| image from wikipedia |
Youngest's primary school have just put on a show of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Over the years word has got out that I sew, and I was anticipating being asked to make something - they did Bugsy Malone a couple of years ago but I was making my sisters wedding dress at the time so couldn't help.
I was asked a couple of weeks ago if I could come up with something and I already had a plan. My Mother in law had made my girls some dressing up cloak things when they were little and we still have one. I didn't take any before pictures, but it is a rich purple velour fabric with a wadding type backing and quilted. The teacher had bought 2 metres of a multicoloured zigzag patterned fabric which I thought would look good cut into strips and then sewn onto the cloak.
I tore off a strip from the fabric to see how it would look, then washed the rest of the fabric. This is a lesson to anyone who doesn't wash their fabric before making it up .... 5 and a bit centimetres, people! Imagine if that was a garment that had just been made!
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| 5+ centimetres of shrinkage! |
I cut the fabric into strips of roughly 5-6cm wide with pinking shears, then pinned them to the coat with gaps in between of about a centimetre. I then sewed down the centre of each strip and stopped sewing about 2 thirds of the way down the body. I was hoping that doing this would allow a small amount of fluttering as the coat was put on and worn.
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| cutting the strips |
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| Pinning the strips |
Here is the finished article on my dress form.
I haven't any photos from the performance - licensing conditions prevent any photos from being taken during a show (even in a Primary school), and the whole cast were so hot at the end that I didn't feel I could get a photo of Joseph afterwards! I may get a shot of Youngest modelling it later but she is considerably taller at 9yrs old, than the girl who played Joseph, who is nearly 11!
