Me & A 1800 German Couple
Welcome to my blog, this is dedicate to my process this semester on my independent study. That independent study is to build and construct costumes of a historic rendering of an 1800 German Couple. Check here for picture and comments on the process.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
She's finished!
Had my final fitting today and added all the closure and trims and hems. So she is completely finished!! I'm so happy with how it turned out!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Vest
This is just a quick snapshot of the vest almost finished in te real fabric. It's on a female dress form so it looks a little odd. I'm waiting till the next fitting to finish off the hem and shoulders in case I have to take it all apart sinves it's fully lined. I also finished the pants just have to put closure on them but that can happen after the fitting. I don't have a picture of those but they came out really well, I know sorta want a pair for my self.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
What happens when you spend 11 hours in a costume shop?
You can barely see the markings |
Epaulette! |
few hours which meant I got to continue on that bodice for The Rover. It now has sleeves and little epaulets attached. It's done for now until the next fitting, then we can add the little tabs to the sleeves. I basically spent a good chunk of time tracing and trying to find a marking tool that would appear on the interfacing fused onto the fabric. I found that you can see yellow tailors chalk really well, but when I ironed it went away so then I proceed to tried like 4 other things, yellow wax pencil, white wax pencil, white tailors chalk and finally just settled on the pink water soluble marker, it was the easiest. I put everything together, the sleeves are out of a very nice white eyelet fabric, It looks very nice with the wine colour.
Bodice with sleeves and epaulettes |
After that was all put together I took a quick break to eat food, that was the only time beside 10:30am that I saw daylight. When I got back I went to work on my project, I was looking over the schedule in the syllabus and was pleasantly surprised when I realised I am already a week ahead of schedule. This week I'm suppose to be working on but the Male mock together, when I'm actually finished and starting on the female. I also was laughing because did his Howard, I'm gonna use the wrong word thing. It say that I should "start switching fabric", it took me a second to figure out what that mean, he means I should start swatching fabric. Oh, Howard.
The only thing I had left to do on the male mock up was just put the sleeves on the coat, and make a collar. That took like 30 minutes, I already had to sleeve cut out. But, the collar was a little tricky to get the right shape, its not the best picture of the collar in the render. What I realise is that lapel shape needs to be changed and once I did that the collar looked in place. Now that male is done until we get Zach in to fit him, and then it will all have to come apart again to make adjustments to each pattern piece before we cut out the real fabric.
Bodice pieces all traced |
I move on to start cutting out the female, I have all here pieces into paper patterns now. There all a weird looking, thats what happens when you drape, thinks aren't as straight and "normal" looking as when you flat pattern. I was able to get everything cut out, Howard wanted me to test the front skirt first before I cut to out. It a shape that you wouldn't expect the skirt to be, so I cut on out to test and it still works the way I originally draped it to. I then proceed to cut two out, I didn't feel like cutting the underskirt or the back of the overskirt out yet since those are really easy and I know there going to work. So I decided to start to put together the front bodice and over skirt to make sure the piece all fit together. At the point how came singing into the shop, he is also slowly trying to convince me to wear the girls costume to graduation in May, which is just really funny.
He keeps saying how he wished we could have started doing these years ago with me, which if I knew actually what I wanted to go into 3 years ago I totally would have. I think I had an idea of where want to go after college better then most people, I've always know I want to go into theater and work in costumes. Which is pretty specific, I took me till this year to realise I want to go into theater and work in costumes and work in the construction and management end, which is super specific. It was nice to hear him say the this by doing this and having these skills I'll get more jobs, which is what I've know along, but it was nice to hear a professor say your good enough to be employable, especially in theater.
Hi Mary! |
TOP HAT TIME! |
My lovely German Couple |
Labels:
1600,
1800,
bodice,
coat,
costume,
flat pattern drafting,
german couple,
gmu,
regency,
restoration period,
sewing,
the rover,
theater,
trouser,
waistcoat
Monday, February 24, 2014
A little detour from project
Everything flatlined together |
Inside coutil, with boning tape. Everything is serged and stitched together, but no cording yet. |
people may be wearing this in the future, there for they don't need to be as easily adjustable. In costume you want to put extra seam allowance in, because after the show is done this costume will go into of stock and could be used 20 years down the road, for another actor. Costumes have a long and interesting live they must constantly be evolving from show to show, that is why in costuming things are constructed differently then in commercial or fashion wear. It doesn't mean one way is easier they just emphasise different things. For one in costumes an important part is what type of closure is being used, does it need to be a historical closure or a closure for a quick change. In commercial/fashion sewing that isn't as important, the more important question would be if its aesthetically pleasing.
Cording before its attached to bodice |
So back to the bodice after I serged everything, I stitched the SB and SSF seams together . I then began to cut bias tape for the cording that will go around the neckline and around the waist. Cording or piping is a common way to finish off edges and can also be use to add a decorative touch, if you use a
Bodice almost finished with cording around neck and waist |
What's nice about this is I didn't have to worry about patterning or fitting anyone I just go to put it together. It a relive when you just get told here sew this together and thats it.
Back view you can see that there isn't a back closure yet |
Side veiw |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)