SANT SWEATSHOP UP AND RUNNING

It's starting to be crunch time for hula sewing. No matter what I do or say, every year it is March before I have fabric and costume/pattern ideas cemented and I can get started. (The luau is the last Saturday in June.)

This year I have a lot of sewing to do. I have to make 9 (or 10 if "Uncle Gene" persuades Kuulei to count Molokini as an island) holokus to make. (Formal fitted mu'umu'us.) These are going into Kuulei's collection and are partial "payment" for my daughters taking hula. Kuueli is making her Luau this year a Lei Day celebration and so she will have a queen and princess representing each island (different colors) and one for the Queen in white. The king will need a large cape and the standard bearers will need smaller capes.

For the ladies who hire me to sew for them, I am making new awana (modern hula dances) dresses for them. We are roughly using this pattern:

If you look closely at the back you can see that it will be a bit tricky to add the sleeves that the ladies so desperately want. I think that I will be making 10 to 15 of these.

The ones who still need their ancient costumes will get peasant tops, pau skirts, pantaloons, and large sashes that drape across the body. I just will have 3 to 5 of those to do.

The keikis will wear kekepas that are painted like the tapa cloth that the ladies wear. I am NOT painting anyone else's tapa cloth. It takes ALL day to paint one. In any case, I think I will be making about 12 of those.

I may also sew for her Couer d'Alene students. Kuulei has about 40 or 45 dancers this year.

I will also be gone for more than two weeks in April and I was recently suckered into teaching a class at the Stake Family History Seminar in April.

In the meantime:

I sewed Sari a new pau practice skirt. She outgrew hers from 4 years ago. Go figure.

TAPA CLOTH

Kuulei asked me to teach her hula women how to make faux tapa cloth the way I did hers and Rachel (for their ancient dances pau skirts). Tuesday night we had a bunch of ladies over to learn from the biggest faker of "I know what I am doing". Kuulei brought her daughter, Tearzah and all my boys were in bed and three oldest were at mutual so I turned Tearzah loose with my camera. Here are just a few of her shots:

The women drew some really amazing designs. This leaf is perfect, in my opinion, as it will be simple to outline the negative space.

These geometric shapes are super cool, but I have to say I would tear off my own arm and beat myself with it before I would attempt to paint that.

Even this is a little complex for me, but it sure will be beautiful.

Just a few center details and this one is perfect, too.

A few of the women in my home.

And a few more. This mom and daughter team had me in stitches all night. They are perfectionists too. I will need divine intervention when I sew their dresses. Or my mom. I'll for sure have to get my machine tuned up so all my stitches are exactly the same size EVERY time.

A couple more ladies. And we aren't done yet!

Rachel's friend Erica wanted to add some pizzaz to her skirt from last year.

I had a great time! There was a lot of loud, fun, positive energy flowing.

LUAU DRESSES REVEALED!

This is crunch week. The week before the Luau is always crazy and I thought I was out of trouble this year because Kuulei said everyone could recycle their costumes.

Except they couldn't. Turns out girls (and women) grow.

Yesterday I had to sew three dresses and two sashes, AND paint Rachel's skirt. I stayed up until 2:30 on Tuesday night, then got up at 07:00 on Wednesday (yesterday) and sewed all day.

This is how I painted the fabric for Rachel's skirt. These squares are eight inches and I painted THIRTY of them!!! That is SIX YARDS! Now I have to wait for it to cure and then sew it into a skirt that looks somthing like this: and I have to sew Rachel a sash too.

Three dresses that I had to make this week are like these orange and red ones (top for the orange, bottom for the red behind Rachel). They all have to be fitted to the person wearing them. They take just about 4 - 5 hours to sew. The other one was a blue mu'umu'u like shown in the top picture. (And I think I sewed nearly every costume (except the ugly or wrongly made ones) in these pictures, by the way.)