Malotke Sews

The MoPOP hosts an annual Fashionably Undead Halloween party. It's one night & has a costume contest, late night open exhibits, food & beverages, and DANCING. Also photo ops and other cool things like a scavenger hunt. This past year the theme was "The Goopening" and I was invited to be one of the Costume Contest Judges. It was a blast! First off, what a surreal experience. I loved seeing how creative the attendees were and everyone that entered the contest was excited to show off their work. We had a few items for judging criteria and there were a LOT of entrants. Overall, I loved seeing everyone embody their characters / costumes. The top five got to do a little runway walk to show the audience and then the winners were announced on stage as well. Since I love a good excuse to do a costume AND I was one of the costume judges I felt like I needed to make a fun goopy look for the evening. BUT it also had to be something that I could drive in, sit for a long period...

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...

I will be the Costume Designer for the upcoming production of She Kills Monsters at the Second Stage Theatre at Parkland College. The show is written by Qui Nguyen and directed by Michael O'Brien.  Some Insight into the Show from Parkland : Revised 2016 edition. She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly. When Agnes finds Tilly’s Dungeons and Dragons notebook, however, she finds herself catapulted into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was her sister’s refuge. In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ‘90s pop culture, acclaimed playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.

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!

All three jackets. A few weeks ago I received an amazing gift from my husband's family - 3 vintage fur coats/jackets and 2 fur hats. I was over the moon excited about them. When his family offered them I was ecstatic at the chance to have some real fur options in my costume collection to use for future shows (when everything opens up again). At the moment I just have them in garment bags hanging in my office and the hats are in a hat box. We are in the process of redoing our garage and creating a better storage space for us, and once it's finished I will have the appropriate space for costume storage. Ideally I will have my own mini costume collection of basics and one of a kind pieces that I can use in shows.  Each jacket is different and it's really exciting to have these new fur options in my closet. One is a long white fur coat with an extra slip of fur (I assume for alterations). The tan colored brown one is shorter than the white fur coat and the two hats match the co...

For "Bus Stop" I had really wanted to make Cherie a wonderful, flashy costume for when she performs her musical number in the show. However, due to the overall look (set/lighting/other characters) and the fact that Bo then picks up and carries Cherie, I needed to scrap my strapless boned bodice idea for a top that would guarantee to not fall down. I ended up using a black tank top and adding some pink floral lace to it that was from the skirt's original hemline. I had constructed the original boned bodice but wanted to be safe and make sure there was no chance for a costume malfunction.  Below are some progress pictures for my bodice. Once I tried it on the actress (it looked spectacular!) I knew that if Bo grabbed her even just slightly in a different position, we could risk it slipping down. While it was tight I didn't want to risk it and we went in a different direction. The top ended up barely being seen due to the actress really loving the dressing robe and i...

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...

Alterations: 1. Waist ties that were sewn into the side seams were removed from the dresses. 2. Added a couple of inches to the side seams to give the actresses more comfort. 3. Added solid white hem to the short sleeves.

For my waitress looks I knew exactly what I wanted, and I was not going to compromise on my designs. I found great light blue and white checkered dresses that buttoned all the way down the front and had short sleeves. After my first fittings I knew I needed to add a little bit of wiggle room for the actresses to be comfortable and to guarantee that none of the buttons would have gaping in the front. I also needed to add plain white trim to the sleeves to get the exact look I wanted for the diner dresses. First I needed to remove the ties that were attached at the side seams of the waist line. With aprons over top the attached ties were in the way and created a more lumpy look at the waistline. Armed with a seam ripper I removed the ties. Since I didn't have matching fabric and I didn't want a solid color addition to the side seams. I then ripped the ties open, ironed them flat, and serger the edges. These pieces are what I used to add an inch to each side seam on both d...

Two of the main characters in "Bus Stop" are Grace Hoylard, the owner of Grace's Diner, and her high school helper, Elma Duckworth. I had an idea in my mind that they would wear matching dresses and aprons, but their ages and personalities would be shown through their accessories and small touches, like makeup and hair. I found a great light blue and white checked, short sleeve dress that would work for both women. They did need altered to fit my exact idea - I ended up adding white to the sleeves and removing the waist ties that were attached - but they looked great! I paired the dresses with matching white aprons, white socks, and white knock off Keds.  For Grace, a business woman whose husband is always away, I added a white scarf to contrast with the actress's fiery red hair. As for Elma, an excellent student looking forward to falling in love, I took extra fabric from the dress so she could make a bow for her high ponytail hairstyle. Grace had a full face...

I love creating mood board during my design process. It's a great way for me to select my main inspiration and pair it with a color scheme. The mood boards help me communicate my ideas with the others members of the production staff, such as the director. My current show is "Music Man" and while the show isn't cast yet, the director is miles ahead with her scheduling and we've already had our initial design meeting. Pictured right is my initial mood board for the townspeople in "Music Man."  Of course the colors can be changed to accommodate the costume pieces available and the final set decisions, but for now it's a decent start to the general ideas for the background characters in the show. The director is hoping to hold auditions end of May, and then I'll be able to do measurements and start pulling costume pieces from the stock available. I am loving the 1912 time period silhouettes  and look forward to getting to piece together these l...

I pleated the fabric and then laid it on the mannequin to see if I was getting the right overall look. After checking how the pleats looked I went ahead and pleated two sets of the gold fabric that fold over themselves giving me a total of 4 rows. I thought an easy way of handling the pleated fabric would be in it had a muslin backing along the top. I then made a neckband and a small section of muslin to attach to the neckband. I thought the muslin backing would help make the gold pop. I then sewed the layers of pleated gold fabric to the section of muslin. After I made the fur layers of pleated gold I decided the neckband looked a little dull. I then added the gold fabric but horizontally to the neckband. Lastly I added snaps to the back for closures. After sewing 4 layers of the gold I thought it needed a little more to it but I waited to see how it looked with the entire outfit on the actor. Once I tried it on the actor I trimmed the bottom row and then added ...

Here are almost all of the wigs used in the show. I have used wigs in a few of my shows so I'm not a total novice, but it was slightly overwhelming to do so many wigs for "Farinelli & the King." In total I had to find, purchase, and style 10 wigs. Some actors had to wear more than 1 for the show as they were playing different characters or older/younger versions of their character.  While it was a lot of unexpected work, I did enjoy working with the wigs. A lot of them just needed to have their curls fixed and re-pinned. I did however need to powder a couple to decrease the shine from the synthetic look. I wish I had taken a wig class or something while in college, it's been a lot of fun learning process, but it'd be nice to have some solid guidance.

For the King's look on stage when he gets dressed to go off to war I needed to make a sash that would be perfectly regal. His look consists of the vibrant blue jacket, a blue sash with floral details, a silver metal breast plate, and this golden sash that ties around his waist over the armor. (Plus the rest of his outfit) Armed with the waist measurements (plus the breast plate armor) I made a long rectangle for the part that ties around the King's waist. I then made a separate wider rectangle to drape and make the bow like part of the sash that gets shown off to the audience. I pinned it in place and hand stitched it. Once finished I added a silver branch broach to where the bow part attaches to the waist.

For the Queen in "Farinelli & the King," I knew I wanted to make her glamorous despite the settings she's in during the show. She goes from the palace in Madrid to an Opera house in London, back to Madrid to then live in a forest, to loosing her husband and being in mourning. I had initially wanted 5 costumes but due to timing and limitations of costume changes, I had 3 and then a long black velvet cloak for her scene in London. This post is about her very glamorous all black ensemble for when she's in mourning. Puffy sleeved, black satin 80s prom dress ready to travel to the mid 18th century! Here's the back of the 80s dress after removing a very large flower and bow. To make this dress work as the main piece I decided I needed to eliminate some of the pouf in the sleeves. I took the sleeves in about 2 inches. To go with the solid black dress I decided to drape a skirt that the actress could tie around her waist. I used pleats, sewed a black sat...