Gilligan's Island: Ginger Twist

That is not an optical illusion or special staging just for the photo, the skirt of this dress was drafted to make the pleats twist around Ginger's hips.  It was a lot more mathematically involved to achieve this effect than it looks.  Nonetheless, I like the way it turned out, even if the dress looks more simple in pictures than it does in real life.

I remember that Ginger had two standard outfits on the show, her pearly white dress, and the cheetah print dress that could be repurposed as a swimsuit.  I remember seeing at least once that she had a tight cocktail dress made from sail canvas with "S.S. Minnow" printed on the thigh, which I thought was genius on the costumer's part.

It was kind of hard to find a good picture of her in the cheetah dress, although the picture of Mary Ann wearing it while suffering from a case of amnesia (which made her think she was Ginger) were plentiful.  Go figure.

The black top is criss-cross seamed to match the seams of her pearl dress, but it's hard to see, which reinforces my preference to not use black in my designs.  In this case, though, the black was necessary because there was no way that I could make the entire outfit out of the cheetah material, it would just be "too much" and no other color than black would pair well with the print, so black it is. Still, the bodice fits her like a glove, which I love and is something you can't hide, regardless of the dark color.  I also placed some hand sewn flowers trimmed in black sequins on the shoulder to add more interest.


The long mermaid skirt is removable for extra versatility!  While I can totally see a starlet walking onto a tour boat wearing the long dress and thinking it's a perfectly fine dress for sailing, if you get stuck on a deserted island, a shorter cocktail dress is better just for convenience sake.  And, oh, it looks good in real life and I can see some people liking this version better as it looks a little more youthful.

Oh!  And!  It's my Birthday!

Gilligan's Island: MaryAnn's First Boat Trip

First of all, those of you who know the personalities of my girls should not find it surprising that it took a lot of convincing to talk Raine into portraying innocent and happy MaryAnn.  She wanted to play Ginger.  But when I showed her that my MaryAnn outfit was going to be edgy and the wig she would wear would be one of my human hair ones, she relented and promised to try and smile in the pictures.  She still looks moody in some of them, but she works the outfit, and I can see an excited modern Mary Ann wearing this on a boat!

This outfit is a little MaryAnn/Gilligan combo.  As you can see,  it's inspired by Gilligan's color scheme with the white full-leg pants and red top, and MaryAnn's gingham print tied crop-top blouse.

(Edit: For the life of me, for all of the various costume pictures that I found with Mary Ann's checkered blouse being the signature choice, I could not  find one single picture of Dawn Wells wearing it!  The closest I found was a combination of this and this.)

I experimented with the waistband of the pants by making it quite high with a flare-out at the top, which ended up looking quite nice!  I thought there was a good chance that it would make the wearer's waist look bigger, but I think it might do the opposite by giving the impression that the lady's waist is so small that, Look!  It doesn't even touch the waistband!  As long as the shirt underneath is tight enough, I think I could make an even more pronounced flair next time if I try this look again.

The top utilizes my "bishop sleeves coming out of a short sleeved jacket" look that I am trying to make one of my signatures.  This time it works, thank goodness!  Sometimes it doesn't, and I am still trying to figure out exactly why it looks good with some combinations and other times, it looks just wrong.  Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated!

I wanted to keep Maryann's belly-baring crop top but cover her up more.  Doing a half shirt would be just too obvious, so I made an extra-short cropped jacket instead out of the same material as the undershirt, all of wich were made from less than one and a half  yards of fabric.

As a Bonus, I've put up the scene from "Gilligan's Island" featuring the 3 ladies singing as "The HoneyBees".  I've had this song stuck in my head since I started this outfit, and now, it will be stuck on yours!

My favorite lyric:
"You need me
Like a baby needs it's toy,

Like Hawaiians need their Poi."

Gilligan's Island Collection: Mrs. Howell Loves Her Accessories

Mrs. Howell is ready for the cold island weather in her new green plaid coat over a simple belted lime green shift dress.  Doesn't the fresh infusion of color make her look years and years younger?                            On the shawl collar, she has placed a priceless diamond brooch and has topped off the outfit with a white fur Q-Tip hat with pink tips made from stray imitation rabbits that were found roaming about the island.

This coat was cut wide all around the bottom for a little extra drama and fullness.  I also added some extra interest by putting in welt pockets on the side fronts and next to the lapel.  Welt pockets are easiest to do on plaid because the outline of the pocket is built in to the fabric, and as I have said before, when it comes to using plaid, it is best to let the pattern on the fabric work for you and not against you.

You may remember I have used this material before.  I bought the whole bolt when I got it because it it's SO very hideousgorgorgeous 60's, I couldn't resist.  It was also very cheap, so that didn't hurt, either.

This coat can also be worn belted, as you can see here, for a more fitted look.  (You have no idea how difficult it was for me mentally to make something without a well-defined waistline!)

Battle Me: A Phuturistic Phail

It's not that it's ugly, it's just too... patterned.

Ever since I saw this fabric, I thought about making a cool futuristic pantsuit all made out of this busily-patterned material.

And it gives me a headache!

This would look I think much better with a pair of jeans, and the jacket is not completely horrid, but still, I sent to the hidden phail philes because I am not proud of it enough to feature it on the front page.

Thank you for helping!

I've chosen some of my favorites and listed them below.  You can click on the small pictures to see a larger view.  Please vote for 1-7 of your favorites on the poll to the right to help me see which ones are the "fan favorites" se far.

Mork and Mindy - A Surprise Denim Diva

I always thought that Pam Dawber was so pretty on 'Mork and Mindy.'  It might have just been her hair...  Admittedly, Mindy never showed this much cleavage when the show debuted in 1978, but this is today and I wanted to try to make a booby shirt. (That is the technical term that I just created. You're welcome.)

I tried something new with the construction of this blouse and it turned out so good!  I thought long and hard on how to construct a blouse that fit fit well, yet intentionally pulled apart in specific places in the front.  I won't go into specifics because not many people would know what I'm talking about, but the back of a pants pattern can be drafted in a certain way that looks unusual when laid flat, but makes the fabric mold around the buttocks (hehe, I said, "mold around the buttocks...") and I thought that maybe I could use a similar technique for the front of a blouse.

So I tried it and changed it and manipulated it and there you go!  Booby shirt!  Everyone will want one!

And, yes, there is a Mork companion that I made after this outfit, but it was not the best and I don't really want it to be on my front page, so I hid the post.  Nonetheless, if you would like to satisfy your curiosity and see it, the post is hidden here.

Sushi Ra - A Delicious Treat and a New Alter Ego

I remember there was a random skit on Saturday Night Live with Jamie Lee Curtis in the 80's.  She played a teenager who was rebelling against her parents and insisted she be called, "Sushi Ra".  That is the only thing that I remember about the scene.  It must not have been that funny, but the name stuck with me after all these years.  When I found this sushi fabric, I knew Sushi Ra would have to rise again.

This dress was meant to look like a life-size sushi roll.  Obviously in addition to looking interesting and edgy, the band around the middle is meant to be the seaweed wrap holding the whole thing together.  Adorable, isn't it?

I originally sketched the dress to have a ruffle applique detail on the side.  I wanted to make multi-colored circles to look like tuna rolls stitched onto the left side of the skirt and bodice, peeking out from behind the belt.  I spent hours gathering strips of fabric and stitching them together to make three circles, and when I placed them on the dress, it looked SO cheezy!  Interestingly, I didn't get as upset as I expected.  I still got to use the medium-sized tuna roll, however, by folding it in half and making it into a clutch purse as shown in the picture to the left.

Of course, the funny Japanese theme is also inspired by John Belushi's Samurai character from the 70's as well.  That is one reason why Raine's hair is weird, because his hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail. I have put the most popular Samurai skit on the top of the page here.  Back then, this was considered the most HILarious skit of all time.  Funny how tastes in humour change, huh?

I have a lot of this fabric left, so look forward to seeing another Sushi Ra sighting in the future!