Early in 2021, I was asked to direct and choreograph for a local CYT (Christian Youth Theatre) production of 'Aladdin Jr.' with a very talented singing director and now friend. Now, I'm not big on Disney things personally, but I love a good character-heavy show, the Arabian setting, the fantasy aspects, plus the challenge of putting on stage something audiences are primarily familiar with as an animated movie, surrounded with nostalgia for many of them.
Looking at many stage versions I could find, from big Disney and Disney Cruise shows to small high schools, to s girls high school with no guys whatsoever (that was a weird one...!), I pretty quickly pinned down what I was going for and what I wanted to avoid.
Thankfully, we were able to rent nearly all our costumes from another CYT, and make just the few remaining pieces and costumes needed. (our Jafar was well over 6 foot tall, and our Genie was built like a linebacker... so we had major changes there, plus a few small bits and pieces.)
One thing we found we needed was a cloak for Jasmine, when she's adventuring outside the palace. We had one very long, very plain cloak, which both Jafar and the Genie used at different times when in disguise; but Jasmine needed one that made her stand out from the crowd, while making her look a little less royal, and still look dramatic and lovely.
So I chose to make that cloak myself, as I had a very heavy one I could copy and I'd happily keep it to reuse in my costume stash.
I did a lot of searching to find what's been done before and where I wanted to go for Jasmine. This one (from a Disney Cruise show, I believe) was my favorite, and I seriously considered making the cloak into a full-fledged overdress like this instead. But the time just wasn't available. So I went with the color scheme instead; that more dusty, not-quite-navy blue outer layer, with a bright gold-yellow lining, and a cranberry red lace like trim.
When it came to the hood, I wanted something more practical looking than you see on most stage cloaks, like the first picture above (brown cloak), particularly with the attached scarf-like piece tossed over the shoulder.
But I loved the fairytale drape to the hood on the next picture (purple costume) and wanted to mimic that, along with the pillowy way Jasmine's hood hangs in the animation that most audiences would be very familiar with. Our Jasmine already looked very like an animated character translated to life.
Pretty quickly, I landed on linen for both the outer fabric and the lining. And since I couldn't find anything suitable in town, I ordered out for it so I could get to sewing the thing. Choosing two linen layers turned out to be a great choice, as the blue outer fabric was a much lighter weight than I had hoped from the photographs.
The yellow lining layer was a bit stiffer, and a good deal heavier, so I was a little concerned how the large shape would behave once the two layers were sewn together. But I actually love the end effect. The heavy lining serves to weigh down the whole piece, which makes it feel very real and practical, while the fine blue layer looks very light and airy and doesn't add bulk, so the whole thing moves really beautifully.
I used a large hooded cloak I already had as a quick pattern. I had already tested that it was a great length and size for our Jasmine. The only major change was narrowing the front 2 edges about 8" in total, and using a quick clasp as a closure instead of the ties on the pattern cloak, to make it more practical for stage.
Of course our resident princess, Feather, had to test out the quality of everything, just to be sure it was up to royal standards. And make sure I didn't make any mistakes.
...I think she approved. And then my faithful sewing assistant, Tangerine, had to get in on the action
just when I needed to lay out the pattern cloak to cut the rest of the fabric... He was very helpful, I'm sure.
Once it was all cut, the two side seams were sewn on both the lining and the outer layer, and then all the seams were pressed open, particularly since I wanted to attach both halves to each other down the same seams via a good ol' fashioned "stitch in the ditch" so it wouldn't be seen, but we could avoid any "ballooning" from the two layers of different weights pulling apart.
I attached the two halves together via the two front/opening seams, then the whole expanse needed pad stitching to keep it from shifting while I worked on the hem, attached the hood, and "stitched in the ditch" through both layers. The cats loved helping with the pad stitching. Especially the bigger one, Marshmallow, who thought I was crazy crawling all over the floor...
The hood was puzzle-pieced together from the big chunks of blue linen I had left over. Partly looking at my inspiration pictures, and partly messing with the strips I had until they were pinned in a way that made sense, and draped like I wanted. Then I just sewed it all up and attached it to the cloak body.
Once it was mostly in one piece, before I got too far, I took it in to rehearsal to double check it on Jasmine, and it was working well.
So I embarked on the long process of hand sewing "in the ditch" along those two major seams, to join the lining and the outer fabric. I thought about doing this on the machine, but the point for me was to make this stitching invisible and just prevent "ballooning", and I didn't feel like pinning those long seams to match perfectly alllllllll the way down... So, hand sewing it was. As you can see, Tangie really helped hold down the half I wasn't working on while I sewed.
...In between, at one rehearsal, our Jasmine tested out our Genie wrist-mounted smoke machines. Very cool.
I was unsure how I wanted to finish the hem, since it's so curved and I didn't have a lot of time, or want to add a bunch of bulk or deal with warping.
Honestly, the largest chunk of time was spent pad stitching the gigantic expanse of this project. (!!) Then trimming up the hem after it hung and warped as it needed, an re-pad stitching the hem. There was just. so. much. to keep from moving around while the main seams were sewn! (and here's Marshmallow, thinking I'm crazy crawling on the floor...)
So I finished 98% of this project in plenty of time, but I chose to leave the stay-stitching in the bottom hem edge, as we were about to go into dress rehearsals and I didn't have time to do something to the entire edge (well, if I wanted to, ya know, sleep). Plus I was pretty sure I wanted to create some bias binding to finish this hem, and I didn't have enough extra fabric to do it. The linen wasn't particularly prone to fraying anyway, so I'd rather think it through and hem it later.
So now that the show is over and it all came out lovely, I have more fabric to bind that edge. Whenever I get around to it...
I did add the cranberry red trim just on either side of the cloak opening, right before dress rehearsals. It was a great choice for stage, really adding texture and finish for the costume. But I do think I'll take it off in future, if I'm using it for historical settings and film and whatnot, as it feels too costume-y outside of the theatre context. But it worked great on stage. I loved the color palate on the whole thing!
All in all, I think this cloak came out beautifully, and really accomplished everything I was hoping. The weight of the thing and the 2-color effect whenever it moved were really lovely, and very fairytale-esque, while feeling real and fairly historical. The hood and the "scarf-wrap" part that tosses over her shoulder looked great. It really completed the animation-translated-to-live-action look, along with the contrasting color lining, which also added a lot of drama.
I wish I had a better closeup photo of the cloak AND her costume in action... I'll have to keep looking. At least I have this one from during a show. I'm excited to put binding around the hem, and see this used with other costumes in the future!
