Day 11

 I'm catching up on a few days, so today there will be more than one post!

Day 11 was pretty exciting. The cast list had been up for a few days and the measurements were in, and we were finishing up with picking out some possible outfits. There was some rearranging of the cast list because a few girls dropped out when they didn't get the part they liked. We also had created a costume plot listing scenes, names, and outfits worn, and that had to be changed. 15 pages in the trash.

The costume designer was in, so she began cutting out patterns for the principles--the main characters, as they're called in this theatre. I had to make room on our floor-to-ceiling shelves to separate out over 70 boxes for the pattern pieces. I had the costume shop manager help me, and I felt like dying when she climbed to the top of the ladder, then realized she had to move over so she put one foot on the shelf and one on the ladder and hopped her way over to the next shelf. The huge ladder was shaking and swaying and I was incredibly nervous. They're pretty crazy in here!

I was putting labels on boxes and putting corresponding patterns into the boxes pretty quickly because the cast was coming up to the shop at 2:30 for fittings. I occasionally was asked to cut out patterns to move things along more quickly. Since I'm the smallest in the shop, I had to stand on a stool to cut the huge pieces, and sometimes I just had to get right up on the table. It was pretty funny.

I started cutting out huge blue triangles for the head scarves which took forever because the fabric was so slippery that because it was still attached to a HUGE roll on the ground and just unraveled for cutting, it would sometimes fall right back on to the floor. I was constantly stepping on fabric or having to run from  one side of the table to the other to place objects on the corner to keep it in place. Frustrating.

I got my own cool pair of orange scissors that no one else can use because they for lefties. Scissors are a big deal in costume shops because the wrong scissor can really mess up a fabric, and nothing's more frustrating than trying to cut huge pieces of silky fabrics with shotty scissors. The costume designer kept losing the one pair that she had, so she swore she wouldn't return unless there were a cool pair of new scissors on her desk by the next monday.
On Monday she had an awesome pair of polka dot scissors with her name on it.

The kids came in at 2:30 and we started fittings again. Most outfits worked, but there's going to be a lot of tucking and hemming because the boys are too small and the girls are too tall. I like alterations so I'll have fun doing that in the future.

Next step: sewing!