Herod's Apron Dress

20:06

With the Cwm Cynon - The Christmas story production in full swing, the majority of my work is complete now, I'm just on hand to pop snaps together, rearrange scarves and snip off stray threads! It's time to tell you about Herod's costume. Wow, our Herod is fantastic, the gentleman playing him is such a great actor! But firstly to his outfit.

When I got involved with the costumes in September I contacted Minerva crafts to ask if they'd be willing to help with the fabric requirements. They very kindly agreed, so most of Herod's outfit is supplied by the ever efficient Minerva crafts.

I asked for a length of this beautiful antique gold plain taffeta (now in the clearance section!) for Herod's main apron dress. When it arrived I was so pleased with it, it was very authentic looking and had a lovely soft feel to it. The sheen catches the lights on the stage really well but it's lightweight, which is ideal in the heat of performing.


We cut out a basic wide dress sort of shape from the taffeta, and another from some lightweight curtain lining.

From the same lining fabric we created some straps, and sandwiched them between the taffeta & lining, right sides together. We later snipped the neck straps in half and hemmed them so that the dress is put on with diagonal straps at the back. It holds it nice and tight to his body making a well fitted garment for most sizes!

We stitched them down the sides and around the arm & neck holes. However, you shouldn't if you're making this! We should have stitched on the embellishment first, THEN stitched it together! You can learn from my hastiness!


Here's the dress turned right sides out with the neck and arm holes notched and corners clipped. This is when we turned our hand to embellishment.


We also had some gorgeous purple poly velvet from Minerva Crafts and so we cut some strips from that, interfaced them and stitched them along the bottom. As the velvet doesn't fray, we didn't need to turn it under, we just stitched it on as it was.

I learned a new appreciation for hand sewing on the settee, something entertaining on the telly!
We then stitched on a row of antique gold gimp braid on top of each purple strip. Simple, but very effective on stage!

So that's Herod's main under dress! There's a fancy belt over the top, then his cloak, shoulder cape, collar, cuffs & hat! I'm tired just remembering all the work that went into Herod's costume!

Many thanks to Minerva Crafts for sponsoring Herod, I've never received anything but exceptional customer service from them and their prices are very competitive!



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2 comments

  1. Looks fabulous! Great idea with the velvet in cutting it into stips for making a trimming. Thanks for doing such a lovely post on our fabrics :) (Vicki from Minerva!)

    ReplyDelete

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