Final Evaluation

My intention for my SDP was to under take a project that would help improve my skills, knowledge and professionalism in construction. I knew that Costume Store was the ideal choice for this but totally under estimated how intense the project would prove to be. After submitting myself for this SDP choice it was later reveled that the project would be split between 'Costume Store' and 'Breathe'. Although I had no real interest in 'Breathe' at the start, it seemed interesting and a great project to be involved in.

The shirt was the first garment the project started off with. It was a fairly simple garment to ease us in with but still presented itself as a challenge. The actual fabric we had to use was the first issue to deal with. It was easily damaged when unpicked. This made me a lot more aware of materials durability and the importance of accuracy within my work. The next test I had was with its placket. After unpicking it too many times I ended up damaging the front piece. From this I've learnt that sometimes a mistake is better left untouched or you run the risk of damaging your work further. Although pleased with the end result, I was disappointed  to discover that I wouldn't receive my buttons in time to complete it.

From the start the work space available was problematic. We had to share the studio space throughout the project with other projects. Leaving my shirt behind one evening in, I returned to our next scheduled studio time to discover it had been moved and stained. Annoyed by the incident it has provided a good lesson for me not to leave my costumes unattended, caring for them is one of the most important things to preserve their condition.

The breeches was the next garment made. The fabric was a wool cashmere with pin stripes; a challenge itself to work with. The most problematic element of this garment was the front fall flap incision. Unfortunately my incisions made frayed and as a consequence distorted its appearance slightly. From this mistake I've learnt to handle garments with care when working on them. However, I do believe that this garment helped to improve my hand sewing skills due to the amount involved to construct them.

The final garment made was a Victorian Blouse. This garment really did embody the independent aspect of the project after Dexter had an unfortunate accident. I was most afraid of producing this garment, especially without any assistance. However, I stayed calmed and transferred all the previous knowledge gained recently to construct it. The most problematic aspect was the organza pleating. It had a specific pattern and needed to be as straight as possible as it was the main feature of the blouse. It was very hard to control the silk organza, even after being starched. If ever faced again with a similar fabric detail I've learnt that time and care is extremely important as fabric like this is difficult to control and easily damaged.

'Breathe' was the other element of my SDP project. At the beginning I was very resistant from working on it due to not being originally part of 'The Costume Store' project I'd signed up for. However as soon we began I enjoyed it and found myself looking forward to working on each week. It became almost like a stress relief. For 'Breathe' I worked on the 'Hunter' group, creating two cloaks. It was a nice change from the strict, grueling aim for perfection of  'The Costume Store'. I really enjoyed being more creative/ experimental with the materials available and interpret the wacky designs of the 'Breather's'. This side of the project felt a lot more satisfying/ rewarding to work due to the knowledge that our hard work, skills and knowledge were going towards a live project.

Reflecting over my work produced for Costume Store there is a great deal of evidence that I have improved with my technical skills. I'd never attempted to construct a garment using only a sample as a guide; deconstructing it visually in order to construct a copy. Considering this my problem solving skills, and confidence with making, have improved considerably. It has also become apparent to me that I'm much more motivated when working from a design/ purpose and creating a much more textural body for work. My overall opinion of the project is a little mixed. Although I did enjoy certain aspects of it factors effecting 'The Costume Store' side of the project (Battle for the Winds over running, absent tutors, buttons missing and not enough fabric given out) has been very stressful and effected the potential standard of work I could've produced

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Costume Store - Victorian Blouse

I returned to work on my blouse this morning with much fear and dread of tackling the next component to attach; The collar. I'd never really had much luck with attaching collars in the past, especially the first time around. The collar for the blouse was a double layer of organza so mistakes weren't an option really.. To begin I machine sewed the two pieces together, bagged it out and then top stitch. It wasn't too bad so I left it instead of running the risk of damaging the organza. The next tricky task was to actually attach the collar to the neck of the garment. Because of its moveability, and bad past experiences with collar attachments, I tightly tacked it in place. I was very pleased with the result...

 The next bit was fairly simple (folding the inside seam under, pressing and top stitching) and the only things left to do were the buttons and button holes.

After a very stressful and fast paced week I managed to get the blouse finished on time for hand-in. I knew the blouse was quite large but was a little bit shocked by just how large the end result turned out to be. 

I'm not as happy with it as I'd liked to have been, after a few incidents, but for my first attempt at a period blouse I don't think it turned out too bad...

Costume Store - Victorian Blouse

After Dexter's accident which occurred last week the costume store had had no with their blouse construction. To make matters worse he was in possession of a few key items needed to complete our garments; lace and linen covered buttons. I already had my lace but needed my buttons to finish the breeches and shirt. This left me really worried and stressed out about what would be done but after email contact with him Amy, the supervisor, told me to hand in the shirt without the buttons but do the button holes and only attach the gold buttons on the breeches, leaving the linen ones and mark tacking where the button holes would go. This was one concern lifted but I was still really worried about the construction of my blouse...

When I'd last left it I had just made the pleated detail and was ready to attach it to the front panels of the blouse. From examining the sample I worked out the organza was attached using a straight stitch, topped off with a zigzag stitch for extra security. The lace on the sample blouse had been machine stitched. However from previous experience, and now my growing standard, I decided to hand sew it on. This would be more aesthetically pleasing; leaving a smoother finished, almost magically attached decoration. This was simple enough to do and I was quite pleased with the out come (despite disliking the colour combination and fabric choice made for me..).

Once done I began the task of creating the button stand. We'd been instructed to create a separate button stand unlike the one the sample had, which was just folded over and top stitched. I thought this would've been fairly straight forward but found this wasn't the case. Yet again it was really hard to control the organza smoothly and to catch the multiple layers of the blouse (organza, blouse fabric and lace) together. I was extremely disappointed with the first and second attempt as some how the button stands became distorted and different widths. Determined for a neater look I completely took the stands off and redone them from the beginning, which resulted in a better button stand. Once happy I then attached the front to the backs...

After this I attached the sleeves (first tacking together and then machine sewing). After the sleeves I began to over lock the seams. Before now I'd never had a problem with over locking. It was unfortunate the last studio day we had to work on it was also the first years costume parade for their last project. The space available was very limited and tight to pass through.. It was just may luck that someone knocked into me, whilst over locking, in an attempt to slip past me. The result was a small cut into my blouse body near the under arm. This left me totally heart broken and lost with what to do next; redoing the blouse wasn't an option at this stage due to the fabric left over and the time we had before hand-in. Before having a break down I got myself together in order to deal with the problem. I came up with a basic solution to repair it and the incision wasn't very noticeable after.  

After the incident I found myself stressed and worked up. This is not a good emotional state to be in when working on such a finely stitched garment and so decided to take a break and sew on the rest of the lace to the cuff. It was only when doing this that the second horror story happened; I ran out of lace for the cuff. Having trusted the amount of fabric specifically given to me I had no reason to question whether it was enough for the whole blouse. I was very relieved that I'd chosen to do this now and discovered the error sooner rather than later and so went to Amy, the supervisor, for assistance. As the lace wasn't from around here we had to have a look for a similar looking lace. One was thankfully found and the dilemma now avoided.

Shortage of lace on cuff...

Breathe - Hunters Cloaks

Since working on the second cloak last I'd managed to dye, construction the cloaks shape and complete half of its textile work. I was really pleased with its progressed and made me really positive for the days session. First of all I continued to finish off patch working the cloak and once finished pinned it to a mannequin with the base attached. My next task was to work out how to attach it to the base costume as in the design there was no obvious neck ties etc to be interpreted. As Kate, the designer, was around to consult I decided that the best method would be to use poppers as a temporary solution. Once this was done I began to consider the best was to interpret the netting which is draped over the arm and visible at the front of the cloak. To do this I started to play around draping net over the shoulders and around the front of the cloak. This had a really nice organic charm to it; wild, free and linking to fishing/ the sea. 

Once I'd secured it all in place I began to make the shoulder pads visible on the design. It looked like a big furry pad resting on the shoulder, however there was a sample in the hunter folder of a much more textural piece; net with lots of short tied on lace/ribbon/string/rope. Taking this sample I began to make my own. They looked a little bit too flat when placed upon the should so made a small pad for it to rest on and be attached to. It was then worked into a little for a more aged/ distressed appearance. Like the other cloak I attached elastic arm bands for secure movement and then draped the net over and stitched it in place; thus realising the design. 

I was pretty pleased with the end result of the second cloak. After the previous cloak I was much more prepared for making this one; knowing what things to avoid when stitching the base cloak and to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Out of the two, its definitely been my favourite to construct. 

Costume Store - Victorian Blouse

This week is the second week we've had to work on the blouse (2 weeks until hand-in). I thought I'd had everything under control with the construction of the blouse so far, and decided to work on it up until a point I'd need to consult our tutor, Dexter, with the next construction stages. However, at the beginning of the week he had an unfortunate accident and was signed off due to an injure. I was really worry about the way in which the project would now develop without assigned teaching support. Instead of panic I decided to seek help from other tutors on our course to begin the next stages of assembling the blouse.

The next stage in constructing the blouse was the pleated front bib/yoke. At first glance it seemed simple enough, a piece of pleated silk organza cut in the appropriate shape and attach to the front pieces of the blouse.  Despite the appearance of its simplicity this wasn't the case. Dexter had left us with instructions of how the pleats were to be formed in order to form crisp, neat pleats, important due to it being the focal point of the blouse. The instructions left me pretty confused. After trying out a combination of folding and pinning solutions I accepted defeat and sought the help of another tutor. Together we managed to work out the pleats fold combination. 

After working out the fold combination I tacked down the main line I needed to follow when machine sewing the folds. Despite being aware of what I was doing I still found it pretty difficult to work with the silk organza. Before even beginning working with it I'd starched it 4 times to stiffen it and give it more control. Although this did help the organza proved very difficult to work when sewing on the machine and I didn't manage to get all the pleats perfectly even. Undoing the stitching for something like this isn't really possible to do without damaging the organza, and because we'd ran out of money for the costume project I excepted the outcome and will take this experience into consideration when it comes to working with fabric like this again.

After pleating the organza the next task was cutting out the bib/ yoke detail piece for the front of the blouse. I laid the patten on top of the organza and to my horror found that I didn't actually have enough fabric to cut the whole pattern out. Instead of panicking I took a moment to consider the situation and how to approach it next. Placing the pattern piece as tightly backed at I could, I drew around them to see how much wastage was left. Luckily there was just enough waste pleated organza to perfectly attach to the section of the bib/ yoke missing. Once happy I then cut out the bib/ yoke and joined on the separate piece of pleating to it. You could never tell that this was the case as it produced a smooth finish. This is the result...

 

Breathe - Hunters Cloaks

Since the last session of Breathe I'd made a good process on my cloak. After relentlessly cutting shapes of fabric, net, fur, leather and suede I had managed to cover the cloak in a way which resembled the design but as my own interpretation.  The next this I had to tackle was the fastenings and shape. 

In the design the character is swooping the cloak upwards, revealing the inside slightly. When looking at this feature and my creation so far it looked to heavy and drowning for the wearer to be able to do this. So I decided first of all to slash into one side to create a slightly slanted shape for ease of moveability and to lighten it. The next thing to consider was the ways in which the wearer would control the cape. Previously as a group, me, Kim and Naomi had discussed that each cloak would have a series of elasticated arm bands. This way the wearer would have complete control of its movements and would also create extra security of staying fastened. 

As the in the design the cloak is quite heavy looking and more closed over than the others I decided that eyelets / tie rope would be a nice way to finish it and  for it to be fastened. This is the result...

The only thing left that I want to do with it is to stitch down some of the fabric sections more and to add some barnacles which were previously made in the Breathe Club sessions.

This wasn't the only Breathe work I managed to produce this week. For this part of the unit it had be stated as a requirement that we needed to produce a bod of work for assessment. A lot of us in the group were very worried and distressed about the content/ extent of the 'body of work'. As a result had individual tutorial with our tutors to come to an understanding of what we needed to produce for assessment. It had been decided that along side this cloak I'd need to make a second smaller cloak which another girl was meant to make but hadn't had the time. This is the design...

From the design I could see that this cloak was a lot smaller in length and in width; only going half way across the back. After establishing this I drew up a pattern, similar to the last one but half the size,cut it out of fabrics available, machine stitched it together and then took it to the dye room to dye it the same rusty colours as the other cloaks.  Once dried I began work on it straight away. Having done it previously I was fully aware of how lengthy it could be to made such a patch work style cloak. However this time I came up with a systematic/ time efficiently cutting method for the patches in order to use my time left effectively. 

This is the result at the end of the first day... 

Costume Store - Victorian Blouse

On Thursday my fabric arrived at uni from the supplier just in time for my next costume store working day on Friday. I was a little worried that I'd be majorly behind on Friday as the vast majority of the class had recieved their fabric on Wednesday meaning they could have cut out, tacked and started on their blouses by now. However on Friday I was quite surprised, and mildly pleased, that half the class were in my situation and the other half had barely got anywhere with drafting their pattern. Now in a more positive mind set I began to prepare to myself for tackling the blouse.

My fabric, previously mentioned, was silk cotton (bleached agre)  in neutral soft colours of cream, brown etc. It seemed a really unusual choice of fabric for a blouse due to its strange texture and thickness. It reminded me of parchment paper and the natural weft of the fabric produced a pattern lightly wall paper like. It was very different to everyone else's floral/plain/thin striped fabric, which I quite liked. After ironing my fabric, folding it to the salvage and pinning down my pattern pieces, I set to work cutting out the sections of my blouse.This how I started off...

Whilst the fabric was folded salvage-to-salvage pin the pattern pieces down. Draw on the pattern require of the separate pieces and add on a 2.5cm seam allowance on each one.

Sew up all the darts; 4 on the back piece and the 2 on each of the front pieces. After this is done press the darts flat; darts on the back being pressed towards the center back and the darts on the front pieces being pressed towards the center front. Pressing them in these directions will help them to stay flat when worn/ applied to the body.

Now start on the sleeves. Cut along the incision line at the bottom of the sleeve. You'll need to bind this to create as smooth finish/ stop spreading a tear. From the top side sew your binding along the cut you've made making sure when you reach the point to stop the sewing machine, pivot the needle and then sew downwards. Fold the binding, press and top stitch down. On the inside of the sleeve make a small at the top of the incision/binding. This means you can pull the points over each other giving a better finish (flatter...).

Sew the seams together and press open/flat.

At the bottom of the sleeve fold the pleats and pin in place. Next pin the cuff down from one point of the cuff opening to the other, pinning over the pleats. Sew the cuff down and then fold over to top stitch. Top stitch down, press and then top stitch around all the cuff.

At this point I've now managed to construct both sleeves ready for attachment, buttons, embellishment and the darts in the main body of the garment. The next area I need to address is the organza pleated yoke and collar of the blouse which I will begin during the next assisted costume store session in the studio.