Sewing Martha May and Cindy Lou

By comparison, sewing the Martha May and Cindy Lou costumes were easy. The Grinch costume was so complex that almost anything would be easy by comparison! Also, since people would primarily be focusing on the accuracy of the Grinch, I knew I could have some flexibility on these costumes. So long as these costumes were in the flavor of the characters, I didn't think it was necessary to stay exactly on "script". When we did the costumes for the first time at Halloween, the video and DVD had not been released yet, so I knew 99.9% of everybody seeing us in public would not recall exactly what Martha looked like and as long as our Cindy had the wig and her cape on, nobody was going to care about her overall outfit. I was right. The focus was on how close to Jim Carrey I was. Of course, our little Cindy Lou is so cute, nobody thought twice about the accuracy of her costume. In fact, since all the costumes I've ever done were always intended to be seen in person or on stage, I always modify them with this in mind. Without the benifits of close-ups as you get in movies and television, it is necessary to make things look good in person. Some things must be overdone and others must be subtle. That is a judgement call and I take this fact into account during the entire design process. So let's take a closer look now at Martha May.

If you were going to be "movie accurate", the Martha May gown appears to be a one peice dress. I scoured my HUGE collection of Grinch books, pictures, clippings, trading cards, magazines, etc. to find as many pictures as I could of the costume before starting the design. We decided it would be much easier to do it in two peices. For one thing, it would be easier to pack up and take on the plane. For another thing, I felt it would be easier for us to be able to work seperately on different parts of it at once. I was right on both accounts.

Having designed costumes for many different people, I also took into account my Martha's body type. She is a lovely, plus sized woman and this Grinch wouldn't want it any other way! She didn't need the extensive gathers at the point where the bodice met the skirt, as we see in the dress made for Christine Baranski. My Martha has a proportionately small waist to her hips so I wanted to emphasize this wonderful feature. I decided it was best to extend the length of the bodice to the hips and the skirt would be around the waist . The bodice was taken from a prom dress type pattern and the skirt was just a tube with an overlay of various layers of tulle.

Below, my Martha is adding the finishing touches to the tulle overlay. I suggested that a thin, light covering of liquid glitter would look good and not be overwhelming.

Here we see my Martha adding the rhinestones to the tulle overlay. They are size 20 Austrian crystals and she is using a jeweling glue to add them. It dries invisibly and is strong enough to support the weight of the stones, without the hassle of using metal backings and a machine to attach them.

Here we see some of the progress. Needless to say this is a time consuming project, but in the end it was well worth it. The movie dress seemed to have a pattern in the tulle of tiny red dots. I thought the Austrian crystals would look much nicer in person, especially at night when light would hit them in just a certain way and they would glitter and shine.

Here we see a close up of the work being done.

On the bodice, I decided that the large diamond shaped, glass sew-on jewels would be a nice effect. Examining the movie dress, you will notice a pattern which is part of the fabric on the bodice. It looks fine on camera but wouldn't show up as well in person, much less at night. The glass jewels catch the light nicely and add interest to the bodice without being overdone. She is wearing velvet gloves, which like the movie costume, are a shade off from the red of the bodice and the bolero. The bolero was made using maribu feather boas. The movie costume seemed to be a stole, perhaps artificial rabbit fur, but I can't be sure. The wig is a deluxe Showgirl from Lacey costume wigs in Manhattan. I was originally going to put the hair up like Baranski's, but then I thought it might be more practical to leave it down. After all, Halloween night Upstate, NY would be chilly at best and this would keep her warmer. I kept with the 1940's theme that the movie Martha had for the wig and the make-up, but taylored it to suit my Martha specifically. At the time this picture was taken, she didn't have her earrings or collar made yet, however, they have been done since then. The Martha gallery pictures include a collar and earrings that were intended only to fill space and when we have new pictures taken next time, I will post the pictures with the new , hand beaded, custom made collar.

click here to see the Martha Costume Gallery

The Cindy Costume information is still under construction.

click here to see the Cindy Lou costume gallery

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