Final Evaluation

The past few months have been a whirlwind. I have experienced every single emotion possible with this unit, pushing my making and creative skills to a new level. Although very challenging and tough at points, it has been very worthwhile and beneficial in the long run. My time was divided between two projects, resulting in the production of three garments for the costume store plus a body of costume work for Breathe. Multi-tasking and keeping to a production schedule has improved my time management skills greatly.

Reviewing my work for the costume store, my making skills have improved considerably.  As I have never made any of these pieces before, much problem solving was needed when constructing.

The Edwardian shirt was beset with problems from the start due to the pattern provided. When I had just made progress constructing it, a pattern problem interfered again; I had to take the centre back in as there was a quarter of a metre of excess fabric even after I had adapted the pattern with Dexter! Nevertheless, I am very proud of the pin tucks. This was a new technique for me, so it took a few attempts of re-doing my lines before I mastered it. Here I learnt how important it is to re-do something as it nearly always pays off.

After this, the C18th breeches provided a different challenge. Cream cashmere fabric, pinstripes and hand-sewing is quite a tough combination; I learnt the importance of handling fabrics with care. Workspace was problematic, due to the high volume of people working around me and not enough care from others, and someone accidentally stained my costume with a pen. This really did upset me. With Dexter’s advice I tried to remove the stain, however, this just made it worse. I have realised that due to fabric choice this costume may need to be dry cleaned now. Although annoyed, I have learnt to always check the work space around you and keep your costumes clean by regular hand-washing when working on them. Whilst hand-sewing my front flap arrows, I saw how easily your costume can become dirty if the fabric is overworked. The final challenge on this garment was the pockets. I learnt how to make a new pocket called a ‘western’. My tailoring experience from defining practice was beneficial as with some problem solving I was able to master the making process. I was very happy with this as it had been very daunting. Lastly, I have learnt the importance of forward planning, as with the Edwardian shirt.

The last garment I made for the store was the Victorian blouse and I encountered a few problematic areas when making this. The pin tucks were smaller, compared to the first shirt, only 1/8th of an inch wide. As with the Edwardian shirt, following a few attempts I controlled the sewing machine more easily and mastered this. Smocking was another traditional technique I learnt. Some guidance from Dexter enabled me to hand sew this with delicate embroidery stitching. After creating all of these design details the actual construction of this particular garment came together very quickly.

The other element of this unit has been my making with Breathe. Surprisingly, I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project as it has enabled me to be highly creative, using my textiles skills. I was given two designs, a male and female elder cloak. The female cloak required me to pattern cut, drafting the shape to the design and cutting using the recycled fabric. This proved to be really successful as I was able to drape the shape and adapt it afterwards. On top of the fabric, I then created textiles patches and developed these utilising several techniques inspired by the textiles artist Maggie Grey, who uses a lot of mixed media. I was able to run my own workshop when attending the ‘Breathe Together’ club. This was great, as I was demonstrating and teaching, skills that I have never experienced before within a costume environment. With the other male costume I continued developing the textiles mixed media effects. Interpreting my design, I continued the ‘seaweed’ based theme.

Overall, from these two projects within this unit, I have acquired additional skills and been exposed to new experiences. When comparing them I thoroughly enjoyed the textiles element of costume and would like to develop this further in future projects. Even though I have extended and developed my making skills, due to time constraints and factors outside my control affecting the costume store (i.e. previous Olympic project over running into the costume store, tutors unavailable and pattern problems) this project has been far more stressful than first anticipated.

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