Hamburger and Fries!

 The all singing, all dancing, fast food musical opened on Wednesday night!

At the risk of getting myself into all sorts of trouble with posting pictures of students, here is a brief snapshot of the opening night of the musical.

I have since put a logo on the front of the french fries box which is a whole other story as I managed to seal up the inside of the costume by not using an ironing board and therefore melting the two lining sheets of plastic together so that the poor girl couldn't get into her costume until I cut it apart. As a result the inside of the thing is shredded but hey! It only has to last for one more performance :-)

The last photo I love because these two were so professional. The young man is one of the most lovely, solid young fellows I've ever had the pleasure to deal with, and that's not just because I know his mum! He has a girlfriend (who found this whole kissing scene very difficult) but when asked by the director to go in for the kiss, there was minimum fuss and the two of them did it in a very businesslike, though believable in the context of the story, manner! I was impressed.

The Burger costume has caused me some grief as we cannot stop it from dragging at the front and falling forwards through the song. At the end of the day I supposed it doesn't really matter but I would have liked to solve the problem. Last night we spent an hour sewing loops onto the back of the front bun, so the ties from behind could go through the front loops as well. It made absolutely zero difference. Oh well. Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated. The problem is that the front bun is so much heavier than the back one.

I have also yet to find an adhesive which works effectively on the fuzzy material, to secure the sesame seeds. I am constantly picking up a trail of them from the stage and surrounds after the show. I suppose I should have sewn them on.....

So after tonight, I can pack up the sweatshop again and say farewell to the theatre for another two years. I really should try and get involved in some amateur theatrics around town myself sometime. My own family does not count. That is more like soap opera.

Hamburger City

Yes, the burger construction has begun! Here are the constituent parts: 

I bought some stretchy, fluffy polar fleece (called Husky) for the bun, found some old red knit fabric for the tomatoes and green dance satin for the lettuce. I also bought a darker brown polar fleece with the idea of creating the hamburger patty but as I'm progressing I'm thinking the girl wearing the bun can be dressed in brown, a metaphorical patty.

Here is my first night's work. 

I covered and stuffed the top half of the bun, created some cheese slices and the tomato halves (still to be stuffed in this photo). I started to wrestle with the lettuce. How to make it leaf like and yet self supporting? The cheese slices are interfaced with  a piece of thin plastic (the type you use for wrapping delicate parcels for transit) to help them stand up on their own but that was not going to work with gathered lettuce fabric. I have ended up sewing florist's wire to the inside edges of the lettuce leaves. 

Here it is before I turned the leaf.

Here is the prototype turned, pleated and sewed in half from behind.

I'm hoping it will be enough. Whilst writing this I am wondering about some heavier duty interfacing, like buckram (used for making hats). I may try this on the pieces near the neck edge and use this one near the bottom where it can just hang.

 By the end of yesterday I had: covered the second bun, stuffed and sewn up the tomatoes, wired the lettuce and tried several protypes for attaching the shoulder straps. 

This proved to be challenging so I've gone back to attaching the fillings :-)

The show is two weeks away and I still have to start the bag of chips (french fries) costume. Fortunately we have managed to farm out a most of the shirts to other teachers and parents. There are still buttonholes to make and buttons to attach but I'm not getting too stressed yet. 

School starts again on Monday :-(