Final Dress Parade!

Costume Dress Parade

The final parade and oh my gosh it was amazing! I am so pleased with all of the costumes, they looked fantastic on the actors! It made all of our hard work so worthwhile! The comments we received from the tutors were great and the Director was happy with everything. It has been an intense few months but the reward is seeing the costumes on the actors for the first time. The dye work has been problematic at points but we have gone over things and re-dyed a few items.

I have learnt that it really is important to ensure the look of the cast is complete and that everything works well together. There are a few more things that need finishing such as Procne's collar and a few more dying bits but we are mostly there. Well done! :D

Mini Dress Parade

First look at the Costumes as a whole!

The costumes look so good together! I was really proud to see all of the hard work everyone had put in start to come together! This mini dress parade was so important and helpful for us in the Textiles Department as it was an opportunity to critically analyse what costumes worked and what ones didn't. I was so SO pleased with all of the ombre dye work! My team who helped did a fantastic job in ensuring the levels look similar and not too out of place. There were the odd few base costumes that needed more attention but otherwise we were pretty much there! We did have a long list at the end of the session of jobs that we needed to do. It is rather scary considering the show is only a week away! We just need to be very very organised. I am going to manage my team of assistants and helpers so jobs will be done effectively and prioritized in order of importance/urgency.

Tiresias' Cape

Narcissus Cape - We had problems dying this costume due to it's synthetic quality! Bit of a bad choice on the fabric buying front! Need to try and break it down more...

Shape for Philomela Collar - Much much better! Will screen print the devore pattern onto it now...

Echo - need to screen print red lines onto it...

Myrrha - Darker around the hood/CF opening...

Fittings

Visualising the Designs

Juno - Colour Decisions

The fittings went really well! The makers have done a fantastic job realising the designs! It was great to physically see where the costumes were heading in a 3D sense. Bethan seemed really pleased with the overall look and my textiles work. It was nice to pin samples against the costumes to see what works and what doesn't, whether things need more light and shade. I don't think we can really for see the overall look properly until the costumes are all dyed. Gosh after today I can see there's a lot of work to do! Scary times!

I learnt today what my role would be like in industry when acting as a Textiles Supervisor. I am finding that I am quite a key person as I am a mixture of design and supervisory, so working closely with Bethan is essential.

Here are a few of the other costumes from the fitting!

 

Procne & Philomela - Velvet Collars

The collars had a few issues, mainly down to the shape. They weren't symmetrical and flattering enough in 3D. Mandy suggested to Bethan to go back to the drawing board and re-design the shape of them. These two costumes are particularly key to my department as I need to get the shape right before I can do any of the screen print onto them. Hopefully the makers and Bethan will sort this out soon!

Echo

Midas

Jupiter - Experimentation

Developing the Textiles from the Design

Bethan felt that Jupiter needed to reflect Juno with the dye work as his Cape was too flat and didn't link very well with the other dyed costumes. I really was keen to develop this design further with Bethan. I suggested the idea of Flames creeping up his cape as he is influenced from the phoenix. Bethan loved this idea so I went right away creating samples for the character. 

I chose to follow the similar way I approached the velvet, through bleaching the pre-dyed red fabric to remove areas of colour and then to over dye the new tones of cherry flame, golden glow and black This was very successful and after some refinement I produced a larger scale sample to reflect the length of the cape.

Rhyannon suggested I should develop this textiles technique further through the use of machine embroidery. This was an interesting idea as I was able to add depth to the cape and even bring in some new textures through dyed scrim.

After showing Bethan the stitched and non stitched sample she said she liked the stitched one, however was worried about the time factor we had on getting these costumes ready for the show. I agreed and felt that the dye work alone was beautiful enough as all the other costumes didn't really have a lot of stitch in them either.

I have learnt after this session that within the industry there is only so much time you have when developing costumes, especially when you only have two months! If I had more time I would have loved to experiment with this costume even more but I know we simply don't have the time to.

Devore - Procne

Screen Printing Devore

After realising the colour techniques onto the velvet, Myself and Rhyannon explored the design of the collar. We suggested to Bethan that Screen Printing Devore onto the velvet as it would give a crisp outline, like that of her design.

Bethan after this drew the pattern/design she wanted the collar to have. We transferred the design onto a screen through photocopying the drawing onto acetate to expose onto the screen.

 Bethan's Design - Procne Collar

Velvet Devore Sample

The results of the Devore were fantastic! We also though that underneath the removed fibres section you could have a different colour lining to highlight the contrast even more.

I am so happy I have learnt how to expose a screen now, Alison taught me how to use the machine. It is such a useful skill to have!

I think this technique will look really effective with this design, and can't wait to see how it will look!

Philomela and Procne... Velvet Experimentation

Bleach and Dye on Velvet

With these two characters Bethan wanted the add on collar sections to be made out of velvet then highlighted with copper/golden hues. We had a few problems due to the pre-dyed velvet that we bought. It was not over dying very easily so today I experimented with bleach and dye. I watered down the bleach into a dilute solution then painted brush lines on top of the velvet. After leaving the bleach solution for a few minutes I deactivated the solution through using a dilute mixture of vinegar and water. This stopped the beach from damaging the fibres of the velvet. Afterwards I was able to over dye them with Dylon Golden Glow and Procion Gold. This proved to be very effective as the effect it produced was a two-tone dip dye, similar to that of the design. 

After today's session I have realised that it is important to bear health and safety in mind as I am really glad I wore my mask all day, since Rhyannon got a headache after working in the dye room without one. Gloves are very important too! 

Tiresias - Using our new found knowledge!

Tiresias

After understanding the dye process I knew that if we did the same dye swatch testing on other character fabrics we would be able to visually see what colours we can produce. We started this with Tiresias - the designer Bethan wanted the colours to be rich, earthy, dark and broken down. Myself and Rhyannon tested each of the fabrics that had been chosen for the character. The colours we experimented with were Havanna Brown, Reindeer Beige, Coffee and Procion Cold water dye Brown. The results were shocking! The range of colour we produced was vast, ranging from orange browns to greens and even pink! The mixed fibres of silk and cotton reacted very differently with each dye. Bethan was stunned at the outcome and pleased with the tones and hues. The pink colour was a big no no though!

I have learnt from today's session that it is so important to pre dye your fabrics to test the colour on the fibres. There is so much chemistry involved n this job role, its very exciting!