Work Placement - History in the Making

Day 2

It feels like today has gone so quickly! This morning Suzie and I carried on with the leather doublet, adding the lining to the doublet and top stitching everything together. Our aim was to try and finish as much of this in time for the Stamford Shakespeare Theatre company representatives arrival at 1pm. They came and inspected our work and discussed more hiring information with Hamish and Jean. They were extremely pleased with the costumes which was brilliant news! Suzie asked them a few questions about the costume for 'Hotspur'. This was really helpful as it clarified the design details, how the costume was going to be made and the desired visual effect the company wanted.

From this experience I have realised how important it is for a customer/designer or hirer/buyer of a costume to see the making progress of a costume. By having the theatre representatives down from Lincolnshire today they were able to visually have an input with the costumes. Working as a practising costume maker I will bear this for future reference and ensure I carry this out when I work professionally.

During the afternoon I was able to start drafting up the breeches for the Falstaff costume. Suzie gave me a Janet Arnold book for pattern reference as the imagery she had from the theatre company came directly from it. Hamish myself and Suzie discussed how we should construct the breeches. Like the leather doublet Hamish suggested cutting strips of leather and fabric, machine sewing them together and then pleating the waistline to create a billowing breeches shape, with the leather acting as a "boning" effect. With this in mind I calculated the shape of the breeches from the pattern and adapted the shape. Suzie worked out how wide each fabric/leather panel should be to fit the breeches to a 40" waist. After this I cut out the strips of fabric/leather and machine sewed the pieces. This was done on a Brother domestic machine. I found this really great as I had never used a Brother make before. Another conquered machine added to the list!

Overall I found today really interesting and got a lot of confidence out of the drafting. I felt a bit unsure at first with my own ability. As a practitioner I have realised that it is important to persevere and believe in yourself and your own work as you will never improve otherwise.

I shall see what tomorrow brings!

Book Reference

Janet Arnold: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560–1620, Macmillan 1985. Revised edition 1986.

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