Rising New Moon Studios

A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy Wings Completed November 2014 Items Made: Two Large and Seven Regular Pairs of Wings I was asked by the costume designer at McLennan Community College if I could make 9 pairs of fairy wings for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.   I had never made wings before, but I said yes.  They came out AMAZING and now I'm a wing making master!  lol! We needed wings for Oberon and Titania and the four named fairies in the play, plus they added 3 more because reasons?   My only parameters given by the designer were that she wanted them to be insect like... not high fantasy... and that she wanted Oberon's to be up and Titania's to be down.   This was my design for the fairy court.  I believe these were based on bee wings.  I thought bees were also fitting as the fairies flit about caring for the queen. For Titania, I used cicada wings as inspiration. ...

Alice in Wonderland The Red Queen Completed April 2014 Items Made: Skirt, Bodice, Collar This was made for a local college's production of Alice in Wonderland... The Opera. I like this costume in theory more than I like it in actuality.  I made this over 3 years ago... but I remember being really pressed for time and there are things I like about it and things I don't.   I was working on this after my real job and wasn't able to fit the bodice on the actress so that's why it's ill-fitting.  Also the bodice was drafted off a flat front corset and the corset she was wearing wasn't.  And I think I had intended to do a heart outline on the front out the of the same ruffles as the skirt.  I think I ran out of time.  It's hard to do this so after so much time has passed.  This was my original sketch,  I wanted more hearts and silhouettes of hearts.  (yes I drew it on a napkin at Starbucks.   I love the skirt! ...

Spamalot The Lady of the Lake Completed February 2014 Items Made: Skirt, Bodice, Cape, Sleeves, Shells So, I'm finally getting around to updating my blog and gallery.  Most of this process has been documented in other entries.  But here are a few shots of the final product.  In the end, we had to alter a few things.  The square cut of the bodice made the actress look short and boxy, so we changed that into a deep "V" shape.  Also, as pretty as the skirt was, it didn't read much on stage so we added and overskirt of sheer gold organza for some extra sparkle.   Sadly, sparkle and glitter never translate onto film that well.  You can see a little of it, but it looked so much more beautiful as the actress moved and swirled under the stage lights. 

The Beaux Stratagem Sir Charles Freeman Completed November 2013 Items Made: Coat, Petticoat Breeches The Beaux Stratagem is a restoration comedy written in 1707. The character, Sir Charles, is supposed to be a little older, therefore in a style of dress a little before the rest of the cast.  But this was super fun to make.  The designer wanted him to look like a peppermint stick.  There were lots of one word descriptions for the costume themes in this show.  And since it's comedy, you can get away with it.  The Jacket is made from black cotton with silver embroidery and lined with red silk-satin.  The sleeves are slashed and the jacket is trimmed with green ribbon and buttons.   The petticoat breeches are absolutely ridiculous which in a costume shop equates to "Holy wow! So much fun!"  In the actual restoration period, when it came to bagginess of breeches, baggier was better.  So I made them as baggy as I could wit...

The Beaux Stratagem Lady Bountiful Completed November 2013 Items Made: Bodice, Stomacher, Skirt, and Apron The Beaux Stratagem is a restoration comedy written in 1707. The character, Lady Bountiful, is sort of a sadistic, mad-doctor type. But also wealthy.  Anyway, the designer wanted her to look like a big bruisey tumor.  So lots of purple and green.  To me, I think she's a little like any of Helena Bonham Carters recent characters.   The skirt is a crushed purple taffeta, and the bodice a purple/green stripe moire with green hued batik cotton trimming the sleeves.  The stomacher is purple microsuede with green/gold brocade trim and rosettes made from the same fabric as the skirt.  The apron is a two tone green strip cotton.    The coolest/most challenging part was drafting the bodice based on patterns from that era... which, when drafted, come out super tiny.  I know people were smaller back then, but these patterns...

So I've had another go round with the Lady of the Lake.  As you can see, possibly, in some of the photos, I've removed the sleeves and now we're gonna go with an opera length gauntlety thing.  I also reworked the wings/fin/cape whatever so now it's floor length starts at the neck.  To fix the uniformity that I didn't like with the previous cape thing, I made panels in different widths and staggered them in no particular pattern.  They also start narrow out narrow at the top and get wider at the bottom... I might have to add more panels on... I'm not sure... I guess it depends on if she has to raise both her arms over her head...  Right now the cape forms a full half-circle...  All that's left is fitting the bodice, sewing down all the facings (which I don't wanna do until the bodice is fitted) and add make the sea shells for the bust.  Oh... and attach everything to everything that needs attaching...  

So these past few days I've started on my next project... well... it isn't for me... but it's something I'm working on.  This one is for a character from the Monty Python stage show, Spamalot .  It's pretty much Quest for the Holy Grail ... with more musical numbers.  My mission this go round is the Lady of the Lake (who's not in the movie but was added to the stage show).  And she's pretty much THE female lead.  We're kind of going with medieval warrior mermaid lady...  So the bodice is pretty standard... princess seams... not quite a square neckline and made out of a green velvet upholstery.  The skirt is from a purple and gold brocade... but I'm using the reverse which looks like scales... floor length with a train.  Pardon the mannequin in the pics... it's really short so the costume drowns it.    Next up I added in a slightly puffy upper sleeve with a bell shaped lower sleeve.  The upper sleeve is a green stretch velvet ...

1940's Radio Hour Completed October 2013 Items Made: Jacket, Skirt. This costume was made for a local college production.  The "fun" part was that this show takes place on Christmas Eve in 1940.  The production was in October.  So buying an appropriate "After 5" ensemble was impossible therefore it had to be made.  Add to that, that the only festive fabric at the local fabric stores was the cheap holiday fabric that the fabric stores sell.  Oh, and I only had a few days to make it.  The jacket is made from stretch velvet burnout, which I flat lined to muslin to make it not stretchy.  And the skirt is made from costume satin, which was the only kind of fabric we could find that worked with the jacket fabric.  But I think I managed to pull off something decent.