Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen: The Dwarves

Individual photos by Ashley Foster.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to writing we go...

In the pantomime of Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen, there are only six dwarves, but another is mentioned; Bashful whom we never see, making up the complete seven.
Jolly (the main dwarf in the panto) was the only character to have a description of their costume in the script, along with colours "A man dressed in half-mast orange trousers and a tight yellow shirt". From this I selected the colours of the other dwarves outfits, by drawing and painting out a colour wheel, and tried to use similar pairings as mentioned for Jolly in the script.

Designs by Katie Pollitt

Jolly: Orange, Yellow

Grouchy: Red/Purple

Drowsy: Purple/ Light Blue

Creative: Green/ Orange

Sneezy: Yellow/ Green

Keith: Light Blue/ Red

Designs by Katie Pollitt

Now Sneezy was originally in the script but was taken out and made into an almost ulterior personality of Keith: a regular everyday dwarf. However we then had two new children join the group, so Sneezy made a comeback, as well as a new character who would be Prince Charming's Mother.

However because of this colour scheme and having no budget, I would have to make compromises on the colours of some of the clothing seeing as they would be from the children's wardrobes; the group doesn't have many or really any modern clothes that would fit the children, and seeing as the clothes were meant to look tight on the children if anything because of being dwarves turned into normal sized people, coming from the children's wardrobes would be better. But not everyone would be as adventurous with their wardrobes as the dwarves in this play are. Luckily enough the children had close enough coloured items of clothing either for themselves or for others, however as you can see from the photo of the costumes at the top, a few compromises had to be made.

Hats:

In the Disney version of the tale all the dwarves wore hats, so I wanted to keep that differentiation from the other characters, especially because in this version the dwarves have had a curse put on them where they have been turned into fully grown people. So the director had the idea of using baseball caps instead to seem more modern. However I had seen more pull on beanie hats than baseball caps recently and they were more likely to be cheaper, so we went for them. Each dwarf would have its own colour, depending on the colour scheme of the rest of their outfit, but mainly matching the colour of their lower half.

Positioning of hats:

Now I know that sounds pedantic, but if the children weren't so enthusiastic to make their costumes their own, this is what I would have done. By the way I'm all for actors/actresses making their costumes their own, because then you can see their enthusiasm for playing the character and getting into their role; this is why I also discuss costumes with them, to see if they have some ideas themselves.

Personally I don't know how you would wear a hat to appear Jolly, so it would just be worn normally.

Grouchy would wear his hat with the rim turn up, but just peeking out of the hood he would have up, you know as if to hide away from the world...

Drowsy's hat would be worn like a night cap, so the rim wouldn't be folded up, and then the tip of the beanie would be folded over to one side, for instance the left. The eye mask would then be worn over the top, on a slant.

I quite liked the actress's (who played Creative) idea on how to wear the beanie hat, pulling it down to make her ears stick out, and later deciding to wear it inside out so the label showed. However this is when continuity of costume needs to be explained, unless it needs to be altered for a reason.

Sneezy needed to pull her hat to cover her ears, because being sneezy would determine them feeling unwell so would want to feel warm, comfortable and all snug. This is also the reason I designed Sneezy to be wearing a jumper and joggers/comfortable clothing.

Keith would wear the hat as you normally would with the bottom turned up.

 

Drowsy's eye mask:

It seemed entirely necessary for Drowsy to have a sleeping mask, whether it stayed on her head the entire time and not used as an actual mask or used now and then. The actress however did use it the majority of the time. 

Now I knew we had a little pouch of about 3 eye masks that we've had for maybe 10 years or more, that no one ever used; and I thought, ah great, we have some that I'll just need to paint the eyes onto. But could we find them, no.  So I started making one, using my dad's eye mask as a template; literally just tracing round the shape onto a piece of pattern paper and then adding a seam allowance of 1.5cm, that could be trimmed down once sewn.

Once the interfacing has been tacked to the wrong side of both pieces, they can be sewn together. Don't forget to include the piece of elastic to, make sure the piece is in between the two layers and just sticking out a bit either side.

So that the edge of the mask wouldn't be really bulky I made the interfacing only go up to the seam allowance (when making only cut to the original template without the added seam allowance), so that it was just caught. Once sewn I snipped around the edge making it easier and flatter when turning it through to the right side. I then top stitched to keep the shape and seam in the right place, pressing with an iron first to put it in the right place.

I then drew an eye on a scrap piece of paper in pencil first just to practice what I wanted it to look like, then made a copy and tested painting it. When I was happy with the eye, I took to the eye mask I'd just made...very timidly... and lightly with a pencil.

And voilà; the completed eye mask.

...and guess what happened to turn up the next day in a very strange place; the pouch of eye masks...yeah.

Photos by Ashley Foster

Other than Drowsy's mask I didn't have to do that much alteration/making wise for the dwarves, apart from flicking paint at Creative's t shirt. The t shirt was one I had altered from an adult polo shirt they had in stock, for their last production, which I will eventually do a post or few about; so it was fine to chuck paint at, of course I wouldn't have done that to the children's own clothes without have permission from their parents first.

Links:

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the character portrait photos, if you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the junior production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers

That's all for now, talk to you soon.

~ K

Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen

Photo by Ashley Foster

So last Sunday afternoon the juniors put on their last performance of the year before breaking up for the summer. It was decided they would perform a mini panto 'Snow White and the Curse of the Ice Queen' by Peter Nuttall (adapted by one of the adult members).

What I tend to do when we start a play, is I will go through the script highlighting the first appearances of characters; any descriptions of the characters appearances; differences in time i.e. next day, event, flashback etc; and make notes of anywhere with quick costume changes needed. Doing this also helps me get a feel for what the personalities/attitudes of the characters are like. This process is called Script Analysis, and is very important in order to get a feel and understanding for what is expected of the appearances of the characters.

I then write out the list of characters, one to a page and write down their appearances, any quoted descriptions, and number of costumes needed according to the script; this will be written down in pen, as these are definitive. I will then go through and jot down in pencil anything I personally take from the script to discuss with the director/writer.

The director decided the costumes should be modern because of the use of a mobile phone by the Magic Mirror (yes, a mirror, although it is magic so...) and Snow white.

I got to work sketching ideas down on scraps of paper whenever an idea came about. Later on I would then draw these up neater, to show and discuss with the director.

However before adding colour to my designs, I always make photocopies of the original, which is then put away, and I mess around with colour on the photocopies. This year I have started using watercolour pencils as a way of rendering my designs. I used to use colouring pencils, but handily I came across a paint brush that had a screw on compartment for water allowing for a steady flow whilst adding a wash to the watercolours, which can also be very handy for travelling. I would definitely recommend getting one (I think they're just called Water colour brushes or water colour brushes with water tank/compartment, if you are interested).

Now because most of the costumes we have in stock aren't that modern and we have no budget, I had to ask the junior actors themselves if they had specific items of clothing that would fit in with their characters. Obviously I had to make compromises on the costumes, which is incredibly difficult when you want them to look as close as they can to the design, but I still tried my best with what we could work with.

Photo by Ashley Foster

Design by Katie Pollitt

For Snow White I wanted to keep the colours we are all so used to seeing on  Disney's Snow White; a long dress with dark blue bodice with puffed light blue slashed sleeves, revealing red beneath; stand up white collar; long yellow skirt; red bow in her hair and yellow kitten heels. In order to modernise this I began to mess with the idea of doing a blue t-shirt and yellow skinny jeans, or yellow skater skirt or long blue top and yellow leggings, but then realised she had to be girly and the complete opposite to her sister Rose Red, a boyish selfish character.

So I designed the outfit to be a blue blouse with puffed sleeves and a white peter pan collar, a yellow skater skirt and red ballet pumps.

Photo by Ashley Foster

Design by Katie Pollitt

Rose Red as I just mentioned needed to be the opposite of Snow White in personality so why not in costume as well. A fan of one direction as she quotes in the script I thought it would be funny if she were to wear a One Direction T-shirt, luckily because of the age range, one of the girls happened to have one we could borrow. I then designed her to wear a red blouse with silver spikes on the collar (an item of clothing I was familiar with as my sister owned one) and knew it would fit the character's personality well. Pairing this with black skinny trousers,  red converses, and a black rose tattoo that would be painted on her arm, using a stencil to save time.

For the two mothers in the play I wanted them to wear something that made them appear older and not 'down with the kids'

Now I originally wanted Old Mother Black  to wear a wrap around apron, head scarf and hair curlers beneath, to look like a housewife from a few decades ago. However, with less than 5 days till the show, there was a last minute actor change -from a small girl to a grown man!;  so a manic search for any costume that would even slightly fit the role and the actor had to take place. We eventually found quite a hideous outfit, but most importantly an apron and feather duster. Oh and of course a black wig,  bra and some falsies, to look...authentic...

The members of the family were named after colours: Snow White, for having skin as white as milk, Rose Red for having lips as red as ketchup, however they never mentioned in the script why Old Mother Black was named so. But because Snow White and Rose Red both had black hair, it only seems right that their mother would also have black hair...and a black skirt.

Photo by Ashley Foster

The Royals:

The director wanted 'Prince Charming's Mother' to be a character similar to Mrs Bouquet from 'Keeping Up Appearances', so I designed her to be dressed similarly and luckily I had a dress perfect for the part, one of my Gran's dresses from some time ago, and it fitted the actress well. However I could tell when the she  tried on the dress that she wasn't particularly happy in it because she thought she would look silly in it, but we had to explain that she didn't and that it would be perfect for the character and their personality, knowing this she embraced it and did a great job.

Designs by Katie Pollitt

Prod the Goblin who turns out to be *SPOILER ALERT* Prince Tedious, Prince Charming's brother;  used to be a grown man who was turned into a goblin by one of the Ice Queen's curses, so I wanted his clothes to look big and baggy but also have regal colours, i.e.  the red of the shirt that I also used for Prince Charming's Wedding shirt.

In the script Prod must have three disguises in which he uses to try to sneak the poisoned apple into the fruit bowl within the Dwarves' cottage, without them becoming suspicious. Sadly the three disguises from the script couldn't be used because the actress wasn't able to do the French and Scottish accents. So we used basic disguises of different hats, sunglasses and a stick on beard.

From prompts of the script, I would have the first disguise as Prod's usual outfit but with a beard. The second disguise: the beard would be removed, a beret and thin moustache would be worn instead, the belt removed and the shirt worn open revealing a black and white striped t shirt. The third and last disguise: red shirt removed completely, beret switched for a Tam O'shanter and fake beard, worn on top of the moustache due to the quick costume change, and if possible I would have had a kilt be pulled down from underneath the striped t shirt (the bagginess wouldn't matter too much because of wearing the big red shirt); but I know that would have had to have been practiced to see if it was possible, at all first, and then within the amount of time to do the change.

In the next couple of posts I will go through some individual characters; talking about the making/altering of their costumes and the thoughts behind them, including: the Dwarves, the Ice Queen, the Magic Mirror and the Prince (Prince's Wedding Shirt).

Thank you to Ashley Foster for the character portrait photos. If you want to have a look at his other work or more photos from the junior production please visit his website at http://ashleyfosterphotography.co.uk/  

If you are interested in the drama group itself that I do the costumes for please check out their website at http://www.thegrangeplayers.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegrangeplayers

Talk to you soon,

~ K

Introductions

Hey...so how to start a blog..or should I say 'sew how to start a blog'? No, no I shouldn't; we won't have any sewing puns here, but to be honest I do like the occasional one, but don't tell anyone...

This feels like I'm starting an essay at school again. As if this is a big deal or something but I'm not expecting anyone to read it.

I wanted to start this blog to push myself to make more costumes, costume accessories, try out patterns, experiment etc, but also to give myself somewhere to write about the method and the things I have made or experienced with costume. And if by some chance someone does come along and find this blog:  Hello :) I hope you find this blog useful; makes you smile; makes you think 'ooh that looks interesting,  I'll have a go at making that,' or even if it just makes you want to write your own blog on costumes because you think you can do a better job than me (which to be fair you probably can), I just hope you take something positive away from it. It acts a pit stop on your journey, as it will for me, whether this works or not. We shall have to wait and see.

What I would like to do is let you in on the costume production side of the performances I do costumes for, this is your backstage pass in a way. It might help me work out problems/challenges I'm having by writing it out, but it also allows me to document my work in another way, and gives other people the opportunity to get an idea of what the process is like.  Though the group I am a member of is an amateur drama group  or technically a "Theatrical Society" and I have no actual costume qualifications, however I do have a GCSE and an A-Level in Textiles but am looking to get an apprenticeship in Costume and Wardrobe, to get into the industry. So I may not be doing things the right way but I sure am doing my best to do as well as I can, as I learn more/ different  ways to carry out the processes. If you have any useful pointers, or tips please let me know; I endeavour to improve my knowledge and understanding any way I can.

Now before I start any actual blog posts I should also mention that my drama group has no budget and so I have to produce the costumes for performances from the stock they own or from the actors/actresses themselves. However if needed they will allow me to make and alter the occasional costume as long as I "don't spend billions of pounds". If I do want/need to make/alter/buy materials, I ask permission first and make sure to get them the best deal for the materials and components needed to make the costume by comparing prices over numerous sources, without going too far to end up with bad quality materials. Or if I have the materials at home and we are likely to have lots of it or it wasn't expensive I will use it for the groups costumes for free, for example using cardboard, tissue paper, paints etc for masks and headdresses.

But I would personally say the material you use to make a garment can make a huge difference to aesthetics, which I can say probably let me down with one of my GCSE pieces, although I still got an 'A' I just wasn't as pleased with it as I would have liked to have been and I would say that was probably because of the choice of material as I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something for school and not something I would even wear myself.

Okay that's my little introduction to the blog, for the first couple of posts I'll tell you about my most recent production costumes.

Bye for now, and hopefully talk to you soon.

~ K