Roman Gladiator Costume

Rehearsal photo by Jay Birdie Photography

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

Murray Bridge Players and Singers

For the Venue scene the back up dancers wear RTW (ready to wear purchased garments) glitter dresses we added gold belts and shoulder straps too. The boys wore pleather skirts and a shoulder shield with RTW hot pants.

I used some firm felt backed pleather I got from the home furnishing dept at Spotlight. It is the same fabric I used on the Diva's silver dresses for the petals and binding.

The fabric has a cross hatching texture and doesn't need to be lined or finished as it does not fray.

I used gold and bronze for the costume.

My Pretty'a'template sketch of the design

Pteruges: Skirt of leather

Pleather in bronze and gold

I drew a long strap shape with a curved end and cut these from the gold. I used the bronze pleater cut into narrow strips as binding to edge each panel.

Sewing the bronze binding onto the gold with straight stitch

working out the number of panels to fit on the waistband

added circles to the diamond to match the waistband detail

Waistband has narrow 1/4' strips sewn to define the shape.

wide velcro is used to hold the waistband closed and allow a quick change

Shoulder Shield

I again used the gold pleather, my costume assistant cut multiples of the leaf shape. These were stitched to a backing of heavy weight buckram. Each row was pinned then straight stitched in place before adding the next row.

We decided to use a brown sharpie and edge the leaves so the shape of each was defined and visible from distance.

A strap of pleather edged in bronze was used to secure the shield to the actor

The band is shaped into a curve by cutting into the top edge and overlapping the pieces to the desired curve. This meant I didn't was it fabric cutting a curved strap out.

Gold elastic stitched to the underside of the shield hold it to the actors arm.

Rehearsal photos by Jay Birdie Photography

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 wit

Gumby Costume

GUMBY PANTS Priscilla Queen of the Desert - Amateur theatre production September 2021. Murray Bridge Players and Singers Back in 2019 I started making the pattern for these pants. I couldn't find a pattern to make these specialised pants so I new I would have to draft my own from scratch. Pattern drafting was not a skill I had so I enrolled in a course at the WEA. I learned to make a bodice and pants block, from this beginners course I enrolled in an advanced course and my tutor helped me work out the shapes for the panels for these pants. The first three pairs I made were from a one way stretch fabric. It had horizontal stripes and a glitter finish. I found that the one way stretch reduced the manoverability of the pants. For the remaining pairs I chose a two way lycra in foil finishes. To reduce the amount of fabric required I laid the pattern pieces in both directions which meant the stripes didn't match up but that was just too bad. My first sample of one leg of the pants

Cockatoo Costume

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo worn by Cassie Priscilla Queen of the Desert - Amateur theatre production September 2021. Murray Bridge Players and Singers Jo and Cassie - rehearsal photo by Jason McCullough I started these costumes February 2021. In the final scene all actors come on stage in an Australian themed costume, the 3 Divas don a sulphur crested cockatoo costume. Off all the complicated costumes I made this was the easiest but also very time consuming. I looked at many pictures of cockatoo's on Pinterest to get an idea for feather direction, size and concentration. I also looked at other companies cockatoo costumes for design ideas. Charades-theatrical.com My design allowed my actors to choose comfortable undergarment because it was not strapless. Design done on Pret-a-template app. I had to use the bridal design background so I could draw in white. I started these costumes in February 2021, a journey begins with just one step, well a cockatoo costume begins with just one

Costumes by Samstress

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