Hey all,

So my titania costume is consisting of a teal ball gown, which i am going to cover the bodice entirely with peacock feather heads, anddo panels in the skirt as well. Anyone any ideas about attatching them? i can obviously sew them, but given they are quite rigid was thinking i might need to stick them or something as well . . .

also, the feathers for the skirt are huge (they are about a metre long) and the 'stalks' (what do you call that bit of a feather?) are very very white. any suggestions as to how to colour them so they're not quite so obvious?

cheers y'all

pamela

Sorry to be superstitious with this PJ, but Peacock feathers are unlucky to wear in theatre, because of the ?Evil Eye?!
You may be better off with ostrich plumes, there are a lot of different type manufactured feathers which are more conducive to stitching on costumes.
Mrs. Ostrich would know!

Yeah, i know about the superstitions around peacock feathers, but i'm risking it. I designed the costume, and its me thats wearing it, so. . .

thanks anyway

xx

It's cool....

It's an outdoor production.... not in....


Soaking the tips in dye might help, as the inside of the stalk
is foam like stuff (from what I can remember as a kid opening them up...)

You might find it soaks up inside...

You could try using Spraymount to glue them to the fabric? But not sure how this will show up on fabric.

And as for the "stalks", how about spraying them with Plasticoat (Hammerite for plastic)? Try spraying one and see how you get on.

No sweat! - watch out for the Drop Bears!

Woo Hoo - I got a mention

As it happens ....................................................................

I have been glueing lots of things of late - mostly buttons and sequins to my pearly costumes, which looked great - I'll post a link when I've sorted out the piccies.

The glue I discovered was from Jones Tones and it was truly amazing, we never lost a button or a sequin and some buttons were quite heavy. They also make jones Tones paints which might also colur your stalks, if that's what they're called.

the glue saved me hours and hours and claims to be washable, although that's not an issue with feathers.

Okdky . . . . .have to date spent what seems like a million hours sewing peacock feathers. . . the results to date can be seen here

I need suggestions as to what to do now, my options are :

a) keep going and cover the entire front panel with heads
stop where i am and admit defeat
c) take from where i am into a diagonal and do a kind of swirly 'strip' round the dress in feathers
d)take where i am to a point of a single feather and do a line of single heads circling the dress
e) cover the entire bodice and dot heads over the rest of the skirt
f)something else

FYI i am sewing the heads individually at the stalk, then gluing the feathers. (hence being slightly high on glue at half four in the morning. never good

I have hundreds of feathers (dont know how many are currently on it, if anyone wants to count let me know ) so feathers isnt the issue, its my complete lack of patience thats causing me problems (and the fact i have a whole load of other costumes to do, lines to learn etc ect etc.


comments?suggestions?

love
pamela

73

It looks fantastic already Pamela but if you want the opinion of a mere man then I would go with your option "c".

Being married, I don't dare make recommendations to a lady about clothes. But I can say that it looks absolutely great, from the photos!

Girlies do seem to get much better costumes, and much more fun out of costumes, than men ever do!

regards,
/alan

I'd keep it as it is now - it looks great

you're obviously very talented...

Looks fabulous - guess you have to do what you will be satisfied with!

I don't know I had great fun with the General's costume in 'Allo 'Allo especially the boots.

As to Pamela's question. I think it looks great as it is, but I am a mere man and a mortal.

*Claire timidly takes a look as I'm phobic of peacocks*

Wow amazing Pamela. Well done.

Well I think it's looking very good indeed , and after having a play around with windows picture viewer and doing a bit of copy & paste I think option d) looks good , not to sure where the line around the dress would look best

and I'm amazingly surprised that answers to this thread are currently standing at Men =4 , Women =2

Except for pantomime Dames, of course!!

I couldn't agree more Hilary

Is that because Peacocks are Male or are the men just waiting around till the
moulting season

I think it looks amazing, well done. What about continuing down at each side, tapering off to a point at the bottom, like an inverted V. Irridescent blue sequins could be dotted in to carry on the colour.

I'm sure whatever you do it will go down well, because it is really beautiful.

Di

PJ - WOW! Fabulous job! Ian and I looked at the pic before reading your options and came to the conclusion that you've gone far enough down on the bodice and that it now needed to swirl off with perhaps some at the bottom of the dress. So we're thinking your option c is the way forward. I do think some at the bottom - not necessarily close together - randomly placed will catch the light wonderfully and look marvellous. Maybe with a few stick on green/blue "jewels"? Or is that too much do you think? Please do let us see a photo of the finished product with a beautiful PJ wearing it? Preferably dress rehearsal?

What are you planning to do on your head? A few feathers - full feathers maybe?

Its ten to 4 in the morning . . . . . but YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAy its finally finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



the dress



xxx

WOW stunning. Well done you.

That is truly spectacular Pamela - worth all the effort

WOW!

Einfach Wundersch?n.....

Cor blimey! Gorgeous. Erm...PJ...what size are you?

Go steal the show Pamela .

Scotland will be amazed tonight have a great time

Break a Leg

Wanna see, wanna see - pictures of finished article please

Diand

sadly not had any photos taken yet, will try and get some before the week is out.

pamela
x

*pout*

Wish I had come up now.....

lol, theres still 4 days left . . . . .

Only just found the piccies - beautiful dress! Hope it was worth all the effort!

I'm just intrigued to know whether any of the superstitions have come true....! Y'know, peacock feathers being unlucky 'n' all. I think if nothing DOES happen, you will well and truly have put that one to bed. Mind you, guess who's taking the blame if ANYTHING goes wrong....

It has happened...

I wasn't able to come up and do the photography.

If you don't want me to photograph your show...

Wear peacock feathers....

theres three of us with peacock feathers, me, oberon has peacock feathers on his bottom half, and puck has a few tucked into her pocket.

anything goes wrong its oberon's fault on principal . . . .(excluding the torrential rain last night, i'll let him off with that . . . )

baaad baaaaad photos, will hopefully get better ones tonight, but in the mean time . . .


oberon + ickle fairies

ickle fairies killing oberon

dreadful picture of oberon and i

(these are backstage shots obv . . .)

Yep, you're right. Baaaad photos.... but that's because they've got kids in 'em. Yeurk! What does the tattoo say?

my tattoo says 'to thine own self be true'

How apt for a tattoo!