Finally Pippin Photos

We ordered the DVD of the Thursday night performance along with the photo CD, and DS brought them home Tuesday night. There were over 700 pictures on that photo CD! So, just so I can pass along what the costumes really looked like, here's just a few.

These were taken by Jeff White (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them)

The Opening Number










final pose after curtain calls






'Louis' and 'Fastrada' in the choir-like number 'Morning Glow'. I made virtually all of Louis's costume (glittery pants, glittery shirt, foil metallic cloak trimmed w/the glittery velvet...and doesn't that glittery velvet look amazing? I'm still looking for the gold-on-white colorway...if anyone's seen anything like that, let me know!); Fastrada's cloak is the one to which I added the godets. Unfortunately, there were no side shots of either of these, so the details really can't be seen.









Here's a posed photo of the Troupe...I did the lame' shirts; the guy's pants are the final doe suede version.












And, just for Grandma, a photo of The Actor... (yes, that's him in the front).

Whew. This oughta be the final post for this year's musical...

Parody for Spring Break

The kids are off from school this week; for some reason, the theme song from Pippin, Magic to Do, has been running through my head, only with the following words:

Join me, leave your Game Boy Beeping,
Join me, it's too late to be sleeping,
Join me, come and help an hour or two
doodleeedo
Journey, journey to the trash can
Take it to the curb for pick up
Journey 'round the yard with th'lawn mower, too!

I've got laundry to do, just for you
I've got dishes to wash, I say,
I've got menus to form, leftovers to warm,
I also need to mend what's torn
So I need your help today...aaaay

The kids unanimously declared they preferred the original words.

ETA: I had a question or two off site wanting to know what the original tune is like. I did some searching on You Tube and found one that 1) was fairly easy to understand and 2) didn't have costuming I'd be embarrassed to link to. It's not the best version out there (I liked the one w/Ben Vereen, but, well, the costumes were *skimpy*) but you can get the idea...

Magic to Do...unknown cast

It was interesting to see all the different stage/costume designs in the various productions. Nothing at all like what we did...I don't know if that's good or bad...


ETA again... in hunting around, I actually found that someone had posted a clip from the finale of OUR PERFORMANCE. It's a home video, I think, the quality is not so good, but...well, here it is:

Lee High School Pippin '08 finale

The Actor actually spotted himself a couple of times. He's excited.

End of the Run: HSM '08

It took a determined effort, but My Sweet Baboo and I did manage to see the closing night of Pippin, and I'm so glad we did. The performance we saw last Sunday was a good solid show, but the kids cranked it up to a whole 'nuther level Saturday night. (I'm sure it helped that the house was full...they'd even opened up the balcony, which is a very rare event). Even after seeing the show, I found myself blown away by what I was seeing on stage more than once. It was amazing, and I'm really proud of the kids (including The Actor, who DID have his gloves on at the appropriate time ;) ) We ordered the photo CD from the show; if I can, I'll post a few photos of the costumes on stage once we get our copy.

And I got presents! Just some appreciation gift pretties to hang, but it was a nice surprise to me.


But I am afraid my cover is now blown....

Costume Inspiration

This is the lattice-print black velvet that caused so much trouble w/the troupe boys' breeches; it was also used on several other pieces in the production (For scale: that's about 2" on the straight sides). It looks amazing on stage...very much like chain mail. Very cool.

And it got me thinking. Our angel costumes at church are really in a bad way. They weren't made terribly well to begin with, they're fraying out and kind of stained. NOt to mention just cheap lightweight satin that kinda looks like a night gown. Replacing those costumes has been on my list of things to do for a while now. But, well, we currently have no budget, but someday...

Anyway, looking at that fabric, I wondered if it was available in gold on white. And if it is...and if I can find it...(I *think* the black came from Hancock's) I'd like to do a totally different sort of angel costume. I'd like to put our angels in something that looks like a medieval knight; complete w/scabbard and sword. And use the theoretical gold-on-white velvet. Wouldn't that be cool??

So, anyway, here's an APB...if anyone actually sees some of this velvet stuff in white, could you let me know? I might just buy it myself and stick it back for the day when I can get some new things done... ;)

Saga of the Troupe Boys' Pants

Originally, the troupe boys were wearing the gold metallic lattice print on black stretch velvet pants. The pattern was one of Simplicity's, I *think* it was the 'pirate family' costume from a few years back (I can't find it on the website). The pants were loose fitting pull-on pants sized from XS to XL. We needed 2 smalls, two mediums and two larges, cropped a bit to go into boots.

It wasn't too hard; we got them made up fairly early on. But in the costume check on Wednesday the verdict from everyone after seeing them onstage was that they were way too glittery (that fabric did look amazing onstage...I've been inspired to see about doing something for church, which I'll talk about some other day). So, the decision was that we'd just make six more pairs of pants from the doe suede we used for the chorus boys.

But, someone had gone through and 'cleaned up' all the accumulated scraps and clutter and thrown away the original pattern tracings. So I started again, tracing the patterns. Midway through tracing the first one, I asked if the boys could turn the pants inside out. Ok, the metallic would be rough and uncomfortable, but at two days before the show opens, with no patterns...well, would it work? Turns out two or three others had suggested it, too, and since the pants were serged the seam allowances wouldn't show much. They wore cummerbunds that would cover the reverse on the waistband; the decision was made: they can wear them inside out.

However, the directors wanted the character Louis to wear the glittery pants, so that night I traced off a size small pattern and brought home fabric to make him a pair of pants from the glittery stuff (I was remaking that mesh vest on that assignment, too; they told me if I could just cut them out someone else would make them). Because Mr H wanted the pants a little snugger, I was going to see if I could trim the legs down a bit (I ended up just using one of my own pants patterns, but that's not really germane...what's important was that I had a small pants pattern tracing). After I traced the pattern, I couldn't find the envelope that the master pattern was to be returned to so one of the other ladies said she'd take it and file it in her box until she could put it away.

Well, I finished the vest and had time to do the pants to the waistband, so when I went in Thursday I handed that off to one of the ladies to finish. When I got back from choir, I found that the ladies were french seaming the Troupe pants; apparently the little seam allowance stuck out enough to be noticeable and, well, they wanted the pants to fit a little closer anyway.

So I sat at a borrowed machine and helped enclose the seams. The kids did two performances Friday (one for a school assembly), and on Saturday I got a call to bring in my cutting mats when The Actor came in...one of the boys was apparently allergic to the gold stuff on the pants and his legs were chafed and bleeding from the inside-out pants. So, we were just going to have to make new pants.

So we changed our plans to see the show on Saturday, and I went in with cutting mats and serger. And found that the lady who had the patterns had had a death in the family and wouldn't be in.

So I got to freehand grade the small pattern I had up for the mediums and the larges. I was guessing. Normally I'd've done that with my reference books out, or at least another pattern to see where the grading was done, but I had none of that. So, I eyeballed it and hoped it'd work.

The first pants to be cut were for the young man with the bleeding legs; as soon as we cut those I turned my rotary cutter over to another mom to cut the other five and I went to my serger. By the time I got those pants put together and handed over to someone with a conventional machine to put the casing and elastic in, she'd cut more, so I just serged pants most all night (we did get that first pair done in time for our suffering Trouper to wear the new ones from the beginning). After the show started, it was just the two of us, since the other moms were watching the performance (hey, their kids were seniors). The two of us ducked into the balcony to watch the opening number and then went back to work.

We had the pants finished by intermission; a couple of the boys went to the trouble of changing in a hurry, glad to have something more comfortable to wear.

Whew.

Showtime

I didn't get to see the show Saturday after all; we went to yesterday's matinée. I ended up sewing through Saturday night's performance instead (I'll write about the Saga of the Troupe Boys' Pants tomorrow).

I'm not sure when they're going to give the notes for yesterday's performance, but The Actor's definitely going to be called upon the carpet. In the opening number, there is a bit where all that is visible is gloved hands waving...then lights go up and the actors come from behind the scrim and begin to dance.

My sweet Tigger of a son did not have his gloves on. Oh, there was a reason...or rather, a combination of events that caused him to go on stage barehanded, which began with him forgetting to get makeup on until it was nearly too late. He'd've been fine, except the face masks that they also wear were not preset back stage where they were supposed to be and, after barely getting his makeup on, he had to run 'round to the other side of the stage to get his mask. When he came back to his place, the lights were down and he was fumbling to try and get the gloves on. He just didn't get 'em on before the lights and curtain came up.

Now, I didn't notice bare hands in the opening moments, but it was very, very obvious in the dance portion of the opening number; he's on the front. The people in front of me even whispered, 'that kid on the end doesn't have gloves on!'

He felt terrible, and wants us to go see the show again next weekend when he 'won't mess up so bad!' If there's anything left of him after his upcoming chewing out.


But the show was beautiful to watch and the plot was kind of...thought provoking. Lots of analogy and symbolism.

Maybe we'll go see it again. ;)

Sleeve Reprieve

The Actor came home after opening night (he's still sleeping @ 20 after 11; he'd been up till one or two AM several nights this week) and said that they decided not to change the sleeves on the lame' shirts. So those shirts will remain intact and useful for something in the future, maybe. I know I shouldn't care -- it's not my show -- but I was glad to hear they were staying as is.

We may try to go tonight. I was sort of thinking we'd watch the last show, but, well, if something came up so we couldn't go the last night, we'd've missed it. So if we can work it out, we'll go tonight.

Meantime, I discovered a fairly serious sale going on at Gorgeous Fabrics. Oh, I was at a weak moment, having done almost no fashion sewing since Pippin hit, and she had a couple of things I've been looking for. No guilt about those, but there was also a black-and-silver brocade piece that ended up in my shopping bag, for which I have no explanation other than I must've been so dazzled by all the glitzy stuff I've been sewing that I kind of automatically picked it up?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;)

Go Figure.

Have you ever held a garment that *must* be manipulated in some fashion in your hand and prayed for guidance? I did yesterday. The vest that needed alteration was made from black mesh knit; my intention was to carefully slit the trim at the bottom, open up the side seams and insert a godet.

But I discovered that the seamstress who had made the vest had used the dreaded 'stretch' stitch (y'know...the one that goes two stitches forward and one stitch back?) on the side seams. There was no picking it out. I tried for 20 minutes and managed to get an opening about 1/4" long. I couldn't see the thread, I was afraid to make holes in the fragile knit, and I only had until about 5 PM yesterday to get the whole deal finished. It Obviously Wasn't Going To Work. So I prayed.

And I ended up using some fusible bias strip interfacing to stabilize the seam and cutting it open. Then I saw how silly it was to fuse that stuff on the pressed open seam...that meant it was fused to the seam allowances, which were cut off in the process of cutting up the seam line through that nasty triple stitch. So I had lots of bits of fused seam allowance strips dangling from the opened seam. Well, it made me feel better to stabilize it.

So, no seam allowance meant I really couldn't insert the godet as planned. What to do, what to do...

Steam A Seam to the rescue again! I put the SAS on the wrong side of the godet, then carefully overlapped the vest RS down and fused it. Then I just zig-zag topstitched the whole business, going from bottom to top on both sides. That worked.

But it still wasn't enough flare; I'd made an extra godet 'just in case', so I sweated out finding the vertical center back, added the bias fusible strip on that line and carefully cut up it and repeated the process.

Then I made a little 'fleurchon' (fabric yo-yo)from the remnants of the velvet and added some dangly strips to it and pinned it to the top of the triangle to kind of mask the top edge.



The young lady who wears this vest is a teeniny little thing; obviously, I'm not! But you can kind of see how it worked. I had to just drop it off at school when I took The Actor for dress rehearsal last night so I could go to choir practice, but when I got back to school after choir I heard that the vest was a hit with the directors. Whew.

The lame' blouses, on the other hand, had issues. First, the facing wants to flip out (probably because the stiff fabric was interfaced...but, as ravelly as it is, I didn't dare not interface it). Some Stitch Witchery is to be applied today after the morning middle school performance to see if that will hold it down sufficiently; if not, then I guess we'll spend tomorrow topstitching them all down around the outer edges. But the big problem is that the directors believe the sleeves are too big and blousy and detract from the rest costume and They. Want. Them. Shortened. To a shoulder-roll deal. Next to the jacket shoulder-roll...???

Now, I sat in the theater a little last night and watched a bit of the show and, in my as-unbiased-as-I-can-manage opinion, the shirts looked luscious and fabulous. I'm really not seeing that they detract from the gorgeous jackets. But, it's not my show so I guess we'll do what the directors say. But I strongly encouraged the ladies to pin those sleeves up on someone after the show this morning and parade them across the stage to make *sure* that's what is wanted. 'Cause once they cut 'em, there's no going back.... Not to mention the show opens tonight.

Sleeve issues aside, I was really impressed w/how the show looked on stage. And the talent level of these kids is amazing. If you like theater, and you live anywhere around the Rocket City, try to catch a show.

But for me, I'm home all day today being cook and general lackey for DS. And maybe doing some budget, laundry, dishes...dare I say personal sewing...while I'm hanging around.

Makin' it Work

Just a couple of shots from the costume checking process that went on all night last night, so you can see how the lame' shirts are to be used. The knit shirt that I made yesterday was, I guess, judged good enough; I saw it worn. The printed velvet pants turned out to be too busy; the guys are going to have to wear them inside out (that saved making 6 pairs of plain black pants). But I've got a 'make it work' project that I brought home...a girl's vest, long and straight, made from black mesh and bound w/the velvet, was made with no side slits and no walking ease. So, while it it beautfully sewn, with the loveliest puffy shoulders (like the jackets in the photos, which I did NOT make! They're actually constructed from tapestry wall hangings!), it needs godets inserted into the side seams so that there's some room to move. So I get to cut through the border, open up the seam to just under the arm, and add some of the foil-printed knit, bound in the velvet. I've got the godets done, now I'm at the point where I've got to start the, um,unsewing process on the vest. I've been told the mesh is horrific to sew on. I'm thinking I may pull out the Solvy...

But that's not the least of it...DS the Elder had his arm surgery yesterday and is now home snoozing on the couch for at least the day, The Actor has not yet learned the fine art of completing homework whilst cast in a major production and we had a big parent-teacher conference this morning to hopefully salvage the grades before the end of the term. The teachers who were there, and the counselor, were really supportive and encouraging, and his Drama teacher and ROTC instructor both looked him in the eye and said, 'You will do this!' And they moved his locker so it would be more convenient for him to get to his books in a timely fashion. I think that encouraged him more than anything...it was at the remote end of a hallway and a great source of frustration to him. Tonight is the LAST rehearsal, though, so it should be the last late night (he got home at 1:30 AM from last night's practice). Tomorrow it starts being fun.

And hopefully the costumes will be done.... ;)

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.

I *Heart* Steam-A-Seam

Well, I'm not the young man who plays Louis, but I'm about the same height that he is. He *says* he's wearing boots w/heels, so I'm hoping the vest won't drag the ground. I think the fabric's a little too lightweight to move richly...actually, it reminds me a bit of something Ava Gabor might've worn on Green Acres...but I did what I was requested to do. There was not enough time to line it so it'd move better anyway.

I kind of made it up as I went; had some false starts and frustrating boo-boos. One of the front bands, which were cut the whole length of the piece I had, was a bit short after I narrowed the neckband; there's a little piecing going on there. It doesn't show from more than 5 feet, but it bugged me. The velvet stretched and crept under the presser foot; ultimately I pulled out my aging, not-very-sticky-anymore roll of Steam-A-Seam and fuse basted all that binding stuff down. It took a while but it was worth it.

BTW, this pattern, Simplicity 4795, was obviously drafted for the ease of the pattern drafters and conservation of printing resources rather than the convenience of the folks actually making the garments. Same pattern piece for the vests, the cloaks, the robes...everything is to be cut on the fold, with the front of the vests slit carefully along the CF after the shoulder seams and side seams have been sewn. Yeah, right. Cut the back on the fold, cut the front on the selvedge. Much easier....

One to Grow On

So I'm just hanging out at school, doing a little rotary cutting of pieces that only need cutting on Saturday, running a little behind my 'I need to leave at noon' timetable because I wanted to *finish* the job, when Costume Sewing Head Honcho Miss R came around.

"I know you just finished all those shirts, but do you think you could do one more thing?"

Turns out the lady who was sewing the costumes for one of the secondary characters, Pippin's half-brother Louis, had had a series of family crises and simply couldn't get in to pick up the fabric for the last thing she was making. Mr H, the Bone Fide Genius costume designer, was in the building, if I could talk to him about what he wanted for this garment (she said 'cape' and I had visions of a long, wide thing that would require crawling around on the floor to cut out), perhaps, well, I could say 'No' if I needed to, but, maybe...could I talk to him?

Feeling apprehensive, I agreed and went to see what was needed.

Turns out it wasn't a cape but a sleeveless cloak...a Bible Costume vest (Simplicity 4795, top row, lengthened to the floor) with trim around all the edges. Ok, I think I can do that.

The fabric was a foil-printed knit, and the trim was to be the same metallic-lattice printed stretch velvet we'd used on the Troupe guys' pants. I brought it home, traced the pattern yesterday and then began to try and figure out the best way to add the trimming. He actually wants all the edges bound 'the width of the selvedge'...well, the selvedge is 2 1/2 wide.

I cut the vest pieces out and sewed them at the shoulder seams; I'm thinking I'll need something like double facings for the neckline and armholes; I ran out of fabric and had to get more when I picked The Actor (AKA DS the Younger) up from rehearsal. I laid the trim out just to get an idea; I'm thinking it's almost too wide on the neck and arms; I may reduce it a bit.

Oh, and I really need to have it done by the end of rehearsal today. I think tomorrow night is Dress Rehearsal; the show opens w/a middle school performance Friday morning; first public performance is Friday night.

So maybe I can have my sewing room back tomorrow. Maybe.

C'est Fini!

There's one of the gold ones! Or at least, there it is as good as the reflection allows....

I finished them up before supper last night and began cleaning the sewing room; you've no idea how wrecked it is. I hope to work on it some more today; the sewing team will be working until 4ish, but I haven't touched laundry all week and it is mountainous, so I'm hoping to scoot out around noon.

Hopefully, I'll get a couple of photos if the kids really do put the costumes on for check today.

P.S. Mom, tell Dad his card's in the mail...I'll call later. Meantime,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! :D

Lame' Shirt Home Stretch

That's five of the six gold lame' shirts; they all still need velcro on the cuffs and the narrow hem at the bottom.

Although, since they're going to be worn tucked in, I might be able to get away w/o hemming them; they're serged.

Nah, I'll get it done.

I have one more shirt to put together today, then I'm going to run them all through for the remaining work assembly-line style. I should have them (correction, *must* have them) done by tomorrow morning.

One more day,then I can have my sewing room back! Projects are percolating away in my head...

Today's Lesson

The cool thing about sewing is there's always, always room for learning.

I learned something this week about costuming...you'd think I'd've known this by now, but since I *really* try hard to keep the really big costuming efforts at church (which is really much more efficient than hauling stuff back and forth), doing a big costume project at home was something I hadn't done in a while.

So I added a new dictum to Lisa's Rules for Sewing Costumes:

Always bring home extra fabric.

I had to dig around when I picked up DS after rehearsal at school last night to find some remnants of the gold lame' so I could cut the cuff pieces I forgot when I was cutting. That fabric had been used for some other stuff and the nice, marked bag of remnants that I'd left was nowhere to be found. But we did locate a bit just floating around in a bin w/other scraps and remnants, so I'm ok and I can do the cuffs properly. But I learned the lesson; next time I find myself hauling stuff home like this I'll be sure and grab a bit extra...just in case.

But I'm behind where I wanted to be, and My Sweet Baboo just called to say they're having his 30-year work anniversary luncheon today (somehow he'd been left off of the notification; too funny). If I go, that'll shoot the whole sewing day. But how can I *not* go? Arrrggh... ;)

Life's full of tough choices, idinit?


ETA: Whew. MSB just called to say that the anniversary luncheon has been postponed till next week. So I'm cleared to sew. ;)

Halfway There

I finished the silver shirts Saturday at virtually the moment I needed to leave to go get DS from rehearsal; I pulled the last one off the machine, grabbed the stack and headed out; I trimmed the threads after I got there. But...I didn't get a photo of the whole stack. Rats.

But they're DONE and now I can move on to the gold ones. I ironed on all the interfacing last night and discovered that I was short a couple of sets of sleeve cuff pieces. And I didn't have the sense to bring home any scraps 'just in case'. So I'm either going to modify the cuffs a bit so I don't need the other pieces (i.e., make them fold-over instead of faced) or I'll have to pick up some scrap fabric somehow.

These shirts will be a little harder to make in a big batch; every one of them is a different size and I don't want to risk getting the sizes mixed up. So I'll probably do them two (or *maybe* three) at a time, just so I don't have so many parts floating around. We'll see how the day goes....

Them's the Breaks (ooo..bad pun alert)

I kind of resigned myself to cooking and cleaning yesterday once I figured out I couldn't split myself into three people. We were having a dinner guest, after all, and I couldn't feed him finished silver shirts. DS the Elder was supposed to join us for dinner also, but had to cancel because Master's Commission was working on choreography for a dance they were to perform at Conference in Phoenix next week. "It's an insane dance" He text messaged me (that's code for 'freakingly awesome'). "I may even get tossed in the air."

Well, at 9:30 we got a phone call; the final time through, something had gone wrong on the toss; he'd landed on his arm instead of his feet and they were on their way to the ER to get it X-Rayed.

That broke up our little soiree in a hurry; the guest said good-night and My Sweet Baboo headed to the hospital to meet them. I decided I might as well sew, but it was a challenge to keep myself on task.

Well, he'd broken the radial bone in his right arm (yes, he's right-handed) clean through, but it was a clean break and the ends were still together so they put a temporary cast on it, gave him instructions on how to keep it still and some pain killers and a referral to an orthopedic for follow up on Monday and sent him home. He decided he'd rather go to his apartment. He's got five roomates to watch him and didn't even have a toothbrush at the house, not to mention when he's here he sleeps on the top bunk...so DH drove him over and got him inside to his buddies and then got home at about 1:45 AM, just as I was applying the second sleeve to the last blouse.

DS was not in a lot of physical distress; it just so happened that one of the other guys had some prescription pain killers with him (there's been at least two other ER visits w/Master's this year...they're a fierce bunch...) and made him take one as soon as they got him off the floor. He's more upset that the 'insane' dance is not going to work as planned, or at least he's not going to be doing the part that he thought was so cool.

They're supposed to get on the bus to head for Phoenix Tuesday morning. So he's going to have to pack up with one arm, scheduled around what could be a lengthy orthopedic visit (I've never had a visit to an orthopedic that didn't last about three times longer than my most pessimistic estimate), assuming he can get in on Monday. I really hope he can get in on Monday; it would be a far more painful thing for him to miss the trip.

But My Sweet Baboo said that while they were waiting on the techs to come to put on the cast, DS was up on his feet, practicing the dance steps. Yeah, he's that intense...I doubt I'll be able to talk him into coming home so his mama can take care of him; he's got too much to do.

So, while DS the Younger is at his all-day rehearsal, I'm going to be finishing those silver shirts (side seams and hems are all that's left). Maybe even get a decent start on the gold ones...which have to be finished by the end of the work session Thursday night...and doing a little praying. ;)

I Need Three of Me

Household duties (ok, trying to keep the budget semi-current) caught me yesterday and I didn't get into the sewing room until about 2:30. With a hefty interruption for cooking supper and eating it (I did get some help w/the dishes), I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I thought I could push it through, but the lame' simply will not be pushed. But I did get the collars on all the silver shirts and the sleeves prepped, so today all I need to do is put on the sleeves, sew up the underarm seams and hem them.

Definitely do-able in a day, if we weren't having a dinner guest tonight. So I need to do some housecleaning and a fair bit of cooking, and I need to make a quick grocery run.

Oh, and the laundry needs some work, too.

It's going to be a busy day.

Back at the Lame'

After a couple of days in which it seemed like I did nothing but run errands, I'm going to be home again w/o a car, so I'm headed back to the sewing room. On Monday, I got all of the silver shirts to the point where the neckline is gathered and the collar is attached. I managed to put ONE on in between errands yesterday...and put it on backwards (i.e., the undercollar is up). No, it won't be noticeable from more than 10 feet away. But it bothers me. However, I can't frog stitch (rip-it, rip-it) the lame', so it's just going to have to be what it is.

I don't know what's up w/me and collars of late...that's the second time I've done that in a month. Maybe I should get my glasses checked (or get more sleep).

But the sleeves are already hemmed, so once the collars are on I should be on the downhill side of THIS part of the project.

I am taking a few photos of the process; I'll review the pattern once I get them all uploaded.

The Plot of Pippin

DS the Younger brought home his script a few weeks ago and I read it; you can read a summary HERE. That's not the Lee Lyric site, which hasn't been updated for ages; someone did a site just for this year.

Do you know...it's the story of The Preacher from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes? Who tries all sorts of things looking for significance and meaning in life, and then finally concludes that it is best to enjoy the life one has, the wife one loves, and to do one's work well. (Well, The Preacher adds 'fear God and keep his commandments', which is not mentioned in Pippin...but then, in that quasi-medieval setting, hypocritical church leaders imposed legalistic religion on the folk who had no other means of learning faith, so Pippin only found the emptiness of religion when he went to the local church for significance.)

Now, I don't know if the play was intentionally modeled after The Preacher or not, but the resemblance is striking. And the lesson...that it is better to be simple and happy than to destroy oneself looking for greatness...is not a bad thing for young people to consider. Or older folks, either.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to actually seeing the production!