Half scale update

Hi everyone,

As I mentioned I am not on show anymore so that means I am back on my half scale project :) I mentioned this before but just in case you don't remember this is the project where we choose a historical dress from Janet Arnolds Patterns of fashion and make it up in half scale.

I chose this victorian day dress- which I was lucky enough to go and view at the v and a archive yesterday!! (Clothworkers centre- you have to book an appointment :):

(Image from v and a website)

Here is what I have of my half scale so far:

It is taking a long time due to all the hand sewing and how much decoration there is involved but I am proud of how it's coming along :) I working on the overskirt now before I finish off the bodice so I should have some of that to show you soon! 

Hope you are all well :)

Bye, ill be back soon! xxx

First Uni show!

Hi everyone :)

My oh my it has been too long since I posted! But that's what happens when you are on shows and are working 9am till 11pm each day and then have only 3 days to finish off all your written work :p But that is all done now so I am here to report back! :D

First I should tell you all what the show I was working on actually was- it was a play called 'The Low Road' written by Bruce Norris. I thought it was a very interesting play (we had to read it and watch the run through so we could see where actors would have quick changes- which we as dressers are in charge of).

 It's main theme is economics- which makes it sound a bit boring unless you are into economics but it actually very different and has a really good story to it. It is mainly set in the late 18th century and follows the life of an arrogant and corrupt business man who was raised by a brothel owner, it then jumps forward to the present day in the middle to see one of his ancestors (anti equally slimy businessman) at an economics conference and finally ends with Some Alien bees coming down at the end. Yes you did read that right- alien bees!

I do not blame you if all that makes no sense at all it is one of those things that you need to really read to understand and I'm sure then you would enjoy the story and really get into it and start analysing it like I did! It doesn't sound like it but it is actually a comedy and so when you properly read it it actually gives you the laugh as well :p

But anyway- now onto my make. I made the coat designed for the main character, Jim Trumpett, to wear once he had grown up and travelled to market and bought all his new fancy goods- my coat which was meant to be one of his purchases.

AND HERE IT IS:

The pleats are striped- a cool detail the designer wanted :) There were stripes included somewhere on all the costumes by the designer to signify how everyone is kind of connected in the small american tows where the play was set- and I suppose connected to ancestors too for when they jump to the future in once scene. I really like design features that are meant to signify things like the stripes in this play- as it's almost like I am building a code or a secret message into what I am making that can only be accessed by people analysing and imagining and really getting Into the show :)

I was really proud of how it came out :) It fit really well and I really liked the finished aesthetic- it is probably one of my favourite things I've ever made! And it was even more fabulous taht it got be in a show- on a stage- in stratford london- in front of an audience- which on two of the nights contained my family and friends!!!! :D

Here is a sneaky shot of it I took from backstage inbetween carrying out my quick changes:

But here is a much better shot of it took by the official college photographer during dress parade :p:

Haha now- did you rebel I mentioned alien bees? One of my jobs was also to help with making thier costumes. We started with some yellow fisherman suits and after some sampling and a lots of hand sewing and analysing the designers sketch here is what the alien bees jacket looked like...

Notice the stripes..? ;)

And here are the trousers- mid having thier 'pollen pockets' sewn on :p:

I really wish I had a picture of the bees full dressed up as the lyrics and the see cool helmets and backpacks with wings on that scenics made! And they had yellow marigold gloves with really long pointed black fake nails on and utility belts! Haha and the microphones they had made them sound all buzzy.  I had to quick change alien bee 1 (there were 2) which was quite a challenge as you can imagine due to all the crazy parts there is to put on- but it was fun and we managed it!

Hehehe hopefully I have managed to explain some of the craziness of shows in an understandable way!? :p 

Well done to everyone involved as I think it was really good show and everyone really made me feel part of the team which was lovely!

I wonder what adventures and randomness my next show holds for me...? :o)

I hope you are all well and I will speak to you again soon!

Bye xxx

Victorian Dress half scale

Hello everyone,

It has been too long since my last post- time has been flying now I'm back at college! Especially since I have been so focused on making progress in our latest on going project making one of the dresses from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion Books. I chose to make a Victorian promenade ensemble (from book 2). I scaled up my patterns from the tiny ones in the book and then went fabric shopping to try and find materials close to the original materials used. After that I did a bit of toiling and have now begun making up. I have finished my sleeves completely- they took 3 days by themselves- so much hand sewing due to pieces being so small you cant really do them under the machine practically.

Here is the original Victorian dress, the image is from the V and A website where the garment is held in the archives:

 

And here are my kind of replica half scale sleeves:

 

I am quite proud of them :) Now I just need to get on and make the rest of the ensemble... in between starting on my first make for a show production which starts next week! :D Ahhh, Yayaya I'm very excited about that!!! (can you tell!? haha)

 

Also soon I will be bringing you all a mini fascinator tutorial upon suggestion by one of my lovely readers Mel makes! So look out for that :)

 

Speak to you all again soon and I hope you are all super well,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

 

Dancewear!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and starting to get into the Christmas spirit as that is not far around the corner!

 

Today Is just a quick post again- but I do assure you they will start getting longer no I have finished college for Christmas and I don't have the end of year hecticness. I mean I need to return to wigs to tell you all about how to work some crazy updos! :P

 

But back to the topic of today- Dancewear! Yes, this was the last week as part of my series of 4 weeks at college covering different disciplines within the area of costume.

 

We got to choose to make either a leotard or a catsuit in a design of our choice. We had to be realistic with our choices though as we only had 4 days to complete them- including pattern drafting and fittings.

 

I chose to make a leotard, and kind of wanted to go with something that looked suitable for a gymnast (We could take inspiration from dance or sports). We made them for ourselves which means I got to parade around in mine on Friday (I looked a bit silly but it was fun!)

 

Here it is, I kept it quite understated but there is a flash of sequined fabric at the collar and cuffs to give it a bit of pzazz! :0P

 

 

It was quite high cut- a little bit 80s aerobics but it fit well in the end so that made me happy. I had never worked with stretch fabrics before last week so it was good to start learn the techniques :)

 

That is about it for this post (I said it would be short and I wasn't fibbing)

 

But I will be back super soon, hopefully with some Christmassy related posting material :)

 

Bye XxXx

 

 

 

 

More wig-iness!

Hi everyone,

Just  quick a quick post again today (I promise they will get longer soon!). I just wanted to show you the last couple of the wig styles I worked on last week in college :)

First up is the style I designed for the character titania (the fairy queen) for Shakespeare play midsummer nights dream.  Well all designed and worked on a wig for different characters so by the end of the day it was like we had the whole casts hair :p

I was really proud of mine as hair is not something I am user talented at and before starting the week I never could have imagined I would be able to achieve anything like it from just a straight hair wig!:

And then here are a couple of shots of the finger waves me and a friend managed to do:

They were a super popular style in the 1920s and another thing I an proud to say I can know do!

As promised I will bring more info on how these wee achieved if anyone fancies potentially sporting one if these styles :p

I hope you are all well

bye xxx

WIGS!

Hi,

This is a really quick post as it has been too long since I posted but I don't quite have time to go into all the detail I want to.. yet! As I mentioned last time I post this week I am working on wig dressing in college. It is such a new and exciting experience for me as seriously I have 2 styles hair down or hair up in a ponytail- I know nothing else :p

But look at the fancy styles I have been being taught how to create:

I will shortly bring you more information on how these looks well created, as well as info on the rest of the cool hair related stuff I learn the rest of this week too!

Speak to you all soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Printing, breaking down and dyeing

Hi guys,

The title of this post pretty much tells you what I have been doing all this week :p Yes, I have just finished the second week of the skills carousel I am currently completing at uni.

We started the week by learning about dying. This was pretty interesting as it is something I have never really done before properly (just with kool aid on some wool! :p). We learnt how to colour match- to dye fabrics to be the same colour as seen in a picture or painting etc. Then we practised some different dying techniques such as ombre (a gradual colour change from light to dark up/down the fabric) and patch dying (different colours of dyes applied/layered onto the fabric in a blotchy way).

Here is my ombre sample:

And here is my patch dying sample:

patch dying is a good method to use when breaking down as it can make things look old and distressed  depending on the colours you use.

Talking about breaking down, that is what we moved onto next. We all had to pick an image of a character wearing a broken down costume from a film or play. I chose my image from the original piranha movie as I love that film :D

Here was my shirt before it was met by sandpaper, fabric paint,  a Stanley knife etc.:

And here is it after:

I am really proud with how it came out as breaking down was something I found quite challenging at times. You have to try and be realistic and make things like the blood look realistic and build it up in layers- I am not great at art/painting so it was quite hard to get something that didn't just  look like a halloween costume I made in 5 mins! Even the stages you have to curve at the ends and fray slightly so they don't just look like you did then with a knife. I liked putting my shirt on once it had dried- I felt like an extra from the movie :p

And now last but not least printing. Again something I had never done properly before but and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting experience.  Cutting out my stencils were a bit fiddly but in the end I was happy with the effect/pattern I achieved, and it was cool to play around with the metallic paints, foil and puff paints.

Here are my finished samples and printed tshirt:

Next week I have a reading week so I can prepare more work and research but then after that is wigs... so that should be interesting to tell you about :p

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,  talk to you again soon!

Bye xxx

Millinery meanderings

Hi everyone,

At college at the moment we are on our carousel of different costume techniques that don't feature as part of the day to day of our course :) We get to do one week of millinery, dance ear , dying and breaking down and also a week of wig dressing. 

The week of millinery has just gone and it was such an interesting and enjoyable week. As some of you may remember I did a millinery course at the London college of fashion last summer. That course mainly focused on blocking techniques, whereas the week just gone at college we looked at cutting and shaping buckram to make hats- something much more achieve able at home without too much special equipment. I was so pleased with the result. We had to focus on the period of the 19th century to base out hat designs on. Here is the reference image I chose as a starting point for my hat, I found it in a book in the library: 

I didn't make my hat from straw however as I wanted to try fabric covering it so I went with a kind of golden straw coloured velvet instead.

Here is my final hat, I was really proud of it. Everyone else's was amazing too- it was amazing to see all thst had been produced in just a week!:

It is pretty big- you would need a lot if hairpins through the loops I sewed in to hold it down!

As this post was millinery themed, I thought it would be a good time to show you the fascinator I was making outside college that I just finished :-) It was from a kit from Hats on Heads (a millinery company- I bought two more of their kits from create and craft as well). It was pretty fun to make and not too much of it was given to you pre - done so I did actually lean quite a few skills.  Here it is:

Now I just need an occasion to wear it to! :p

Hehe,  I better be off to bed now, I hope you enjoyed my millinery meanderings.  Please do leave any comments below or ask any questions if you have them xxxx

Also don't forget tommorow the advent calendar giveaway ends do if you have entered already go do so now before it is too late! Good luck :-)

Speak to you all soon, 

Bye xoxoxo

Waistcoat all done!

Hi,

I hope you are all having a good week :)

My waistcoat that I was making in college is now all complete! As I mentioned a post or so ago, for our first project we had to make a men's waistcoat in any style we wanted, it also had to be decorated in some way.

Here was my design, which was inspired by comic book villains and gangsters:

The front sections interlock.

And then here is the back, my decoration was inspired by the glamorous girlfriends gangsters and villains often seem to have in the movies :p:

And now, after a few weeks work, here is my finished waistcoat, front and back:

   

Then here are some close ups/different angles:

 My machine and hand appliquéd hand motifs (the little xxx are hand embroidered):

Satin stitch hand embroidered kiss :):

It was hard to get the lapels so sharp (and the pocket flap points too!):

It was a fun and challenging project. I learnt so much as this was my first ever piece of menswear.  I am really proud of the result though :-) please do leave me any comments below- I would love to know what you think.

See you all again soon, when I will be announcing a special giveaway........!

Bye xxx

P.s. All images in this post are copyright to me (Jordan Norrington)