Whew!

We made it.  A whirlwind tour over Spring break.  It's done.  Whew.  We - My hubby and I decided to take the kids with us on our week long tour with the Ballet company.  He's the stage manager and I'm the costumer.

Everything went pretty smoothly.  The kids played with their crayon totes I had made them.  I had brought some hand sewing to work on but never had a chance.  I did sew quite a bit though.  In each town there are local ballet students that are in the show...usually the costumes for the locals are pretty generic and fit pretty well.

Not this time.

I had been warned that I would mostl likely need to let out some of the costumes, but I was completely unprepared to have at least six girls that didn't remotely fit into ANY of the costumes.  The dresses have fitted bodices and tulle and chiffon skirts.  There is only so much that can be let out of the bodice.  I was looking at a gap of at least 4 to 6 inches in the back, and nowhere to let out that much.  I had no clue what to do.

I went to find the Ballet Mistress, who also works on the costumes and I hoped that she had some ideas.... nope.  Not really.  She just looked at me with a stumped look on her face.

I sent to girls upstairs to the rehearsal without their costumes and sat staring at the rack of costumes waiting for inspiration to come.

The next day I found the local JoAnn's and wandered through the isles.  I came up with a plan.  I would make a panel to fit in the back that attached with hook and eyes, to the hook and eyes that were already in the back of the costumes.  (Of course I have no pictures of my brilliant idea, I was to rushed trying to get them all ready before the preformance that evening.)

It worked.  The costumes weren't pretty, but they fit and the panel wasn't noticable from the audience. 

After that, I did random mendings - a split seat in a pair of pants, a couple of split shoulder seams, reattaching hooks to tutus..

Lots of sewing - all on a machine that refused to function unless it was set to a straight stitch at the longest stitch width.  We had words, that machine and I.  It's currently sitting in the back of the van, destined for the repair shop.

All in all it was a good trip, but I'm glad to be home, showing in my own shower.