Making some progress ...

After some frustration and a slow start, I'm now making good progress on Kelly's tutu.

To create the Black Swan, my original design was to cover the entire bodice with black feathers and then trim with gold lace. I found black feather hackles on line that had a beautiful shine and iridescence to the feathers ... perfect!  And I thought covering the bodice and the top of the tutu skirt would resemble the long graceful neck of a swan ... perfect! But as I began to tack the feather hackles to the bodice, I realized I could not manipulate them enough to lie flat and contour to the lines of the bodice. When Kelly tried it on she said she felt like a "big, furry animal"!     hmmmm ... not so perfect!

My biggest concern was that as beautiful as the feathers were, they were visually competing with the gold lace trim. One or the other had to go! So off went the feathers and I covered the bodice in black velvet which should look beautiful on stage ... getting back to perfect!

Kelly wanted the lace trim to be embellished with enough rhinestones so that it resembled an antique jewelery brooch. To create that look, we used a variety of  large and small crystal and gold stones ... lots of them ... over 500!

Not exactly understated! But I always have to remind myself that everything must be bigger for the stage. Costumes need to be seen not only from the front rows but from the very last rows as well.

Here's the progress ...

Kelly loves it ... perfect!

Now on to the tutu skirt! Still working out how to incorporate the feathers on the skirt. We'll see what I come up with!

I've been trying to put a little cross stitching time in also ...  at least enough to keep up with my "Ann Dale" homework. I have about 1/3 of this month's homework completed. Hopefully there will be an update to share with my next post! 

Hope you are enjoying your stitching!

Until next time ...