga falls prey to my vampire!

Happy Samhain everyone!

For the Honor of Grayskull!!!

On Saturday we (ie my cast and I) were told we were hosting a party on Wednesday.... A little short notice but we worked it out :-) We decided to host a Super Hero party.... and so came my excuse to make a She-Ra costume! I have been waiting for this day! I knocked this sucker up in about three days and I'm pretty proud of it. I made everything - top, skirt, head piece, gauntlets, necklace, cape and even boots!


Craft Night!

My friends and I had a little craft night in wardrobe to get out costumes together, at which point I put together the top and started work on the boots.

Boots!!

The boots took me about three hours to make, which is pretty good going I think! I used gold Lycra and a pair of old tan character shows as the base.

I ♥ my boots!

I love hot glue! That's pretty much all that's holding these puppies together. I did reference a tutorial I found online, so if you want to make some check out this tutorial.

I am She-Ra!

I love my costume, I just need to find the photo of me as She-Ra when I was 5 now to go with it!!

The Craft Night Posse in their costumes

Ashamed to Kiss

Oh dear.... Well, things have been a bit busy around here so my blogging has fallen behind... sorry!

But to make up for it here is a little preview of what I have been working on.

I was asked to design the costumes for a production by the English Theatre Company Theatre Nomad. They are doing a 30 minute version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew called Ashamed to Kiss with three actors. I was given a burlesque/pantomime style brief and got going on ideas:



After the mood boards helped to to solidify my ideas I drew out some designs and sent them to Luke the Artistic Director for approval:



Luke loved them and I got to work on making them. Petruchio (the male character) and Katarina were already cast, Bianca hadn't been found yet so I just worked on the two costumes. As with theatre, Bianca has currently been cut from the production, so only two costumes were eventually produced:



I am very happy with the way the costumes have turned out. I think they look exactly like my designs! Luke is very happy with them as are the actors.

There will be three performances of Ashamed to Kiss in London in February so go take a look if you're in the area... more details soon!

Busy Busy Busy!!

I know, I know, I missed Share the Handmade Love on Wednesday! It's been madness around here. Ever since I got back to my ship it's been non-stop! I've been learning the ropes of working with the Nickelodeon costume characters and doing their slimy laundry (don't ask!) and after only 48 hours on the ship I had my hand up SpongeBob's butt!! I had to fix a snap, ok?!

The Nickelodeon stuff is a lot of fun actually. We have Meet & Greets and breakfasts and live shows. One (with the slime) is a full gameshow in our theatre which the kids love. There's a lot of laundry, but not more than I can handle and it's interesting to look after a different type of costume. That's a new special skill on my resume!!

In other news this week I got my first custom order! I'm very excited to be making a belt for the daughter of my new friend Deezie. They liked the belts in my Etsy store but they were all too big for her daughter, so I'm making her a custom one based on my Rock Belt (see it here). In honour of the occasion, here's one of my other belts!

I wanted to create another belt like my Rock Belt and originally wanted to make something a bit more feminine and floral. I used an old pair of jeans that one of my dancers had left for me and was thinking I would embroider on the denim outside with flowers, vines and butterflies. I tried sketching out some ideas but nothing looked right to me. I then discovered as I cut the waistband off the jeans, that the inside of this pair was lined with a white fabric printed with a floral pattern! I decided to follow this pattern and let the design develop organically, excuse the pun!! I started by hand embroidering over the flower shapes in the print with colours I consider to be floral – more pretty and subdued than vibrant, but bright nonetheless. I considered sewing butterflies and other gardeny items on to the belt but it didn’t feel right. I went for the simple approach and just used the original flowers as the focus. I added green vines to anchor the flowers to something, instead of leaving them floating on the belt. I added green beads to represent leaves and green buttons to continue the natural theme.

This a very feminine piece and will look good with outfits in pastel or pale colours – maybe for a wedding or a garden party?!

This belt is currently available in my Etsy Store here

A Very Happy Unbirthday?

While being home for my Grandmother’s funeral, I’m also home for my birthday…. Which I almost forgot! It wasn’t until my nephew, who is two, ran into the kitchen this morning and sang happy birthday to me that I really remembered…. Ah well!

On the bright side, I got to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D while I’m here! I’ve heard mixed reviews about it but I loved it! I think Tim Burton might have read The Looking Glass Wars books as it really reminded me of them. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are fabulous as always and the costumes were AMAZING!! I’ve found a few images of my favourites to show you…

Costume Designs

Colleen Atwood, one of my favourite designers, often works with Tim Burton and I was very glad to hear that she worked on this film with her. Here are a few of her designs – The Red Queen, Alice and The White Queen

The Red Queen – Helena Bonham Carter

I was unsure how I felt about Carter playing the Red Queen, but she is excellent. Her costume is very much influenced by Queen Elizabeth I and is very intricate.

The Mad Hatter – Johnny Depp

This version of the Alice story was not quite what I expected. I think I was expecting the ‘usual’ story, just a bit darker, but I liked the direction Burton took. A lot of this is due to Depp’s Mad Hatter who is an integral part of the story and brings a lot of heart (no pun intended) to the table.

Alice – Mia Wasikowska

Alice’s costumes are probably the most exciting! They change so often because of her increasing and decreasing size that there were plenty to look at. My favourite however, was not her stereotypical blue outfit, but her red ‘Um’ dress worn in the Red Court. It is truly beautiful and if I had time I would probably try to find a way to make myself one!

My other favourite Alice costume is worn at the end of the movie and is hardly seen. I saw photos of it around Halloween as someone was trying to make it for themselves… however, is the movie you hardly see it! She wears a beautiful skirt made fro wide ric-rac that must have taken someone huge amounts of time to make…. But you never get to see it! It is hidden under her coat the whole time! I feel for this costumer and want to show the skirt here – it is gorgeous!

In conclusion – GO SEE THIS MOVIE!! You should try to see I in 3D as well, it was worth wearing the silly glasses.