"You're not the ugly step sisters, you're the pretty step sisters."

It's spring concert time at K's school, and my sewing machine is smokin'! This year K will be one of the ugly stepsisters in "the Granny Awards." She and her friend S, fight to the death over a tiny plastic shoe, all whilst singing and keeping a straight face. The director told me K needs to fight a bit harder because the other step sister, her daughter, is a red head with two sisters at home. K is loving every minute, and is so proud of her bruises.

Her costume had to be ugly and K immediately thought of a long, yellow, flowered dress, made and worn by her great Grandmother in the 70's. She dug it out of Narnia, you know the deep, dark, back of her closet, and even after years of dress up, it was still in pretty good shape. It was way too long and way too big, but after a week of pinning and tucking and fussing, it turned out quite ugly.

Turns out, bows are the epitome of ugly. So we added a sash and two big orange bows, one on the back and one in her hair. The one on her back is stiffened with netting inside and held in place with thread and snaps. When her stepsister pulls on the right side, the snaps should let go and it should hang like it was torn in battle. I desperately want to crimp K's hair to make it just wild, but she won't let me. Please comment and tell her she should let me. :D

K's one requirement was sleeves. She has to fall down, roll around, and play tug of war, so they had to be puffy, cause puffy is ugly too, but really loose. So K designed them and I cut and sewed and ripped out, and then repeated a couple of times, before I got it right. I wanted to make one of the sleeves tear away, but I realized, stepsister has two sisters , it'll just happen.

The skirt was a little too narrow, and our first thought was to cut the center front and put in an orange pleated panel. We kept pinning and folding and just couldn't get it too look right, so we opened the back seam and hid another yard of fullness in a cream colored satin that wouldn't show too much. Looks much better, ugly, but not too ugly.

K's last requirement was a higher neck line, which I added in the orange material first and then ripped out and redid in the cream, the orange was a bit too much. It's higher, but open in the back, so she won't strangle, I hope.

And she'll be barefoot, so the footman can "try on the shoe" without actually touching her. Cause this is middle school, and that just ain't happenin' people. Touch a girls,...foot! Yuck! If we can only keep them thinking that way till college.

One that note, when the parts were announced, the boy next to her, who is already shaving, whispered, "You're not the ugly step sisters, you're the pretty step sisters." K was so giddy when she told me, and is not allowed to talk to that boy again,... cause he is shaving!

I'll post pics from the performance, if I can hold the camera steady. I've seen them rehearsing and it's a hoot!