Foxy Vest

I was mistaken; last night was the second tech rehearsal. Tonight is the first dress rehearsal (um, note to self: I need to get The Actor some Febreeze...). So, we're still sewing...

When I showed the finished vest to the Mr. H, the Costume Designer, last night, he immediately pulled out an unbelievable fox tail collar that he found for five bucks at a thrift store and had me tack it to the vest. Now it *really* looks all Ava Gardner. Or Liberace. But it turns out that's exactly right. I was mistaken again; I thought we were looking for a rich medieval garment. Nope...Louis is being costumed as almost a drag queen. So over the top campy it is. But Mr H was delighted with the final product.

But, ya do a good job on something and what does it get ya? Something else! I left with a chunk of the gold lattice print stretch velvet and a Kwik Sew pattern; now Louis needs a turtleneck. But the pattern, KS 3186 is for a sort of relaxed fit shirt, and Mr H wants a *tight* shirt.

So I came home and traced off the turtleneck in Christine Jonson's Basewear Two. I noted when I reviewed that pattern that it was shaped the same front and back; the fitting was pretty much done by the fabric. Now, the velvet has only about 50% stretch, while the BW2 pattern specifies 100% stretch, so I sized up, removed most of the shaping at the sideseams by straightening the curve, and lengthened the sleeves. By trial-and-error, I found that the collar needs to be a minimum of 19" long to go over my head, which is pretty close to his, and I'll trim the neckline out to fit when I put the collar on. I lengthened the top a couple of inches, too.

So long as he can get it on and off and breathe while wearing it, it'll be ok.