Victoria Quelch

Blog for Independent Project

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Final Costume Photos

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Final Evaluation

This project has been very challenging on a number of levels; focusing on time management, precision, technique and aesthetic eye.  I feel that I have coped well with the stresses of this project and applied my knowledge previously gained in this specialty well to my final costume.

This project set out to challenge my independent learning skills, and I feel this is something I have been successful in. I have applied techniques I have learnt in previous units to my work, such as with the construction of the bodice and various challenges set throughout the course of this unit. I feel that I have bought my own thoughts on design and fabric choices forward, and presented them in a way that has been confident in my decisions. In tutorials I have discussed my thoughts on the construction of the tutu before posing questions to my tutor to help me. As I have been learning alot of new techniques with regards to construction in this project, I have not had very many opportunities to work solely on my own without guidance. But I feel that I have taken in what I have been taught throughout and applied these skills to every aspect of my work. I feel that I could improve on time management as towards the end of the unit I was left with a few tasks that I could have completed earlier on, leading to a very stressful final week; however I have learnt from this experience and in future projects intend to update weekly plans to keep me focused and on track for time.

The design of the costume was an aspect I am not very confident with; however by completing alot of in-depth research into the ballet of Giselle I found that I was able to create a final design that fits well into the specified criteria. I have learnt many new techniques in this unit which relate to the specialism I wish to continue with as a practitioner and I have applied these well, focusing on accuracy throughout the basic construction. However I feel that I have also added my own ideas into the making of the tutu, especially within the decoration. This is an aspect I feel I have been challenged in, by creating my decoration before applying it. I have really enjoyed learning and developing both new and old techniques, and feel that I have applied myself well enabling me to create decoration appropriate to the design of my tutu.

As well as working independently in this project, I have learnt the importance of supporting fellow practitioners when working in a workroom environment. It has been an important aspect of this unit as it was clear that, although working on different designs, if one of us struggled with the pressure it would affect me as a practitioner too.

The blogging in this project is an aspect I have struggled to keep track of and something which has room for improvement. Posting my thoughts on a public space has been new to me and I feel I could improve by being more concise with what I’m discussing.

Overall I have found enjoyed this project and learnt alot of new skills which will support my decision to continue developing the practice of ballet making in future.

Word Count: 550

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Bibleography

Banes. S (1998) Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage, Routledge, New York

Guest. I (1972) The Romantic Ballet in England, II edition, Pitman Publishing, Canada

Migel. P (1981) Great Ballet Prints of the Romantic Era, Dover Publications Inc., New York

Walker. K (1981) The Royal Ballet: A Picture History, Threshold Books Ltd., London

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Weekly Reflection: Week 6

This was the final week of this project and I would be lying if I said I didnt find it stressful. I found that alot of little jobs still to do had caught upon me as well as finishing the decoration and attaching the bodice to skirt.

This week consisted of mainly hand sewing,  such as button hole stitching my eyelets to cover them, attaching the chemise and sleeves to the bodice and applying skirt fastenings. It has really challenged me to work under pressure to a close deadline with very time consuming jobs. Looking back at this week I know I should have planned my time better by finishing the little jobs along the way rather than leaving them to the end.

It has been a huge learning curve for me, however it has also proved to myself that i am capable of working under stressful circumstances and still being able to retain a high quality of sewing. The finishing touches to my costume have bought the entire tutu together nicely, tying in colours, motifs and small details of my design.

I am so pleased and proud of my final costume and looking back I defiantly want to continue with this specialism in future.

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Final crochet and Application to the Bodice

The final part of my decoration for the tutu was the crochet applied to the two front panels of my bodice. I am so pleased that I managed to get enough practice for this to be able to use it on my final garment, and feel that the effect it gives to the costume just finishes it off, emphasizing the regional folk feel of my design. I used the same technique used in DP unit to apply the braid to the bodice and looking at the two feel that this is a skill I have really improved in this. I feel that the hand sewing is far neater as it is not visible at all from the front of the garment yet still goes through all the layers of the bodice securing it well. I have also picked up the pace in this process as it took me almost half the time to previous braid application. I have learnt alot in terms of looking at the design with an aesthetic eye, and I am really pleased with the final outcome. The embroidery thread has worked well, particularly with the two tone flowers.

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Sleeves

For my sleeves I designed them to be small puff ball style, made out of the chiffon fabric used for the skirt. Because of my fabric choice this was challenging and I had to used other fabrics such as silk organza to provide support to the shape of them. I created a simple sleeve pattern piece and cut out both layers of fabric and tacked together before embroidering them.  The construction for the sleeves I found fairly simple, which was helped by working previously on a third years project on sleeves. It did however give me a chance to practice my french seams as the fabric was very thin which made them clearly visible. I am really pleased with these as I feel I have done them to a professional level. Due to the fact that this costume is for a ballet dancer, the bottom of the sleeves are elasticated because of the amount of movement. I finished the edges of these with satin stitch to tie in with the chemise and apron. The final challenge i had with these was attaching them to the bodice, and because of the style of straps I have chosen I had to create a very small amount of fake chemise to fill the gap between the strap and the seam of the sleeve. If I were to do this again I would improve the overlocking on the inside seam as it could have been neater. Overall I feel that the sleeves have helped to grasp the folk look of the costume I intended for, and feel that the decoration on them helps with this.

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Machine Embroidery

I really enjoyed this process, though found it tedious at points due to the sheer amount of free machine embroidery I had to create. I have used this technique previously so it was something I was very familiar with and wanted to challenge myself to push it to the next level. To do this I began by creating the motif design myself and tried to incorporate folk ideas with embroidery. I created a few designs to begin with, and then altered and narrowed down to come up with the final design. To challenge myself I included quite a few colours and incorporated tonal shading.

The main challenge with this was ensuring that the space between each motif was appropriate to fit an equal number of motifs on both the top and bottom row. To achieve this I calculated the gap and drew up the designs for the various distances and flipped them to create a repeat motif. I then traced this onto silk organza and layered the top fabric over it to give support to it as well as being able to trace through it. I began with the outlines and then moved on to the shading, I also produced the motif on the sleeves so that it would tie in with the rest of the design.

Once I created the strips I marked on the skirt when each would sit and pinned it to it. This gave me a chance to look at it as a whole and make alterations to the positioning before slip stitching both top and bottom of the made ribbon to the skirt.

This was one of my favorite process I have done so far, and I am so pleased with the outcome, I feel that it helps to tie all aspects of my costume together and I feel that this skill has improved which shows I am developing each week.

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Weekly Reflection: Week 5

This week has shown me just how much hand sewing is involved in the construction of a ballet tutu. It has also shown me that to pursue this specialist practice alot of patience is required to achieve a high quality costume, as alot of the processes used are very time consuming. Despite this I am always feeling rewarded by the outcome, which is encouraging me that this is the pathway I want to continue with in third year as well as in industry.

As well as leveling the skirt, I also created the front panel of my bodice, which was a challenge to use my interpretive skills to portray my design. As each part of the costume must simply look realistic instead of being made as a whole garment, I had to think about ways of gathering the fabric to give the effect of a chemise under the false corset. This was a skill that I enjoyed working with, despite having to create it multiple times until it looked correct.

I have learnt from this week that I need to focus on the tidiness of my hand sewing, particularly when attaching panels together using back stitch. Although I feel this is secure, from the inside of the bodice is is clear that the stitch line could be straighter which would help me to improve as a practitioner.

I have also begun to design my machine embroidery this week and started sewing over this weekend. This is another very long process but I am hoping that it will be very effective when applied to the bottom of the skirt.

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Leveling and Hemming the Skirt

I really enjoyed this process, as it was learning something new and i feel that it challenged me to work accurately and efficiently. The purpose of this process was to ensure that each layer of the tutu would sit at the same level when being worn by the dancer. Because of this accuracy was a key aspect of this process, from pinning the level by measure form the table to ensuring that each cut made was a smooth continuous line.I feel that I worked well throughout this process and am really pleased with the outcome as my skirt is looking neater than before. The steaming with the iron on each layer has helped to make each seam flat and smooth; however I found it hard work to do all these layers with the industrial iron as it was very heavy work on the arm muscles. I wasn't aware of how much physical work was put into this specific costume until today and it has been a good learning curve for me. Once I had leveled each layer of tutu skirt I repeated the process with the top fabric and hemmed it as a normal skirt. I feel that the entire group worked well as a team during this process, helping each other to tie up each layer and move the mannequins between the iron and onto the tables.

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Weekly Reflection: Week 4

I have enjoyed this week as i am starting to see my design coming together. I am really happy with how the colour scheme I have chosen is developing, with the piping added and the chiffon of the apron.

Despite enjoying this week i have found it one of the most challenging yet; particularly with the piping around the bodice. I think that I underestimated the skill in this process, and therefore it took me longer than I originally anticipated. However after a couple of attempts I am pleased with the accuracy I have achieved in this process and have come away learning how best to do this in future, preparing me for industry as the majority of tutu bodices will be piped.

I have also tackled problems with regards to draping on the stand; and the changes made to my apron have taught me to sometimes step back from my work and look at it from a new perspective to create a better design. Finally I really enjoyed learning to crochet, and am hoping to improve this to a professional level. This new skill has also set in some concern with me, as I will have to work very hard to achieve a good enough standard to apply it to my bodice. I do hope to continue developing this skill after this project, as it will be a good new aspect to add to my portfolio which will help me in industry.

Overal I have enjoyed this week however feel that there are a lot my challenges to come in the next coming weeks.

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Tutorial

This week I was able to have a tutorial with my tutor; we discussed my progress so far analysing my costume on the mannequin and talked about where I was going to go from here. The key points we discussed were:

Adapt left side of the placket to a diagonal so it would slot into the other side under the top layer of fabric

Cut away the drill above tabs and slip stitch across on both sides

Apron only to continue to side seams and satin stitched

For center front panel of bodice, allowed a bone to go all the way up the CF line and two others to the bust line inside the seams

For the crochet use two tones of embroidery thread to add tone to the design

For the next tutorial I must have all my samples for decoration completed and a design drawn up for machine embroidery

I found this tutorial very beneficial as I was able to ask questions I had about the construction so far as well as getting another perspective for my ideas for my decoration ideas.

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Crochet Samples

As part of my design I wanted to crochet a motif that would then be applied to the front of the bodice. However this is something I had not had experience with previously, so I worked with a fellow practitioner to learn this new skill. This was a good experience as it challenged me to learn off other practitioners to develop my skills, I enjoyed learning something new however found it a challenging skill as I struggled to keep the stitches at equal tensions to begin with. I had decided on creating flowers and leaves to tie in with the other motifs on my design. I am now going focus on perfecting this skill and begin creating the final motifs; I will also begin sourcing appropriate threads and colours suitable for this small design.

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Apron

To create my apron I discussed a few ideas with my tutor, originally the apron was going to work as a long rectangular piece of fabric which was attached to the waistband at the skirt and continued all the way around the skirt. However I found that this restricted the movement of the skirt which was not suitable for a ballet costume.

Therefore I decided to gather the apron at an 'A' line angle to retain fullness; and after a tutorial it was agreed that the apron would only reach the side seams and then drape to the sides. This helped to give my costume an emphasized peasant feel. I also learnt a new technique of satin stitch to edge the apron, this helped me to incorporate the orange of the piping into the rest of my design. This process was a good learning experience, particularly with regards to draping on the stand and has challenged me to be open to changes to the design.

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Creating a False Corset Effect

As part of my design I intended to create a bodice which includes a false corset front. To do this I put my corset on my mannequin and pinned the ribbon for the false corset in place. As the ribbons then had to be pinned onto the inside of the bodice it was difficult to move them to the exact position, however I manged to do it successfully using pins to mark the positioning. This was then sewn to the bodice with the piping; this was another very challenging aspect of the bodice construction, as the corners of the piping made it difficult to be accurate. A couple of the corners took me a few attempts however I am pleased with the final outcome and feels that it really brings the design into realisation.

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Creating Tabs on the Bodice

To create the tabs as shown on my design I needed to create a pattern piece first by draping on the stand. The problem I had with this was that I wanted each tab to sit evenly on the seams of the bodice to create a professional line; however each of my bodice panels are slightly different sizes therefore I had to make my tabs each different sizes. This looked okay but I had to ensure that they were equal on each side. I also decided, after looking at the square tabs on the mannequin, to curve the corners slightly to correspond with the rest of the design, allowing the lines to flow nicely whilst retaining the folk feel of my design.

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Weekly Reflection: Week 3

This week has been slower than anticipated, as I wanted to have my bodice completed, however I still need to attach the piping and tabs. Because of this I am going to have to work more efficiently next week to get back on track with the construction of my tutu. I am really please with how it is looking so far though, as I feel I have really focused on accuracy  particularly with the construction of the bodice. After speaking to my tutor the only adaption I am going to make is shortening the length of the straps so that they do not impose too much on the silhouette of the bodice. 

I was really pleased with how I handled the waistband challenge as it pushed me to work at an industry pace, I found this challenging to work to this pace and improve accuracy at the same time. I do feel however that the challenge has helped me to improve my skills as a practitioner and I find that this way helps me to learn quicker and not become complacent with my work.

The Skirt was another challenge I faced this week, however I was pleased with the placket I created for it. Previously this is an aspect of costume construction I have struggled to perfect, but with this skirt I feel that it was neat and drapes nicely on the stand.

So far I feel that the quick pace of this project is pushing me to learn new techniques quicker and I have found that this is a good way for me to develop my practice.

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Cutting and Applying Top Fabric of Skirt

When I first began thinking about the panels of the skirt, I initially wanted to include 9 panels to make up the fullness of it, as I wanted quite a full skirt and the top layer of net is made up of 17 panels. Therefore I thought this would sit well on the layers of net; however after discussing this with my tutor, he showed me that to create my design I needed my top layer to sit almost flat to the net so I have reduced the number of panels to 5. This has left me with alot of excess fabric which should not occur in industry as it uses unnecessary budget; in future to improve I now understand how the skirt is made up and wont repeat this error.

The top layer of skirt was applied in the same way as the layers of net, however this layer was backed on to silk organza. This technique is used in industry to give support to the soft fabric used, without adding too much weight to the garment and distorting the flowing line. I found this really interesting to learn as although is was difficult fabric to work with it has given my skirt a much nicer finish. If I were to improve this I would focus more on keeping the two layers of fabric as flat together as possible as parts of my skirt didn't quiet do that.