#poto secret santa 17

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Since my PotO secret Santa asked to see more pictures of my sewing projects. 1. My Enjolras vest and Jason Forbach in his Enjolras costume. I saw the show 5 years ago around Thanksgiving, so Forbach was one of the actors who were collecting for Broadway Cares. I actually didn't make the vest, I bought it when a wedding retail place was seeing some of their stock. I sewed on all the gold crap thou. I hand sewed on over 100 buttons, it took me 9 hours.

2. My Wenn Liebe in dir ist herbert Shirt based off of the 2004 Hamburg pro shot. About 4 years ago

3 & 4. My original design Steampunk Sarah ballgown. Made all of it, even the hat. I was inspired by the 2004 hamburg proshot of Sarah's ballgown. I made gloves, but I forgot to wear them in the pic. Here's a really shitty pic of a pic with a green screen background from a con I went to years back. I made this the same year as the Herbert shirt

5. My 1950s zombie. Okay, the costume is from Goodwill, BUT I basically remade the skirt as it was WAY too big and long. I also added the red petticoat. The zombie makeup is all me, too. I dabble a bit in fx makeup. Here's a closeup from my dry run, I'm not wearing my glasses, so you can see my make up a bit better. Made the same time as the above 2 costumes

6. My Sarah Ballgown! Based it on, once again, the 2004 Hamburg proshot. The pic is from just last year at that Hogwarts thing at Barnes and Noble. My hair in this is based on the French version. Here's some older pics with a Barbie cake I made. Better close up on the makeup cause I think I look pretty good in this pic. Made the costume about 3 years ago.

7. My 1889 Mina Murray cosplay outfit! Okay, the blouse was store bought at a Goodwill, but the red alternations to it were all mine and I fully made the skirt. And by skirt I mean Bustle pad, petticoat, underskirt, and overskirt. Pic is from about 2 months ago at the James Lee house in Memphis. It's a victoian house turned bed and breakfast. (it was amazing. They loved my dress so much, when I asked if there were any antique places around selling victorian era stuff they gave me an original doornob from the house they had no use for.) Made last year.

8. My 1846 ballgown I have effectionatly named Cannibal's Delight since I made it to see a concert about the Donner Party (a group of people who got stuck in the late 1840s going west and cannibalzed each other) Also pictured at the James Lee House in Memphis, as that's the city where I saw the concert at. I actually finished sewing the dress in my room at the James Lee House as I was pretty behind in making it. All those roses were sewn on there, less than 18 hours before the concert. Made less than 2 months ago.

9. Okay, not a costume, but some FX makeup. A sort of Leroux!Erik makeup I want to show off that I did 2 years ago.

10. Also FX makeup. Me as Steve Barton as Krolock. I tried to make me look as much like Steve Barton in his Krolock makeup. I’m pretty proud of this one as I really don’t look like myself. Also done last year

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi it's secret santa again. thanks for the language learning tips. I want to see all the musicals you mentioned. Am a huge fan of german musicals now (listen to them more than english musicals). They are really good and there's something about watching it in another language (like going to the opera!). When you listen to the audio, you focus on the music. I like Ivan, especially when he sings tdv in russian - he has a very strong voice. Who are you favorite musical actors (and in which roles)?

There’s a proshot of that Dracula with subtitles on youtube! Not sure about the Rudolf one. I know that’s there’s a proshot VOB of it with optional subtitles. I watched it on my birthday YEARS ago. And I know how you feel, besides my 3 crap musicals, it’s german musicals all the way. OH! I totally forgot, some other famous german musicals, Marie Antoinette, Rebecca, and Mozart. All by the guys behind Elisabeth. No subtitles for Marie Ann, I had to google translate the plot from the German wiki article and read it. I’m pretty sure that was same for Rebecca and Mozart.

You like opera? I love Faust! (that recording on TV from the met staring jonas kaufmann was amazing) The Chicago lyric opera house is gonna do a production of Faust next year and I’m SO excited to see it! I’ve actually seen quite a few operas there, lucia di lammermoor, Onegin, Carmen, and just saw The pearl fishers two days ago.

Aw, man this is gonna be LONG, prepare yourself, I looked through my whole itunes library. (my utmost favs are at the top, with one at the bottom)

Yeah, Ivan is so good in Tanz. He’s like my favorite musical singer, love him in all his roles. Especially Tanz, Phantom, Jekyll/Hyde, and Master and Marg.

Big fan of Chris Murrary. LOVE him in Chess and Dracula. Liked him in the Jekyll and Hyde from around 10 years ago. Kinda iffy on the one from a few years ago. He’s really physical in the older one and he tries to do it in the recent one, but it turns kinda comical in confrontation. Thou his acting is very kitschy comical a lot, like in all his roles. still love him.

Really like Rob Evan as Jekyll and Hyde, chess, and from his cover of Total eclipse of the heart, would’ve liked him as underestudy Krolock in bway

Really love Davis Gaines in poto. Muirin double 0 7 was talking about how norm lewis was amazing in the role and his voice was ‘like melted, buttered Nutella dripping with the urgency of rum-tinged molasses onto a swath of crimson velvet.” For me, THAT’S Davis Gaines. (honestly everything they said is how I feel about Gaines)

Like Drew Sarich in Dracula and in his three roles in Lestat. Haven’t really seen/listened to him in Tanz thou.

Really like Rob Fowler’s voice as Death. Really want to hear him in the new Bat out of Hell musical (yes Jim Steinman made that. It’s a jukebox musical of Meatloaf songs. plots pretty crazy)

Love Hugh Panaro in Lestat and phantom. Actually saw him in PotO like 6 years ago. Saw it the same time I saw Rent off broadway, so had to be oct/nov 2011 

like Chuck Wagner in Jeykll and Hyde and the 2000 demo of Dracula where he sang the role of Helsing. The song Nosferatu is so good

Tommy Korberg is so good as Anatoly in Chess (never heard him in anything else thou)

I love the whole Russian cast of Tanz and Phantom:Andrey Schkoldychenko, Mercedesz Csampai  Tamara Kotova, Elena Bahtiyarova, Sergey Denisov, Vera Sveshnikova, Alexander Sukhanov, Rostislav Kolpakov, Igor Krol, Georgy Novitzky, Elena Gazaeva

I also really love the Hungarian casts of Phantom, Elisabeth, and Tanz. Fav hungarian singer is probably Szabó P. Szilveszter, LOVE him as Death/Halal. Really also like Egyházi Géza, Dolhai Attila

Shout out to the whole Broadway Tanz cast (except Crawford) you deserved better (except Crawford). You were pretty good (except Crawford) for what it was

Rapid round:

Phantom: Michael Ball, Jonathan Roxmouth, Max Niemeyer

Elisabeth: Andre Bauer, Roberta Valentini, Oliver Arno, Martin Market,Marle Martens

Tanz: Florian Soyka, Aris Sas, Kevin Tarte, Max Niemeyer, Mercedesz Csampai

Also really love this really unknown singer who was understudy Maris in the Les Mis tour back in 2012 and was understudy Quasi in the Hunchback musical, Ian P Gibb he currently sings at Disney World in this a Capella group called voice of Liberty. i’m putting this at the end since he’s so unknown 

Yep, thinks that it!

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

You guessed it, secret santa saying hi again. Very excited about getting to know you and finding out what kind of gift you will enjoy. Let me know if there is anything in particular you would like. We have similar taste. I am a fan of 3 of the musicals in your good category, the others I have not seen yet. Do you speak German?

No, well I’m learning it (along with Russian). I’m not that good thou. Funny thing, I kinda learn some words from Tanz der Vampire and Elisabeth. Like simple words, like eyes and excuse me. BUT there’s this parody song version of Wenn Liebe in dir ist back from 2000 starring the actual actors at the time and it’s normal exact Alfred has a playboy magazine instead of the poetry book. So at the point were Herbert say “Poetry, you must be in love” or something like that he says “Der Playboy. Du bist von geil, mon freund” Quick google search and that’s how I learned what horny was in German before the word for chair.

And I don’t really have anything in particular I want. Something else about me, that you might like to know is that I’m a huge historical costume nerd. I love the 1800s, but the 1880s are my favorite in particular. I just love the bustle gowns from the time. I even made myself an original design 1889 type dress as a cosplay for Mina Murray from Dracula. I’ve actually worn it to multiple Victorian houses turned museums.

Here’s an pic from a few days ago when I was at the Dreihaus muesum.

Here’s a better picture of it from a few months ago when I was in Memphis for a concert. I stayed in a Victorian house turned bed and breakfast

AND since I will take anytime to brag about my costumes, here’s my only other costume I made, 1845 ball gown I made at for a concert in Memphis.

It’s made from a fashion plate

The story behind it is that there was this concert called American Murder Song: The Donner Party named after this group from the late 1840s that tried to go out west but got stuck and cannibalized each other. It was really small event and I even got to meet the two singers! The songs were kinda about the Donner Party it was hard to describe but SUPER good.

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

POTO secret santa here saying hi. can I be your giftee next year? they're lucky to have you this year. How did you learn to sew and make costumes? What is your favorite dress in the POTO musical? My weekend was great thanks, worked sat but had sun with the family.

Maybe RJ or Rumple will make me your Secret Santa next year, if you do both the Tanz and PotO ones next year. You never now if something extra will turn up in the mail, I am gonna have your address once my gift arrives this year.

Trial and error kinda taught me to sew costumes and dolls. Well, trial and error and studying other people's work online. I took a sewing class in middle school and bought a sewing machine. But that only taught me basic sewing things. I honestly worked my way up to sewing full costumes. I sewed on embellishments and buttons to a red vest I bought for an Enjolras cosplay, I made Herbert's puffy shirt in Wenn Liebe in dir ist, made multiple petticoats, made a steampunk version of Sarah's ball gown, then actual Sarah ballgown, then lower part of my 1889 day dress, and now finally the 1840s ball gown. And I haven't used a store bought pattern in all of those! (I go though like a week of research and visualize what to do to and sew everything. Then days of muslin rough drafts!)

Oh, man tough question. All of them? Well, all of Christines. Wishing dress, Star princess, Aminta, Wedding dress... There's so many pretty costumes! In Tanz it's easy Sarah's Ballgown, Elisabeth her Hungarian coranation dress/wenn ich tanzen will, but Christine's wishing, wedding, Aminta, and star princess dresses are amazing. Non-Christine dress favs have to be Carlotta's two managers dress. But that's of course all replica. Recently I kinda like Serbia's hannibal Carlotta dress. I really like the rows of stuff. I kinda liked the historicalness of Estonian wishing dress, really plain thou. BUT I really like the Czech and Hungarian productions. Czech Star princess, czech Aminta, czech Sylvan glades, Poland and Hungarian Raoul masquerade

You know, I've actually been thinking about doing a sort of series of drawings of historically actuate versions of replica PotO costumes. Ah, maybe next year.

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi, how was your weekend? Thanks for the sewing tips. I will look into those tutorials when I get a machine. Do you celebrate Christmas or have plans for the holidays?

(Sorry for my replies getting progressively late) I celebrate Christmas, but ever since somebody couldn’t stay alive, we don’t really do much to celebrate. (that one text post that say “at a funeral: we’re gathered here today cause somebody couldn’t stay alive” is my fav)

But my dad’s family would get together in mid December to exchange handmade gifts and ornaments and then again on Christmas Eve. WELL, since my dad’s death a few years back my dad’s family have been jerks to me and my mom basically ignoring us. My half-sister (dad’s daughter from first marriage) asked my mom why we weren’t at my grandfather birthday party. We didn’t know it was happening, we weren’t invited! We weren’t invited to Christmas this year.

We actually don’t really have a tree. Christmas after my dad’s death we didn’t really want to get a real tree and do everything since we tossed our broken fake one a few years before. So one of our neighbors gifted us a foot tall little silver tree a week before Christmas that year. So we just use that.

Basically since somebody couldn’t stay alive, our Christmas plans have gone down hill. A friend of my mom is driving down from Chicago to stay with us this year, so that’s gonna be fun.

On a lighter note, here’s a funny story. I always thought my Aunts were wearing the same perfume at Christmas time. Turns out it was wine. Basically all my aunts reeked of wine. I can’t smell or drink wine now cause it just reminds me of my aunts. Honestly it’s kinda nice not to get together with my dad’s family cause they all drank too much and caused drama and shit

What about you? Got any plans for the holidays?

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi again, I have a few BJD but I can't sew. Would love to try making some costumes for them but seems a bit daunting. Where do you start, to learn to sew? Did you go to a course? My fav character is the phantom too. What is your fav adaptation? Have been to opera a few times but still have yet to appreciate it fully. Maybe if I get used to watching musicals in German, I can watch more opera in Italian. Hope you have a great weekend.

I took a course in, I think summer of 5th to 6th grade so REALLY long time ago. It was mostly about machine sewing, but a little about hand sewing. I made a little pin cushion there that I still use to today. But after that it was all trial and error. I’m not sure why, but I wanted to make little Phantom and Christine dolls in maybe 7th grade? I watched many YouTube videos of people making like no sew dolls and sew dolls. But my first doll was a failure. The limbs were sausages and everything was too small. Scrapped that. But I saw this one deviantart user’s Enjolras doll. (They’re actually on here @avthreads their deviantart account is no more, but they have a facebook account with pictures of their dolls) I really wanted to make it, so I replicated it. I then made Javert and Grantaire dolls and then I made smaller dolls (like AVthread’s) and my first small doll was the Valjean doll I gave to the Les Mis cast in 2012 (?) I know I saw the show on November 25th of 8th grade, a day before my birthday. And it was just trail and error, making my patterns larger and easier, keeping to all felt as it was easiest, no hems or fraying. Though now, over 5 years after I started, I’m more comfortable with material. If you really want to make doll clothing, I would really recommend looking to youtube. I found this video a week ago that really goes into making clothes for dolls (specifically Monster High) and it really goes into everything. It’s slightly advanced so it doesn’t go into patterns and sewing in general, but over all really good.

Hmm, fav adaptation. The Musical maybe? I like the deformity of the original book and kind of the characterization. I really like Kay’s Phantom book, but not the part after Erik meets Christine. It goes downhill in quality from that point foreword. Everything before that is great. I also kinda like the 1989 Robert Englund movie. I’m a sucker for horror movies. I really like how they used the story elements of Faust in it. Erik made a pack with the devil for his music to be loved by all, but got a fucked up face and now he kills people and cuts off their faces and graphs them onto his to not be so ugly.

I would say you gotta find that one opera you really like. Great Performances or something televised the Met’s production of Faust YEARS ago and I fell in love with Faust. Youtube has a ton of full operas on it. Some even with English subtitles! I found one of Don Giovanni, that I wouldn’t recommend if you’ve never seen the show before, but it is HILARIOUS. It beings with Don Giovanni's sidekick vloging! Like he just stands silently with his phone on him as the overture plays and his song begins! He sings at the phone instead of the audience! It just goes downhill from that. I love it and it is what Mozart would have wanted. Anyone who writes a song called “kiss my ass” (leck mich im arsch) would have wanted his opera staged like that.

I think I actually watched Faust before I ever listened to Tanz. I remember I was really into Les Mis and had listened to the 1991 French version and loved it. It was the same summer as the London Olympics in 2012. I believe I listened to Tanz in the fall of 2012. I think if you just find some music that is so good to you, you don’t really care if it’s in English. I found this song all in Hungarian from a Hungarian operetta maybe and it was sung by my favourite Hungarian singer and the beat was so good I loved. A bit later I looked up the lyrics, turns out he basically sings about how he’s gonna rape a woman.

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi, thank for the costume pics. They are amazing. I really like sarah's red ballgrown (2nd one). Great work with the Erik, Krolock and zombie makeup. Your phantom dolls are also really cute. Like how you sewed Erik's deformity. So nice of you to give it to Derrick Davis and the rest of the cast. Do you collect dolls? I'm need sight correction too (otherwise pretty blind) - but I prefer to wear contacts over glasses. Who is your favorite POTO character?

Thanks! I’m planning on doing a photo set with all my Doll!Erik deformities. I’ve done Lon Chaney, US style since I didn’t know the restaged tour had a different one, restaged tour, and now I’m doing Leroux style. (also planning on doing a secret santa doll photo set including the Tanz ones)

Does having a lot of the ones you make count? I don’t REALLY collect dolls. I have a beautiful porcelain doll in vague historical clothing and a Japanese style doll in a kimono, but she’s more like a doll size statue as you literally cannot move anything on her. She’s gorgeous thou. Both of those were gifts, probably from my grandmother. I know my grandma used to have the Japanese one. I also have a some Monster High dolls, a few of the vampire ones and 2 Operetta, the daughter of the Phantom of the Opera. The only dolls I would kinda caught as a sort of ‘collector item” type thing are my Phantom of the Opera barbies I bought off ebay years back. Oh, and some really nice Halloween Barbies that are like actual collector items, “not playthings” as it was listed on the website. I’ve been thinking about getting a Ball jointed doll, thou. I really like the sort of customization aspect. I want to make pretty historical outfits for it and dress it up in them, basically. I have a historical costume itch and doll clothes are much smaller and easier. should probably dig out my old american girl dolls

I’m near sighted. So, when I’m wearing my contacts, I have perfect far sight, but my near sight is slightly impaired by them! That’s basically the reason I don’t like to wear them most of the time, also aesthetic, I really like my glasses.

Favourite Poto character is probably the trash sewer goblin himself. Side note: theres a lot of wiggle room in interpretations, isn’t there? To Book accurate skelly boi to half deformed but still kinda hot to Extremely hot with a little sunburn to extremely murderous freddie kruger to no deformity “It's in your soul. That the true distortion lies” aka Rat Fuck Phantom. I still feel embarrassed that that movie came out literally 6 days before I was born!

ALSO on rat fuck phantom, the dad of the Christine actress was the director! She has naked scenes. She fucks the phantom! The phantom rapes her! wtf man

ANYWAY, what’s your fav poto character?

Also, do you like opera? I’ve been on a Don Giovanni kick for the past few days. I’ve been listening to the same few songs some by the same few people on youtube. Peter Mattei’s Deh vieni alla finestra is sooooo pretty. And I love Rodney Gilfry’s Là ci darem la mano. And Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s Fin ch'han dal vino!! Pretty sad that Hvorostovsky died on the 22nd last month.

AND I am in love with Luca Pisaroni’s verison of the Catalogue Aria at the Glyndebourne last year. Best Leporello. Love how they updated the written list of Don Giovanni’s conquests to photos of them. And I love how he starts to throw them in the middle of the song. His acting is just amazing. 

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

@rjdaae must be a mind reader pairing us together for POTO secret santa! I recently discovered tdv and elisabeth, and now want to learn German so I can sing along to the songs. Other than watching the subtitled songs on youtube, how else do you learn the language? Btw, love the victorian dresses, you are so talented.

A lack of language doesn’t need to stop you from singing along to the songs. I can sing the whole intro to Unstillbare Gier by memory and I really don’t know what he says. Same goes for Totale Finsternis, but I always manage to switch to French after a few verses.

But I’m learning from Duolingo, mostly. I also took a class in school last year. Memrise is pretty good, thou I mostly use Memrise for Russian. The flash card set up is pretty good for learning their weird alphabet. 

You a fan of the Russian production of Tanz? I love the whole cast. Ivan Ozhogin’s voice is soooo good. The Hungarian version of Elisabeth is super good. Szabó p szilveszter is amazing as Death/Halal.

On the topic of german muscials, you seen Dracula or Rudolf? The Austrian version is much better than the Broadway one. Thomas Borchert stars as Drac with Uwe Kroger as Helsing. Kroger is also in Rudolf as the antagonist role. Drew Sarich stars as Rudolf. (Rudolf as in Elisabeth son killed himself. Although she never appears in Rudolf, Franz Joseph does thou. The musical is about what happens leading up to the Mayerling suicides.)

And thanks!

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

What are your favorite musicals?

My favorite musicals are trash.

But seriously, I’m guessing you’re my PotO secret Santa? Hi! I like to put my favorite musicals into two groups, crap flop musicals and actual good musicals. 

Top 3 Crap Flops are 1. Chess, 2. Lestat, 3. Bat Boy

Top 3 Actual Good are 1. Elisabeth, 2. Tanz der Vampire, 3. tie between Notre Dame de Paris and Phantom of the Opera. I like to listen to Notre Dame more than Phantom but I’m more into the costumes, mythos, and characters of Phantom.

The reason I split them into two categories is that Phantom, the longest running Broadway show, should not be compared in anyway to Lestat, the musical that lasted 3 months on broadway in 2006 and has never been heard or seen from since. It’s just not fair to make a list with Chess and Lestat higher up than Phantom

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi, wishing you a beautiful day! not sure if you received my last message because I forgot to put a question mark. Your felt violin is fabulous! Such fine work. Did you make it? I posted your gift yesterday so hopefully you receive it next week. Any plans for the weekend? POTO secret santa.

Sorry for the late reply and no reply for the last message. I’m not the best at time management, so I’ve been really busy playing catch up with the last 2 dolls. 

Yep! I made the violin! I love it so much. I never really seen a violin in person, so google images was all I had.

And your package arrived in the middle of me writing this :)

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi again, do you have a favorite artist(s) on tumblr?

Hmm, got a few, so not gonna tag them. Janylate, K.M. claude (aka Father Claude), Alvadee, Muirin double 0 7, Rumpel (doodle) stitskinned, starlene, sully-s (who actually shares my birthday)

I really like the comics carrotsoup, Patrik the vampire

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi again, POTO secret santa here. How is your day going? I would choose the same for the top POTO/tdv/Elisabeth dresses. You seem like an expert dressmaker if you can make these complex dresses without patterns. I tried sewing with abysmal results. Do you have any more pics of your costumes online? (other than your I art link) I only recently became a fan of tdv so missed out on the tdv secret santa - next year.

My day's going pretty good, went to Joanns so I have everything I need for my Dolls. Still need to actually start them And thank you, but I am not an expert dressmaker, I’m extremely flattered thou! There’s multiple flaws in my dresses made from inexperience. Like, I really want to redo the bodice for my Sarah Ballgown. It looks just horrible to me now! And once I was so proud of the costume. Honestly my no-patternness is just me being kinda headstrong. “20 bucks for a pattern? screw that I can make one for free!”. Well, that and the fact I could not find any 1840 ball gown patterns for my latest dress. Tons of 1840s day dress patterns thou. 

And I just made a whole photo shot of my past outfits for you. Never realized how semi old some of them are. I made that Enjolras one in 8th grade, 5 years ago! To me it feels like forever ago. Check out my old glasses in some of them! Can’t believe I wore them for around 5 years. Man, I loved those. Wore them till just a few months ago when I needed a stronger prescription and they were too old to be safety reused. (the plastic was so old they could break when changing lens) Love my new ones, thou. (I don’t wear contacts except for special occasions, like wearing my costumes.)

[a-love-poet-at-heart]

Hi POTO secret santa again. Ivan is awesome. I'm becoming a fan the more I watch him as phantom or krolock. He's a giant with a powerful booming voice. I like Drew in tdv (one of the only 2 english subtitled versions on youtube), he is a cheeky vampire. It's a shame how one sparkly vampire ruined it, otherwise we would have more German musicals in English speaking countries. Enough ranting. How's your weekend going?

Hi, my weekend's been pretty good. I'm currently working on my secret santa dolls. Poto first as it's going to Europe. I've kinda been dragging my feet a little, as I've just started drawing out my concept for the dolls. Not sure what I'm gonna do for Erik's eyes. I could do some yellow button eyes, but not sure if I can find yellow buttons the size I normally use for doll eyes. (Normally all my dolls have the same black button eyes) I'm also thinking about gluing the smaller yellow buttons I use as decorative buttons on doll clothing onto the normal larger black buttons I use as doll eyes. Need to do a prototype of the double button eyes and a run to Joann's to see if they have larger yellow buttons. I probably have to buy some other materials things at Joann's for the other dolls anyway. The Tanz dolls are gonna be intricate hell, especially the Sarah doll! But thankfully it’s staying in America, so I can take more time to make them.

What about you?