I just got back from my three month summer stock theatre gig and as usual, it was a summer of "ghetto gets it done." Among my many challenges were the Springtime for Hitler girls in "The Producers." Giant sausages do not grow on trees, you know.
On one of our routine trips to the dollar store, the designer and I spied some fun noodles/pool toys in a bin...inspiration had struck! Two days and lots of giggles later, we were able to produce these gems.
We started by cutting the foam noodles in half laterally and sheathing them in the legs of old white pantyhose from our dead stock. We then twisted and stitched the noodles into the desired shape and pulled the hose tight and stitched that down as well.
The sausages were wired into shape using rusty coat hangers (never throw anything away!) and duct tape and then stuffed with polyfil from a pillow. The ends were secured by tying off the pantyhose just like a real sausage casing.
We used a layer of white spray paint to prime and set the hose and then did all of the "artistic" painting with acrylics and house paint that we had lying around. The primer coat is the most important, otherwise the hose will suck up everything like a sponge and you will never get an even coat. In the past, I have also used watered down modge podge for this step. (The pantyhose technique is actually really great for props and especially masks because it is cheap, pliable and lightweight...a must if you're going to be balancing a four foot sausage on your head).
Detail work was accomplished with ribbon ties for the sausage, beaded and sequined "salt" for the pretzels and several coats of spray-on glitter and varnish (they are show girls, after all).
We turned the larger pieces into headdresses by stitching them onto a base salvaged from several headband style vintage hats (also from dead stock). A large number of otherwise ordinary bobby pins secured them to the styled wigs
The giant fork is all me BTW.
The finished products on the girls.
The Beer Steins and Valkyrie shields are made from plastic dinner wear textureized with bits of trim and leftover fun noodles and then spray painted silver. The bras were all decorated using left over materials. The overall cost for all four of these costumes was less than $30 (that includes purchasing the base bras and panties). I'm thinking it was money well spent.
