RHS Broadway Usherette (Part 2 of 2)

• The main dress fabric is a "clear illusion" snakeskin spandex. The snakeskin effect is like a clear, laminated layer you can actually pull off the spandex. 
• The bow was made with a light, striped lining fabric - identical to Juliette's, but Sherie's has circles instead of stripes. Mine sags a little too much - might go back and add some netting inside (if I care). 
• The coordinating trim was the hardest part. I just went with something vintage I found on Etsy. A lot of the trim is layered with black grosgrain ribbon. 
• The buttons feature the geometric logo associated with the Time Variance Authority (TVA) from Marvel's Loki series - on the officer uniforms. My husband 3d printed them for me and I spray-painted them silver. 
• The dress zips up the back, and down the lower arms. I bought a cheap Popcorn purse on eBay, and easily found the same flashlight they use ("Sportsman" by Ray'o'vac). 
• I used silver piping I had on hand (a little too narrow) and made bias strips from silver spandex I had on hand (her trim is a buttery yellow, but looks gold on stage).

RHS Broadway Usherette (Part 1 of 2)

My Broadway usherette costume is based on Juliette Lewis' version - there are some subtle differences in Sherie's costume. I made mine in pink (cuz my hair is neon pink). 

Starting with the legs and feet - the shoes are "Rockit Zip Bootie" by United Nude (~$215). They come in nude/clay, light grey, metallic silver (crinkly), and black. I do not know which base Juliette's are. I bought a pair in silver and a pair in black, but ended up using the silver ones. Juliette's boots were painted, but I foil leafed mine (in pink) and covered it with a sealant. 

Juliette wore fishnets plus another pair of wide-hole stockings on over them. Sherie only wore the fishnets. The wide-hole stockings are available on Amazon as part of a 3-pack. 

The first two photos are Juliette's costume, the 2nd two are mine. More later...

RHS Usherette Costumes

The finished result of my Usherette dress. I made it in multiple fabrics and colors (mostly pinks). I also had fun with the pins, which varied by dress. 

February 2026

Finally finished the 2nd Daybreak quilt - made both tops back in 2019/2020.  First one got quilted right away, and the second one just sat in my queue for nearly 6 years!  But now they are both done. This is the 4th quilt I've finished in 2026, and #5 is right behind it (putting on the binding).

Pattern: Daybreak 

Fabrics: Mostly Hoffman batiks (some may be other brands)

Size: 78" x 63"

Panto: "Ambrosia" by Urban Elementz (on hanging quilt)

January 2026...

Did some MAJOR cleaning and organizing in my workshop. Also making a lot of progress on abandoned projects. 

Pickle Dish Quilt (started 2020)

Continued the 'curtain wall' beyond the sitting area.

Finished this scrappy quilt and made a pillow
from the deer panel I bought 6 years ago.

Costuming Shows...

Every so often I see an opportunity to costume a show and think "sure, it's been a while". And then it's always so much more than I bargained for. I don't mind volunteering and working for free. But I loathe feeling underestimated. I'm not "just a seamstress"; I'm a professional costumer. I literally went to school for this. I've been paid to work professionally in some very large and impressive theatres. I use professional equipment; my machines (I have 19 of them), my dress forms (I have 13), and decades of pattern experience. 

So last month I respond to an ad for a seamstress. They had 3 weeks to opening. A couple of moms have been pulling costumes, but it's a musical set in the early 1900's and they don't sew. They need some skirts made. Turns out they needed a lot made, including two complete Edwardian walking suits for the leads. A second seamstress responds so they decide to divide the workload... half the skirts, and one walking suit each.

Every other day I show up at rehearsal with more finished stuff. I offered fabric recommendation for the walking suit, but ignored. I was provided cotton twill (that cost $18/yd - what the hell?!?). 2 days later I return with the finished costume. After almost 2 weeks plowing through costumes the other seamstress has finished nothing. The other lead has nothing to wear for dress rehearsal 5 days before opening. Nobody has any updates. Nothing. I offer to help, but I'm told not to step on toes.

You know, I've been costuming a long time. I know things. You should listen to me. Because 1 of 2 things are going to happen with those other costumes. I promise you.  (1) You'll get a call that there's been an emergency and they can no longer fulfill their obligation, and they'll drop a pile of half-finished crap off, or (2) They'll actually finish, but it's going to be the biggest, steaming pile of shit you have ever seen. I'm not even kidding. And you know what?  It doesn't matter which scenario happens, it doesn't change the fact that the lead will still need to be costumed.

So 5 days before the show I went and bought some fabric of my choosing and made the other lead's costume that day. Unfortunately the director was less than pleased about my intervention, but the actress was ecstatic. 

So you want to guess which scenario happened? Because I fucking told you what would happen. The day before opening the other costumes show up and they're beyond terrible. Amateur doesn't even begin to describe it. I could go on... but it's really not even worth it. The point is, the actress had a beautiful costume to wear because I could see that train wreck coming from a mile away and I stepped on toes.

You're welcome. 

RHS Usherette Construction Plans

Because there are only a handful of photos of Patricia Quinn's usherette dress, a lot of information will have to be based on secondary sources and best guesses. 
-  The back of the dress is completely unknown to me.
-  The waist style of the dress is very hard to discern.

-  The lower front pockets are hidden.

What I'm using to supplement these features:

-  Later usherette dresses that were also designed by Sue Blane.
-  Similar historical garments.

-  Design standards that make the most sense. 

I want to start with the midriff segment. It's much more visible on Jaimie Donnelly's usherette dress, but that doesn't mean Quinn's was the same.  However, I believe I can see evidence of it on Quinn's. Additionally, it was a very common feature in mid-century usherette & waitress uniforms.  They both have a thin, black belt (photos from https://www.ozrockyhorror.com). The biggest differences I can see between these two dresses is the button placements, and Donnelly's sleeve caps.

Here's what some other mid-century uniforms with midriff sections looked like:

Next is the back of her dress. All I can really say about that is if a design has a yoke in the front, it very likely will have a yoke in the back.  And below that yoke will have either some pleats or gathers.  That's just standard design practice that I wouldn't deviate from without evidence otherwise.

And finally the pockets. I mean, I can clearly see the bottom of the pocket seams above the hem, but I can't make out the top shaping at all.  It could be flat across the top. It could be scalloped up into midriff. There's just no way to know.

It's entirely possible this dress was purchased at a resale shop, or otherwise already on hand in the theater's storage. This is a common way of costuming low budget productions:  not everything is made from scratch. 

RHS Usherette Costume

I'll be performing as the Usherette (aka "Trixie") in Indiana on Friday, Oct 13 so of course I want to create a new costume!  It's going to be based off of Patricia Quinn's dress in the original 1973 stage production, but instead of a regular pink I want to make mine hot pink.  And somewhat sheer. So I found a cotton voile online that I hope will be useable. Instead of the ginormous Elvis pin, I designed a pin with Anthony Head (from the 1991 stage production I saw in London). And instead of a white tray, I want to make mine black (to better suit my color scheme). Still though, the dress will be cut the same!

Black lingerie that will be visible through the voile, and black boots. I would love to wear my Betsey Johnson "Magenta" boots, but alas they are just too tall for me function in. I have some similar suede boots with a lower stiletto heel that will work. 

I'd like to personalize the cap - hers said "Sloane Cinema" because the original theatre was located on Sloane Square in London. 

Knitting Machines & Accessories

I'm so pleased that I've finally got my machine knitting nook completely organized like I want.  The rack (on the right) is the perfect size for my machine cover and ribber. No more giant cardboard boxes in the corner!

My main bed: KH-890 (standard gauge)
My ribber: KR-850
My G-carriage: KG-95
My intarsia carriage: KA-8210
My linker: KA-8310
My colour changer KRC-900
Knitleader KL-16
KnitKing

I suppose my next acquisition will be a Bulky bed (KH-260). 

'80s Cruise Costume 2023: Pigs in Space (Part 2 of 2)

The Materials: I bought most of the fabric on Etsy, and the other accessories on eBay and Amazon. I had zippers, snaps, elastic, and the felt & batting for the ears on hand.

$77.75  Lilac Lurex Glitter fabric for mens costumes 
$44.40  More Lilac Lurex Glitter Fabric
$74.23  Purple Glitter Knit fabric for Piggy
$30.40  Silver Glitter Knit fabric for Link's cape

$70.79  Silver Mirror Leather for belts

$15.18  Chrome Ball Buttons for men's belts
$14.48  More Chrome Ball Buttons for Link's sleeves
$20.53  Metallic Silver Spandex for gloves and epaulettes 
$23.96  White Embroidered Stars (4 packages)
$18.22  Felt for chest logos
$64.95  Boots for Link 

$64.95  Boots for Julius

$44.09  Boots for Piggy
$27.64  Wig for Julius
$21.44  Wig for Link
$11.99  Wig for Piggy
$14.99  Glasses for Julius
$15.02  Tights for Piggy  

$9.19    Poly-fil for Epaulettes  

$12.68  Tunic Pattern  

$12.99  Lilac Leggings for Link

$14.99  Eyebrows for Link & Julius

$14.95  Pig Noses (3) 

$719.76  Divided by 3 is an average of $239.92 per person.

The Construction: I started with the silver spandex because I've used this fabric extensively before. Dudley (aka Link Hogthrob) and I were also losing weight so I held off making our costumes until closer to the cruise.  The epaulettes were a little challenging because the ends are so skinny you can't stuff very well through them, so I designed them to be stuffed in the middle (on the underside) and closed them up with a little hand-stitching. The gloves have 3-fingers each just like the Muppets (but really, wouldn't  you think pigs would have 2?)

The Ears: I had a lot of anxiety about addressing the ears, and in the end I got some peach-colored felt sheets and batting and just free-styled the shape on my sewing machine. Turned them right-side out and ran some 16-gauge craft wire up through them. Success on my first try!  All three pigs have different shaped ears, but the method was still the same. Figuring out how to attach them to the wigs was a little more fussy, but still worked out well.

The Chest Emblem: Piggy's is visibly free-floating on top of her tunic folds. I considered embroidering a patch of sorts, but theirs is definitely is not embroidered. Okay then, maybe some stiff felt? I can cut that out on my Brother Scan-n-Cut machine. My first attempt was 5 layers/ the red bolt, the yellow bolt, the red circle, the black circle, and the pig head. That was too thick. So I nested the bolts into one later, and the circles into another. As for the pig face details, I tried using some Scribbles fabric paint but was unhappy with the results. Back to the Scan-n-Cut with some black vinyl I had on hand.

The Tunics: Piggy was draped on my dress form. Link was copied from a T-shirt that fit Dudley snug like I wanted, and Julius' was modified from a men's pajama pattern because he needed a raglan sleeve design, and pants. By this point things were speeding up and we were just a couple weeks from the cruise. 

Other Details: Dudley thought the pig noses would look better if they matched the ear color, so we painted them to match (not included in the expense list above). Link's eyebrows were darkened to match his wig. The belts were trimmed with strips of spandex. 

The Result: In all I was very happy with how they turned out. Can't really think of anything I would have done differently except shaped Link's ears a little better (but damn, they were weird). I probably spent about 30 hours total on this, and over $700. Was odd how many people asked us who we were supposed to be (on an '80s cruise), but I don't think it had anything to do with my execution. 

'80s Cruise Costume 2023: Pigs in Space (Part 1 of 2)

The Goal: A "Pop Icon" costume contest entry on The '80s Cruise that is (1) highly recognizable, and (2) not been done on the previous 6 cruises (because copying someone else's previous contest entry is generally considered poor form and not likely to get you to the finals).

The Idea: Running 80s movies & TV shows through my mind - I loved Animal from the Muppets - but that giant head. But how do you make a "human"ized version of a giant Muppet head? Maybe use a different Muppet? Piggy? Which version of Piggy? Who would Dudley be? Kermit would be just as difficult as Animal. I just don't want to be wearing giant heads that I can see out of (or drink!) - besides, they're rarely done well (sorry, but they just aren't). Then I remember Pigs in Space! Awesome! But we'll need a 3rd person - who then? And that's when I called Eileen and asked if her husband would mind if I dressed him up on the cruise because I had the best idea! 

The Research: There are lots of pictures of the skits, but how to address the lower half of Muppet that you almost never see?  I found mostly secondary resources that were somewhat inconsistent - so I felt like that gave me some flexibility. The colors changed somewhat, too - but Piggy's was always more pink from the guys. 

The Approach: Sewing is my strongest skill set and I knew I would be able to make virtually everything except the shoes and wigs. When Loretta Swit guested on the sketch she wore a replica of Piggy's costume with just a pig snout - so we followed suit.

The Materials: The glitter knit vintage fabric was easy to find on Etsy. The ears worried me a little in the beginning, but were surprisingly easy (some felt, batting, and craft wire). The pigs have 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand, and I'm very proficient and making spandex gloves. The lightning bolt emblem is just stiff felt (as opposed to embroidery; which would have also been easy). 

'80s Cruise Costume 2023: Lisa's Leather Jacket from Weird Science

The Research:

Lucky for me, costume designer Marilyn Vance previously listed this iconic jacket for auction - which supplied some amazing detailed shots of about 95% of the jacket. 

The jacket base:
It's a cropped, straight hem jacket with a shawl collar. No princess seams or yoke. I was unable to find a suitable base so I had to pattern and build my own. I priced garment-grade leather at Tandy's and decided to use a synthetic PU option I bought on Etsy for $28/yd.  The lining was just some black satin I had on hand. The hardest part was the binding that goes around the entire edge of the jacket - had to use pliers to get the needle through.

The studding:
I started with the pocket on the front of the jacket which has a field of square studs. It was pretty impossible to go through the leather and still achieve the level of accuracy I needed with so many studs butted up against each other. In the end I opted to fold all the prongs under with pliers and use jewelry/metal glue. This was by far the most time-consuming part of construction (thank you Eileen for helping!!)

There are 16 different styles/sizes of studs on this jacket - it's ridiculous. The only one I couldn't find an exact replica for were the 3-sided pyramids on the upper back and neck. I found short ones to use, but they should have been taller/spikier. How many studs total?  I used 2,163. 

The jacket ended up weighing about 5 pounds - and the wooden hanger I carried it on broke.  One intentional change I made was having the chains connect to the center back D-ring instead of passing through it (so they wouldn't slide around). In total after 2 wearings and 1 suitcase packing I lost a total of 4 studs.

'80s Cruise Costume 2023: Iona

Eileen already had an Iona costume (from the record store scene) so Christina and I were going to join in and all be Iona - just a daytime costume, nothing for a theme night.

Iona appears to be wearing a vintage Cheongsam (traditional Chinese dress) with some sort of black & white floral print. I knew I'd never be able to find the exact print (and wasn't invested enough to replicate it in Spoonflower), but I found a very serviceable crepe fabric on Etsy - and it had a very vintage feel to it. Most importantly, the print has a similar scale and balance of black and white. The fabric was a bit thin so I just flat-lined everything with white cotton. 

Originally it looked like a two piece set - I swear the way the fabric print breaks across her lower hip looked like a division. But, it's just a break in the print. By then I already had the top finished and decided to stay the course. If I ever make it again I'll know better.  I probably should have trimmed my wig, too.

The black & white bracelets were a little tricky to replicate - finding those long octagonal white stones AND the brackets for them took a few weeks. She wears a serpent ring on her right hand (that was easy). 

Overall, people recognized who I was dressed as so I consider it a success.  I would definitely bring this back again because it's easy to pack and change into. I'll get that wig trimmed!

My research screenshots

Floral Print fabric found on Etsy $58.42
White Cotton Lining ~$10
Vintage Dress Pattern ~$10
Black Frog Closure on Etsy 6.99
White Octagonal acrylic gems (18x13) for bracelet on Etsy $10.70
Octagonal Gem Holders on Etsy $8.31
Black Beads (between white gems) on Etsy $5.03

White Wig on Amazon $13.99
Snake Ring on Etsy $10.71

Total:  $134.15

'80s Cruise Costume 2023: Lane Meyer (Better Off Dead)

I didn't recall anyone doing this costume ever before on the cruise, but this year Dudley was 1 of at least 4. I think he was the only one with the burger, and I was really proud of that burger!  The arms and legs came off of a stuffed Cat In The Hat. I bought the doll shoes at Hobby Lobby, and Dudley 3D-printed the guitar. Initially I thought it would be funny if I dressed as the dancing hamburger, but I like this much better. 

New Machine: Singer 29k71 (aka "Shoe Patcher")

I know to a lot of folks this just looks like a vintage sewing machine, but it is really nothing like your grandmother's old Singer in a cabinet. For starters it's considerably larger. I can't even lift it. This is commonly called a "shoe patcher" because it's used by cobblers, and there are still some companies making machines like this to this day. 

But it does SO much more than shoes. That narrow base lets you get into all kinds of tiny or narrow places (gloves! wallets! down a pants leg, etc). And that presser foot rotates 360 degrees to stitch in any direction without having to turn your work. 

Unlike most machines that have feed dogs on the bottom to move the fabric along, the presser foot (much like a walking foot) does all the work here. It has grooves on the bottom like feed dogs do. It's designed to go easily through light leathers (shoes, jackets, etc) but not so much thick belting or heavy upholstery. It's also designed to work with larger needles and thicker thread than your average home machine. 

This machine will need a thorough cleaning inside and out before I start stitching with it - but I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I know I will learn a lot more about this machine as I go. There's no shortage of videos on YouTube (as this is a VERY common machine), and I've also joined some relevant groups on Facebook. Manuals and replacement parts are relatively easy to obtain.