Seven Brides for Seven brothers - (2)

It has taken me a while to find the photos I wanted to include in this week's blog. They are of the dresses which we had for our “Spring dance” which were completely made of patchwork and created by a lady of our wardrobe committee (we were lucky to have three or four ladies who took responsibility for hiring and making costumes, so that our directors could let their imaginations run wild, or at least to have some creative input into the costumes!) Their houses were like Aladdin's cave for seamstresses, full of bits of material, sequins and feathers for creating just the look that was required.

These were our patchwork dresses :

the seven brothers had shirts to match.

Our wedding dresses were hired in, each of us having a different colour, again matching the brothers shirts.

Lovely as these were they were much more difficult to dance in, and so heavy that in the final dance when our choreographer had the brides doing pose turns in a diagonal line across the stage, instead of single turns, the weight of the dresses carried us on to doubles and triples, and made it very difficult to stop!

The fact that we were colour co-ordinated made it quite easy to get presents that were the same for everyone, just in different colourways, so little bouquets and ribbon garters for the brides were favourites.

Those of a more crafty nature made patchwork pin cushions or full size cushions, and our choreographer had had made a full set of knitted dolls representing each of the couples. (I still haven't found the pictures of these, but will add them when I find them)