Walking Down Memory Lane In A Red Dress

I was feeling a bit nostalgic about my days sewing costumes for the theatre. Humor me while I share this red dress I  constructed from start to finish for Round House Theatre's 2006 production of A Prayer for Owen Meany (based off the book of same title). Being able to work on a dress start to finish isn't always possible when sewing costumes. Many sewists touch a costume before it's stage ready.

For this show, I made two versions of this dress. One for the mannequin, as it's seen on stage well before the actress puts it on. Thankfully, the mannequin version didn't require as much work. For the red dress that would be worn, we sewed in a bra so the actress could get into it quickly. We also needed to give the dress the "torpedo boobs" classic in 1950s dresses.

While I don't miss the crazy late nights working for the theatre and notes from the costume designer that say, "Hem dress another 1/4 inch," I do miss sewing really cool dresses like this.