Cutter and Tailor forum?

Hello,
As you can see in the comments recently, many of us are wondering what has happened with the Cutter and Tailor forum. It just stopped being accessible last week and attempting to access it results in an Internal Server error message.
Some of you with whom I have interacted with there have emailed me through the blog to ask if I knew anything about this.

I am sorry to say that I don't know what is going on. I have been unable to contact Sator -  the owner of the forum. I have been in touch with one of the moderators, SG, and he seemed to be as surprised as we all have been about the sudden changes. He also does not have the means to contact Sator, so here we are.

I sincerely hope that the site has not been shut down intentionally. I would have liked the chance to help support its existence, if money for hosting was an issue. I found the information to be quite informative, and the knowledge within quite useful. I also enjoyed the connection with other like minded people pros and amateurs alike.

I know there were discussions recently amongst the professionals who did post, about what the purpose of the site was, and what it should be. I believe the purpose of the forum was to facilitate communication amongst professional tailors, but strangely,  many professionals were members but never contributed.
I am not sure why that is, maybe people are too busy or too unwilling to share their processes, the field is quite guarded after all.
Many thought that too many amateurs were trying to access information and assistance with processes far beyond their knowledge or capabilities, and yes that did happen, but on the other hand, you cannot expect otherwise in a public forum.

Myself, I am at the point in my experience that I don't need stacks of information to do my job, but I like having it around. I like to see other ways of construction past and present and I enjoy learning.

The bigger concern in my mind,  is for the up and coming people interested in the field. I know a lot of what was on the site is available if you google hard enough, but the site was an invaluable resource  of accumulated materials all in one place.
I miss it.

I have contact with a few members from the site, and if I do hear any news I will post it here. Likewise if you know what is going on please let me know.

structure: pool noodles and springs

Okay, we are heading off into other territory here, definitely away from tailoring, although I do have some nice 1930's and '40"s suits to make this season. More about those later.

So what the heck is this on my table?
Any guesses?
Well it is going to be a wolf's tail. Yes indeed.
Many years ago I worked on a production of Wind in the Willows at The Grand Theatre.
If you know the story, it has animal characters and they are often charmingly portrayed as animals with human characteristics, wearing Lovely Edwardian clothing. It was a fabulous production, the actors included Douglas Campbell as Badger, and, well, if you know who he was then you can imagine his presence in that role.
The costuming was properly Edwardian and the characters had tails which emerged from their velvet breeches or wool trousers.
The tails were made by a very talented woman, Elaine Ball, and I was recently asking her about how she made them (as I could only remember snippets of something we did almost 20 years ago-wow).
Strangely enough, she was in the midst of teaching this very thing to a class of costumers.
She graciously shared some photos that jogged the old memory. I shared these with Kim my colleague who made the prototype as well as the structure above.

So, the tails are made of pool noodles, shaped and tapered a bit as you can see, and each pool noodle segment is separated by a large wooden bead.
The base of the tail uses a door spring, that feeds through the first few sections, as well as a heavy elastic shock cord which goes through to the end section.
We will construct a snug fitting basque for the actor to wear, and it will have an attachment plate at the back for the tail. The tail here still needs an attachment at the end of the spring-but the spring allows the tail to sit flush against the basque and hang quite naturally.

This tail has had a mesh fabric applied over the segments in preparation for covering it with fake fur.

I hope I will get to that task next week, cutting out fur sections as well as making the basque and getting the whole thing together, including another unitard that is worn with this. Oh and there's armour too.

I will also post about the suits as I have a couple of challenging figures to make for and they all need to look the same. Interesting challenges this season for sure.

Radio silence has ended! plus cool stuff

Hello one and all,

I realized today that I have not had much to say on the blog recently.
I am trying to figure out why that is.

I do have a lot of thoughts, but the topics are either so complicated that I give up trying to write about them or so fleeting in nature that they don't prod me to write.

For the moment though, you may may be interested in the fact that as a tailor- cutter in a theatre, I am called on to make all sorts of garments, and this year I do have some suits, yes, but I have a bit more of things like this.

yes, unitards or variations on the theme!

I often joke with people as I am taking their measurements, that I need to take some certain specific ones, in case we have to make them a unitard! Sometimes that happens.

We actually don't take the detailed type of measurements that a place like cirque will take for their costumes, so when unitards or other stretch wear arises, it can be a bit of hit or miss.

These types of garments and the patterns required for them depend greatly on the fabric chosen.

Can I put a public service announcement here for all designers? Please, please, buy good all way stretch. Spend the money for it. Fabric that stretches in both directions makes for easier pattern making and for wearing. 

In this case, I have basically a one way stretch fabric. I had to cut it with the stretch around the body and the non-stretch vertically. The upper body will not be seen, so I have worked around the lack of stretch in the crushed velvet legs by adding a very stretchy fabric above the waist. In this manner I hope to have given the actor some comfort in being able to sit down easily at least.

This was a first fit, all zigged together with somewhat incorrect (old) measurements, so I have some work to do, tweaking the pattern.

Oh, what is that thing he is attached to you ask?

It is a wire frame body of an animal. You will have to wait for a bit for more details, but it also is a first trial fit on the actor. Our prop maker Kenny (a mastermind of an artist, sculptor and maker of cool things)  has built these frames for the show we are working on. The bands around the actor's thighs are attached to wires that connect to the back legs of the sculpture, so when the actor walks, the animal legs walk as well. Very cool.

Strange co-incidence, Kenny and I trained in the same fine arts program but he graduated just before I started. We have been working together for 25+ years and only found this out last month! We had the same instructors and had a moment reminiscing about that time. Isn't it funny how these things happen?

I think this season will feature structure quite prominently as I look around the wardrobe these days, so I will endeavour to get some postings up about that and rekindle my blogging spirit.

Cheers

here's a little video link to a bit more of Kenny's work....please watch it, it gives me goosebumps.

Cutaway variation

Another body coat that I cut in Montreal.
This is a variation on a cutaway that I cut and sewed while in Montreal.










































The student designer chose to have a modern twist on an 1870's inspired cutaway coat with inspiration from jeans jacket and motorcycle jacket styling. One of her first ideas was to have an asymmetrical zipper opening as in the motorcycle jacket, but keep the body shaping of a traditional tailcoat. I don't know why she ditched that idea, as I think it could have been quite fun, but in the end she came back to me with the DB 1870's inspiration and the leather yoke.
The back seaming was modified from the traditional so the seams run vertically into the yoke like a jean jacket in a way.
The corduroy for the jacket was luckily (for budget reasons) found in stock and she dyed it this colour. The leather (also found in stock) was a perfect pairing.

She wanted the collar to have quite a tall stand, and a few different inspirations, one of which was a type of modern convertible collar and the other more of an 1830's style. We ended up with more of the 1830's in feel.
I think it is difficult for students and new designers who don't really know how things are constructed to parse out what they really want. They see many pictures but don't quite "get" how particular details work or don't work or whether they can be incorporated successfully.
It is also difficult for me to describe the options of the variations and how they work without making the poor student's eyes glaze over because they really don't understand half of how things work.

In a situation where you are building a show in less than a month, there isn't a lot of time for experimentation either.



Over the month, for the men's wear, I cut and we built the cream frock coat and large described earlier, this cutaway coat, a suit jacket styled vest, a wrap skirt for a man, an asymmetrical tunic in waffle cotton with a period stand collar and strap and buckle closures. There was also a cape that incorporated a pair of exaggerated 4 inch deep pointy shoulder pads with a tulip collar trimmed in feathers, a pair of 1820's style pleated trousers, a pair of drop crotch riding breeches, a pair of ethnic inspired drop crotch trousers, plus alterations to an 18th century coat, a military jacket, and a few other bits and pieces.

We were very busy indeed!

Period dress costume video

I just thought I would share this video made last year documenting the process of a period dress from drawing to finished dress.
The dress was cut by my friend and talented colleague Carol M, and sewn by a whole team of talented people.
Hope you enjoy it!

Montreal and more formal wear

Oh, It has been quite a while between posts!
I have just returned from Montreal where the formal wear trend continued.
It must be in the air, or maybe the water, who knows?

First a lovely early morning view from my window. I admit to having a bit of culture shock coming home- where have all the buildings and the people gone now that I am home?






One of the costumes I made happened to cut was this frock coat in a lovely brocade.
It was a good learning experience I think, for the design student. She bought 4 metres of fabric, all that was available in fact, and then we worked it out. I did make a mock up, because I knew there would be no room for error or major changes.

It does not fit the stand quite like it fit the actor, I assure you! He has a much more erect posture hence the extra length showing in the front. The single low button doesn't give a lot of support either. He also wears a Farthingale over it as the Queen, which does complicate things a bit!




The big "collar" is used when the actor appears as "the Queen" and is removable.
It has an inner harness of sorts that stabilizes it on the body, then it snaps into the frock coat to make the two pieces act as one. I should have wired the edge but I didn't want to use hat wire as it can be too easily bent. What I would narmally use is heavy duty fishing line or whipper snipper cable zigged onto the outer edge. I hope it holds up for the run!




It all turned out well in the end, and I just squeaked it all out of 4m of fabric while keeping the patterns matched too!

tuxedos and tails

Ahh, this post will be a bit rambling! I feel quite tired!

What have I been up to lately?

Well it seems formal wear has figured prominently this fall. I had a call from a friend who was working on a tv show, and they needed a tailsuit in about two weeks, could I do it?

I already had commited to making some skating costumes but I did not have designs or fabrics yet  and you know what happens once you say yes to one thing, then all the other things suddenly start to happen!

So I said yes and the fabric arrived two days later. I started patternmaking, then cutting and then we made up a period tailsuit - waistcoat, trousers and coat, using very inadequate measurements, no fitting and crossed fingers.
Rush job number one!
Of course part way into the process, I received designs and fabric and the deadline info for the skating costumes. Yikes!
These had to have a fitting- just time for one fitting mind you- and the only time that everyone was able to be together- skaters, myself, and the designer, only left us a window of 5 days to finish and deliver.
That was rush job number two.

It had its share of challenges stretch fabrics for a tuxedo, non stretch for a sweater like garment....which I hope to get time and inclination to organize my thoughts so I can post about it!

A big sigh of relief when I received messages that everything was great and off they went to compete, and they won! Hurray!
Three days later I get an SOS message, and it turns out they needed to change their program completely and they had two weeks to pick new music, do new choreography and have new costumes made. Could I do it?
What can you say?  How terrible for them to be put in such a position!  I said yes.
So the change was to a tailsuit, with a nod to the Edwardian era, and with a bit of ambassadorial splendor.
So trousers, waistcoat, bow tie, order and medal, sash and a tailcoat. The fabric arrived Friday morning. I cut all day Friday, we sewed Saturday, fit it on Sunday and finished it on the Friday.  They tried it on ice on Sunday, and flew to their next competition Tuesday.
Rush job number three.
Oh, they won by the way! yay!

Then I got sick. Of course- too much stress and your body kicks you when you are down.

I leave tomorrow to work for a month in Montreal.
Four weeks to cut and make a show- which compared to what I have been doing, seems like "bloody luxury" as we say -but I am sure it will have it moments of being a rush job too.

Here's a photo or two for good measure. They were taken from their tumbler site. No photos of the tails for the tv show- I don't know if it has aired yet....

These two - Andrew Poje and Kaitlyn Weaver are just wonderful - as athletes and as people- they are as lovely as they look.

 That's all for now, I have to go and pack.