failures

#1 – sewed fringe on the bottom of a bra only to realize it was very unflattering.

undid the fringe

#2 – sewed the fringe on top.  looked awesome. lined the top with sequins.  looked even more awesome.  Starting sewing sequins hearts on the middle of the bra only to realize the lining contained an oil/gel push up pack that was punctured and leaked all over the bra and myself.

undid the fringe. undid the sequins.

time to start all over again……

time for a sewing party!

On Saturday Cheeky Lane and I headed to China town to find me fans.  Yesterday I shopped the garment district for fabric, bases and trim.  Here is what these trips resulted in:

purchases from the garment distract and china town

Almost all of these items has some plan behind the purchase.  Now whether or not these intended plans will actually happen is a different story.

The fans are for the non-feather fans I need to make for next week’s Burlesque essentials class.  I’m not sure what fabric would work for it, but I bought a few just in case.

That big pile of brown fake fur will be going towards a specific costume idea. Still to be determined if it will have any kind of trim or not.  Also, I need to sew a corset (no boning) which will be quite a challenge.

oh my, stars are a pain to sew on!

Because of these momentous purchases and tasks, I’ve decided on Saturday I will actually pull out my sewing machine and get to work on starting to put together costumes.  Now, it may seem like a lot of work, but it can’t be too much compared to the pain in the butt my star bra was.  You may remember me talking about this bra from a previous entry.  Well, I have finished the stars, which were quite a task that I worked on while on the train, at home and on breaks during my job.  Not sure if I will add any fringe to it or not.  I guess we will see what the weekend has in store!

sewing stars on a bra

Today I took off from work so I could table for Farm Sanctuary at an Earth Day event. In addition to the tabling for Earth Day, I participated in Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.  Oh yeah, and I sewed some stars on a bra.

So let me explain that last one some more.

Now that I realize I am making some good progress towards becoming an actual performer, I realized it might be time to start working on costumes.  Since I don’t have a complete act planned, or my sewing machine set up, I thought this might be a good time to take the basics I have and start to jazz them up.  Taking some quilting string and needles I had, along with some star sequins, I began the wonderfully tedious task of sewing these shiny stars onto a plain black bra I had.  I only got on eight (four per side) before it was time for class, but it is already starting to look sharp.  I’ll take some pictures when there is a bit more done, hopefully by this weekend.

Did you catch that part where I said “before it was time for class?”  That’s right, with my day off, I had the time to stop in at the New York School of Burlesque for another class.  This one was titled “Flirting With Burlesque” and covered simple burlesque dance moves.  The class was taught by Jo Weldon (stage name Jo Boobs), who is actually the founder and headmistress of the school and pictured in the photo below.

Jo is a wonderful lady who has helped train so many people so I was glad to finally get to meet her and have a class with her.  If you would like to learn more about her, she runs a blog called Daily Burlesque where she answers all kinds of questions about burlesque, the scene, and herself.

It was pretty busy day in all, and since tomorrow will be a big day chock full of burlesque I should start getting ready for  bed and lay out my dress, heels, and flower clip for tomorrow night!