Sparkle Plenty

 I was super busy last Halloween with a big project. I was commissioned  to make a Prince costume and then also a fun feather and sequined dress inspired by Cruella Deville for  the client's wife. 

It started with my making a mock up of the garment from her measurements on a plain muslin fabric, sending the mock up to the designer and the client to try on, making revisions to the pattern, and then constructing the costume. I use the mock up and revisions as the pattern. This part of the process is usually fun for the client as we draw on the fabric while they are wearing it. This must feel really odd and kind of funny at the same time! We made Prince first because his costume was more work. ( It was tailored and very form fitting ) While Cruella was a lot of work also, (lots of handwork with feather application to the sleeves ) hers was built so that the skirt and bodice was somewhat adjustable. The whole garment was lined and she had a drawstring in the bodice neckline for ease if necessary. The skirt crossed over at the side front so that some leg could peek out without looking too hoochie-mama.

We made the train so that she could hold it up while she danced. It was for a three day Halloween bash - and we knew that there was danger of being stepped on.

The fabric was just gorgeous!

I never saw a picture of this on her, but I was assured that she loved it! Pardon the bad photos and messy studio! Feathers were flying!

Happy May Day, dear World!

 Its the first day of May and Im very busy with completing a wedding dress and putting in my garden! 
Clara just needs to try her dress on one last time, and then she can take it home. We got it done very quickly - which is somewhat unusual in my line of work. She got Christina Molcillo (my super amazingly brilliant partner is wedding dress making crime) and I at just the right time!  Story and pictures will be coming once the bride gets married. We dont want to spoil the surprise, do we!

It is spring and we are all hoping for a lovely summer and some positive changes in the years ahead!

I really don't know what exactly is ahead for summer. I have some tentative projects lined up, work on the Bessie line, a logo and new website that is being worked on ( Im itching to get this up!!!), revision and updating of my little sewing pattern line, friends going away and old friends moving back..........the constant ebb and flow...........and never knowing what each day will bring!

Happy May Day! May you bloom and prosper!
X

ATS HOMECOMING 2015 !!!!

The brainchild of Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman, ATS Homecoming is a new three day convention for ATS (American Tribal Style) Belly Dancers and lovers of this dance style. This first of its kind event will be held at the San Francisco Marriott from Thursday January 8th - 11th. I will be vending along with many other amazing designers and artisans. I hope to see some or all of you there!

I am also organizing a little Vendor Fashion Show on Friday evening, January 9th so that we can each show you a sample of our clothing/adornments on a live body - and some ways you can coordinate your wardrobe with our fashionable offerings! Its going to be fun! If you plan on attending and would like to be a model - you can email me at kc.costumecouture@gmail.com.

The Bessie Line of clothing will be at the FatChanceBellyDance booth. I will be vending my KathleenCrowleyCouture wares with Salome's Suitcase for your shopping pleasure!!!

You can go HERE for more information and directions on how to get to the venue!!!

SPRING SALE!!!

Hi Everyone! Im having a little Spring Sale in my Etsy Shop! You can have 15% off of anything listed in the store until Wednesday the 11th!

Let me know if you dont see your size! I might POSSIBLY have something in stock that isnt listed. Esp. the Sampants - sometimes I forget to relist when one sells!

Just use this discount coupon code at checkout:  15PERCENTOFFYAY

My Bloody Valentine

I started refurbishing some cholis that were not moving. I had a red dye pot and this is what happened. And thats how I like things to happen...........spur of the moment..........just like falling in love............it just happens............maybe Im watching too many Jane Austen movies........................

You can get the love here

Altering A Beaded Wedding Bodice

This bride needed some gapping closed up in the front of her gown. It was sized as a 14, which she is not - and I cant help but believe that the wedding dress industry does this on purpose in order to procure more money through expensive alterations. And I could even maybe justify their reasoning in this market if they would do quality alterations, but I rarely see that as the case. Many of these places will just chop off your dress and give it a cheap looking  hem. It always looks awful and they get away with it. I have a hard time believing that someone would think these hems look good, but maybe the brides just don't know better.

I do everything by hand or as nicely done with a machine as possible. I want it to hang right and that usually means giving it an ample hem.

But I digress. This bride needed her bodice taken in and I was able to do it by taking it in at the back zipper, adding satin cookies inside at the bra line, and taking in the front gap by folding over the fabric. I then carefully hand stitched the fold down, and strategically tacked down the beading so that it wasnt an obvious fix.

All in a day's work! :)

Embellishing

                             Sometimes there isn't anything more fun than watching a good movie and sewing buttons on pretty things.

Check out my Etsy store and see what lovely things I have listed for your perusal!

Tribal Fest 2013 - Halfway To Halloween

 "Halfway To Halloween" was this this year's Tribal Fest theme which wasn't difficult to dress for  as I kind of live in that state of mind anyway! So I just wore a lot of black - my new long black skirt design, to be exact. And I didnt have to think about it anymore. We'll discuss that new skirt later on. (What a lifesaver it has been!)

But here are some photos to recap the event and to give you the feel of what its like to be there at my booth - once again shared with Medina Maitreya! It was a great success for us both this year. I felt more love and support than ever and I'm so glad I was able to hang in there while we all suffered through this economic crunch over the last few years! Could it be easing  up? It sure feels that way!

 I'm not being allowed to edit like I want to right now - not sure if its Blogger or my computer - but if you want to be credited for photos, let me know and I'll go back in soon and see whats going wrong!!
Just wanted to share my fun week! Its always crazy and always the chill out spot - as you can see!

Deidre Anaid

 Deidre Anaid makes the best Evil Queen ever.
Ever.
A very stunning and confident woman,  she always has a vision and knows what she wants when she comes to me with her ideas. We always come up with something dramatic that she can work with in her performance. On top of being a very innovative dancer, the lady's got the visuals DOWN!

Its a bit difficult to see, but there are two skirts for this costume. A Rattie Tattie Style skirt of paint spattered lace goes under a tear away overskirt. I had fun with this one - I got to do some fabric painting and fabric distressing after the fitted garment was done.

Head piece by Snake Church
Photography: Dark Soul Photography

2010 Tribal Fest After Party

Brad Dosland takes such beautiful photos!!! Just snagged a couple that were recently posted on his
Taboo Media Facebook page.. Brad does most of this on his own dime for his community, so we wait for the documentation when we have to - and gladly! This was the 2010 Tribal Fest After Party. My model, Steven was wearing the white wedding attire. Medina Maitreya made the fascinator and collar.

Model: Steven Eggers
Designers: Right to Left: Rachel Thomas, Medina Maitreya, Kathleen Crowley, Lee Kobus, Katherine Summer

Hail Stevie!

Sonja Drakulich of Stellamara brought this little corsetie bodice to me to have cut down to fit her frame. It also needed some repair.

It is a 70's relic - the lace is delicate. The velvet has that oldie worldie panache that only time can create. And I'm sure that Stevie Nicks would have worn something like it . Hail Stevie!

Chix6 : A Very, Very Adorable Musical

I was commissioned to make a little corset a few weeks back. It was to be worn by Molly Tynes in Chix6 - a new musical about some super heroines - totally cute and I really wish I could see it! The costumes are great, of course, because they were designed by Chris March.

This is what it looked like in my studio:

She wanted some of the cute fluff taken off and we had to be really careful not to have anything that could catch on her silks. She is also super bendy, so I could only put some spiral boning on the side. But I would say that it looks super cute on stage and everyone is happy with it! Making a specialty corset for performing will often require some changes to the usual way of making things. The trick was to make it look corseted without the boning. Not too difficult and I kind of cheated by playing with the side seams in order to make "bendy boning".

Ive only seen this video and a couple ones on youtube, but I like the idea and I hope its a super success! Go see this if you can!

The Coat That Ate My Weekend

OMG - when it rains, it pours! Not only did I get to make a corset last month for the new Chix 6 show opening soon in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but I got to make a coat a couple weekends ago for Lady Gaga, of all people. Like I said: when it rains, it pours. I was so super excited - I cant even tell you how excited I was - and I couldnt really talk about it until she actually wore it. Because you know how showbiz is. They could have not liked it and axed the whole thing. Happens all the time. Then after I made it, I started a new part time job, where I have to be - you know - humble, so I couldn't really keep jumping up and down in glee any longer. But I'm still pretty happy about it.

What happened was that not 5 minutes after interviewing for a job (that I started that next Tuesday) and while about to head out to the fabric stores for my usual perusals, Chris March got ahold of me and informed me that Lady Gaga's people had just asked him to make her an outfit for her gig at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.. Well, he is in the middle of costuming Chix 6 and getting ready for the premiere of his new tv show airing October 4th, so he only really had time to design a coat and hat and make parts of the coat. He couldn't construct the whole thing in that short of a time frame. He had remembered a coat that I had made years ago and asked if I would be into reproducing something like that. Well, FUCK YEAH. (pardon my french for you polite people).

They said they wanted Pleather. I think that is kind of a broad term for anything leatherie looking. They wanted it to be lightweight. But Chris and I both agreed that anything vinyl would probably be heavy and uncomfortable. And I think it would stink. Literally. Some of those upholstery vinyls could work, but they have that awful odor. And I didnt even know if there really was  a such thing as "pleather" anymore. But I said that I would go to Fabric Outlet and have a look. What I found was a black doe suede that had a great wrong side that I thought would be perfect.  I sent him photos, he ok'd it and I just happened to have cash in my pocket. How fortuitous was that. And I bought a lightweight lining that I didn't really like, but I didn't want the coat to be too heavy and there wasn't much to choose from. It really just had to look good for a flash when she dropped her coat.

Chris sent them a photo of my coat, I drew a sketch of what it might look like so that they would all know that I wasnt sitting here smoking crack, and he sent them that, and in three days I gave them the coat I got hired to make - made with plenty of fabric to play with if they needed to make changes - and knowing full well that they were going to embellish, alter, and maybe redo parts, which they did. I did a good job with the fit. I dont think they had any problems with that.

So for almost three days I holed up in my studio and worked on this thing. After I finished the corset for Chix 6, I copied my old coat and made a new pattern according to her measurements. Some of them didn't make sense, so I had to figure that out. They may have been taken for a specific outfit. Who knows. We made several changes. It was looking too Regency, so I slashed the shoulders, built them up, and gave her more of a normal sleeve so that we could have big shoulders to support the armor that Chris sent me to add on. The collar needed to be redesigned and so I made a new one according to Chris's specs. I didn't have time to add any studs as it had to be sent out by Monday.  There were a couple things that took up some time in the construction - but its all a blur now.  Oh. The ballast went out in the lights above my work table and I was working on black in very dim light, but that's how things work around here - you never know whats going to happen, but I always manage to get things done somehow.

Her team shortened the coat and they may have changed the back a bit - its hard to tell in the photos, but they actually managed to make it look more like the sketch - Good team work!

And thank you to Lee Kobus of Fool Proof Studios for racing me over to Fed Ex at the very last minute to put this baby on the truck to Ms. Gaga!

 She came out on a giant motorcycle covered up by a giant fringie hat, danced around a bit, threw it off and that was that for my part of the show. What a blast! Of course, like with every single project I do, I swear I'll never do it again, but all mothers say that after they give birth, dont they? Yet sometimes we do it again. I do it over and over and over again. This was the biggest deal that Ive had the opportunity to participate in. I hope with all my heart that she has Chris make more things for her because if anyone can carry out her over the top fabulousness, its Chris March.

May the fun never end!

Watch MAD FASHION this Tuesday night - October 4th!

Vestuses for the Bestuses

 I keep telling people to go to my blog, and Ive just realized that I don't have many photos of my work up - a lot of inspiration, but silly me - where's my work?
I like my pictures big and taking up all my space on this blog, so they sometimes get cut off - click on a photo if you want to get the whole view!

I had been trying to make a simple vest for quite some time, but that thought materialized into these cute little shortie underbust vests that I sold at the Salome's Suitcase trunk show during Tribal Fest. Ive sold out of most of them, but I still have about 5 left in a variety of sizes in my Etsy store. Once Ive got my current orders under control, I'll make a few more of these out of different materials. I took my button and applique stash to embellish them randomly in different patterns which was a lot of fun for me since I love watching tv and doing hand sewing! So any excuse to do that makes me a happy camper.

They button in the front and fit rather tightly. They are meant to be form fitting and not a loose fit at all. Ive worn mine with Capri's, skirts, dresses - I really, like them. I think they are flattering on just about everyone who likes this sort of style. The buttons can be moved over if you need a tighter fit, but they are not really built to be made larger. Its best to buy a size up and move the buttons over if you are questioning your fit. But you can email and ask me to measure the vest again.

 These are bound with a self bias and fully lined. This fabric is a microfiber fabric that I found somewhere - there is no real fabric content info available. There is a sheen to the fabric, but its not shiny. Great for day or evening!

And last but not least, this vest would be awesome for Burning Man!

Here is Daniela Adriaenssens wearing her Vest at Tribal Fest. - and isn't she adorable!
kc.costumeccouture@gmail.com