velvet cape progress

Here is the fake fur lining all stitched up and ready to be basted into the cape which is made out of velveteen.
I cut the cape to have a wide standing grown-on collar, a centre back inverted pleat, and a train.
There is some structure in the collar of the cape. I cut an inner yoke of hymo, that extends into the collar and the collar section is reinforced with a layer of heavy white shirt fusible, which we laminated using stitch-wichery and then machine stitched the layers together to prevent any delamination in the future.
The hymo extends down the front edges of the cape, to provide support and stability which we will need when we get to the point of attaching the fur to the front edge.

This is the velvet being laid out on the fur in the other room where there is a free table.  

Denise started at the top and basted the two pieces together down the centre back and along the neck before attempting to baste the fronts. It is really hard to manoeuvre all this fabric around, so she will do what feels right on the flat then double check it on the stand. We will have a fitting with this, when the designer returns, so it will likely have to come apart, although I wish there were some way to not have to do that. The hems needs to be checked, as I am sure that the fur lining has lifted the overall length, and we have to make sure the actor feels okay with the length, especially at the front, since we don't want it to be a tripping hazard.

Here it is at the end of the day today (Tuesday), basted together and on a stand. The fur needs to be re-basted on the left front as you can see there is too much length there. Overall though, I think it is looking good. I should make a harness for it just in case, because it is heavy and slippery too.

Now we wait. Our designer returns on Monday so we should have a meeting, talk with the props department about the state of the armour, bijoux for placement of some decoration, boots and shoes to see if the boots they are making will be ready to fit, and then arrange the last fitting for all the costumes this character wears.

Finally today, some much needed supplies came in, and a few decisions were made so I can move forward with a stalled portion of the project.

fake fur and chain mail

    Well, I managed to get the fake fur cut out by 5 p.m. on Friday.
Susy even found some time to do a couple of stitching samples for me beforehand, just to see how it would behave at the machine.

The best way to seam this fur is to cut it on, or just inside the pattern sewing line and carefully pin then zig the raw edges together. This eliminates bulk at the seams, and is surprisingly strong- we both had a go at trying to pull it apart and couldn't. The zig stitch should actually fall over the raw edge, and if the tension is adjusted properly, you can almost pull the seam flat.

Once the seam is done, you can pull the fur out of the seam as needed with a yarn needle or even a plastic nail brush.

The cloak has bias to bias seaming over the shoulder and a straight to bias seam at the side back. In the velvet, the bias seams went together as cut, but, as you can imagine, the straight to bias had to be hung up to let the bias drop and subsequently the bias side dropped a good inch.
I don't know if a similar thing will happen with the fur, so I guess we will find out tomorrow as it is being put together.

The other thing I have to work out is how to best attach the chain mail sleeves to an under bodice that we made. I think it will entail a fabric strip with metal eyelets that is then sewn onto the bodice so the chain mail can be linked into the eyelets. Then we deal with what happens at the wrist and whether to link the chain mail to a cuff or a drawstring, because there is an armoured gauntlet glove to be worn but possibly taken off onstage.

leather pants and velvet cloaks

Last week seemed to be all about leather. Leather pants, leather gorgets, leather straps, altering old leather tunics and breeches.
This week has been a bit of a blur of fittings and figuring things out, chain mail sleeves and skirts and gambesons, and last but not least, the cloak.
The cloak of not enough fabric, the cloak of fabric that was then ordered last minute, from England, and the lining of fake fur that just arrived this afternoon. Finally.
Now it is just a matter of cutting it out.
It takes a bit of time to cut large cloaks out, partly because I am interrupted often almost continually during the day and also because I have to lay everything out in order to make sure the pattern fits in the yardage I was given, and then I have to cut it out singly, piece by piece. I have an extension for my table that I can use to make it 60 inches wide which helps a lot, but is very difficult to manoeuvre around.
This cloak has a centre back wedge shaped pleat with a trained hem and a partially grown on collar, so the centre back piece is about 86" long.

This is going to be fully lined in fur. Yikes! I'll have to weigh it when it is done just out of curiosity.
These guys have a lot of heavy costume to wear with armour, chain mail, cloaks and helmets and swords.
Quick change rehearsal should be interesting!

In case you were wondering how much yardage it took....they bought me 9 yards (8.3m) and I only used 7.2m!
      Tomorrow is for more fittings and to cut the fur lining, mask and knife at the ready.
I'll let you know how it goes.