SDP Blog Review Tutorial

In my blog review tutorial with Adele, we discussed that I needed a fuller description of the project in my "About Me" section; the labels are mostly fine but posts should be split into separate things instead of a weekly review; I need to post my time plan and learning agreement; and reflection isn't about describing an event, its reflecting on problems and what was learned from it.

Fifth Week Breathe Review

Thursday, 26 April - Since last week we have officially decided what pieces we will be making for hand-in, so from now on I will be focusing on completing these two wigs:

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

 Today I made the wig bases - the measurements for fig. 5 are 54.5cm and fig. 6 are 59cm, so first I had to find a hat-form that had the most similar circumference.

Then I took the veriform fabric,

cut it in half, and stuck it in boiling hot water to soften it:

And moulded them to the bases:

I also helped Emma with one of her skirts that day by dyeing some netting orange. Here's the design:

My first attempt at dyeing, using 3 tsp Procion Rust Orange Dye for 40 mins with dip-dyed edges also in Procion cold water dyes didn't turn out so well,

The base skirt fabric

Original, natural netting

Dye Attempt 1

Before rinsing

Dip-dyeing the ends brown and green

Finished [Failed] Dye Attempt #1

So, I re-dyed the fabric with:

 4 tsp hot water Dylon Tangerine Dye for 20 mins, and got this result:

Successfully dyed net with sample of skirt fabric behind

 Then, I went in and fabric painted the net, like we did with the base costumes:

 And Emma pinned the net to her skirt:

front of skirt

back of skirt

Fifth Week (23-27 April) Costume Store Review

In the fifth week, I have to start with a correction from last week's blog post:

the top bit of the flap shouldn't have been sew together and trimmed at the top of this except on the side where the western pocket is, because the seam allowance is used to sew the waistband to. So, I unpicked that and tacked it in place, like so:

unpicked

tacked

Then, I was finally able to move on to the decorative pointed straps on the flap.
First, I started by pinning the strap on,

 then stitched it in place.

strap tacked from front

Next, I folded the strap over along the stitch line, pressed it, trimmed the seam allowance, folded the back around, pressed it again, trimmed the seam allowance, turned it over, pressed it again, pinned and tacked in place like so, ready to be slip stitched:

strap tacked from inside

front of breeches flap with both straps tacked

Then, I moved on to the western pocket, which the steps were in this handout from Dexter:

First, I attached the pocket facing, with pocketing attached, right side facing the right side of the flap of the breeches, then pressed, trimmed seam allowances, and flipped the pocketing up like so:

Then I turned it around and pressed it down:

Next, I attached the other piece of pocket facing with pocketing attached to the corresponding place on the waistband:

Then I pulled the waistband up, pocketing down, and trimmed then pressed the seam allowance up to be tucked under the backing and be hidden when the backing is slip-stitched down:

 After that, I sewed the pocket pieces wrong sides together and trimmed the seam allowance:

Then flipped the pocket around so that the seams stuck inside the pocket, pressed it, and top stitched around so that the seams were trapped inside the pocket.

Here is the finished pocket from the front and back:

front

back

The next step was sewing up the outside and inside leg seams and the crotch seam as well, and then over locking the side seams, although i feel i should have trimmed the seam allowance and overlocked it before I sewed all the seams up, because it was actually pretty difficult to do once they were sewn together due to the thickness of the fabric, and I couldn't separate them well enough so the seams are overlocked together. This is as far as I got before we started on the blouse.

Sewn side seams

Sewn crotch seam

Inside leg seams

breaches with inside and outside leg seams sewn up and turned around

overlocked side seams

Breathe Tutorial

In this tutorial, we discussed making patchwork style hoods with the four different colours of fabric and that we should do the hood lining because theres enough fabric and it looks better. We should also look in the "bits and bobs" and "junk" boxes for stuff for the shoulder/elbow/knee pads. Piping can be used to make a thicker finger knitting for a dread-like creation. Tubular hat crin is another good dread-like material, and B&Q would be a good place to look for dread-type things.

Fourth Week Breathe Review

Wednesday Night: Breathe Together Club

Wednesday night we made a load of wool and rope barnacles with an acetate doughnut-shaped base for the Breathe costumes.

Thursday, 19 April: Breathe

The design I posted last week of a girl with a blue dreadlock wig is one of the pieces Emma and I will be making, and fibers were ordered off ebay to make them, Kanekalon jumbo hair braid:

Besides the dreads wig, we will also be making one mixed-media and mixed-colour dreadlock wig, a shredded ribbon skirt, a netted skirt, a steam-punk-style-draped skirt, as well as knee, shoulder and elbow pads with cable-ties and a hood for each character, which we have made a pattern and proto-type for and will begin making at the next Breathe Together Club.

hood pattern

hood fabric

We also had an afternoon tutorial for Breathe, which I will post an additional blog post for here very shortly, breaking down more in detail what we are and will be doing.

Fourth Week(16-20 April) Costume Store Review

Monday, 16 April and Wednesday, 18 April: Costume Store; Breeches, Week 2

First, I finished tacking my backing and top fabrics:

Then we sat as a group to talk about what steps to take in constructing the breeches and came up with the directions which I will post along with photos of the steps when they've been completed.

To begin, sew up center front, press open and over-lock the seam allowance; cut the front flap of the breeches from the middle-tacked line of the front point-details, the length of the yoke, like so:

Attach lining of flap, right sides to right sides, to the top edge of the flap and sew; prepare yoke pieces by pinning on the lining and then sew along the top, small side and bottom edge of yoke

 Flip the lining to the inside of the flap; trim seam allowance of yoke and flip to inside

Pin yoke to trouser where flap was cut, and sew:

Next I will prepare and attach the decorative pointed-strap to finish off the flap.

We also had an afternoon tutorial for Breathe, which I will post an additional blog post for here very shortly, breaking down more in detail what we are and will be doing.