Final Pictures

Final Evaluation

I began this Self Directed Project intending to develop my knowledge of tailoring and working in the music industry. I've created a final costume following these guidelines which isn't fully completed but that I have made to the client's requirements to the best of my ability and will continue to complete it after assessment.
This project has been non-stop. I began very early with research and designs and got onto making as soon as possible, partially because I was very keen and excited about this project and also because I knew it was going to be difficult. I underestimated how long every piece of this costume was going to take to complete. My lack of knowledge on how to make a suit and several other obstacles occurred making the process take a lot longer than expected. I feel that after this project, I’ve now bettered my knowledge of making Jackets, but other than the lining and following patterns out of a book, I don’t feel I’ve ‘tailored’ it in the same way we did tailoring in Defining Practice. I feel I could have done better in the making but now with this practise behind me, I will do better next time.

I feel I’ve coped fairly well to a time plan and that my organisation skills have been on top. There have been areas that challenged the time plan, such as the embroidery took a lot longer to do than I had expected and because it wasn’t originally planned, it had to be fitted in. We had to arrange fittings in London with all makers and all band members which I felt were planned very well. Considering these fittings were also unsupervised by a tutor, I feel we all coped extremely well under the pressure of nerves and fitting costumes that we weren’t completely sure how they were supposed to fit. We had to be extremely critical of our work in order to make sure it was right and we worked strongly as a team in these fittings to help each other.

We’ve done well to work as a team throughout the making process as well; we’ve always asked each other’s opinions before any changes to costumes were made and we tried our best to keep similar themes within all of the costumes so they will all look different but still link together.

There’s a few areas that I felt could be improved. At the beginning of this project I made sure that it would be possible to create a full suit with no previous experience and was informed that it would be fine. Although there were tutors to ask for help when we needed it, it would have been better if there had been structured work-shops alongside the one-to-one tutorials. This way we would have worked together a lot more and learnt the correct way to make each part, instead of going in different directions and at different paces. And it means that we would also have been learning the proper tailoring techniques as we needed to do them.

I feel without work-shops, a lot of what we created was based on guesswork, the lining and the jacket pleats especially, which results in wasted time. But I feel that by making these mistakes, the correct way to make will now stick in my head more than if I had just been told how to do it. The downfall of putting the lining in wrong has resulted in the lining not being great quality as it now has a few marks and tiny sewing holes in some areas of the fabric.

The benefits of this project have been the chance to design again, researching into a new era that I haven’t studied before, and learning how to make a costume that I’ve had next to no previous experience with. These are all aspects that I’ve loved and I will benefit from them.

I still have to finish the costume for Joseph Fielder, and will do when I get the costume back after assessment before The Riley’s next gig. I will need to finish the trousers – putting in the zip with a placket, herringbone stitching up the bottom of the trouser legs and possibly putting in pockets. And I need to finish the jacket by sewing button holes and the buttons on. I’m glad I haven’t had the time to put on the buttons, this way I can put the costume on Joe again and double check that I’ll be putting the buttons in the right places. For the gigs, I might also change the waistcoat. The one that I’ve bought didn’t match the trousers, so I attempted to dye it black but the dye didn’t take. I will either re-dye it again using a synthetic fabric dye from the University, or find another waistcoat suitable.

At the beginning of this project I was adamant that I wanted to continue studying tailoring in Level 6 and after University. I’m now unsure whether I would enjoy tailoring as much as I thought I would and therefore need to get more information on what next year will involve and where I can work after University before I make that choice.

Finally, I feel I’ve created a good costume that meets what the client has asked for, and despite being unfinished, it will be completed before it is needed for any performances. I don’t feel the costume is perfect, but I think I’ve done well to get it to the point that it’s at. In time as my knowledge and understanding of making garments develops I will find a project such as this easy, but for now, as my first attempt at a suit, it’s been extremely difficult and stressful and I will seriously contemplate how much work I can realistically complete before I take a project this big on again.

10th - 16th May

This is the final week of this Self Directed Project and I've really been feeling the pressure.
Last week I put my Jacket together and put the lining together in preparation to put into the jacket. However, this week we got told that this way of putting the lining in is incorrect and so we had to take out the jacket sleeves and unpick the shoulders so the jacket could lay flat. Then unpick the lining into the front piece, the back and side panels and the skirts.
Having to do this really set me back out of my time plan, and despite trying very hard this week to get everything done, I know that this costume won't be completed in time for the hand-in. I'm hoping this wont effect my my final mark too much, and I know that i'll be able to complete the costume before it's needed for the next Riley's gig.

Budget

This is a rough outline of how much my costume cost to make. Only rough because there were other things that I bought and haven't included. And because some reciepts that I've got are unclear as to what cost what price.
I estimated spending about £150 on this costume. Therefore, with the little extra I have left over, I could find a hat and make a cravat if Joe wants it.

Tailcoat top fabric and the trouser fabric cost - £50
Black cotton - £6
Lining cost - £4
Buttons cost - £12
Canvas' cost - £13
Thread - £5
Gems cost - £4 (I bought over £20 worth of gems but none of it is getting used in the final costume)
Ribbon/Bias Binding - 4.50
Stayflex cost - £3
Calico cost - £7.50
Shirt cost - £4
Waistcoat cost - £13.00

Total = £126

Lapel within a Lapel

On the lapel in my original designs I've drawn an extra lapel on top of the main lapel. This was originally designed to look like part of the shirt coming out over the jacket. But then I thought it would look better if it was still part of the main jacket and that I would make it black and red.
I made up a sample, but after putting it against the embroidered lapel, I decided there would be too much going on and that it partially takes the eye away from the embroidery. So i've decided to leave it out of the final jacket.

AMERICA!!

I've recently found out that after applying for a making work experience out in Utah, USA, offered to us through the course, is now my placement if I want it. I've jumped at the opportunity and so now I'm arranging to go over there for 3 months over summer 2010 to work as part of the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, UT, to make costumes, work with alterations, dressing and wardrobe.
I've been applying for my Visa alongside this project. And although it adds to the work load that I've got to do and it's difficult and complicated, my excitement is getting me through. It is a great oppotunity and I expect that benefit me in many ways of costume making, people skills and preparing me for the working world.

4th - 9th May

This week's been a difficult week. I planned to have the embroidery completely finished my Friday (30/04/10) but didn't quite manage it as the studio closed at 4.
So I finished off the embroidery as quickly as possible monday morning (with the added rush of fashion needing the machine back) and moved onto the rest of the construction.
This week I mainly worked on adapting the sleeve pattern and adapting the trousers as the lines that I had marked in the fitting had created very strange shapes. I also adapted the sleeves so that they would be gathered at the top to sit on the shoulder.
I wanted to move onto making a placket but by the time I got round to wanting to make it, help was no longer available to show me how. So instead I carried on with making the waistband of the trousers.

Because Graham wasn't around this week, the realisation of being to able to complete this Jacket without tutor help has hit. It's so complex and it's not like anything I've made before, so I'm struggling to lead myself through this project. I find myself making something how I feel it should be made and it turns out to be wrong or slightly off course.

I would have liked to get more completed this week but I had trouble with my essay subject and therefore took some time extra time out of my timeplan in order to get that completed.

Embroidery

As the main decoration for this costume, I'm embroidering some of The Riley's song lyrics onto the Collar, Lapels, Decorative flap, and Cuffs.
I've borrowed the embroidery machine from Fashion within the University. However, despite having the machine for 3 years, there's no one who really knows how to use it. I got slight guidance on how to set up the machine and begin from a 3rd year Costume student, but that's as far as she got and therefore as much as she could show me. I've had to learn almost everything else that I needed to do on my own.
It's a very complex machine and so took me a while to figure out. And then the whole process is a very time consuming process.

I had to type in the lyrics that I wanted, change them to the font/size etc that I wanted (Kuntsler Script. Height - 11.90mm. Width 80%.) and then fit it inside the hoop otherwise it wouldn't transfer over to the sewing machine. Once I did get it over to the machine, there were some times that I would just let the machine carry on without me having to mind it (on these occasions I would put something heavy onto the pedal and carry on with something else at the same time). However, quite often, there were times when writing needed to be matched up, and I couldn't let the machine carry on otherwise it would overlap the embroidery I had already done.

Matching the writing up is what took the longest and stopped me from being able to carry on with anything else. Because of this, despite the result being a fairly effective decoration, I'm very far behind on everything else that I should be doing and now don't feel as though I'll get the project finished in time.

Because the embroidery wasn't part of my original time plan, I've now struggled to keep to this original time plan and will have to adapt.
I'm now behind on my time plan, but I will not rush to get this finished. I do not want this project to look rushed, I would rather finish this project properly after hand-in for the client.

In that last couple of days of having the embroidery machine, for some reason, it no longer sewed 'h's. This is just something I've just had to continue through because I couldn't change the font after already having embroidered some areas that were fine, and I couldn't stop because it needed to be finished. I tried to find out why it was no longer sewing 'h's but after rebooting the machine, starting all over again and it still continued, there was nothing else I could do.

Post Fitting

We've come back from London and had to start making the adjustments after the second fitting.
There were a few changes that need to be changed but I don't think they're anything particularly difficult to adapt. However, i'm starting to feel the stress of getting this costume finished in time so I've written myself a list of post fitting notes to help me:

Trousers

• Collar canvas will go into the trouser waistband using either the same material or black cotton. (I plan to use the same material)
• The fly opening must be created before the waistband is put on
• 7-8 in opening

Sleeves

• The shape that I created in the fitting was an extremely strange shape so i've manipulated and adapted the pattern so it looks more like a regular sleeve pattern, but keeping the amount of extra fabric that i added.
• Gathering added to the top of the sleeve.
  

2nd Fitting - 03/05/10

The second fitting took place at Dave's flat in Acton on 3rd May 2010.

I feel my second fitting went a lot better than my first but there are still a fair few adjustments that need to be made:

Jacket

• The sleeves were re-pinned to make the top of the sleeve bigger (extra calico was added in) at the arm hole because Joe accidently ripped the sleeve out when he moved his arm forward.
• The sleeve was made longer and the cuff lowered.
• I took the sleeve in at the top of the arm by a maximum of 6cm
• The collar was slightly too high to sit comfortably so on the CB I lowerd the top of it and brought the bottom up, only slightly on both accounts but it made a difference.
• The decision to continue with making the jacket length lower on one side than the other was made and the result is the right-hand side of the jacket (side WITHOUT the decorative flap) will be raised by 4 inches and then evenly lowered to match the full length of the other side.
• The bottom of the side seams need to be taken in by 3cm (1.5cm on either side of the seam) on each side of the jacket and evenly tapered back to the top of the seam.
• I marked with pins where the jacket will do up.

Waistcoat

• Shoulder line taken in.
• Taken in 4.5cm on both side seams.
• 1/2 chest measurement = 49cm. Full chest = 98cm (38 1/2 ")

Trousers

• Taken in down the outside leg from the hips to the knee to a maximum of 6cm.
• Taken in down the inside leg from knee to the ankle.
• Waist design line is ok.
• Bottom of the trouser legs to be taken down 2.5cm.

Lining

After discussion at the second fitting, we, the makers and band members, have decided that the lining will no longer be printed. To be honest, this was a relief for us, the makers, because we've got so much to do without having to worry about making up a screen, testing and printing. The reason for changing this part of the design was because the band members didn't want anything to noticibly age the costumes. For example, if we printed The Rileys EP cover, then these will forever be related to that album rather than any other album they continue to make. My costume will age because of the song lyrics, but not noticably as the writing is difficult to read unless you actually make the effort to read it.

26th - 30th March

This week has been the progression of making my jacket in order to to get it completed to a suitable stage for the second fitting.
I've worked on finishing the emroidery that would be used for the lapel (I wanted to get the embroidery completed for the decorative front flap, however someone was using the machine. Therefore I will have to do this embroidery along with the cuffs and collar after the second fitting.)
I've successfully put my jacket and trousers together to the second fitting standard with the sleeves and collar made out of collar as they are the areas that may have to be changed.

I've been feeling as though I'm not going to complete this whole project in time. After this second fitting, we've got 2 weeks so I'm going to have to be strict with my timetable in orde rto get it all completed.

Possible Buttons

NOTE: (01/05/10) - Joe's chosen buttons No. 5


Here's a selection of button's that I'm going to ask Joe which he prefers to be put onto the jacket...

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

19th - 25th April

I began this week by completing all the pad stitching that had to be done in the jacket fronts and and the lapels which took a long time with the big lapels that are on this jacket. I had to restart the lapel pad stitching a couple of times but after that I got into it and think I did fairly well at keeping the stitched neat. If I do decide to go into tailoring in the future though, this is one of the main jobs I would have to get used to because it's so long and boring! Especially with lapels as big as these.



On Wednesday, Jennifer and me went to Poole to source fabrics, a shirt for me and waistcoats. I managed to find a shirt, the same as what Jennifer and Lottie have for their performers. Neither of us were able to find a waistcoat so we're going to try looking on the internet as we will need this waistcoat in just over a weeks time for the fitting.
We got 3 samples of fabric that we could possibly use for the lining. After showing these samples to Lottie and Kate, we've decided to go for the cheaper grey/silver polyester that's less shimmery because it looks the most grey, the other two samples were heavier and lighter.

On Thursday, I got the embroidery machine from fashion and spent the whole day trying to figure out how to use it as no one else in the university is trained to use it. It was a very frustrating day and I'd be glad to see the back of the machine, but I pushed forward with it into Friday because I believe it will be a good effect on the Jacket. Luckily on Friday, I had got the hang of what I was doing and managed to star on my first final lapel.
It's a very long-winded process, I'm sitting around waiting for the computer to either take it's time to do one job or just sitting there with my foot on the pedal whilst it sews. I'll start up again on this to finish the lapels on Monday.
These pictures show 1) the writing that the sewing machine does on it's own without being linked up to the laptop. I felt this looked really good... until I moved onto what the laptop can do. 2) Shows a few samples of fonts and sizes that I experimented with before I chose what writing I would use for my final lapels. 3) shows the start of my final lapel. I really liked the font and size when I experiment with it on calico, but when I put it onto the final fabric it started pulling and putting holes into the cloth. So I've bought some stayflex in attempt to strengthen the fabric. The effect still isn't as good as it was on calico but I don't think i'm going to get much better with the final fabric that I've got.



Along side working on the jacket, I've also been trying to get my trousers together which I've managed to do - now I just need to put in a fastening after the 2nd fitting.

I've got a lot to do before the next fitting:

• Get black cotton and back my top fabric onto it.
• Sew Jacket together, piping included.
• Cut skirt and attach to jacket.
• Finish lapels.
• Finish sewing trousers together.
  

12th - 18th April

This week I've worked mainly on my jacket. I've managed to adapt the patterns from the fitting and use the toile as pattern pieces to cut out the top fabric. So far I've only cut out the front, side and back panels; I'm leaving the skirt until I've got the top part of the jacket together.
I've then been work on pad stitching the shoulder canvas, hair canvas and breast felt to the jacket front. I'm still yet to pad stitch the lapels to give them shape, i'm predicting this will take a while to do judging by the size of my lapels.
I started work on my trousers, I have managed to line them with black cotton and overlock them, ready to put them together with piping down the side seams.
According to my learning agreement I was timetabled that I would have my trousers to near completion stage by Thursday. However, I haven't stuck to this plan because of the amount of work I've been doing on the Jacket. I will do the trousers in the time I've planned to complete my jacket.
I've been in a dilemma about what decoration to use on the jacket. I was planning to just have beads. However, when I created a sample, I found that they made the jacket look slightly 'Elvis'-like. Another option I will experiment with next week is embroidery - one idea Joe had was to embroider some of The Rileys song lyrics onto the costume. My new idea is to do this and still put some beads into it so that it links Joe's costume with Dave's and James's.
I feel like more could have been completed this week but I've been in limbo a few times when I haven't known how to move forward. Now that I know, I hope that I will achieve more in the coming weeks before the second fitting.

This is a photoshop experiment I did to get a vague idea of how it might look to have embroidered lyrics in the lapel. And A picture of the lyrics on their own:

Beads

I experimented with what beads I was going to put onto the lapel and I'm not sure I like the effect so I'm going to find a slightly different design idea that I can put onto the lapel as well.
I still want to keep some of the beads because they will connect the costume to the beads on Jennifer's (Dave) and Kate's (James) costume.
One possible idea is to embroider song lyrics so I will ask Joe for some song lyrics that he likes.

Bead experiment photos:

Post Easter

After the first fitting, I didn't feel comfortable enough to start adapting the pattern before I got back to Uni. Today gave me the opportunity to look at the toile, change the shape to make it look how I wanted, and eventually take apart and turn the calico panels into pattern pieces that I will use to cut out my top fabric. I will only work on the top pieces of the jacket today, and make the skirt once I know the new waistline measurement from the top of the jacket.

First day back after easter.
All four of us placed our jackets (that had now been adapted in the fitting) and Graham was available to look over each of the costumes and tell us where to go next...

• My Jacket is doing up the wrong way round.

This means that I will have to swop which side the flap goes on and change the slant of the jacket hem. The buttons will do up on the opposite side.

• The Centre Front (CF) was too short

Extend the CF seam over.

• Move the side seam nearer to the front
  

This is because the front panel is too big and waving around a lot on its own. Bringing the side seam forward slightly will prevent it a bit more. The side seam will be brought forward 1 inch.

• Use calico to change the shape of the lapel.
  

The lapels moved back after the back seams were taken in. The lapel needs to be made bigger to bring it back to its original design shape.

• Neck line changed.
  

Brought forward so it will sit comfortably. It fell back due to areas being pulled in. And the front of the neck line was cut down slightly to the shape of the neckline.




NOTE: The second back pleats were supposed to be a historical fold. They have now been changed into pleats as part of the design.


To be done for the next fitting:

• Consider if the fitting can be done in Bournemouth to have the assisstance of a tutor. This has been considered but due to the band's and tutor's shedule's its not possible. The second fitting has been arranged for Bank Holiday Monday, 3rd May 2010. This a date that all the band and all of us makers can attend but no tutor can.
• All items must be sourced or partially made (Jacket, Trousers, Shirt, Waistcoat, Cravat)
• Jacket and trousers must be made in CLOTH with canvas inside the jacket.
• Sleeves must be made in CALICO.
• Lining will be fitted into the jacket AFTER the second fitting, but we can buy and print the design before if we have time.
  

Fitting Evaluation

With work experience, I didn't have too much time to put the toile together before the first fitting. This resulted in my fitting taking longer than I expected - the sleeve in particular took quite a while to figure out.
Despite how long it took, I think the fitting went ok. The jacket fitted ok, just needed to take in the back seams and readjust where the lapel lay. I had a lot of problem fitting the sleeve in.

Changes made:

• Side seam taken in and moved forward.
• Centre pleat made bigger.
• Side pleats made bigger.
  
• Armhole made bigger.
• Sleeve taken in.
• Lapel shape changed.
• The jacket does up the wrong way so the sides need to be changed.
  

This fitting helped me to work out the final shape of the jacket and trousers and what I need to do next. After easter I will begin to adapt the jacket into pattern pieces to use to cut out my top fabric.

Angels the Costumiers

I went on work experience for 1 week from 22nd - 26th March at Angels the Costumiers in London. I was very excited to get this experience and when I went to the interview, I was informed that I would be working in the warehouse. This would include sorcing items, putting back returns, tidying and any other little jobs. I thought this would be better than working in alterations and making because I already know I like that area of costume. My aim was to experience a different area of jobs in the costume industry.
The result was I could easily imagine myself working in the Angels Warehouse. It was a good experience in the way of showing me a different area. However, I still feel I'd prefer to work in making and alterations just because that's what I prefer to do.
The collegues working in the warehouse had all unknowingly developed a characteristic of walking very fast, let alone having to be physically fit to have to deal with the job.
The bad aspect of this experience was that there wasn't really much to do. I just wandered around a lot of the time asking if anyone needed help with anything.
The best part of this week was sorting the 'women's rough' section from years 00's to 50's. All the costumes were mixed up and we had to sort them into the different eras. This was perfect at developing my knowledge of those eras and I now feel I could spot the difference between women's clothing in those decades more easily.

Group Meeting

Today we met to discuss what we need to do within this project and to collaborate a timeplan.
From this we've discussed when we'd all be available to do fittings and two dates we've come up with that are yet to be confirmed are:
1st fitting - Tuesday 6th April
2nd fitting - Monday 3rd May

Colour Development

Now that Joe has chosen which design he likes best, I've developed what colour fabrics I could use. We planned to use blacks, greys and navy but I wasn't sure what would look best. So I created some ideas and showed them to Joe for him to decide.
Joe's favourite designs are 1) and 3). We plan to go fabric shopping on Thursday 18th March, so I will chose what colour to make the costume depending on what fabrics I like most that I find.


1)2)
3)4)
5)