Operatic Costumes

I've had my debut as Costume Designer for Lyric Opera Productions! I've worked in Wardrobe with them for a year and a half and now I've been entrusted the bigger job of creating the "vision" of who wears what. Not only that, the programme notes that I am also Wardrobe Supervisor. My skill levels are being tested to the maximum!
The opera is Tosca. Not a difficult one to costume. In the National Concert Hall. Two shows done, one show to go on Tuesday, 20th May 2014.

Act one: Congregation (chorus)

 Act I: Ecclesiastical procession

Act II & III: Tosca

Spoletta, Sciarrone, Jailer

Clasp purses

Moving on from my experiments with zipped and boxed pouches, I finally wanted to grapple with clasp purses. You know those ready made purse handles that can be bought in haberdasherys?

I had saved a tutorial from the Village Haberdashery for this project: Emily's frame purse tutorial. I now see that it was written over two years ago! This is how long it takes sometimes to get around to doing projects!!!

I can't remember exactly where I bought the clasp I have, but I quickly realised it was a different style to the one Emily uses in her tutorial :(

See? Mine has holes in it whereas the other clasp has a groove where I assume the fabric gets squeezed in. I think I remember at the time I was buying it, that I had a notion it was more "authentic" to sew a purse on to the clasp than to "squeeze" the fabric in between the grips... sigh.

Ok, so now I don't have a tutorial to follow, but there was a sheet of directions with the clasp. Multilingual directions.

The English is translated from German by someone who doesn't sew, for example "stitch the left edges of both bag pouches together" - they mean "wrong sides of fabrics facing". Also the English says "Layout has a 1cm seam allowance all around", again, from reading the German, and also the French, I conclude that the pattern doesn't include this allowance but that it must be added!!!

So I get some beautiful velvet and some beautifuller satin and I set about cutting it as per the pattern instructions on the sheet.

I don't succeed with the purse. The fabrics are too unmanageable, especially considering this is my first time grappling with this purse clasp :(
Also, it appears that the clasp would be visible on the inside of the purse, that the lining wouldn't conceal it.
I decide I need to use fabrics that don't fray so I'm not dealing with turning inside out etc... This is a new thing I'm exploring in my sewing-life... fabrics that don't fray! I'm planning on making more babies bibs and they would be made much easier if I could avoid turning inside-out etc, but that's a different project!
So I go to my stash and find some oilcloth and some fleece. Oilcloth for the outside and fleece for the lining.
And I try to sew these shapes on to the metal clasp, threading through the holes.

Can you sense my frustration with this? Ok, so the thread I have looks flimsy, but when I tried to use a thicker thread (it was wool actually), the larger needle I had to use didn't fit through all the holes - the holes at the bend of the metal are squidged and misformed and smaller :(

But I persevere... and end up with this... (yes, I know it's turned inside out around the body of the purse, the non-fray concept comes into its own at the point where the fabrics touch the clasp)

The pattern cutting instructions were just not helpful, they should have addressed something about the section around the hinge. There was no help for cutting the fabric to take account of the hinge, what they said was "complete the bag pouch at the line ends as required".
So I think I need to go back to the Emily tutorial, and follow her steps for drafting the purse shape and hope that it will then fit in with the different metal clasp that I have.

Why is it so difficult?! Should the clasp manufacturer not provide an instruction booklet if it proves to be so useless? This is why we need to go to classes, to learn from each other, to share experience and avoid all this frustration.

Box zipper pouch

Following on from my experiments in zipped pouch making, I wanted to follow a tutorial posted by Pretty Modern for a fully lined zippered box pouch.

The fabric is black and glittery and was bought in Pivitsheide in Germany, the shop is called Alles Besonders Gut. I've mentioned them before. It's near where my brother lives and the woman of the shop knows myself and my sister-in-law now and jokes to other customers that her shop is so well renowned she has people flying over from Ireland especially to make purchases! And she's not wrong! We love visiting the shop together when I'm over. The fabric is an oilcloth, though I don't think it would ever be intended as a table covering. I think it is a crafting oilcloth.

I didn't copy Pretty Modern's instructions exactly, in that I only put the puller/tag on one side... I'd recommend putting one on both ends as she instructs!
I like the box shape but for my immediate need (a few nights abroad) the size of the large pouch using a 30cm/12" zip with the boxed bottom is the most appropriate because it will carry my toothbrush, hairbrush and other bathroom essentials and can stand up on a sink. In fact, it might be a bit deep/large considering I can't transport containers larger than 100ml and my hand luggage is limited.

Zip zipper zipped

Zipper pouches are everywhere. Craft stalls, christmas markets, homemade shops... invariably there's a zipper pouch for sale. Cool patterns, cool coloured zips. Looking so easy to make. Sometimes lined, sometimes badly finished inside. But always instilling the "I could do that" feeling in me.

lovely examples on chic-a.com

Until I give it a try... and I am just not happy with the edges of the zip, or the general standard of finish.
So today, I tried to take it on myself to tackle the problem. To get top grips with the zips.
One of my Christmas presents, a book called Handmade Gifts includes instructions for an "Oilcloth Wash Bag". It suggests - as does a cushion tutorial I found - to add a little strip of fabric folded over on each end of the zip. I suppose my end result turned out fine... maybe I'm just being too picky.
I kept going and made another two zipped pouches:

I really like the fabric! It's an oilcloth I bought in Murphy Sheehy in Dublin. Oilcloth is usually meant as a tablecloth!

Only the largest purse of the three I made is lined. I used the same lining fabric for the end-strips at the zip ends (it's blue)... but would prefer in future to use fabric that matches the zip. Well... it would depend on the project I suppose but for the middle purse, I used a purple zip and purple fabric for the ends and I like how that turned out.
I like the purple zip but I think I was right to also use purple thread for it. I top-stitched that purse which I didn't do with the others, the machine really struggled to walk the oilcloth through, I had to tug it along.

Learn from experience

Use the length of a zip you have as your start point. Too often patterns and tutorials say "use a 12in/30cm zip" etc. And invariably the zips you have won't be in the right colour or the right size.

So the zip I had is 7"/18cm in length.
The tutorial recommended cutting the fabric to exactly the same length as the zip. I did this for the largest pouch and I didn't like how it ended up. So this time around, I decided to make the fabric a little longer than the zip... after all, I'm gonna use those zip end strip things.

Tip: if you have one, use a set square to draw the lines exactly perpendicular to each other. I don't do this enough with my sewing projects, expecting the edge of the fabric to be straight and therefore perpendicular to the edge and hoping(!). So to avoid blind hope, use a set square.

Zip is 18cm, standard seam allowance tends to be 1.5cm (although not for such small projects but anyway, it made sense to me as I was doing my calculation), plus a little .5cm - so add 4 in total. Fabric to be cut at 22cm (ignore the " symbol in diagram). And I randomly chose 15cm as the height - based on my eye judgement! Often the most useful calculator!
Then I found a scrap of fabric - jersey as it happens - to match the zip colour - and cut a strip as wide as the zip:

As per the recommendation in the two tutorials I was following, press the edge of the strip, about .5cm

and fold a strip each around the ends of the zip, then continue as normal! It just extends the zip, I guess. And makes it tidier.
I was so unconvinced, that I made the third pouch without these zip ends.
But it does actually make for tidy ends.

Tip: When sewing the sides together, be very careful to line up the top edges, especially if the zip has been topstitched.

I didn't and these two examples show how badly finished my pouches are

From a distance, the purses look good!

Copying a Coat

My aunt's friend has entrusted me with copying her favourite coat. A Max Mara. Very well-worn.
I hope I'm up to the task - because now all she has is a half coat.

...and lots of pieces from which I'll trace a pattern.

I tried tracing the coat pattern without ripping it but I'm glad now that my friend recommended this move because I had traced the arm-sleeve at the wrong angle. See how the sleeve and the main body of the coat are the one piece?

The fabric is wool cashmere.
I've preserved the buttons, pockets and shoulder pads.

Local shops here in Ireland only got in their winter stock a week or so ago. I was surprised. I had hoped to get this project started much earlier in the Summer. Even the lining has proved tricky to replace. The original lining had the Max Mara brand name printed in it

I had searched online but couldn't trust myself to buy such expensive fabrics without touching them, and even when I got samples, I wasn't fully satisfied. But all is well now, Murphy Sheehy had the stock to fit the bill.
A lovely lining, with pattern but still all black:

And lovely soft wool cashmere (which I hope will be warm enough when sewn up):

Let the challenge begin in earnest! I have a marvellous propensity to take on projects and tasks that are just one or two rungs on the ladder higher than the level I'm at myself!

Sewing patterns for sale!

I've signed up to my second pattern-drafting course. And now I feel confident enough to get rid of my commercial sewing patterns. Foolish perhaps but certainly spontaneous.

Or as spontaneous as inputting the details for 17 products on a dawanda.com webshop could be. I was put off by Etsy and the fact that they take a fee for each item + a percentage of the sale.

There's some Colette Patterns, Sewaholic, Anna Maria Horner as well as Simplicity and Burda, some old patterns from my granny's collection (she was particularly into smocking for girls dresses, i.e. for me when I was little!)

I've priced most of them at €3 each (or less). Check them out on "Miscellaneous Rogue" 

Julie Feeney's Clocks Dress

Julie Feeney is a singer, songwriter, composer, orchestrator, entertainer, performer, musician... from Ireland.

She's very supportive of fellow creative Irish people. She's familiar to people as "the singer who wore the hat on her head on the Late Late" but she's becoming a household name what with appearance on TV shows like The Hit and sell-out concerts in the National Concert Hall, in lovely sometimes remote, varied locations all over Ireland as well as New York and other places in USA and who knows where else... I digress...

I contacted Julie Feeney because I was interested in her forthcoming opera, BIRD. Maybe I could be somehow involved, especially with the costumes.
But at the time of my phonecall, she discussed with me a dress that she'd like made to go with her latest album, Clocks. She's had a "pages" dress designed and made for her pages album. Here's a pic of it that I stole from her website www.juliefeeney.com

So I took on the challenge. Here's my sketch drawing and finished product #1

See the beautiful buttons I used on the back of the blouse and at the cuffs. It goes with my 'design philosophy' of scale. A garment needs to be appreciated by the wearer, the fit, the comfort, small details, usefulness of pockets, warmth etc. Then the garment is to have an effect on other people: what they see, what it communicates about the wearer, the colour, the shape and style. And in the case of costumes, what does it look like from the stage, what does the audience see.

Here I am, leaving my apartment before Christmas with the dress, petticoat and shoes to drop them over to Julie Feeney. It was bad timing because it was such a busy period, we didn't have time to fit it and take a picture of her in it with me so this one will have to make do ;)

I added the gold cummerbund. And gathered the hemline to give it a ruched effect. These were design changes which consider the view of the audience member. The wonderful clockwork patterns on the fabric of the blouse and hem was ordered from Spoonflower.com.

The petticoat pokes out from under this ruched hem. Kind of like the clockwork of a dress. A little peep into the inner workings of a skirt! Just like you'd take a look at the inner workings of a clock. (Me and my notions!)
And the shoes... I blogged about the process of making them previously.

I chose them for the solid chunky heel but they aren't platforms. There's bits of clocks glued on to them. They do sparkle. But silly me, Julie doesn't ordinarily wear peeptoe.
The whole project has been such a steep learning curve. Julie hired me as her PA for a while because of the relationship we were building up around the dress. That was hugely fun and challenging. Other projects have come my way and I feel better equipped to tackle them because of this experience.
I hope to post a picture of Julie in the dress soon; of the two of us; or of Julie at a concert, performing and wearing my... nay, HER Clocks dress!