As you well know, I AM GOING TO NEW YORK TO SEE HAMILTON and I needed to channel my excitement into a healthy pastime... so I decided to make a dress based off the musical's poster art. I sent off fabric to Vermont, had it hand-dyed, cut out my vintage 50's pattern design and here we are... almost ready to travel!
If you are late to the party, here's Part 1: The Hamilton Dress where I document the process of trying to mimic the cover art's gradient & Part 2: Sewing the #Hamildress where I show the process from toile to gown.
Here's what I've been up to in the past month:
As you can see, I've managed to fit the dress over the wide shoulders of my dress form (a miracle in itself). The dress should look better on me since it's been fitted to my body, not the cookie cutter dress form.
There are three main dye gradients not entirely visible in the pic. There's the yellow starburst bodice, the medium gradient belt and then the darkest shade depicted in the skirt. The shirt even has its own gradient where the hem is darker than the gathered top edge. The back (which is shown in my previous blog entry) has a beautiful textured gradient from the yellow to the mid-range orange. It's really hard to capture all that in my photos and I'm hoping it reads when I'm walking through the streets of New York!
Don't like waiting for blog updates in order to see my progress pics? Follow @chelseabees on Twitter for #Hamildress updates while I am in NYC!
Finishing the raw edges:
I finished all the raw edges (as per the pattern recommendations) with yellow seam binding. This was new for me! I have 100 yards of it now so I imagine it will be making a reappearance in a future costume.
Here you can see the process of attaching the binding to the hem. Next, I hand-sewed the top of the binding to the skirt as invisibly as possible.
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| Crinoline steamed and ironed! |
The crinoline:
I steamed and ironed my new black crinoline to give it the needed poof. It's shorter than my yellow one but it gives the dress some youth and energy. How am I going to get this to New York without squishing it too much? I'm guessing I'll get strange looks if I just wear it over my jeans on the plane. Hmm.
The embroidery idea is OUT!
Sadly, I ditched my original idea of embroidering along the hem. I had come up with the plan of combining the two song lyrics below in order to have the right amount of words to stretch across the four yards of hem.
My chosen song lyrics were a hybrid/found poem of sorts: "I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable, I am an original. There's a million things I haven't done but just you wait, just you wait for it..."
My test swatch looked cool but I doubted my abilities in this new domain of embroidery so it was OUT.
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| Failed embroidery attempt! |
The belt & my hair:
I ironed and starched the heck out of the brass-buttoned belt. And... I cut and dyed my hair red! I'm testing out all sorts of vintage styles to go with the dress!
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| His skill with the quill is undeniable! |
Accessorize it:
I also have been scouting out accessories! Here's a two necklace combo pictured below with a single strand of feathers (to represent the power of the quill of course) and a three strand necklace with black beading. The gold metal is a nod to the brass buttons on my belt and the black beading is meant to evoke the star logo (and tie in my shoes, crinoline, my Olemor's (Great-grandma's) beaded purse and possibly a black hair accessory).
I also may-or-may-not have gotten a temporary TATTOO made especially for the trip.
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| Don't judge me. |
I also may-or-may-not have gotten a temporary TATTOO made especially for the trip.
I CANNOT be more excited... well, yes I could.
If Lin-Manuel would invite me along with MY husband Manuel backstage for autographs, well that would work for me to bump up the notch of excitement to insanity proportions. I wish you were listening, cast of Hamilton.
I could not be more impressed. Wow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteYour dress turned out beautiful! I can't wait to see the photos of you at the theater. I'm happy to have been a small part of your vision for the dress.
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