This was a fun, easy project that I really enjoyed. I was asked to create costumes for a couple who were attending a fancy dress party with the theme of cavemen/flinstones.
As the budget was small I searched for fabric/items of clothing that were low cost while looking correct for the costume. Ebay as ever was excellent for the cheap leopard print velour pictured which was used for the majority of the costumes, and a shirt was bought from a charity shop for the Fred Flinstone look!
The other fabric was donated by a friend, which just screamed Flinstones to both of us! I incorporated this into the costumes as a sash for the female, and a tie for the male, which worked well for couples costumes. Image of the fabrics below, and images of the full costumes to come!
The image in my header is from my costume made for the University of Kentucky’s production of the 1950s musical ‘The Pajama Game’. Costumes were made over here, then sent to Kentucky with three students from our university. They were very kind to take lots of lovely production shots of our costumes, some of which are below!
The next step was making the costume up in my top fabric. The corset was to be made of leather, not too much of a challenge until I added silk habotai piping! However, the final outcome looked great, it just required a lot of time and accuracy. The process was mostly pretty simple. However, the underskirt presented a challenge when it came to applying the belts. The skirt would not hold their weight without sagging, and after much thought and advice from fellow students I decided to turn the underskirt into a sort of narrow crinoline with rigilene supporting each seam and 3 horizontal rings of steel. The belts were then stitched onto a piece of net, which was in turn stitched into the negative space in the skirt. A big effort, but worth it to make it look like the design!! Image below is of the complete costume, more photos can be found on my flickr stream and in the portfolio tab above!
Images below of the first toile fitting for the costume. This fitting went very well and only minor design changes were made. The strips of fabric criscrossing the skirt represents the belts, to come in the second fitting.
Every costume I make seems to have unusual sleeves. However, different as these were they were very easy to put it so that was a plus!
The sleeves sit quite far off the shoulder, seeming on the design to come straight from the collar. However, technically they needed an armhole to be put into. I created straps for the corset that sat off the shoulder for this. I did this on the stand, attaching an arm to my mannequin and draping calico across to create my shape. I have previously only draped full bodices on the stand, so just applied the same ideas and marked out the shape of the strap as I went.
For the actual sleeve pattern, I drew up a basic sleeve block. I removed the sleeve head, just adding a very slight curve across the top of the pattern. I widened the sleeves at the cuff, and lengthened them towards the middle bringing them to a point. These sleeves were the easiest to stitch in as the straps were cut on the bias.
The collar was created much the same as the straps. I draped it on the stand using cheap fun fur, and marked on seams to create more shaping around the shoulders.
My next step was to create two skirts. These were going to be mostly the same pattern, but the overskirt would have a little more flare to it as well as a train.
I had a look at a couple of patterns from Jean Hunnisett’s 1900′s book, can’t remember the exact title, and used these as a rough guide but essentially just made up a pattern according to my measurements which turned out rather well. This was modified a little for each skirt.
The images show
the skirts on the stand.
My first steps were to break down the design. Essentially, it looks more complicated than it is.
- A back lacing corset with off the shoulder straps allowing for the sleeves
- Wide sleeves
- Fur collar
- Underskirt, with the belts attached
- Overskirt, to hide any pulling the belts may create.
I started with the corset, using a pattern from Norah Waugh’s Corsets and Crinolines as my guide. This pattern was almost spot on, with the same amount of panels as were indicated in the design. I changed the hem at the front to give the pointed shape, and shortened the whole thing a little to bring it really onto the high hip.
See photos of the drafted corset pattern, and the corset on the stand.
My current project is also my final student project. I’m making the costume worn by the character Lulu, from the videogame Final Fantasy X(10). This costume has been made many times before by cosplayers, but I’m choosing to make it strictly according to the design using professional costume techniques and appropriate fabrics. I’m working purely from the piece of character art produced for the character and treating this as a design. As I feel this may be of particular interest to costumers and cosplayers alike I’ll be posting a lot of information regarding the technical processes I am using as well as fabrics and photographs. The design I am working from is below.
(Copyright I believe is to Squaresoft games).
My latest completed project. Our university (Arts University College at Bournemouth) collaborated with the University of Kentucky. Seven of us made costumes for their school’s production of The Pajama Game, a 1950s set musical. The costumes were sent over to Kentucky with two students who have been carrying out fittings this week, and I was pleased to hear mine needed very minimal changes. Photos of the costume on the stand and on the actress, Jesse Pavlovic, who will be wearing it.
A costume designed and constructed by myself with the Venice Carnival in mind. My inspiration was the 18th century as well as modern day carnival costumes.
