Making samples

Well, since I last posted, work has been quite frantic, and although my contract has ended, my work was not finished! I could have stayed an extra week but decided that time off with the family was more important. 

I actually hated to leave the work for others to finish but I am sure Denise and Silvia will be fine without me. The garment that was in pieces was a leather doublet for an understudy. The original was made by someone else on the team, so I thought I would make a little sample of how I remember the process for reference.

Sampling for techniques is something we take the time to do when we are figuring out the best way to put things together, or are dealing with a specific fabric or when we change a previous technique. It is a great thing for new stitchers as well. 

Sometimes it is years in between making certain garments so even experienced people find a refresher helpful

In this case, I whipped up a sample since I won't be around to answer questions.
This is a leather doublet, with an interior structure of washed/preshrunk cotton duck. It has spiral boning in a few places to keep the shape from completely collapsing over time. The leather has been pretreated by our resident craftsperson who does surface embellishment and also breaks down the finished costumes. She reduced the shine of the original leather and also distressed it and painted it a bit before I cut it out.

Working with leather is not difficult but you do benefit from having a walking foot leather machine. there is the advantage of being able to use a raw edge with leather- no worries about fraying! You do have to be careful that you do not need to restitch over the same area, because the leather can and will perforate- and letting leather seams out leaves a very visible former seam line of punched holes. So it is best to make a toile and then you limit/eliminate  any changes once the leather is cut out.
The binding at the waist and the skirt are glued on, clipped and wrapped to the inside before being stitched. That line of stitching is top stitched through the binding. The stitch line to attach the skirt is done along the top edge of the binding to eliminate two lines of stitching in the same place.

The facing is leather, because we are making simple functional buttonholes, consisting of a stitched rectangle and a cut through the layers of the front. the facing has a raw edge where it is seamed to the front edge- this reduces bulk that a regular seam allowance would create.
We are lining this doublet, because it is worn open. The lining at the waistline will be finished last, by hand.

As you can see I have written all over it for reference, and after the doublet is complete, the sample will reside in our sample box, ready to be examined next time we need it.







Now, onto a mini getaway and then my next project which is a bit tentative. It may be that I have some time to do more thinking and more detailed posting. I will have to wait and see.

Not only suits being made

 Well, things have been very busy at work and we are not just making suits, we have some period costumes to put together or refurbish from stock.
These are some of the costumes we've been working on.
A pair of suede trunk-hose. These are built on a fitted under base of twill. This year we are trying a few new techniques for putting these together. The lower leg or canion of suede is flat mounted onto the twill pieces before the legs are put together.   We constructed the fly completely into the under trouser, which allows us to construct the upper suede pouf separately. The pouf is attached to the thigh first, then brought up and attached to the waistline before the waist band is sewn on.
 The centre front opening in the suede is faced back to the fly notch with a cotton twill tape, and that will then be slip stitched to the fly opening of the under trouser at the end. We figured that by doing it this way, we can remove the pouf if required, make changes to its size, add under structure if needs be without too much trouble. So far so good.
We are also making a doublet that has suede sleeves. These are in cowhide and have decorative ridges sewn down the top and under sleeve. We were able to create a similar look on the seams themselves by stitching a regular seam , pushing all the seam allowance to one side then top stitching a quarter of an inch away- like flat felling- then opening up the original stitch line so creating a similar ridge effect. Luckily we have access to boots and shoemakers and their equipment, because the last seam had to be done on the post bed machine. It makes top stitching inside the tube of the sleeve possible.

Lastly, what is a season without a large robe? It seems I get one every year. Last year was the velvet robe completely lined in fur. This year we have a large scale silk damask, lined in silk duppioni. What isn't in the photos is the waist length capelet of the same fabric lined in....you guessed it, fur.

It is time consuming and sometimes stressful cutting out these large garments. Often I have made a pattern and done a toile fitting without knowing what the fabric will be. So without knowing the fabric width or the size of the repeat, I often have to alter the pattern to fit the yardage I get. 

Anyway, I guessed pretty close as I didn't have to modify the pattern, but it takes a good amount of time to lay out the pieces and make sure that the pattern placement overall is good and the pattern matches at the sides, and that you will have enough yardage overall. Garments like this have to be cut in a one way layout as there is a definite up and down to the pattern. This produces a lot of waste as you cannot top and tail the layout. I also lose a half vertical repeat when I cut the yardage so I can lay the fabric right sides together to cut. This fabric is meant for drapery so it is woven with a half of the pattern ending right at the selvedge edge. I prefer to not use the selvedge as my seam allowance, so I lose then lose a half repeat horizontally, as I lay the centre front and centre back in the middle of the next pattern repeat from the edge. Hope that makes sense.......

Under the cape is an under gown of red velvet brocade with a really nice hand. It is a little bit tricky sewing it together and trying to match the pattern as the velvet pile comes and goes along the seam. I think it is easier to sew plain velvet.
The trick according to Denise is triple rows of pinning. One row of pinning on the sewing line and a row either side to prevent shifting. Oh, and using the narrow velvet foot on the machine. Even then it can be a challenge!


This will be fit tomorrow, so I will try to get a photo of it all together next time.

Fittings

One last fitting to go. For a pair of leather pants that weren't quite ready last Thursday. 

Which will add up to 85 fittings since January.
Not 85 costumes, mind you. Way way more.

As a point of interest, here's a list of what I fit on one actor, in one fitting, on Thursday and all the people involved, and sometimes all in the room at the same time.

90 minutes.

One actor, Me (cutter), Susy (first hand), Paul (designer), Jenna (design assistant), Bradley (wardrobe manager), Connie (boots and shoes), Rebecca (Bijou), Eric(props), Lisa (costume breakdown).

A.Velvet jeans, under bodice 1 and sleeves, gambeson 1, belt 1, gorget 1, velvet cape, boots.

B. Same jeans, under bodice 2 with chain mail sleeves, gambeson 2, steel gorget, hooded cloak, steel breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, grieves, belt 2, sword, worn in various combinations.

C. Same jeans, under bodice 3 with sleeves, gambeson 3, gorget 2, velvet cape again, belt 3.

Last fitting (with fingers crossed)....one pair of leather pants. One actor, me, Susy, Paul, Jenna, Connie  and Bradley.

Well, I never did get a fitting proper, so I checked the fit backstage in the dressing room. Just me, and the actor wearing them.
I'm happy, they look good, and he can do everything he needs to in them, so that's done. Cross it off the list.
Now for the understudy. More fittings are coming my way.

gambesons and gorgets

 I think we are finally getting to the finishing stages of our work on this show.
All kinds of decisions have been made such as the decorative trim closures for this black velvet gambeson, and its accompanying suede gorget.
Now we just have to make a strap for the closures to be sewn to, that enables the actor to quickly get in and out of the costume, so that will be a suede strap with snaps. I still have to cut an under placket for it, and get the real belt when the boots and shoes department has it ready.

 This gambeson and gorget are also getting closer to completion. The leather thonging still has to be attached, and the straps for it have been prepped but still need to be riveted to the garment, and all those decorations will need to be properly placed, marked , holes punched and then riveted on as well.
We also have to attach the gorget to the gambeson, so it stays in place while being worn.

This gorget is also almost done. This one has the boot liner leather base that is pictured here. The pieces of belting were a bit tricky to position, and we have scored the back of them in order to get them to bend a bit more into the shape we want. Now we need to trim them and attach lacing as well as figure out how to attach it to the tunic that is worn under it.






I fit the velvet cloak on Thursday, so Denise is working away on it. Luckily no changes were necessary and it stayed on his shoulders very well. It still needs a fair amount of work to finish it, the hem alone is about 7.5 m and the hem allowance has to be trimmed down to 2" width, and hand cross stitched. Then there will be the same amount of fur hem to be dealt with, as well as catching the two layers together. Oh, and decoration and closures.....so there is quite a lot to do still.

leather gorget part 2

                                                                               
We are further along in the process of making this leather gorget but still not finished.

There are so many decisions to be made and each decision often causes more questions to be asked and processes to be figured out.

In this case, I had started out thinking that we would mount the leather on the felt base. The pattern I made was for the felt and I had to calculate by trial and error how much bigger to make the leather that would cover the felt since the circumference is greater. The pieces were joined edge to edge to reduce bulk and decorative strips of the embossed leather were stitched on top of the seams. The wide strips with the acorn nuts were backed onto boot leather for strength, which made them a certain thickness, so that meant I needed a longer screw to go through the thicker leather and still have enough space left for the leather thonging to go under the acorn nut. I had to order longer brass screws which led to a 10 day wait due to  an ordering fiasco of failed faxing, minimum order fulfillment and shipping errors.

By that time, I realized that trying the bind the top edge over the felt was making it all too thick, so I ditched the felt, re cut the inside structure out of boot weight leather, and reconfigured the outer layer of existing work to fit. I also then changed the opening to the centre back since it is now a quick change item and I don't have to worry about how to make the front opening (which is more visible) functional.

We also wanted the decoration strips to not be caught in the binding at the top and bottom, but have the screws go through the strips and the top layer of leather to hold them together, but not through the lining leather.

Arggghh!!
Sometimes it is so frustrating when your finished product is your prototype.

Everything is so plain to see in retrospect, don't you think? 
The second and third versions will be much better I'm sure. In fact, I started a gorget for another character using boot liner leather. This I seamed for rigidity, as the leather that is on the outside is a bit softer than it should be. It also has similar decorative strips with acorn nuts but the strips are made of belting leather, which is almost  1/4" thick!! So even if things are the same (gorget) the materials we are given for each specific item change the game in terms of construction methods.

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.

leather gorget

And now for something different. Onto the next show and its designs. The designs include making
some leather gorgets. A gorget being a leather or steel piece of armour worn to protect the throat. From the french word gorge, for throat. On a suit jacket you have the gorge line,  which is specifically the  seam line that joins the collar to the lapel.
















 I started by draping a shape in muslin on the stand. After that is done, I transfer my muslin to the table and carefully mark the seam lines and matching points before taking it apart and tracing through to paper. The I recheck the shape and walk all the seam lines so they can be sewn properly, correcting the lines at the top and bottom edges.
For my mock-up or toile, I found a scrap of heavy overcoat melton, fused some canvas to it and cut out all my shapes. The seams were butted together and zigged instead of using a traditional seam allowance. This keeps everything flat, and reduces bulk.
 I did a bit of playing around with possibly using cording as a detail as well as using wide twill tape to stand in for strips of leather. I'm not sure which way the designer will want to go, so for the next fitting, I will return with this toile, but I cut some leather for one side of it. This is a weight of cowhide suitable for boots, and I am not sure if it should be heavier. Well, I don't want to waste leather, so I will just leave it like this and see what the designer thinks. I'm sure this will get some decorative studding as well.