Malotke Sews

Here is a quick breakdown of how I made a padded armor piece for the character Tilly when she's her D&D character, Tillius the Paladin, in the play, "She Kills Monsters."  For reference, here are my Tillius the Paladin Mood Boards: First step was using the actor's measurements I created a very basic front and back bodice pattern. I wanted the armor piece to be comfortable, slightly bigger, and the padded would provide the texture look I was aiming for with the overall piece. It would be worn over a long sleeve t-shirt and the actor would be wearing a belt over it that held the sword. Also worn over top would be a one-armed shoulder armor piece that would be black leather with silver accents. So, while a majority of the outfit was black (base layer, boots, belt, gloves) I wanted this armor piece to be more grey and scream texture to the audience.  Above: I cut out the front and back pieces in the grey fabric for the outer layer as well as striped fabric for the li...

In "She Kills Monsters" there are two evil cheerleader characters, Evil Gabi & Evil Tina. For this show I wanted them to have almost identical outfits for when they played the evil versions. Their look included matching cheerleader outfits, shoes, little black horns, and wings. Then one girl would wear black contacts and the other would wear sunglasses (she couldn't do contacts). This post is about the wings. For the wings I purchased two sets of two sizes of black wings. Then I removed the black glitter elastic straps from all the pairs of wings. Next was placing the small set on the "top" of the larger set. I had to hand sew them together due to the wiring in the wings & the thickness of the wing material.  See above for a photo on sewing the wings together. After sewing the two sizes together I cut and sewed new, white elastic straps to the wings. The cheer tops are white so I was hoping to hide the elastic as much as possible. After that the wings we...

Currently a work in progress , this is one image of the fire gloves for the Witch in "The Kingdom of Dreams: A Tale of Oz." Using conductive thread I was able to hand sew a controller, 9 LEDs, and a mini on/off button to each glove. The actress will be able to use the on/off switches on the thumbs on the gloves to control the lights. My husband, who is a software engineer, is programming the LEDs to create a fire effect in red. There will be a thin glove worn over these so that the LEDs and controller will be hidden. The LEDs are very bright and will be able to be seen through the second layer. Once the programming is in place I will share a video of the gloves in action. Stay tuned for more special effects!

For my 100th blog post I wanted to just share some pictures from the past few years that are just fun snap shots of my life as a costume designer: Senior year of college, showcasing my senior collection featuring millinery and a whole lot of black/white/red patterns. My first paid show as Costume Designer: A Christmas Carol . For the ghost of Christmas past I used my corsetry skills to make a lovely white bodice with gold detailing. I also got to make her skirt light up! What a great experience. Working on A Servant of Two Masters. Collecting set colors so I could go fabric shopping. My sketching skills are always a work in progress. I love diving into historical research and so I usually work with a lot of mood boards and notes to get my thoughts across. One of my favorite progress pictures from working on Farinelli & the King . I made a lot of costume pieces for that show and loved working a variety of textiles and colors into the show. One of my f...

For "Bus Stop" it was very important that the main lady, Cherie, was blonde. Once the show had been cast I was faced with a challenge to take an actress with very long dark brown hair and make her a short, sassy blonde. I would say my wig experience is still in beginner mode, but I thoroughly enjoy working on wigs. I was able to find a lovely short, sandy blonde wig. It needed a little work before it would be show ready. First I used a wig shampoo. You let the wig soak in a shampoo and water mixture for about 10 minutes, rinse it, and let it dry on a wig stand ( not the mannequin head pictured to the right). After the wig was dry I lightly sprayed it with a leave in conditioner. Next I added a few more defined curls with some small rollers. After that I used a styling spray to make sure the curls would make it through an active show. In the end the wig looked great on the actress with the full costume and makeup. 

At the theater, ready to take measurements! Diving into research for clothing in the 18th century has been a blast! First off I have always loved the Baroque time period with the elaborate dresses and hairstyles. The French court had a strong influence on the fashion of the period and the styles were made to make the wealth differences between nobility and lower classes very obvious. For Farinelli & the King , the show is mainly set in the early 18th century with the ending set in 1757. With this time change there wasn't such a huge difference in men's fashions, but women's fashions were noticeably different, especially with panniers getting wider. The show opens Thursday, October 3rd! I'll be posting more progress pieces as well as mood boards and sketches. I'm very thrilled to be able to have made a decent amount of costume pieces for this show.

One of the things that was fun to work on this show was to create my own personal "washable dirt" to use to make the costumes look worn and smudged, but that would wash entirely out without using stain removers or extra washes. Since everything I used for this show was a rental, I needed to make sure everything could be washed and returned in the exact same condition as it came in (although some are in even better condition because I made a lot of repairs).  Image from a rehearsal. In the past, for "A Christmas Carol," I used a little mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg to create a dirty appearance on some costumes. It worked great for the show! I would mix the two in a bag, put the individual costume pieces in the bag, tie it shut, and shake.  Due to the lighting on "Trestle at Pope Lick Creek" I needed to make it a little darker than my previous dirt recipe.  For Trestle I used a mixture of the following: Cinnamon Clover Instant Coffee (swap for...

Here are a few pictures I took from the Costume Parade on Monday, July 1st, 2019. Top left is Pace & Dalton, top right is Gin & Dray, and the bottom image is Chas (without his jacket) & Dray (with added shirt and hat). Once I get the pictures from the show I'll post the more professional images.

Tonight is opening night! So to celebrate, below are my other mood boards for the show, "Trestle at Pope Lick Creek." Once I get pictures from the show I will post side by side images. Until then, I've included descriptions of the looks. For Gin Chance I wanted to give her a darker palette than Dalton, but still use similar coloring because of their close bond. Gin wears a long sleeve blue plaid dress. I paired this with neutral socks and a pair of character style two tone heels in cream and grey. She also has a short sleeve over jacket that is solid blue with red piping and a red straw hat. She may not wear the over jacket or hat, but they will be on stage with her.  Dray Chance isn't affectionate and singles himself out from his family, so I wanted to give him a separate color palette than them. For most of the show he is in a white sleeveless tank, dark brown corduroy trousers, and light brown and cream patterned suspenders. Chas Weaver is a very pass...

One of my favorite methods to work through designing looks for shows is using mood boards.  For the "Trestle at Pope Lick Creek" I sourced a lot of historical photographs, advertisements, and clothing patterns to build the silhouettes and clothing ideas for the characters. As for colors, I started out with simple color palettes for each character and how they worked together based on the characters' interactions.  While some things have changed color wise, my basic design ideas have stayed the same. For example, for Pace I wanted a simple short sleeve, collared dress in a green pattern. However, after searching for what I wanted there was the perfect dress, but in brown! While it's not green and doesn't a pattern, it's still a rich color and the pockets are weaved so it has a lovely texture to it. Below are my mood boards for Dalton Chance and Pace Craegan. The show opens Friday, July 5th, 2019. After I get some action shots from the play I will post side...

Meet my blindstitch machine! Do you have that one machine that you're like,  " How did I function without this in my life? " When I only had my sewing machine I was ecstatic that it could do button holes. My mind was blown! Then I got my serger and was constantly in awe at how great and easy it was to now finish projects like I did in classes. For a little background, my major's sewing lab was all industrial machines and there weren't a lot of available specialty ones if everyone was working on classwork. Having my own serger and sewing machine at home allowed me to cut everything out in the lab and then sew at home whenever I wanted. Well after starting Malotke Made, LLC I thought, how great would it be to have an embroidery machine to do more personalization for customers. So then I got my lovely embroidery machine and I am loving using it.  After those 3 machines I figured, how great would it be to not have to hand sew hems? Therefore I got my blin...