Monday, September 21, 2009

The Project



I wish I could go into the story more (it's really quite fascinating) but since I don't have time to explain it all here, matson1847.blogspot.com has links to articles with some pictures, more about the event and story, and a copy of the article about the costumes.

All of the costumes for the interpreters and actors were rented for this year, except for three 1840s dresses. I made two of them, and Katrina (one of the actresses) made her own. When I had finished the dress pictured above, we discovered that the original beige fabric (what you saw in my last post) was too bright onstage, so . . .



. . . Katrina dyed all the fabric! We were a bit nervous about dying the completed dress, but that and the un-sewn fabric all turned out a lovely shade of grayish lavender - much less conspicuous onstage.


Alaina was my supervisor, attending all the fittings, picking up my fabric scraps, and providing motivation for me to make sure that EVERY SINGLE PIN was present and accounted for in the pincushion and out of reach!


The second dress. Both were great fun to make, and fairly easy, although it took a lot of time. Kyle tried to get me to guess at the number of hours it would take, but I really don't have a clue. I was too busy doing all I could before Alaina woke up to keep track of my time!



Ta da! L-R Katrina Bohn (who made her own dress and dyed all of the fabric), April Lee and Stephanie Borntreger.

The cast at the first dress rehearsal. Once we had everyone's measurements, I got to select all the costumes! That made for a very fun afternoon.


Kyle and I got to attend on Saturday night, but unfortunately, we forgot the camera! :-( I would have loved to post some pictures of the different interpreters and locations. Oh well.

It was a very fun project and well run event!


Over the weekend we also had Keller family over. Ron is a Lincoln scholar and was in town for Trial and Tribulations where he did several presentations on Lincoln. Kyle and Ron used to teach together, and I got to meet the family when they put us up in their lovely home a couple months ago. We had great fun with Cindy and the kids (Ethan, Anna Grace and Josiah).

Alaina was thoroughly entertained the whole time playing with and watching the children. Anna Grace was especially attentive and interested in everything Alaina did.


It was great to have you guys!


There you have it. :-)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, a little suspense of that type is fine. You are a fantastic seamstress and your narrative was informative. Oh,...lovely pics of Alaina. I especially like the group shot where daddy's holding her and she's resting her hand the gentleman's shoulder. GOSH, she is sooooooo photogenic and knows just how to pose! Also enjoyed Grandma Sisson's pic of her and her watermelon "ball"!! She is a stitch, good thing she can't pitch yet!!! xoxo Sue

Anonymous said...

You did a wonderful job on the dresses! The play was riveting, and the cast was excellent.
I enjoy all the cute pictures of Alaina. Thank you for sharing them.
~Bev

Tete said...

Great job- I like the fact that they weren't all the same and each lady had her own look.
Glad Kyle got to see Ron- Craig really enjoyed them both as teachers.
And tell Alaina she did a fantastic job supervising- she's so multi- talented and cute, too.

The Capp Crew said...

The dresses are beautiful! Sounds like you enjoyed making them too. :)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it was lots of fun. All the dresses turned out very pretty!

~Abby

TulipGirl said...

What an interesting community project!

Littlecarlotta said...

Oooh!! What a fun project!

Aliza