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jitterbug fashion

Floweruary the Last
Accessories, Floweruary, jitterbug fashion

Floweruary the Last

I knew this already, but I’m REALLY bad at daily challenges. 🙂 I kept up Floweruary until the middle of this month, but I realized I’m not a very flowery girl, and I felt weird taking photos of repeats. Oops! So here’s the final installment – maybe I’ll stock up on flowers before next February (but probably not).

Clockwise from Top Left:

Floweruary 8th – tiny flowers on a hat pin. And sushi.

Floweruary 9th – listening to a book while Chris is at work. Then off for some dancing!

Floweruary 13th

Floweruary 16th – Air Raid!

Floweruary 14th – Valentine Candy and a fake Ivory rose ring

Floweruary 11th – Yellow Fakelite Rose Earrings

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Floweruary 1st-6th
Accessories, Floweruary, jitterbug fashion

Floweruary 1st-6th

I’m participating in Floweruary this year, the daily challenge to wear and post a photo of a flower. I’ve taken a little liberty with the challenge and expanded it to a few different types of vegetation. 😉 I was going strong with the challenge until today, but I plan on getting back on the wagon tomorrow!
Clockwise from Top Left: 
Floweruary 1st â€” at Rusty’s Rhythm Club
Floweruary 2nd – Breakfast at the Beach. Cherries started as flowers, so I’m calling it good.
Floweruary 3rd – At the Car Wash
Floweruary 4th – Monday was a repeat of Saturday, but with less enthusiasm.
Floweruary 5th – little hair requires a little barrette.
Floweruary 6th – palm tree and a fresh hair cut. 
These pins live in that empty spot behind me most of the time.

Everyday Wardrobe: Gray Tweeds

There has been some buzz lately on sewing blogs about the Everyday Wardrobe – we all have a tendency to sew/buy a lot of special pieces that aren’t very versatile, and wind up wearing the same few things all the time. This topic came up right when I decided to put some fresh effort into my dance wardrobe, and I’m incorporating the idea into my current projects.
I’ve got 2 patterns that I plan to use over and over for my Everyday dance pieces…my dance skirt is a 6-gore style that I copied from a thrifted skirt, and the trousers pattern is Wearing History’s Smooth Sailing pattern. My genius idea is that using TNT* patterns & and the same fabric means that the sewing will go quickly. Except it’s not so genius when my fabric is off-grain when I cut them out, because then it means I have 2 garments to fiddle with and fix instead of one! whoops…
Here are my first additions to my Everyday (Dance) Wardrobe – my 2 TNT patterns stitched up in an gray acrylic tweed. I love using washable fabrics, so I’ll pick a good synthetic/blend if it looks nice. This one really looks like wool and it’s a loose weave so I think it’ll still breathe.
I didn’t plan my new tweed pieces around Sunni’s idea of making an outfit from a Never Worn Garment in your closet, but that ended up happening! I’ve had that white butterfly top for nearly 2 years, and wore it for the first time this weekend.

What do you think about the Everyday Wardrobe idea? Are you joining in? or would you rather put your efforts into making fancier things?
——————–
TNT Pattern = Tried and true pattern that you’ve made before and love!

Another Maharaja Costume

Since we’re talking Majaraja costumes, I thought I’d share one I made for myself a few years ago. (oh, no, I just checked and it was in 2008…that was a long time ago already!!)

The Friday night theme at Camp Hollywood was Maharaja — Chris wore a tuxedo (inspired by Hal), and I made a “1940’s does Arabian Nights” playsuit – you know, like how all the costumes in period movies of the 30’s & 40’s look more like contemporary fashions with only a slight nod to the past. That’s what I was going for.

Again, this is a rayon fabric for good swish. The skirt is a long panel that’s gathered with box pleats into the waistband, and I put butterfly sleeves on the top for ease of movement.

These photos are from the Amateur Balboa contest – we got first place that year. It was also probably the best hair day of my entire life, and I like to think that had a little to do with winning. 😉

Maharaja Costume

A few months ago, Balboa & Lindy Hop champion Laura Keat contacted me to ask if I would be interested in making a costume for a new routine she was working on. As a rule I don’t sew for other people (I don’t even hem Chris’s pants, he has to take them to the cleaners), but this was a special project that I was very interested in working on.
On Saturday night at All Balboa Weekend, Laura and her dance partner, Jeremy Otth, performed Hal & Betty Takier’s “Maharaja”, a musical short from 1943. This is one of only a few clips we have of LA Swing from the 30’s & 40’s, and this one is a wild ride – the energy and enthusiasm combined with their street dance technique has been hugely influential to modern balboa dancers. In honor of Hal’s recent passing, Jeremy & Laura wanted to represent this in their recreation.
Inspiration: 40’s Playsuit

Inspiration: High-flying skirt!

I worked with Laura to create a 40’s playsuit like the one Betty wears in Maharaja – unfortunately most of the footage we have is pretty blown out and details are hard to see, but that gave us some creative license in the design. For the top and the skirt I used a rayon twill, lined with a rayon satin (I’ve got a bit of a love affair with the drape and flow of rayon – perfect for swishy skirts!)

I draped the top and the skirt, and we decided to put buttons down the skirt so that it can fly open for this routine but be not as…revealing for others. 🙂

Cute, right? Well, get ready to be wowed – they NAILED the routine! Bummed I couldn’t be at the event in person, but so glad I got to be part of it anyway!

Jeremy Otth & Laura Keat perform Hal & Betty Takier’s “Maharaja” in tribute at the 2012 All Balboa Weekend

Photo by Shannon Sheldon

Photo by Shannon Sheldon

Jitterbug Jewelry

I was messing around with searching LIFE Magazine via Google the other night and found these photos and little letter about “Jitterbug Jewelry” – rhinestone encrusted brooches of dancing instruments. I would die if I found a set of these! Just too too cute.
And a note about the highlighting below – when searching for vintage info about swing dancing, I find that “jitterbug” is the best search term. The music was “swing”, the dances were individually known as “Lindy Hop” “Balboa” and “Shag” but collectively called “jitterbug”, and a dancer was always just a “jitterbug”. Not sure when terms like “swing dancing” and “lindy hopper” started being used, but I’m guessing around the 70’s & 80’s – so those terms commonly used today aren’t very useful for searching older references.

Jitterbug Jewelry, as featured in LIFE magazine, May 16, 1938