f1bercat's SlowKnitter: Ballet Sewing Takes Over My Life


Pookie's audition arabesque photo 2012

All knitting had stopped yesterday, as I frantically cranked out some ballet "costumes" for a studio demonstration/performance my 2 dancer sons (Pookie and Himes) are doing tomorrow, Saturday. They are the reason I will not be knitting at Crossroads with the Eastside Knitters Guild for World Wide Knitting in Public day. However, I will bring knitting to the performance. No comments on etiquette. I won't knit during the dances, just between them and between shows if I have time (I am on clean up committee, etc.)

The thing is, when you are making tunics/shirts/jackets for male dancers, you usually don't want the sleeves to attach to the jacket. This allows you to use beautiful brocades or whatever for the outer fabric,

then make an inner shirt with some stretchy fabric (I use lycra or lycra blends) and make the sleeves with the same fabric as the tunic, and it looks like a jacket all one piece, but the dancer is able to move much easier.

I am not really making tunics/jackets because that is really involved, and they have to be super fitted, and the boys are busy, and I don't want to spend the time with it. Let's face it, I want to them look good, but Himes will probably wear this stuff for these 2 shows and then never again. Well, he might help out next year and need to wear them, but will they be appropriate for the pas they do next year? Not sure, so I am not investing a ton of time in this.

Last year and the year before, the boys danced the Bluebird Pas from Sleeping Beauty, so I made a blue velvet tunic with a blue lycra undershirt with blue velvet sleeves. It was a nightmare to fit. I made 3, because there were 3 boys at that time, (shout out to our friend Stephan who is dancing with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet now), and all of the boys have slightly different shapes, so I couldn't mass produce these tunics because they had to fit like gloves. I am an adequate seamstress at best.

This year Pookie danced the solo variation from Don Quixote at a ballet competition, so I made an undershirt that was white with black sleeves and a bolero style vest, hoping that it would look like a toreador's jacket and shirt.

Pookie calls it his "Aladin Jacket." Since more than one of the girls is dancing the Don Q pas, Himes needed a costume, too. Of course he couldn't wear the same one. He couldn't get the undershirt on. So I made him an all black undershirt because, at that time I had no stretchy white fabric, and I didn't want to spend money on this. O! Haste makes waste! or cheapness causes much more money to be spent.

He liked the fit of the shirt but was all in black and wanted a vest, too. Pookie's vest is too tight across the back. So I needed one more black/gold vest.

Then they both rebelled at wearing the poet shirts again. I'll admit it. One of the things I love about these shirts is that I can say, "Arrrrrh! Matey!" every time I am near them.

So I gave in and bought some cotton/lycra blend and made 2 new undershirts, both plain white. Then, I received a text from Himes saying, "Mommy, Please can I have a white/gold vest to wear in Paquita?"

So I went back to JoAnn's and got some white/gold brocade.

wrong side

One of the many cool things about brocade is that you get to decide if you want to use the right side or the wrong side of the fabric.


right side

I also bought some fabric for Hime's Don Q vest, and red and white plain fabric for lining. Then I went to Stitching Night with my Eastside Stitcher Buddys.

While I was there, I got another text, this time from Pookie, "Mommy, will you Please make me a Paquita vest, too?" Of course I immediately texted back, asking why they couldn't share the vest. But I knew the answer, they are doing both the Pas de Deux and the Pas de Trois, so they will both be dancing something from Paquita at both shows. They need 2 vests.

I got up and ran back into JoAnn's to get more brocade and some stretch white for Pookie as he doesn't have an all white undershirt. I couldn't find another appropriate white/gold brocade and ended up getting an all gold fabric.

I liked the wrong side of this fabric better than the right side as it was a bit less... GOLD.

When I got home from Stitching night on Wednesday, I cut out the white undershirt and made a fabric pattern of the vest, guessing at how much I needed to enlarge/alter it to fit Himes, and basted that vest together. Luckily, Himes came home right as I was going to bed, so I was able to put the vest on him, and mark where I needed to alter it, mainly cut the armholes much bigger, though it now was ok across his back.

Yesterday, I cut the vests out, and began sewing. I finished the white undershirt and 2 of the vests