Frill Neck Lizard Costume

Frill Neck Lizard

Priscilla Queen of the Desert - Amateur theatre production September 2021. 

Murray Bridge Players and Singers

I started this costume on November 7th 2020

Alex as the Frill Neck lizard

rehearsal photo by Jaybirdy Photography

Classic Australian icon the frill neck lizard appears in the original stage production. 

design by Charades-theatrical.com

While I love this design it has many elements, pants, top, shin covers, cod piece, girdle and sail. Way too many things for my actor to put on so I narrowed it down to a top that zips up the front, some stretchy pants and a headpiece you need a pilots licence to drive.

My initial design done with Pret-a-template app

This is probably the most labour intensive costume I made, purely because I went back to my skills in a freehand machine embroidery and machine sewed all the decorative embroidery into the fabric making it unique. Unlike the professional above costume where printed stretch metallic lycra has been used, I started with 3 different fabrics and created something new by combining them. 

The base fabric for the top was a bronze foil knit, I had a limited amount of this fabric and it was just enough for the top. I had to use different fabric for the pants so I went with a stretch black fabric with red foil half circles. 

this is a snake skin foil with has a knit fabric base 

Teamed with a red half circle foil on black knit and the bronze foil knit.

Decorative threads used for embroidery

sleeve ready for embroidery

bobbin work embroidery complete

The wrong side shows the residue of the stabiliser.

Bobbin work freehand machine embroidery

When I worked in the sewing machine industry back in 1993 I went to a seminar interstate and learned freehand machine embroidery. This is a where you control the fabric and stitch length not the sewing machine and you can sew in any direction or speed you like. 

Bobbin work means the decorative thread is placed in the bobbin case. The thread from the bobbin is sewn on the underside of the fabric. This means you have to sew with the right side of the fabric facing down and you can't see what is happening or where to sew because the wrong side of the fabric is up. 

I stitched myself a map by sewing normal freehand machine embroidery on the right side of the fabric first. I basically drew around the snake skin foil fabric so when I sewed it again from the wrong side I could follow this stitching. 

I used the yellow thread first in the bobbin and sewed around the foil snake skin down the centre of each panel. In the top of the machine I used maroon thread. Every time I changed the bobbin thread colour I changed the top thread colour. This was so I could differentiate between each round of embroidery. 

Wrong side of the fabric shows all the different colours used for each layer of bobbinwork

The fabric is placed in a hoop to keep it taught so it does not wrinkle up.

a close up of bobbin work I have done previously

The circles design is my speciality, it is a continuous line of stitching done without a guide. I start at one point and loop around and around always looking at where I am going next. 

From the centre yellow stitching I moved onto a light pink, orange and finally red.

Circles cut from gold and glitter black pleather for embellishments

Circles were glued on. Here you can also see the maroon thread which was used in the top holding the thick yellow thread used in the bobbin down.

Top

Jacket front cut out and zip being added.

PANTS

I used Kwik Sew 2057 which I have made before in the same black and red foil fabric for Alice in Wonderland. 

Gothic Queen of Hearts costume from Alice in Wonderland. See the post for more

Frill Neck Lizard pants

Frill Neck Headpiece

My original design had the frill attached to the collar of the jacket, after I had made the jacket I decided this was no longer feasible so I attached the frill to a scull cap instead. 

I used a child's pirate costume felt hat and cut off the brim. 

I messed around with the brim off cuts to make some side frills and eyes. 

I used a glitter print organza for the base of the frill I added layers of warm coloured organza, satin, foil fabric for the splotch effect of the lizards frill.

These were stuck down with spray adhesive then freehand stitched in place. On top I put a layer of maroon organza

I cut holes out of the organza with a soldering iron, this melts the fabric and seals the edge at the same time

By putting a large tile under the fabric you don't burn the table you are working on!

I made a pattern for the frill from trace n toil and inserted pieces of boning to strengthen the shape.

Here is a video of me showing off my creation to the director.

This head piece would not work for quite a while, the frill didn't stick out and kept collapsing on itself, I might have made it a tad too big. So after much frustration I cut the metal edge from suspension files and inserted these into the boning channels and this solved my problem. The extra strong metal held the frill out in the shape I wanted.

The final frill had layers of organza, boning and suspension file metal edges. I covered the hard felt with fabric and sewed it to the scull cap. The frill was then sewn to the back of the cap. 

Here you can see the back of the lizard costume - rehersal photo by Jaybirdy Photography 

Alex tried on the costume and I then realised it needed a tail. I made a stuffed a tail to match from the same fabric. I attached it to the waist band on the pants. Alex is quite tall so I lengthened the sleeves and the pants at the cuffs to fit him.

Tim left as Thorny Devil - Alex right as Frill neck Lizard - rehersal photo by Jaybirdy Photography

Tracy in foreground as Wattle - Alex in background as lizard - rehearsal photo by Jaybirdy Photography