Back at it

Oh my gosh, time flies.
I feel as though I have lost a month somewhere.

So back to it.
It is usually feast or famine in this business, and it is shaping up to be a bit of a feast year so far. This is good because last year was a bit lean in the fall. This fall as soon as I started on the current project, another one came along. That one will be interesting as I get to go and work in Montreal for a month, and I am really looking forward to it.

But, right now, I am moving forward on making three 18th century inspired costumes for a production. One is for a woman dressed as a man, but we are not trying to hide her shape. I rarely get to do women's wear, as there are lots of people who have that background and training.

I did feel a bit out of my element at first. Just the scale of the patterns felt unfamiliar and so small.
Of course when the patterns for the other costumes are for men with 48" chests or who are 6'5" tall  it doesn't help.
I made mock ups anyway because I didn't get a chance to measure the woman myself, and we were using the period as inspiration. The coat for the woman is ankle length and has almost 2/3 circle in fullness. It is going to take a lot of fabric, and I didn't want to mess up!

Here is my waistcoat toile after the fitting. I decided to offset the princess seam from the bust point so it was less obvious (in my mind anyway) but in the back, I used inspiration from the dresses and corsets of the period for my seam placement. The designer wanted lacing up the back which gave me that idea.


My judy is just a bit bigger and certainly less squishy than the real person, so the fit doesn't look optimal, but it was good.

I did have to pin up some extra length in the back and reshape the armhole a bit and move the collar to account for the bulk of the shirt and stock/cravat that she will wear.

I think I may give the hem a bit better shape, it looks a bit blah, and it needs a pocket placement.

I like the back so much it reminded me of an idea I had years ago to make myself a similar waistcoat. never got around to it then and probably won't now either, but hey you never know.

Now I have altered the pattern and just have to cut it out of this. 

creating a waistband unit

This is a technique I used for the waistband on a stylized "Egyptian" shendyt. The fabric for the waistband was flimsy (lame´ and organza on the bias), so I was not going to cut a waistband to sew to the shendyt and interface later. I needed to create a solid waistband unit to apply once the body of the shendyt was ready.

We also use this technique for military tunic collars that need substantial interfacing, or any other time when you need a stiff interfacing but don't want that interfacing to go into the seam allowances.

I thought this would be a good tutorial, but only after we got through most of the process, so these first photos are just samples.

First, you need to determine what the structure of the waistband will be. In this case I used two layers of hymo fused together with stitch witch fusible web. Then I stitched through the layers so they would not ever delaminate. Essential for long term use!

Prep, then cut the waistband (or collar) interfacing to the finished size.

Cut a layer of cotton silesia on the bias. This should be bigger than the waistband interfacing. Stitch it to the waistband interfacing. Make sure it is on the side that faces outwards, so your fashion fabric will sit against it. (this cushions and protects the flimsy fabric from the roughness of the hymo. Trim the silesia so you have 1/2" extending beyond the interfacing on all sides.
With a military collar in wool you would attach the cotton to the inside, allowing the fibres from the hymo to "grab" the wool and then the cotton on the inside gives you something to cross stitch to later.

Rough cut a layer each of lame´and organza on the bias, big enough to allow seam allowances on all sides. Don't worry about being precise here. Slightly bigger is better. Oh and if you are working with lame´, press it first because it shrinks!
Baste the organza over the lame´ by hand. Once down the middle and along each edge as well.

Lay the lame´ and organza over the interfacing layer, and baste in place. Since I was using the lame´on the bias I didn't have to ease it on, but if you are making a collar, and your outer fabric is on grain, you should baste it in place over your hand or on a convex surface. If you baste it flat on the table then try to curve it around a neck, the outer fabric will be short and will forever try to return to being flat, pulling and distorting the collar. You will regret that collar!

Go to the machine and stitch around the interfacing, not right up against it, but a few millimeters or 1/8" away.  You want to be able to leave this stitching in forever.
Stitch through the silesia and the outer fabric only.





Cut a layer of silesia or lining to finish the inside of the waistband. Cut this on the straight grain- the same grain as the interfacing.

Put the lining and the interfaced piece right sides together and bag out the upper edge of the waistband.

Press and trim the seam allowances and then under stitch, turning the lining to the inside of the waistband.

Baste the lining to the inside by hand.

I like to leave the ends open and finish them by hand.

Now you have a waistband unit that you can sew to the waist of the shendyt.

Sew it on, do not catch the silesia/lining in your seam. Trim the seam allowances, and cross stitch them up to the inside of the waistband if desired.

Finish the ends by hand, and slip stitch the lining in place along the waistline.

Install the closures. In this case a press in hook and bar at the CF, and sewn on snaps on the over and under lap ends of the waistband. Since the ends of the waistband cross over at an angle,  onto the body of the shendyt, we used a small square of twill tape for support under the snaps.

Did I take a picture of the finished shendyt?  No, I didn't.
Why? I don't know.
It has been a crazy season and my wits are at their end. I will show you the clever loincloth inside the shendyt later. I took pictures of that.
Now for a week off,  maybe go to the beach, maybe read a book. I will return then.

Creating Armour

  My working life is never boring due to the fact that I may be called upon to make almost anything in any given season, and the only common denominator is menswear. Usually that means tailoring which I love to do, but at other times it could be spandex bodysuits or togas, or what I was doing last week, which was armour.
We needed Roman style armour to go with the togas and chitons required in one of the shows I have been assigned. We had some in stock but all in big sizes and not in great shape, or the right colour of leather for the designer.
So I took a look at what we had and drafted up a set of armour in a smaller size.
I started with a general fit using a very heavy denim fused with canvas, tweaked that a bit and moved onto a set in 5mm thick industrial felt, fit that and then tweaked the pattern a bit more before it was cut in leather.

This is the armour in water buffalo hide, in an unfinished state.
The fronts are quick changed in advance so that you can adjust the fit slightly with the straps but the strap mechanism then snaps over so the buckles do not have to be undone to get in and out of it.
The shoulder pieces still need to be riveted down to the body and we need to attach a d-ring on the shoulders for the capes to attach. The designer was contemplating adding a removable apron front, so that may still need to be worked out.

There is a lot of hardware involved- close to 220 rivets per set, 8 sets of buckles, 20 D-rings, 8 sets of snaps, its a lot of hammering.
The backs are adjustable by lacing tighter or looser, so these should fit  quite a few of our guys.

This was a fun project to do, and something that comes along only once in a while, but it certainly keeps things interesting.

They will also be a welcome addition to our stock for future use.

Something old....

I have to tell you that the availability and affordability of trim for period garments seems to be getting worse with every passing year.
We still have a lot of trim in stock but it is old stock, purchased by the 50 m and 100 m rolls many years ago.

Within this cache is a stash of really old trim. I think it must have been a donation many moons ago. Probably 1920's vintage, and we have scads of it in both silver and gold. We have it in widths from 1/4" to over 2" wide, and it is so pretty with its label and the black paper that separates the layers.

I have always loved this trim, as have many designers over the years.
                                                                               

Sadly, the silver trim is a little less stable and we no longer use it on costumes as it doesn't withstand the wear and tear and cleaning, but the gold has been pulled out to be used on a costume we are making. 

It is a bit finicky to put on and doesn't bend around corners very well, but I think Susy has done a fabulous job with it.

Oh in case you were wondering- this is a view of the back hip area of an eighteenth century coat we are making.

Here's the coat in progress. I still have to do some alterations and correct the sleeves, and the collar is just a basted idea at this stage, but it is coming along.

Layers and things that are hardly seen

I was looking through some of the work photos I have taken this year, and it struck me that some things which we make just kind of get lost in the final look. I know they are there, but overall they seem a bit lost to an audience. I like to think they would be missed if they weren't there. :)
Actually I know that is true!

so here are a few shots to illustrate....

Here's the final look, but what is under that big square cut robe and chain of office?

A silk sash, with a nice fringe and trim detail.

The blue velvet sleeveless gown and belt under the sash.

The doublet and ruff worn under the blue velvet.

There is also a pair of suede breeches, which didn't make it into my camera, but are indeed worn under the blue velvet gown.














Many layers indeed, and quite a task to wear and perform in under the hot stage lights in the middle of summer.

prom dress wrap up

To wrap up the prom dress saga, here's a rundown of the finishing process.
Once I had the skirt attached to the bodice, I turned the CB allowance on the bodice to the inside and cross stitched it down.
I sewed a hook and loop at the top and basted a zipper in place. I then pick stitched the zipper in.


Then I made a belt out of the bias lame that I had fused with wool fuse. I didn't want it to lose its shape so I sewed in a piece of grosgrain. I stitched it by machine on one side and cross stitched the other side down and finished the inside with a piece of ribbon to cover the gap. It had two hooks and loops sewn on the ends to close it, and it was tacked to the dress waist by hand at the back and sides. I tacked it at the CF too but not quite in the right place as I noticed it pulled a little when she had it on. Oh well....

I stitched the bias straps in place by hand, picking through about an 1/8th of an inch from the bodice edge.

Last but not least I made a bow tie. How could I refuse at this point?








Why blue? Two dresses. I made two dresses for two different proms. Can't believe I did that!

But here's a crazy story... I took the blue fabric scrap to work so I could fuse some interfacing on it. I did it at lunch. Every one had left the room and I had just finished pressing 3 metres of muslin for a toile. I got the fabric and interfacing ready on the ironing table and walked away for a minute to check something else, and when I returned I took the iron and put it on the fabric and it melted right through the interfacing and poly stain. I mean melted it leaving an iron shaped hole in the fabric and a melted crust of blue polyester satin in an iron shape on the iron table cover. I have never experienced this before. The iron thermostat had gone haywire and overheated. I took some hot iron cleaner and tried to clean the sole plate and it boiled.
Good thing it wasn't the dress!!!!
Luckily I had another scrap of fabric.

Finally, two dresses, one happy girl, one exhausted mother (awake til she got home, hello 3am).

I really meant to be more diligent with documenting the process, but you know, I think I would still be stitching them if I had.

Now somebody has to get out and cut the weeds grass in the yard! The things that get neglected while sewing after work.

Now back to the usual fare here. I have some 18th century and Roman costumes to do!

Prom dress update- almost done

Well, like many projects, I had the best intentions of documenting the complete process, and then reality took over as I was sewing after work and at home and before I knew it, I realized I hadn't taken as many pictures of the process as I had envisioned. At least the dresses were finished on time!
Here's a little summary:

The chiffon over skirt was pleated up and I hand basted the pleats first then I ran a line of machine stitching on that line as well as a half an inch both above and below before trimming away some of the excess fabric. I figured that I wouldn't be lucky enough to not have to adjust the length so these lines of stitching kept everything together when the time came to adjust the length. I basted the chiffon skirt to the underlayer at the waist and pinned it to the bodice on a dress stand to check the hem, and sure enough, I needed to make a little adjustment on the sides, so I unpicked the basting bit by bit and repinned until everything looked good and then I rebasted the waist of the skirts.
You can see the amount I adjusted at the sides in this picture.

The bodice is two layers of polyester white satin. Certainly not the most forgiving fabric. That being said this is a dress that likely will be worn once, so no point in bemoaning the fact that it is what it is.
I marked out each piece separately for both the under and overlayer.
I used the seam allowances of the underlayer to create bone channels for the plastic boning. The only seam allowance that gave me trouble was the front panel over the bust. This fabric doesn't take well to being eased and as the edge of the 1/2" wide  seam allowance is slightly longer than the seam it is a part of, it rippled a bit when making the bone casing. It wouldn't press out well either, so if I did it again, (which I did in the second dress) I would make a separate bone casing for that particular bone and then the seam allowance can be trimmed down and made to behave.

I also made sure to machine stitch the top edge and waist line of each of the pieces for the inner layer. This shows me the pattern line, but more importantly, stays the areas of the bodice that are a bit on the bias, such as the side front panel at the top edge. I checked the measurements of the pieces against the pattern after this. That side front panel had stretched out ever so slightly so I used that stay stitch to ease the edge back to its correct size.

I then sewed the top layer of satin just on the outer edge of my pattern lines to allow a smidgen of ease.
Place the bodice right sides together and bagged out the upper edge, pressed, under stitched and trimmed the seam allowance down. Then I basted along the upper edge to hold the fabrics as one and smoothed everything in place before basting the layers together at the waist, and then serging the raw edge of the waist and CB seam allowances.

Once the bodice was prepared, I worked on the pleated overlayer. I used a bias strip rather than the shaped piece in my original plan (thanks again to colleagues!). The bias can mold around the body and a bonus was that the tension on the bias piece made the front area stand up vertically and the rest of the strap laid flat! I also could make length/tension adjustments easily!
I fused the lame with a piece of wool fuse which is a soft spongy fusible I had on hand.
                                                             
 I had this prepared and prefit from an earlier fitting,
so I stitched the top edge of the pleated net to the lame and then arranged the pleating at the waist. Baste the layers together at the waist,  then baste the skirts on and fit to check.

Everything seemed fine! so I finally machined bodice to skirt, and trimmed the excess seam allowances down.

The worst was over!

next up will be all the finishing details.