More Ragtime

So the last couple weeks have been so busy.  Ragtime has teched and opened.  Venus in Furs has opened.  The past week has been a time to breathe, get things back into order, and read up on the 2 plays coming up to start working on this month.


Here are a few other things I worked on for Ragtime.

Newspaper bags. 3 total
Sarah sewed these 3 newspaper boy bags.  These needed to be danced with newspapers inside and not spill all over.  Part of the action is also for a paper to be taken out.  Jim asked me to figure out a way to secure some papers upright in the bag.  Old time newspapers we had in abundance from another show.  Jim arranged how he wanted the attached papers to look.  From there it was up to me.

In the back of the bag there was an extra canvas flap, that in real life would have been draped over the papers in case of rain etc.   I decided to put a piece of cardboard behind this to help give a lightweight structure. I then used carpet tape to stick together the newspapers how Jim wanted them.
I decided to make 2 holes through the newspapers, canvas flap and cardboard on each side out of eyesight, so that I could stitch/bind them together. I then turned the bag inside out.  I lined up the papers on top of the canvas flap with cardboard underneath.  The canvas flap was not being used in the action of the play. Then I took it to the drill press and cut clean holes.  I took skinny nylon rope and stitched the papers in.  To thread the rope, I taped it to an upholstery needle. The rope was then tied off and taped down underneath.

Above: Bag turned right side out and ready to go. Below: bag inside out, papers tied in.

Peek inside done bag.

Crib Mattress

The baby crib in Ragtime needed some kind of mattress.  Margaret had me take measurements of the inside, and from there we winged it.  Margaret chose monks cloth in a neutral tone. I marked, cut it out, and sewed it together leaving some room to insert stuffing. Just like making a pillow.  I created the insert by double layering poly batting that was cut to size.  to hold it together well I whip stitched it together along all 4 sides.  This was then inserted inside the mattress/pillow casing and then hand sewn closed with a blind stitch.  We decided to put a few quilt like stiches in the piece to make it more appealing, and to also hold the filling in place.  I placed pins where I thought it looked good, and when approved by Margaret, stitched through the layers using cream thick silk embroidery thread.  To make sure the stitched tucks lined up, I followed along the fabric weaving and made sure to stitch through the same warp and wefts on the front AND back.  If the fabric wasn't cut square, or was on bias, this technique would not be useful 

Stitching the fill together.

Stitching mattress shut.  View of large weave of the monks cloth.  Was so soft and easy to work with.                        Apparently it dyes very well.

Sewing through layers

Using Velcro to stick mattress down into cradle.