Alice Re-Vamped Band

Recently my favorite ballet of all time is returning to Covent Garden next month-already planning to wait at 6am for tickets. This production of my muse Alice in Wonderland is fantastic-the choreography stunning, and the visuals overall amazing. But what struck me about this particular Alice is the title role’s costume choices. Like Tim Burton’s interpretation, this Alice is older-interested in boys, the eldest of three daughters etc. Second, the fact that she’s put in a lilac frock, unlike the traditional blue-I always categorize the cast as having their own distinctive colors (Mad Hatter Purple, Queen of Hearts Red), so I’m intrigued by this choice. And finally, her hair-an almost 30’s style brunette paige boy cut. It’s odd how everyone always visualizes Alice as a blonde, even though the original Alice Liddel herself had black hair. Either way, another effect had adds to the avante garde of this production. 

Alice’s hair inspired this project-another idea curtesy of Mark Montano. The ballet version stays true to one element of Alice’s look-the all popular ‘Alice’ band. 

Since I got my own paige boy bob last summer, a style I wonder how I lived without all these years, I’ve like playing around with accessories. This project I thought appropriate considering how the summer is coming, and the usual wedding season is coming, thus bringing in the unique hair piece rage. I doubt I’ll ever set foot in Ascot as anything other than the waiting staff, but nice to know I’d be prepared should the day come!

I dug through my ribbon stash, and found some black net trim and greyish silvery ribbons. Laying them on top of one another, I preferred this effect to that in the book with the black toole. I cut three sections of each different trim into 7’’ lengths, and folding them each tacked them together into a rosette shape. 

I debated for a while about the sequin centre piece from my ‘bag-o-gems’, but finally went to a black piece-not so glitzy, but it looked better against the lace effect.

I’m a little nervous about wearing the piece just yet-worried it may make me look like a six year old. But I know accessorize are all about boldness-heck, I may even wear this piece the night I go to the ballet!

Montano Tie Obi-Belt

I’ve become such a fan of the Mark Montano book, I ordered its prequel this week! Already tempted to get his other on home decor. 

For my second shot in his fabulous projects I made the ‘Tie Obi-belt’. I’d been keen for a while-it looks so simple, and this totally appeals to my upcycling and meshing different pieces together. I had a simple black tie from one of my old catering jobs, but got impatient from donations from the only male in my household (my Dad), so bought a fun tie from Topman-black with white specks. I chose the colors based on the quirkiness yet versatility of the two ties together. 

After working overtime with my current job, my fingers were itching to reconnect with my old friend, the sewing machine. But when she failed to work, I had to resort to hand-stitching the calico base against the section where the ties meet, which gives the belt its ‘obi’ feature. The two stitch lines add to the 'bulkiness' of the piece.

This project is really fun, and I can’t wait to spice up some simple tops with it. I hope to finally get those old ties from my Dad sometime-I wanna try out this project with more exciting textiles and shades.

Catwalk on the Tower

Hey-sorry, my computer was busted this week! However, it lives to program another day, so Second Child blogs on!

Two weeks ago I had another dresser gig, for the Adidas Tailor Made Goldwear show. The show featured the main pieces expected to be worn for the upcoming Olympics this summer-and seeing how my mother, a Golf obsessive, I knew was probably one of their best customers. 

In the afternoon in the Tower Hotel we did several run throughs. I was expecting the show to be kinda dry-I’m not a sports nut. The models were doing mock golf swings on the runway (though I pointed out several times that their drives looked more like baseball swings), dancing to some of my favorite tunes-now every show I have dressed for has played ‘Moves Like Jagger’. Models and dressers mingled and laughed backstage, and the collection had certain buzz.

But what really shocked me about this experience was the fact that when we moved to the real collection of the runway show, we weren’t here....

We were here.

Yep, the narrow walkway on top of Tower Bridge was the catwalk. Our backstage was a quarter of the walk, the audience two slim lines around the wall beyond the curtains. 

I haven’t been that cold since I went to Russia. IT. WAS. FREEZING! We were all huddled backstage, yearning to put all the extra clothes into a pile to curl up into-and the models, man! They had it ever worse, changing in those conditions! The organizer was surprised at how upbeat and lively we were backstage-the truth, we were dancing to the catwalk soundtrack to stay warm.

Fun and wacky in location, this experience was another interesting fact to add to my CV. Not many can say they worked for a runway show right on Peter Pan’s route through the city.

Hair Comb Brooch

For my birthday, I was given ‘The Big-Ass Book of Crafts 2’ by Mark Montano. This book, written by a quirky crafter, holds a number of projects from jewelry to furniture. For the past three weeks I’ve been pouring over the book over my afternoon mug of Earl Grey, shifting book marks for projects I want to do next, ones I’m considering for gift ideas, ones that just look like fun, etc! 

This afternoon, I gave the ‘Button and Comb Brooch’ a shot. Digging around in the bathroom I found two amber-colored combs, that gave an antiquey feeling to the piece, and decided to replace the button with some rhinestones. 

I changed a few things-instead of the metal base, I got some cardboard and covered it in felt, that I stitched a safety pin into for the badge base. 

I had a heck of a time, breaking up the combs into small fragments-it was a combo of wire-cutters, a hammer, and sheer blonde-brute force! Glad no one saw how far my creativity had driven me.

Once done, laying the pieces around the base, I had a hard time overlapping the pieces with their bulkiness. I added in an extra layer of felt on the inside as extra-padding, so to speak. 

I had a number of color combinations regarding the rhinestone centre-piece, but with so many glue marks on the comb, I had more tiny white jewels to cover them, and so went with a gold and white color scheme.

 The final piece isn’t brilliant-the one of the book looks as thought hair combs are the last thing used in the creation! But I like the bold bling of this brooch, and am planning on putting it on my handbag, or even a hat.