It’s January…I should be sewing costumes!

It’s funny how we fall into routines throughout the year.  Here I am at mid January and my mind and fingers are whispering, “Shouldn’t you be sewing?”

January is the slow season for a lot of people.  they are getting into the groove of the new year – trying to put the correct year on their correspondence and maintain the resolutions they dreamed up on December 31st.  For me, it is the month that I start working on costumes.  The costumes may be for Renaissance faire or for the high school spring musical.  Usually, it’s both.

This year’s no different.

I attended my guild’s first meeting of the year about a week ago.  That is always the trigger for the sewing that I do for Renaissance faire.  This time it was the discussion of how to help some new members get costumes appropriate for participating in our Scottish setting vs. an English setting.  And it was also following up with a guild friend who needs help making a new costume.  My mind immediately starts assessing what fabric lies in stash.  “Where did I put that steel blue cotton?”,  “Can I make a cloak out of that thick brown wool?”,  “What about doing a dusty rose wool gown? Yeah, that color works.”

I figure that I’ll be making a new wool gown for myself and a new summerweight gown for my friend Erin, and helping my friend Lisa modify an outfit so she has a second set to wear. Daughter insists that she doesn’t need anything new since she is heading off to college next year and she can make her existing stuff last one more season.

Then last week I attended the first meeting regarding the spring musical at the high school.  This year the play will be – (drum roll please) – Crazy for You.

Yeah, I didn’t recognize the title either, so I went to research the plot…Boy sent by overbearing mother to west to foreclose on a theater, but he falls in love with the theater owner’s daughter, but she hates him, insert switched/hidden identities and dancing girls, romantic plot complications, and you think, “oh melodrama”.  Daughter, the Stage Manager, has summarized it this way, “It’s about singing cowboys and a Hungarian guy.”

But then you see the list of songs and realize “OMG, it’s the play with all of THOSE songs???   Cool!”  Here’s some songs from the show:  “Someone to Watch Over Me”, “I Got Rhythm”, “Nice Work If You Can Get It”.  Yowza.

And the costumes.  Oh boy!  We have circa 1932 styles!  We have cowboys!  We have showgirls!  My cohort, Jane, and I are going to have a blast!  Last night I read through the script and created a list of costumes we’re going to need.  At least six showgirls!  Maybe two dance costumes each!  Suits for a few guys.  French waiter outfits?! Boyohboyohboy!!

So, to heck with resolutions about using a new word a day – I’m gearing up to keep my tradition of pulling out the sewing machine and invading the dining room and finding ways to assure my husband that we will eat at the table on a regular basis despite the sewing piles.

I’ll update you later from the lint pile.

Magaidh