The Rocky Horror Show starring Duncan James, Ben Adams and Joanne Clifton was at the Alexandra Theatre recently and I covered a shift as dresser on the 2 show day. It was an enjoyable shift, it was a bit intimidating jumping in but the Head of Wardrobe was very nice and accommodating and helped me out a lot which was appreciated. He talked me through my changes on the matinee then left me to it for the evening performance. I learned how to attach stockings to suspender belts, and how to do up corsets on other people. It was different from the tone of the other shows I've done but it was nice too, refreshing to work on something with a less serious storyline. It was also fun to work on this show on Pride Weekend.
For a friends birthday recently I made a notebook, but tried including embroidery on the front and back cover. I did a simple floral design with her initials in the middle onto dark green cotton, which I used as the cover instead of patterned paper. It worked quite well and she liked it, but I realised it is more difficult to stick down and it wont lie flat because of the differing height where the stitches are. I then tried again with a different size book, A5 instead of A6, I did a lion design n the front and the Lannister motto from Game of Thrones on the back "Hear me Roar". The embroidery looked great but once again the difficulty was it lying flat and me effectively sticking it down. I tried using PVA glue but this wrinkled the card I was backing it onto, so tired again with hot glue as I'd used on my friends, but again this made it unsmooth where the glue was underneath. I ended up using glue stick and double sided tape and this seemed to work better. I also put thick interfacing behind the embroidery to try and get it lying flatter. I haven't yet added the pages but plan to. I might try a cut out with the embroidery in on the next one, like cross stitch greeting cards, this way I can still include embroidery but have the stability of a paper cover not a cotton one.
Having been to Comic Con in Birmingham this year I realised I really enjoyed making mine and my brothers costumes out of the fabric I have left over from university projects. So I decided to continue doing this while also practicing my corset making skills. I have been designing corsets based on some of my favourite characters and making them. I hope to find an effective path to sell them eventually. The first corset I made was this one based on the Disney villain Maleficent. I had some purple and black two tone fabric that was perfect for this character. It was a difficult fabric to work with as there were two layers that kept sliding over each other, but the final result wasn't the worst. I used felt to applique the dragon and horns and some black fabric to make the binding for the edges. Unfortunately I don't have a eyelet tool the right size to put on the black eyelets I wanted to use, so had to use gold ones instead which don't really match. I was pleased that it came out looking like my paper design sketch, seeing the final thing in reality was satisfying. The second corset was based on my favourite princess, Cinderella. I have seen many iterations of her story growing up and tried to combine them in this design. I had some blue and silver linen that made me think of the character. It is the first time I tried the sleeves and putting embroidery on a garment, I have more practice to do in this as there is still traces of the pen I used to sketch out the design on the front of the corset. I need to find a way to trace patterns on. Apart from that I am pretty pleased with it, I even added pearls and sequins to a pretty effect. Adding the sleeves was also a challenge as I couldn't tuck them into a seam due to the piping along the top edge so had to try and stitch them as neatly as I could over it. This made me think about how I need to consider the practicality of making while doing my design sketch. I am pleased with my designing, I took the peplum from the film starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, The black elements were a tribute to the Disney animation and Cinderella's black choker necklace, the embroidery pattern also has the carriage from that film within the design. The fabric shimmer nodded to the more recent live action Disney film starring Lily James, and the embroidery is inspired by the film Ever After; A Cinderella Story starring Drew Barrymore.
I have more designs I have done and I hope to make them in the near future. I am trying to design them so they could be an outfit in themselves, so you could wear them with a skirt or a pair of trousers but people will still know who you are dressed as. This occurred to me when I made my brothers costume onto a waistcoat so it wouldn't be complicated with lots of little elements to put on, he could just put on the waistcoat and be ready to go. |
AuthorMy name is Rachel and this blog holds the work I have done throughout college and university for a digital portfolio. Archives
June 2019
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