Monday October 31

Quite a varied day today...
First of all went to meet the cast as today was first day of rehearsals, we also saw the set designs, which are fab!
Then I -

• finished the rat waistcoat
• punched new holes in and trimmed the ends off the rat belts
• unpicked the raffia from a hula skirt
• hand stitched sequin covered buttons/pieces of coal onto the snow lady
• started to hand stitch a coconut bra onto a hula costume - to be finished tomorrow...

Friday October 28

Finished the trousers, so went back to shortening the sleeves on t-shirts before hemming two pairs of trousers for the cat to wear.  This afternoon started putting together rats' waistcoats, these are also stripey and spotty - orange and yelllow - they have a centre back split and two deep pleats either side and have to be lined as well.

Wednesday October 26

All the dresses are finished, except for the zips, which someone else gets to do!
So I have been doing trousers for the pi-rats (its panto, remember).  These are basic black jazz pants with a certain amount chopped off the bottom, depending on the length of the rat's legs.  A four inch section is then cut off and used as a facing, which is stitched in random zig zags to make it look ragged.  Once stitched all the excess is trimmed off, corners clipped, turned through and pressed, before stitching round with a zig zag stitch to hold the facing in place.  Nine out of sixteen pairs done so far...

Monday October 24

More dresses...

Friday October 21

Moved onto dresses today.  These are for the villagers to wear and are made of stripey and spotty fabric.  Each one had to be overlocked round the bottom and then hemmed and any alterations on the inside of the bodice overlocked.  The arm holes and neck edge were finished off with bias binding.  Then a matching neckerchief was made, the triangle bit was shaped, bagged out and the ends stitched together with a false knot put around at the front.  Hopefully will be able to put some pictures on once panto has begun.

Thursday October 20

Finished off the blouses first today and then shortened the sleeves on eight long sleeved t-shirts, so they are now 3/4 length sleeves.

Wednesday October 19

So blouses...
The sleeves had been put in with a big stitch for the fittings, so they had to be re-stitched and then overlocked round the arm hole.  A name label was stitched to the side seam and then cuffs were added.  Some of the sleeves had to be trimmed off where they were pinned and the seam reinforced and then the lower sleeve was used as a pattern for the cuff.  We had to check the fitting notes for the cuff size and add seam allowance.  The cuffs had to be seamed, with the inner being a tiny bit smaller than the outer so they fit together well.  Once they were stitched together, bagged out and pressed, they were stitched to the inside of the sleeve and overlocked, so when they were turned out they made a cuff over the end of the sleeve.  Finally they were pressed and the side seam top stitched to stop the cuffs falling down.  Four and a half done so far.

Tuesday October 18

Today I have finished off eight pairs of bloomers.  Each pair had to have the waist elastic stitched and then the channel finished off, finally the legs were hemmed.  Some were too long, so had to be trimmed off and some were too short, so had to use bias binding to hem them.  Blouses tomorrow...

Monday October 17

Chips and hot chocolate!
Not what I've been eating but what I've been making - welcome to panto.
First day of placement today.  Began with helping to unpack costumes for The Glass Menagerie that had arrived from the New Victoria Theatre; once these were all in dressing rooms then I had to hand sew the ends of six giant chips to finish them off.  After lunch moved on to help sewing frothy milk and marshmallows onto a cup of hot chocolate.  The frothy milk is made of soft net stitched with swirls, with stiffer net underneath to give it some body and the marshmallows (about the size of a tin of baked beans) from foam covered with pink and white fabric.  More handstitching to hold everything in place.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

Punk Titania

Friday October 14

Punk Titania is finished - will post pics tomorrow.

Wednesday October 12

Finally got around to doing some sewing today - was starting to get slight withdrawal symptons, although I expect that will be cured once I begin my placement next week.
Did some work on 'The Titania Project' today.  This is a bit of an ongoing project I set myself to create different interpretations of one character through costume, started after I designed a youth theatre production for the Empire Theatre and designed the fairies as punks.
The picture on my blog to the right is Titania as warrior queen, with a bodice imitating armour and a net and tulle skirt and collar that I finished before my course.
I have now gone back to punk Titania as I felt she needed a bit of embellishment.  So here is the basic costume - a collection of charity shop finds and items from my wardrobe (from a long time ago) -

I spent today stitching metal items (again found around the house) buttons and beads and sequins to the bra to make it stand out from the bodice.  I am also going to add a layer over the skirt of different fabrics ragged up to add texture, slightly inspired by the Boho costumes from We Will Rock You.