Julie,
It makes me wonder if a straightening iron for hair would work for last
minute hem pressing? Maybe I will try it in a rush one day.
I have ironed some full-skirt hems while a few actresses and models were
wearing them. If you have confidence in what you are doing and the
actor/model has confidence in your abilities, they won't be scared. After
one night of rehearsals, the actor/model can pick up on your abilities
really quick.
During West Side Story last year, I rigged two full sized flags into two
actresses' underskirts with safety pins. The actresses lifted their skirts
to reveal the flags at the end of the song America. We had three minutes to
do the pinning between scenes. It worked. You can see a photo at:
http://www.costumegallery.com/Manchester/WWS/flags3.jpg
I had the safety pins already in their place in the skirts and petticoats,
when it came time to put the flags in them, my teams of dressers knew
exactly where to place them. The actors knew exactly how to hold the skirts
during the quick pinning to make the process quicker. I had my dressers
practice the pinning during dress rehearsals several times to get the timing
down to three minutes. You can't tell from the photo but the middle of the
flags are also pinned to the waistband of the petticoats to hold the flags
in place while the actresses danced vigorously to America. You could not
tell the flags were in the skirts until the actresses lifted their skirts.
We tried Velcro and snaps to hold the flags in the skirts but they were not
strong enough to hold up the flags through the America scene. These girls
really shook their skirts during the number. They looked great when they
shook the skirts in the dance! Especially the girl with the gold petticoat!
Thankfully the pins never opened and the flags stayed in the skirts.
Penny E. Ladnier
Owner,
The Costume Gallery, www.costumegallery.com
Costume Classroom, www.costumeclassroom.com
Costume Research Library, www.costumelibrary.com
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