Priorities

You may have noticed that up until now all the costumes I have made have been, let’s say, a little quick in the making!

I could have spent a lot longer on adding interfacings and facings or even maybe lining a costume every now and then.  The fact of the matter is that I prioritise on how many costumes I need to make and who they are for.

For example, the typical time I would spend on a princess dress could be more than ten times longer than I would spend on a female chorus dress.

I have a theory that more people are looking at the costume on a princess than on someone at the back of the stage saying nothing.  Therefore her dress must make the audience want to look at her even more!

In fact all the principal roles should have a lot more time spent on them to really please the audience.

There is another reason.

When I took over the costumes of our pantomime the only costumes were, to put it bluntly, pretty pathetic.  The cast usually hired their own costumes from a fancy dress shop and most other costumes were thrown together from things found in the actor’s wardrobe.

Now I am not saying my costumes are brilliant, just that there was a definite lack of anything kept as stock.  Since I took over the costumes completely two years ago there is a caravan full of costumes and  those are 95% made by me.  I have thrown away anything I don't think is good enough and whittled it down to those that can be reused, mostly things that can be re-worn by the chorus

In theory the more costumes I make, the more are available for future performances.  This means that a costume that was made for a principal will eventually work its way down the line until it ends up in the chorus.

So if I spend a short amount of time on a waistcoat this is just in relation to the number of times it will be worn and the number of years it will last.  The waistcoats I have made recently and the chorus dresses will probably be put in storage after the 2015 performance, pulled out for one more year and then thrown away as they are replaced with something better.

You will see later in the year that I don't always go for the quick solution but by spending my time trying to get as many chorus costumes completed as possible now, I won’t be taking up precious time later on that is needed for the more intricate principal costumes.

I imagine it would take a good few years to get enough costumes to never worry about needing whole sets of them being made and I am nowhere near that.  If you are lucky you start out with a good collection of decent costumes and do not have to make everything for everybody.  I have not got that luxury at the moment so some of those costumes I make are there to fill a hole that hopefully, one day, will be filled with something far superior.

Tutorial:Straw hat to bonnet

I have added a new tutorial on how to get a pretty (or not so pretty) Regency or Victorian style bonnet from an old straw hat.

This is the end result of my efforts:

This beautiful array is for the Dame and goes with the yellow/red/black bustle gown all ready to wear in the caravan. 

It took me about 2 hours from unpicking the original hat to the end result but of course it could be made more tastefully for 'proper' costuming.

The tutorial is on Tutorials 1

Why you need to plan so much in advance

When you are making costumes for so many people (mine average out to around 30 a year), it pays to plan in advance.  I have been in the situation of three weeks to go and not all principal players’ costumes made and it is not good.  That is when the stress sets in and enjoyment of the project goes flying out of the window.

Christmas is spent chained to the sewing machine and, as is often the case with me, if you get ill on top of that the whole thing becomes a weight around your neck.

As I like to spend my summer holidays making as many of the costumes as possible it stands to reason that planning needs to be in place before that period arrives.  Unfortunately, as I have said before, there is one thing that often gets in the way...money.

So here is my annual plan of how it should go (although there are often out of control events that make this plan unworkable which is how I got so behind before, this year I intend it to be different).

• ·         Get all the odd jobs out of the way a soon as possible.  Cleaning, mending and altering should be finished before anything else happens.
• ·         Are there any gaps in your costume wardrobe?  For me this year it was the chorus so I have put some time aside to get that up and running
• ·         Make sure you have your budget beforehand and preferably cash in hand so you can get those bits when you need them and not waiting for your local treasurer to have the time to get it to you.  This is really important as one year I found myself waiting nearly 6 months to be reimbursed £150 due to the treasurers personal problems, if you can afford to wait then don’t worry about this but if you can’t be aware that getting money to you may not be top of their list in importance. 
• ·         Once you know what your panto will be, start looking at possible costumes and make sure you have your budget available to you (am I pushing this point? I do hope so!).  We have our announcement end March/beginning April so there is plenty of time for designs to be drafted and put to the producer and actors if this is necessary.  You may not have as long but ensure that you know, more or less, what you are doing before you start
• ·         Get your fabrics and trims decided on, bought, washed and ironed.
• ·         Make sure you have all your casts measurements, I keep mine in a book so I always know where they are
• ·         Get sewing, this may include fittings as you sew
• ·         As soon as I have a costume made I do a final fitting on the cast member, as long as it fits it then gets put away
• ·         We have a photo call for the local newspaper  end November/early December, you really need main characters in full costume for this if possible
• ·         Full dress rehearsals should have everything made and ready to go, at this point you may find some tweaking or repairs are necessary
• ·         The week before performances we have a full dress rehearsal, when  the costumes are finished with see what needs cleaning and then iron it all, hang it up and look on in amazement at all you have achieved
• ·         Be prepared during the performance with some safety pins, needle and thread and any other quick fix repair elements!
• ·         Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour

Waistcoat from tutorial

So earlier today I posted a tutorial on how to make a basic waistcoat to be embellished for a male chorus member.

Obviously I started out by having to take photos and write the tutorial before completing my waistcoat but here it is all finished and prettied up in less than 7 hours including the time spent on the tutorial:

I added a stand collar (I have also added a tutorial for that), epaulette sleeve caps and black trim.  I also put side lacing in which means this waistcoat (shown on the size 10 dummy) will go up to fit a 46" chest (not quite as much as I hoped but it is still a big difference and very flexible).

With the basic design all you need to do is add a few bits and each waistcoat will look totally different.  Not only can this be used for theatrical wear, it is the perfect fancy dress starter for many costumes from pirates to Victorians and can be adapted for any size from children to adults.  The only difference is the chest and length measurements, the rest is done exactly the same!

This is my second waistcoat made from the same pattern:

I added in an overlap of 5" at the front so that when it was turned to form the lapel it had a double layer.  The stand collar was measured from the shoulder seams to fit to where the lapel ends.  I have also added a tutorial on how to do the epaulettes/cap sleeves

Now I feel organised!

I have been a bit busy this week!

I wandered into the office at work with a sick child in tow (one of the downfalls of working in a school is how many times you have to deal with sick children)and was met by a whole load of new filing cabinets.  I oohed and aahed over them with the secretary (it would be rude not to) when she casually asked if I wanted the old ones.

My brain did that little think and my mouth said...yes please! I figured I would work out the logistics of if I had room for three filing cabinets later.  This coincided with my husband having a few days off work which was more than convenient.  I told him that evening that he would probably be getting a cabinet the next day, it ended up being all three as the secretary got overexcited and emptied them all in one go.

I arrived home after work and we stood in my sewing room, which is of course not a sewing room but my 'sewing things storage room'and tried to work out if we could get two in, let alone three!

This is sewing room before cabinets:

It is as tidy as it ever was going to be with boxes of stuff on the floor and trims scattered over the shelves, the wardrobe holds amounts of fabrics more than 2 metres, the boxes hold everything else material wise.

Number one cabinet went in, we stood and looked and I filled it up.  Then we took down shelves, moved the wardrobe to the opposite side of the room, looked a bit more and realised all three would go in...result!!!!!

I spent a happy time filling up the cabinets and this is how the room looks now:

One drawer holds more than one box so all the boxes left the building.  The wardrobe is now behind the door.

Would anybody know I am an obsessive sewist walking in my house now?

This then led to the caravan as I had found a few items of costuming hidden in the room and all those plastic boxes to put costumes in not those cardboard ones currently in use.  I did the deed I talked about and threw away all those items of clothing that had been donated last year and I know will not now be used.  I am pleased to report that I have a hanging rail full of clothes and boxes filled with others.  I just have three boxes to go through which I filled at this time last year when I was sorting out what costumes I would not be using for last years pantomime so they could be stored out of the way.

I am now feeling very pleased with myself and counting down the days to April 6^th...P day!  Or the day the pantomime is officially revealed and I get my grubby little hands on a script to work out the need for costumes from characters not from what I think there may be.

Then the shopping trip for trims and fabrics, then auditions, then I get sewing.

I feel that these two weeks are the calm before the storm.  My last two weeks of being able to do what I want when I want.  But with no real projects underway I will probably start on some adjustable waistcoats for the male members of the chorus just so I don't get bored doing nothing this weekend!

Being determined does help!

I put my foot down with a firm hand!

After a telephone call with the director I am now getting the money I requested up front.  She did ask if I could get it in installments...I said no!  You have no idea how proud I am of myself for being firm, I usually cave in but I was determined it would not happen this time and it didn't.  I will be getting the money at the cast meal when the pantomime is announced and scripts go out.

I do know what we are doing but I'm not supposed to say anything until it is officially announced so I will be good and say nothing.

But what is happening now is I am thinking of what costumes will be needed, lets just say my peasant costumes were not a waste of time lol

I have just finished off the green version of the bodice which has a bit of trim on the front to offset the pale colours of the other two.  This one is bigger and goes from a size 20 down, it is on the size 10 dummy and not laced up tight.

I have a patterned blouse to go under the pink and think the green needs a plain white blouse to lift the colouring.  I'm not sure about the blue but I will find something suitable in time.

This means I have four peasant lady costumes as I already had the Snow White costume to reuse.

I am now planning a shopping trip to get the fabric as Norfolk really doesn't have that choice.  I am lucky my husband hails from Bolton so we tend to combine a family visit with a fabric shopping session.  I also plan to order some trims from America. They are so much cheaper there it pays to get the bulk orders and pay the duties and postage!  It is a shame that I have to pay the vat as they are not donated even though it is for a charity, but that is the government for you lol

Sigh, here we go again

I said didn't I?  

So yet again I find myself in the budget quandry that hits every year and makes me mad at myself and everybody else that the situation is never settled.

At the end of our performances this year I spoke to the director and told her that I HAD to have funds up front to do the costumes as the way it was just did not work.

There are two versions of how the funding has been dealt with over the years;

• I pay for everything I use then put in a reciept for what is owed me and wait up to six months for it to be paid back
• I pay for nothing, put in a reciept and wait up to six months to get any money for anything

So when I went for the first option I found myself spending up to £150 and waiting too long to get it back.

The following year I went with the second method and found myself playing catch up over Christmas as I had waited so long to get any money to pay for things.

Therefore this year was going to be a new method.  I spoke to the director as I said and she assured me that I could have at least some money up front to pay for fabrics, trims etc in good time to not have to rush through as performance time approached.

Happy with this conversation I felt comfortable with using fabrics that I already had to start on the costumes as you have seen.

Last weekend I spoke to the treasurer and asked for the funds promised.  'Oh no,' she said.  'I wish you had asked before, director has allocated all the money and now there is none left to give you!'

To say I am peeved is to put it mildly.

It is now a week and I have still not recieved any reply about this from director person!

So, you have been warned, I have warned you a lot about this haven't I?

Of course I have returned to work and been too tired to do much on my return home, I have however been working on my own little project which involves embroidery on the front panel of a dress and here is where I am at;

I have never attempted this kind of embroidery before so it's all new ground and I am pretty pleased with the result.  It is mainly bullion stitch with a bit of satin stitch on smaller areas and pearl seeds in the largest areas.  I'm not sure at this point how far I will take this onto the front panel but it makes a change sitting with a needle and thread and not hammering away on the sewing machine :D