I'll try to find others.

Scroll down a bit and they give full instructions on how to make two kinds of traditional Thai pants with illustrations.

Linda

 

This is an example:

When does your "King and I" go up?

 

We are opening on November 8, 2007. 

 

By the way, I found some outstanding backdrops that I am going to rent.  A set of 8 drops and borders that are very colorful and well done.  

Here is a link to photos of them on our "King and I" Production Blog: 

http://gdsking.blogspot.com - http://gdsking.blogspot.com

 

-Dana

Then get the actor to give you a pair of his shorts that fit him well...and as tightly as possible.  Cut the shorts shorter and make sure that all of his private areas are well covered.  Now sew the costume pants to the shorts.....at least you'll know that he is covered up and that the costume won't fall down. 

I have been searching the web for a good pattern.  I remember a few years ago one of the pattern suppliers had them specific for King and I.  But I'll keep looking.

 

Cloth has always been labor intensive to produce (I am a weaver) and most early clothing used fabric straight off the loom, adding triangle gussets to increase width where needed. This translates into long narrow pieces of fabric used whole  in many cases

 

The pants appear to be a continual length of silk fabric wrapped aroung the waist once (possibly twice) and then pulled up through the legs and tucked or belted... It would be very cost prohibitive to used silk (you could wrap silk fabric several times without bulk being added) but if you tried the idea of it on a person and then figured out a pant that could replicate it using the very generic pant pattern above you would get a pretty good look without worrying about southern exposure

 

if you made the straight wide bloomer style pants and pulled the threads on the inside you could get an interesting look... it would not be too complicated and you probably could even put an elastic waistband in them.

 

I do not like using velcro because of it's distinctive un period sound when ripped apart and I have not found it terribly reliable... just a personal preference (I am old fashioned too)

 

just some thoughts

I am glad we could help here.  My costume designer has thousands of costume books and this is one she highly recommends for those that have little experience with creating costumes for a show. 

One thing I would like to point out, this is theater and though velcro has that annoying sound, most audience will not see or hear the velcor.  It really is useful for quick changes.  The use of safety pins or other fastners can take longer than what is needed for quick changes. 

No need to build the complete Eiffle Tower just for a scene in Paris.

New here - I work with an all volunteer Theater group.  We seat about 200 in our building but for small theater we pride ourselves on "big" productions.  We just finished King and I at the end of August.

We cheated a bit with the thai pants and i think we were very successful.

I know because I altered a lot of them.

We made simple skirts, yes skirts for pants - elastic waistbands and to the knee length. Then we had long strips of same fabric about 6-8 inches wide and attached inside the waist band on the front and the back (between the legs)  looked great - we had numerous kids wearing them as well as the king and they put them on just like pants.

We also canibalized old satin prom dresses.  Removed sleeves trimmed down to straight skirts, added the cross body sashes of silky fabric strips and sequin trims etc.  We did some matching of colors or trim "mother" to "children"  They did look pretty good.

 It was quite spectacular in look for pretty cheap.

I also read about t he velcro and we use it often as it does help with adjusting sizes as well as the quick change issues.

 

Good luck with it, drose - Great show

 

We have four big racks of costumes ready so far, most of the platforms are complete, and we are finishing more and more props on a daily basis.  Tomorrow my lighting cue reports to knock out some of the basic hang and rough focus.

 

If you care to, you can follow along with the process on our Production Blog at this address: 

 

To DramaMamaStill:  yes, I usually try to paint the inside of the coke bottle bottoms for a better shine.  Much like you paint the back side of a piece of glass to make a mirror.  But on this show I am also the Lighting Designer!  So I would rather not have the rosettes so shiny that they glare and upstage the actors.  So, not only am I painting the bottles on the outside, but I am also dusting them with copper and black paint to give an "aged patina" effect.  (And besides, some of the bottles are from Sprite soda, which are made of green plastic).

 

*We started construction of the coke bottle rosettes this weekend.  You can see photos of this project under the October 21st entry called "Blitz Bottles" on my production blog:   http://gdsking.blogspot.com/ - http://gdsking.blogspot.com/

 

 

TonyDi

The chorus just rehearsed what I call "the royal flashing scene" last week.  The girls bow for the King's entrance and their hoop skirts moon him!  One of the few big laffs of the show.

 

The cheap, simple and expediant way to do this gag was to sew Hula Hoops into stock dresses.  However, after some testing, the costume designer encountered two complications.  One, the Hula Hoops were not big enough around, and two, putting the hoop into the dress itself looked bad.  It made the dress look like the "Tweedle Dumb" costume in a Disney parade!  

 

So the solution was to change hoop material and move the hoop to an inner slip skirt.  The new material we found was some 8' lengths of 1/2" outside diameter PVC plumbing pipe at Home Depot.  (It's thin water pipe used to run a little water to the ice maker in your fridge, etc...).

 

The PVC pipe is rigid yet bendable, and could easily be cut to the proper length for each different skirt.  We joined the two ends by inserting nails inside the joint and taping it up.  After the hems were sewn into the the skirts, then the pipes were inserted and joined.

 

The costume ladies found a bunch of old stock slips from other shows in our storage area.  By putting the hoop into the slips instead, it allowed the outer dresses to fall naturally and look better.  During the costume parade yesterday, the girls tested the new hoop skirts/slips.  They worked pretty well, but in my opinion, the outer dresses will have to be pinned or sewn to the rim of the slips so that the dresses won't bunch up on the girl's backs when they kneel and flip.

 

You can see the photo of the girls with the hoop skirts on my production blog.  Go to an October 21st entry called "Blitz Hoops" :   http://gdsking.blogspot.com/ - http://gdsking.blogspot.com/

 

The "coke bottle rosettes" and the "homemade hoop skirts" that were discussed above all work well too!

 

To see photos of the show, you are welcome to view the entire 3 month process from start to finish on my Production Blog at:

http://gdsking.blogspot.com/ - http://gdsking.blogspot.com/

 

Just 3 months until "Seussical"!!!  -Dana

 

 

The Thai headdresses used in the royal dance in Act I, Scene 2 and in the Uncle Tom's Cabin Ballet in Act II were "home made".  

 

Here are some pictures.

Act I:

http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingHeaddresses.jpg - http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingHeaddresses.jpg

Act II:

http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingBalletEliza.jpg - http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingBalletEliza.jpg

 

They were simple to make.  We made a form mold using a styrofoam wig head with a styrofoam tree cone from a hobby shop on top.  This was covered in plaster strips, (like a cast on a broken arm).  Then some gold paint on the outside and foam rubber liners on the inside.  Volunteers hot-glued tons of jems and beads on them, plus an unbreakable Christmas ornament at the top.  A good craft project for parents of the cast on our "Parent Blitz Day".

http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingHeaddressFab.jpg - http://www.lowell.to/DesignKing/KingHeaddressFab.jpg

 

These hats are VERY show-specific, and odds are, I won't be doing King and I for another ten years.  No doubt by then they will get crushed in the prop room!   

 

So Ruthie, the director, and I would just as soon see them put to good use.   Although, with all the productions going on here, we just don't have time to get into the "rental business"...as you can imagine.  So I would prefer to sell them to you...and you could then re-sell them to the next theatre troup who needs them. 

 

Maybe a $20.00 donation to our Thespian Club for all three.  Then add postage to Hawaii. 

 

Please e-mail me if you are interested in them. 

Thanks, Dana