More Mermaid Tails

Here are some more in-progress pictures of the mermaid tails and accessoires: The pink mermaid materials Instead of seashells, the pink mermaid will wear starfishes on her bra :-) I made them of hotglue (let dry on a rounded surface), painted them with nail polish and sprinkled them with some glitter. If anybody's interested in further information how I made it, just let me know ;-) The orange mermaid materials I forgot to take a picture of the hotglue coral I made for the bra, but I'll try to remember next time ;-) As hairpiece, the orange mermaid will be wearing a coral fascinator made of a real coral that we spray painted orange, an Alice band, some wire and hot glue. This is what it looks right now (still need to spray paint the rest): The yellow mermaid materials (we already had everything, so I'll add it for completeness) I already painted the shells As I'm a bit in a hurry right now, I'll post more pictures in the next days! Spoiler: more mermaid stuff to come ;-)

Update on Cast!

In the last few weeks some things concerning the cast for the four shows changed - at least it did so for the girls. Sadly, one girl (first cast Jane from Tarzan) quit the ensemble what left me (alternate for Jane) with two shows to play Jane Porter. Second, but this time very happy news: our alternate Belle cast who also is a mermaid dancer, is going to have a baby in march next year, I'm so happy for her and her husband :-D But that means, she will definitely not dance as a mermaid on stage and probably won't be able to play Belle either. So one mermaid costume off and some more time to perfectionate my Belle performance and to work on my Jane costume - I'm not sompletely sure what it will look like yet.

Sewing day #1

First Sewing day :-) The materials for the blue mermaid:

cotton fabric with scallop print, royal blue organza, light turquoise organza, blue lining, sea shell bra, faux pearls in different shades of blue, lots of 6mm sequins: lilac, green-turquoise (probably won't use them, they are a bit too greenish), dark purple, dark blue, iridescent lavender, light blue, iridescent baby blue, dark blue holographic, blue-turquoise and sheer iridescent. Plus: lots of blue nailpolish to paint the shell bra.
For the mermaid tail, I laid the royal blue organza over the cotton fabric. It makes the scallops look more blue-ish and creates a shimmery effect.
Here are some in progress photos. I'm bad at taking pictures and with a flash it's even worse, I know. Sorry for that.

I pinned the pattern on cotton + organza, cut through both layers...

...and serged layers together. I did that twice (the other piece on left side of fabrics) and stitched the pieces together at center seam. Also cut the lining but there are no pictures of that step. Then I cut a strip of royal blue organza, serged all edges and pinned it in pleats on one side of the tail. This is where the "skirt" will open and I think it looks nicer, with a ruffle hiding a bit of the mermaid's actual legs ;-)


Here the difference between the cotton (right) and cotton with a layer of organza (left) shows clearly!


Then I cut a narrower strip of the light-turquoise organza, pinned it in smaller pleats on top of the left side of the blue ruffle and stitched trough all layers. Hopefully this will add some depth and contrast to the first ruffle without showing too much. I'm going to do the same to the other opening side but I will finish this tomorrow as I just realized I pinned the ruffles to the wrong side of fabric *facepalm* :-D

Update!

The final casting process is finished and the rehearsals went well so far. I'm even learning a small waltz choreography for the title song of Beauty and the Beast and a mermaid choreography for Under the Sea . I have to admit that I'm much more of a singer than a dancer but as I'm very dedicated and practice a lot, I hope that the result will be fine :-) There are about 2 months left and it's time to start with the costumes!!! On my to-do list I have 5 mermaid costumes (for the two of us playing Ariel and alternating as mersisters and three other girls playing mersisters) , 1 ballgown for Belle and several other stuff that has to be finished for the shows. As there are five mermaid tails that I need to finish before the deadline in about three weeks, I decided to abandon the idea of the Broadway replica and to try with something easier and less time consuming. We decided on a simpler design and found a pattern to go with.

It's Simplicity 4043 mermaid Costume. We will only be doing the mermaidtail and combine it with seashell, starfish or coral bra. We already got all the fabrics and notions and I will start sewing today!

Some costume pictures - in depth-analysis coming soon!

The Little Mermaid on Broadway - Ariel's fin costume by Tatiana Noginova!

Beyond my wildest dreams!

Incredible but true - I'm still somewhat amazed how well the audition went! I admit that my Belle was not what she was supposed to be (I mixed up a line and the last note sounded a bit too weak for my taste) but I'm still pretty satisfied how Part of your World finally turned out. And obviously the jury was rather pleased too :-) I'm very proud they give me the chance to embody Ariel AND Belle, each in two of four shows!!! Supposed I'm not having too many blonde days during rehearsals ^^


 This somehow removed the scales from my eyes (I should start to use underwater idioms more often from now on...):
My current body condition is okay but far from a mermaid shape, keeping in mind that Ariel shows a lot of skin onstage. So I decided to go back to my daily share of crunches, abs, sit-ups, whatever. I know that this won't be enough if I don't try to eat more healthy food. About 5 months to go!!

My very first blog entry - a mermaid's beginning!

Hurray for the very first entry to my Dingelhopper-Blog :-D Here I will keep track of my costume projects, and other stuff that I love to share!

The reason why I initially started this blog is that my musical ensemble decided that some songs from the Disney's The Little Mermaid as well as from Beauty and the Beast will be part of our next gala performance in november! 
I've been totally in love with both movies and also the musicals since I was a little girl and as a musical soprano, of course I subscribed to audition for the parts of the little mermaid Ariel and beautiful Belle. I will try to write in English (biiiig challenge with all the sewing terms I hardly know in German...) - let's see how long I will keep it up without switching to French (even worse for sewing terms) or German (mother tongue but that doesn't mean much when writing about sewing)!