Project Run and Play: Season 21- Week 1

It’s my first week as an official PRP designer!!! I’ve been slaving over all my designs for weeks now, making sure I start on a high note. Since no one likes reading, lets look at pictures!!! And don’t forget to visit the Project Run and Play site to see the other fantastic designs and vote for your favorite!

The first theme this year is:

Home Sweet Home

North, South, East or West, everyone knows THEIR home is the best!  This week showcase what your location makes it the BEST!

Being in Kansas, I HAD to do something Wizard of Oz inspired. But those who know me personally know that my first love is theatre. And one of my *favorite* musicals of all time is Wicked! Wicked is the backstory of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West (named Elphaba). Elphaba was the role that really put Idena Menzel on the map, arguably paving the way to be Elsa…but that’s a discussion for another day. 😉 Today we are talking clothes! You may notice that I’ve included links to songs from the show that coordinate with the outfits…😀😀😀😀 I can’t help myself! Everything needs a soundtrack! 😉

I based these designs off costumes from the original Broadway production of Wicked. It’s got this amazing steampunk vibe that I just find SO inspiring!

I like having a plan. So the moment I got the themes for this season, i got right to work sketching! I always love seeing the plan drawn out, and then comparing it to the finished product. Sometimes it is exactly the same, and sometimes it’s totally different! This round I would say that I stuck to my original ideas pretty closely. 😏

In the musical, Glinda has *the most* amazing wardrobe! All her dresses are frilly and sparkly and ruffled and all my favorite things. 😍😍😍😍 But I would say my favorite costume is this flouncy pink number that she wears to sing her signature song: Popular.

My Elphaba look is based on this stunning act two dress. I seriously can’t get enough of it! She has gone full blown Wicked Witch and embraced that “no good deed goes unpunished” and it’s just awesome. I *knew* I had to recreate that skirt, but in an “I can wear that every day in public” kind of way. After playing around with a few techniques, I landed on this one and I’m going to make a million more! Especially for me. And I will wear it while doing laundry and singing Defying Gravity at top volume.

Possibly my favorite scenes in the whole show are the ones in the Emerald City, when the whole cast is decked out in these amazingly detailed and over the top monochrome green outfits. It’s like Lady Gaga and Steampunk collided and the results are overwhelmingly spectacular!! So rather than go all grey, which is what the Wizard actually wears in the show, I went all green! Lucky for this kid, green is his third most favorite color. After blue and red, and just above neon orange. He has life pretty well figured out for a seven-year-old.

Now that you have been convinced to purchase tickets to the nearest Wicked tour, lets talk design specifics of my outfits!

For the Gilnda dress, I used a few Violette Field Threads patterns. VFT is one of my favorite pattern companies, and the one I test for most frequently! I love their vintage inspired designs, great fit, and consistent sizing. This dress uses the Seraphina bodice and Elodie skirt, with modified Blithe sleeves. I didn’t want the tulip sleeve, because I felt like it would be too much with the stripe fabric, so I had to do some re-drafting. But it turned out exactly as envisioned!

I found this organza at Fabricland last spring. It’s my girl’s favorite shade of her favorite color (apparently baby pink doesn’t count as pink 🙄) so I knew she would love it. The princess seams on the Seraphina bodice allowed me to mimic the stripe matching from the costume. I was going to add horsehair braid to the hem, but the organza had such great body that it really didn’t need anything!

Once I settled on a technique for the Elphaba skirt, deciding on patterns was very simple. The knit top is a Talulah tee, with sheer Ophelia sleeves and a modified neckline to be a mock turtleneck.

The skirt is the Reese skirt with a self-drafted waistband. This was actually the least expensive piece to make! I dug through my huge scrap bin and pulled all the fabric that looked right. Then I cut it into 2″ strips or circle strips if the piece was big enough, and just laid them on my base skirt, sewing them down one at a time so I could make sure it was turning out the way I wanted. Seriously, not as complicated as it looks, just very, very time consuming.

By far the most complicated pieces were the green pants and jacket. This poor kids was a trooper at the shoot! He hates photo shoots to begin with, and then it was 85 degrees, humid and super sunny PLUS I made him tromp through 20 feet of tall grass to get close to those yellow flowers. And THEN, travesty of all travesties, I asked him to actually *put on* the jacket! He earned that popsicle, that’s for sure. 😉

I confess that I have never made real pants before. Real as in, pants with a zip fly, pockets, and no elastic waistband. For these, I used the Morocco pant pattern from Petit a Petit and I could not be more pleased! The construction looks so nice, it has lots of options (even an elastic waistband! 😉) for solid pants and color block options, plus a shorts option. I will definitely be using this pattern for the rest of his church pants until he sizes out of it! I mean, those double welt back pockets make me feel SO cool.

The tee is from my awesomely talented friend Sherri of Sofiona Designs. Only one year as a pattern company, and she and her co-owner already have an impressive catalog of patterns that have unique details and fit SO. WELL. This is the Aurora Raglan, which despite being labeled as a “girls” pattern, is perfectly unisex, especially for those of us who prefer more fitted boys clothing. I threw on some vinyl with lyrics from the Wizard’s song, and he has worn it to school at least twice. Kid knows what he likes! 😄

the jacket is the only pattern I was not 100% happy with. I mean, I do love how it turned out, but it’s been a long time since I’ve used a Burda Style pattern, and I was reminded why I usually avoid them. The instructions are very murky, even by big 4 pattern standards, and you have to add seam allowance, which is not a deal breaker, but something you have to remember to add to EVERY PIECE! For example, if you forgot to add seam allowance to sleeve cuffs, you may find that they don’t fit when it comes time to sew them on. Not that anything like that happened to me. I’m just throwing it out there. In case it happens to you. 😉

Burda patterns are also very fitted, so though this rain jacket fits today, it’s not going to fit in the fall with a sweater underneath. So let this be a reminder to *always* muslin!! Especially with new to you pattern companies and more complicated pieces like coats!

Since he wanted a hood, I added the hood from the Zhora Raincoat by Lil Luxe Collections. Another amazing PDF pattern company whose patterns I trust with my good fabric on the first cut!

I used this fantastic green water resistant poly-twill fabric from Mood Fabrics (I just wanted to put fabric in the bag and say, “Thank you Mood!”) and the color is so cool in person. Almost neon, withou hurting your eyes. The pants fabric is stretch cotton sateen, two colors from Mood and one from Cali Fabrics, the fantastic sponsor of Project Run and Play!

The coolest thing so far for me in participating in Project Run and play is that I’ve pushed myself to finish collections and whole outfits. I usually sew one thing, like a shirt or coat or jacket. But it’s really not much more difficult to knock out a basic tee to go under the fancy jacket, or some knit shorts to wear under the dress, and I feel so accomplished in saying that every stitch of clothing on my children was made by me!

That’s it!! I hope you enjoyed your trip over the rainbow with me, and don’t forget to go vote!