Childen's wear drafting and trying to find information

     I recently needed to produce a few garments for a child, and it occured to me that I had only one drafting book to reference for children's wear.

That book is the Winnifred Aldrich's  Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear. 

I have an older edition so out of curiosity I borrowed a newer edition just in case. I found there were  some changes to some of the basic drafts which made me wonder. 

Things like the calculations for neck width used 1/5 neck minus 2mm now its 1/5 neck plus 2 mm on some drafts.Were there errors in the older drafts or just typos? Strange.

     I wanted to find a draft for a one piece snowsuit. It is not a garment covered in the Aldrich book. The child would arrive after quarantining, go for fittings, alterations would be done there, and then be on camera two days later.   They didn't want a waist seam in the snowsuit, so I had to get it right the first time. I needed to find basic torso girth measurements for children so I could have some kind of reference point. "It shouldn't be difficult" I thought to myself....... Anyway, it sent me down a rabbit hole of internet searching.

I did finally find a study of children's measurements here, done in 1939. So I waded through all of this and got a number range for height. 

I called friends with children too! "how tall is your child? Can you take a measurement of his torso girth for me?"

What a run around for information! Oh I forgot to mention, all I received was height and a chest measurement taken by a parent. That is all I was working from. What a business! and let's not talk about the deadlines.

What else did I find? I found a snowsuit draft on a Russian website, which I downloaded for reference and I could follow along looking at the diagrams. My desktop translated the pages, except for the sizing tables!! because they are photos not text! Drat!

I was on Pinterest and I found an Italian children's cutting book. In Italian, of course. Again, I could follow along by "reading" the diagrams. But I don't think there was a one piece snowsuit draft there either. That book, by Antonio Donnanno is available here in English.

I decided to basically stick with the Aldrich using the flat overgarment blocks for jackets and the flat two piece trouser block, and melded them together so they looked right ot me.

Once I made the basic draft, one of the things I had to take into account was the thinsulate lining. My base pattern was for the lining, but the outer fabric layer needed to be bigger than the under layer. I think I read somewhere about re-calculating the draft for the amount and type of insulation being used, maybe it was on the russian drafting site, maybe on a german site....I can't remember now.

Anyway, in the end, I figured out how much bigger to make the shell and made a pattern for that too. 

It was lots of work mentally and then a lot of work just cutting and sewing them. (yes, plural! I needed to cut two of them) I think they turned out really well, The best part is that they fit. I breathed a sigh of relief. 

We did get stuck waiting for zippers to arrive, but all in all it went fairly well. 

The shutdowns have made getting supplies a bit more challenging! So many things are being shipped its a miracle everything gets to where it is going.

week 16 with trim!

This was the view on Monday at the front of my table. Three of the five coats for the 18th century show are prepped after the fittings with their respective trim and buttons. That pesky cape is still there, and honestly, it was still in the same position on Friday. This show is on stage a week from today so I have to get someone to work on it next week- it has just come down to the wire.

Now the view from the front looks in control but the view of my table is not.

Bags of trim and buttons for all five coats, waistcoats and breeches were in the process of being dumped out, pinned on, discarded, confirmed, mixed up, reassigned, organized and kept track of all through the day. I did finally get some space cleared to actually cut something- it took a concerted effort to make sense of it all, go to other fittings, answer questions, and get out 19th century show on the racks for Wednesday. 

Do you ever get to the information overload point? I sure did this week. At the end of the day I just felt the I couldn't make another decision- I was just out of answers. On that note, I am taking the week end off, and recharging because this coming week will be very busy. More on that later.

shirt collar and deadlines

Are there any crazier people than theatrical costumers?


















If you've been wondering where I have been lately, I'll tell you. Margaret and I took on a project in a new venue for us, not sure if I can even publicly say what it is for, as I don't want to spoil any surprises, but it had a short timeline by any standards!

We got measurements August 24th. I started on patterns and cutting out on the 26th, ready for a fitting on the 31st. back the same day after 8 hours in the car and delivered half of the goods on the 4th, and the other half of the goods today, the 7th.

 It was such a nice shirt collar that I choose to stop and take a photo. I had a sample paper collar from the 1940's that I used as a reference. I liked the soft rounded corners.
So this is where I was at this morning around 11 am.
 

At 5:30, I bagged it up and went off to Margaret's house and waited for our clients to arrive.
They did, along with wine for both of us, so tonight I am putting my feet up, drinking a glass or two, then crashing.

Wishing them the best of luck in their endeavours though.
Will let you in on it all later.

Onto another project

 I haven't really been neglecting posting here on purpose, honestly!
I have been very busy finishing up the one project while getting onto the next one at the same time. It wasn't supposed to work like that, but it did and it was a bit crazy at the studio.

I have 9 suits and 5 tail suits to make and I had to get all the patterns made and everything cut into fabric and basted up for fittings in Toronto on Monday of this week.

So, I had Denise, Lela, Emma working on the first project and had to bring in Jennie to meet the deadline, with Silvia putting suit jackets together for the second project. As the first project wound down, the others joined in, and we got everything ready to fitting stage by Friday afternoon.

It is always a bit nerve wracking going into fabric based on measurements that you didn't take, and that can be over 10 years old! Really. It sometimes happens that a dancer is measured when they join the company as an apprentice, then as they mature, adjustments are made on the fly, but the measurement sheets aren't updated. I know it sounds like an easy thing to do, but it is often crazy busy, and well, it happens.







So sometimes I luck out like I did in my first fitting here, where the dancer was pretty close to the numbers on the sheet, just a bit bigger in the hips. I just have to take in a bit in the upper body above the waist and move the shoulder line in marginally. I have to tweak the trousers a bit for size as well.
Everyone of these guys noted how long the jackets are, which they are not for 1920, but in comparison to today's fashions they are.
I have to say that it is a pleasure to fit dancers- they have incredible posture and pretty ideal shapes overall. They usually have built up their trapezius muscles and lats, full seats and substantial quads, but even amongst those similarities there are still differences.
For instance I have a two dancers, both 6'2" one with a 35" chest and 27 1/2" waist and 37" hip,  the other is a full 42 chest with a 34" waist and 44 hips.
It makes for interesting and challenging pattern making.


Now that I am home from doing my fittings, I have to regroup, look at the measurements I took and go forward from here, taking things apart and remarking and getting all the linings cut.

 I plan to have Silvia, Denise and Emma back to sew next week so there is a lot to do in the next few days to get ready for them to return.

For tonight though, Happy Hallowe'en!

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.

back from the brink

Whew!

That was an intense few weeks. Our deadline was November 7th for 10 doublets. The ballet company was away on tour until October 12, so I cut right into fabric to get ready for fittings.

I did one set of fittings on October 14th and another set on the 18th. 15 minute fittings was what was scheduled!! They worked out fairly well, Took photos and notes and luckily the designer was happy with what I had cut.

Then.....

on the 25th of October, there was a complete change of casting! I had to remark what I could and hope the almost finished costumes would be able to be refit and altered by the ballet staff for the new dancers.

Then 2 costumes were added so there would be something to fit the bigger guys in the other group.

On Nov 1st we were told they were cut and those wouldn't be needed. On Nov 3 there was speculation that they were back in.

We finished at 6 pm on the 5th.

We were vibrating from working so hard. (Well it also could have been the wine we had in the afternoon).

Oh I forgot, the boiler in the building broke down, then the back-up boiler broke as well, so we had no heat. Luckily it wasn't too cold overnight, but we were sewing with our coats on and space heaters at our feet as it was only about 13 degrees in the studio.

Anyway, I have no idea if all of the costumes now are in or out. Only the choreographer knows for sure.

After the opening, I'll show you a few pictures of what we were up to.

Right now I am still recovering. I ventured back into the studio to draft my next job today. I didn't get too far, but it was a start.

Canada Day and work

We are a bit behind the eight ball these days, trying to overcome the loss of productive hours when we were stalled on two shows about six weeks ago.

Ok, we were/are really behind schedule to the tune of about 300 sewing hours and I can't say how many cutting hours, so, after a meeting with my boss, I have gained two more stitchers for the next two weeks. I also managed to pass on one of the six outfits that I was assigned to someone else too, so I feel a little less pressured.

Since we were behind, we worked on Canada Day, but we always make time to celebrate. We've hosted so many parties in our room that we have the set up and clean up so organized that it takes mere minutes to accomplish. Cake, strawberries, punch and friends- what could be better?

Now for the work,

Here are a few pictures that I grabbed before leaving work today so you can see what is keeping us so busy. The silver dupioni coat is going to get an overlay of the beaded dupioni, and I have a fitting tomorrow morning with it, and the green coat I will also fit tomorrow, so it can then be trimmed up and head toward finishing.

These coats are challenging because each fabric requires different treatments to get the shape the designer is after and to keep that shape, while remaining as light weight as we can make them. The dupioni is paper thin so it was flat mounted onto a thin but very crispy sew-in interfacing cut on the cross for maximum resistance to folding flat in the pleat area. I then interlined the complete skirt area with a horsehair canvas cut on the cross as well.

The green coat is an upholstery fabric and on its own has quite a bit of body, so I didn't have to flat mount it completely but cut interfacing through the skirt area to keep it from collapsing onto itself.

I may need to stitch in some wide crin ribbon in the hems, but first things first- get it on the body, fit, altered and all the trim figured out.

deadlines

The deadline has been met.

We're finished.

Everything is boxed and on its way to its final destination. The project that I have been negotiating since May has been completed and after 8 weeks of intense work it is over.

Six cutters, 4 stitchers and 30,000m of thread.

I'm not sure if I feel relieved or shell shocked!

Sometimes I wish the work I do was not as deadline oriented - but it is.

When this project is released to the public I will be able to share what I have been up to, so until then, I better get on with some of the other things on my list.

This week I will speak at my daughter's school for career day. One the one hand, I want to let people know that this job and all the supporting jobs exist, but on the other hand- will they be interested in jobs that don't fit into the usual slots?

What about training? I have trained one apprentice cutter so far - most of the skills are learned on the job- but businesses are hard pressed to fund training. Fashion degrees don't quite cover what you need and costume studies programmes don't really cover it either. The time that I spent with my apprentice still isn't enough to cover all that we need to know.

Everything changes, so I don't know if the path I followed will be relevant to them.

Who knows?

All I can do is let them know and they will have to take it from there. Better get ready.

Hey, that's another deadline!!

cuffs

Here are the lace cuff samples that we did before moving onward.
The base of the cuff is the same black crin as the collar. The main body of the cuff is dupioni silk with the trim applied on teh edge ans then zigged and trimmed away.
We decided that it needed a bit more structure, so we took apart some rigilene nylon boning which is made up of filaments similar to very heavy fishing line, and it was zigged on up the sides and across the cuff at the base of the trim.
I'll take a picture of the rigilene and the technique to post next week.
As for the deadlines, it feels like a bit of a train wreck. Forces beyond our control this season have put us behind by about 244 working hours which is huge, considering my workload stayed the same.
I was really looking forward to this Victoria day long week-end, but we'll all be in on the holiday Monday, trying to make our Tuesday deadline.

crunch time

Well, here we are getting down to the crunch.
Time seems to get shorter and the projects seem to last longer than they should in crunch time.
We will be teching a show this Thursday the 30th.
This waistcoat fabric arrived on my table along with trouser fabric a week ago Friday (17th) and the velveteen jacket fabric arrived on the 21st, with a little sketch as to what is was supposed to be. I had the trousers and waistcoat cut out by the Friday night, the jacket pattern made and cut out by Wednesday afternoon. The trousers and waistcoat were ready to fit by Wednesday and the basic shell of the jacket put together enough for a fitting on Friday (24th). Then there's trim to put on both garments, although I'm not showing you the trim on the jacket here.
Oh, add in a new waistcoat in addition to this one. Out of this fabric. Cut it out Saturday morning and it's halfway done now, Yeah team. I work with a great bunch of stitchers!!


Gotta have them ready to wear on stage by this Thursday. Yikes.

I hope they choose the buttons tomorrow.