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Balurina (October 2002)

This costume is essentially Bal One, but improved, more colourful, new makeup, new wig, new shoes, and more hyperness. All new information is bold.
Unitard


The unitard for this costume was made from white lycra-bathing suit material. It looks much more show-authentic than the crushed velvet. I coloured it CraftMate fabric markers in Misty Grey, Smoke Grey, Brown and Black. The unitard pattern is lost as of now, but...neh. The unitard's legs were a bit big for me, so they constantly looked.. wrinkly, something I fixed when I updated the costume.
The unitard did have a pattern this time, though, that got rather more complex as I went along. I used hatching and stripes and spots, mostly, and parts of it were inspired by Jemima in London.

The shoulder fluffies are frayed orgnza, sewed on in chunks, then hand-frayed. The pieces were a little bit...long, so they're a little curly, but I like the look, as Bal is a scruffy, knock-about cat to begin with.


Wig

My first experience with a Rubie's Cats Hood. First thing I did was cut off the little 'piggy ears', and toss 'em. Next, I cut off the extra strip of fabric in the back, and fashioned it into a pair of ears, which I sewed over the holes left by the piggy ears. I sewed the open part at the back together so the whole thing had the appearance, more or less, of an uber-fluffy white CATS wig. I then painted one ear black and slicked it down, leaving the white one fluffy, which also adds to Bal's knock-about, hyper, kittenish personality. The rest of the wig is red, grey and black, as well. To colour it, I combed acrylic paint in, and once it was dry, brushed it out.


Tail


This tail was made out of white 'Benet' yarn, and gold, black, grey and maroon Red Heart yarn. Benet yarn is a very loose yarn, made of very soft fibers that is kept together by a thread that is woven around it. You have to get this thread off before you can use it, or it doesn't work at all.

You first wind the yarn around your hand and cut on one side so you have a lot of pieces of yarn in your desired length. tie these onto your tail, and fray them BY HAND. Very, very time consuming, but the tail turns out so fluffy and pretty when you're done with it. The sections of the tail made from Red Heart are essentially the same, but fray with a dog brush rather than by hand.


Warmers and Gloves


The leg warmers were little furry 'socks' attached to the bottom of each leg of the unitard, which mostly covered the shoes as well.

The gloves were simple cotton elbow-length gloves from 'Act 1', a Canadian chain of Dance stores. I coloured them with fabric pastels (brown and black) and went over the pastel in gold and black paint. I cut little holes all around the top of each glove and tied in tufts of the white Benet yarn, again hand-frayed.


Shoes

Because my old shoes were two small, I used the same jazz shoes I had used in my 'Jemima/Sillabub' costume.

Discount Shoes-look for Classic Jazz Shoes.


Collar

Pink patent leather with three-inch metal spikes, bought in England for ten pounds. (Roughly thirty dollars, Canadian.) Easy enough to make for yourself-the spikes are screws.


Makeup


The new makeup was somewhat based off my old makeup, which was based off of Tour IV Grizabella, the main differences being the colours (grey and white), and the extra little bits here and there (stripes, extra little eyebrow things, whiskers and whisker dots...)(Thanks to Obsidia for having the chart for me to use. :-))


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