Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Peasant Pas Dresses

Here’s a collection of peasant pas dresses in stable fabrics (Tutus That Dance patterns) and stretch fabrics (Tutus by Dani patterns).

Hall (2)

La Fille Mal Gardee burgundy

I had just enough of this shot embroidered taffeta to make the bodice of this peasant pas dress. The little nude insert creates a subtle sweetheart neckline.

Hall (5)

bodice detail

The bodice, sleeves and apron were finished with a selection of ribbon roses and carnations.

Most of my variation costumes go to the US. Here is another La Fille Mal Gardee, this time in pink.

The embroidered satin was embellished with pearls and sequins. I added more pearls to the gold venise lace. The ruched bodice is made of tissue silk.

I love using these little ribbon roses. I’ve been collecting them for a while now and all sorts of colours. Here are some for a blue Giselle.

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Pretty navy Giselle

Navy blue dupioni was perfect for this blue Giselle. A headpiece made of ribbon roses and some little blue bows complete the picture.

Stretch peasant pas dresses are a great alternative to traditional ones. They have great flexibility in fitting.

Wilkinson (3)

This stretch peasant pas dress has an overskirt of stretch mesh for a lower profile skirt. Trim on the skirt matched the trim in the bodice.

The ruched bodice is made from gathered fine stretch mesh to give the impression of a gathered peasant chemise.

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This Kirov peasant pas has a little apron as well as the iconic skirt ribbons. I’ve adorned it with ribbon roses again. I can’t resist them really.

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I’ve had the light brown trim for ages. It was perfect for this costume.

 

The lovely russet costume was recently joined by a brown velvet version.

Peters Peasant Pas (3)

I love the double ribbon trim in 2 widths. The skirt is ivory with a pale pink underskirt.

The bright pink ribbon roses and light beige finish the design.

Chase Kitri (2)

The last peasant pas dress is a white and black Kitri entrance costume.

Chase Kitri (3)

The skirt ruffles are stretch mesh edged in black. And of course, more ribbon roses.

Chase Kitri (4)

 

 

 

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Spanish Tutus

A grand parade of Spanish and Spanish-inspired tutus

Cartlidge (2)

Rich red over a slightly darker skirt. Lots of flashy sparkle here.

HINCH tutu (3)

Coral and gold over a champagne coloured skirt

red and white RTW (9)

Dark red and gold with pretty windows of decorated net over a glittery white skirt

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Richly embellished russet and gold tutu with champagne coloured chemise and skirt

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Opulent black and peach tutu with an plate of copper lace over enhanced sparkle tulle skirt

Spanish RTW (6)

Black bodice and airbrushed red skirt embellished with gold venise lace and floating red jewels.

Harijanto (5)

Sparkly trim on a dark red bodice and plate over a crisp white skirt

 

 

 

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Tap and Jazz Costumes

I love the vibrant colours in tap and jazz costumes. Here are three costumes I made for Eloise and Tarli.

Tarli will wear this costume with long black gloves, fishnet tights and a bobbed black wig. Can’t wait to see the photos!

The black appliques have been blinged up with purple and red stones.

This bright green and gold tap costume was great fun to make.

I used 2 different laces, one green on a black background and the other warm gold and copper. Lots of green rhinestones added sparkle.

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The triple layer skirt was hand dyed into 3 different green shades.

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This beautiful burgundy costume is for slow tap. The long split skirt shows the dancer’s legline.

The costume has cosmic mesh sleeves and skirt for some subtle bling and a richly embellished collar. The underskirt is black to enhance the burgundy.

And here is the lovely Eloise on stage.

Photo by WinkiPoP Media
Photo by WinkiPoP Media
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Lilac Fairy

This is one of my most requested colour schemes/variations. Lilac comes in quite a few shades and this one was on the deeper end of the spectrum with the addition of a ruched corselet bodice.

 

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Ruched bodice

The top if the bodice is ruched with hand-dyed stretch mesh made to look like a little chemise above a corset. Rather than applying the applique in the usual V-shape I have inverted it and take it around to the back of the tutu bodice.

 

back CU

back detail

It can be a little difficult to sew a non-stretch trim around the underbust with enough latitude for the dancer to squeeze it past her hips but I put a little bit of slack in the sewing and used a number of pieces rather than one continuous piece all the way around.

 

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Plate

The plate is made of matching lycra with a soft lilac lace and silver venise lace spilling onto the skirt. I’ve added rhinestones in purple, lilac and light magenta to give a bit of sparkle.

 

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plate detail

The silver venise lace was a feature of the skirt but I wanted to mute it a little with lots of rhinestones.

 

3Q

soft lilac and silver

The plate was really quite sweet and delicate. This lace had no bling so I had a lot of fun making it sparkle.

 

back

back

The back featured a central motif as well as the underbust decoration that was carried all the way around.

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Five Fairies

What could all this be? Looks like fairy dust to me.

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clippings from 5 feathered skirts

Yes, 5 of Sleeping Beauty’s Fairies made for a costume hire company in Victoria. The brief was simply “bright”.

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5 bodices all lined up

Each of the tutus had a white skirt with layer of glitter tulle and 1 layer of net that matched the bodice to give the skirts a slight blush rather than being stark white.

As the tutus were finished my studio seemed to become smaller and smaller.

overflowing studio
tutus everywhere
layer upon layer!

And here are the fairies at the bottom of my garden

 

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Lilac Tutus

Last year seemed to be the year of the Lilac Fairy. Here are 6 variations on a theme.

 

3Q

delicate

This tutu was very pretty with pinks and mauves moving against each other in the skirt. The lilac corded lace spills onto the skirt where you can see the multiple skirt colours.

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Emily’s Lilac Fairy

This tutu was embellished with silver venise lace and rhinestones. The top layer of net is sparkle tulle and it is a little shorter than the next layer to give a soft colour shift at the edges.

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Lilac and white

This is a tiny little lilac fairy for a 4 year old. It is embellished with white corded lace, pearls and rhinestones.

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Lilac Fairy

This Lilac Fairy was made as a RTW tutu. It uses the same lace as the first tutu but I used the selvedge to trim the plate and it gives the plate quite a different look.

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White and Lilac

This tiny tutu uses the same lace as the tutu above but you can see on a white background it has a different effect. Compare it to the next tutu using the central motifs of the same lace.

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another lilac fairy!

 

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Three White Tutus

In September this year I had a rush on white tutus. Here are a few pictures of Paquita Etoile, and La Bayadere and the Snow Queen. I also made a Paquita Grand Pas but that will be the subject of a separate post.

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white on white

For the La Bayadere tutu I used white appliques on white lycra with crystal AB rhinestones and translucent sequins to highlight the white on white design.

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bodice detail

For the skirt I reprised the plate I used for the pale blue prizewinner tutu although I offset the petals a little differently.

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plate detail

The petals were constructed from tulle edged with white venise lace.

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La Bayadere

I used a heavy gold venise lace for the Paquita Etoile tutu and embellished it with gold and crystal AB rhinestones.

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bodice detail

To keep a nice long line through the tutu it’s important to continue the bodice colour down over the hips. That’s why a matching plate is often used. In this case there was no plate just a lace overlay. To effect the continuity of the bodice colour down across the hips I mounted the lace on soft white tulle that gathered tightly close to the bodice.

 

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lace overlay

The tulle gives a lovely soft look to the tutu.

 

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back detail

I had a special request to continue the detail around the back of the tutu as the dancer has  a lovely flexible back and we wanted to bring attention to it.

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Paquita Etoile

The Snow Queen tutu is the first asymmetrical tutu I’ve made for a long time.  The brief was to decorate the tutu with a swirl of snow across the bodice spilling onto the skirt.

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snow flurry across bodice

I used crystal AB rhinestones  on the silver venise lace.

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asymmetrical plate

The plate had a side swoop where rhinestones tumbled across the skirt. The red cast on the stones was just reflection of the early morning sun.

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plate detail

 

 

 

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Snow Queen