School of Theatre at Florida State

Blogumentary 8

Welcome back!  Let's keep going because we are that close to an actual garment.  I've included Lysh's originial rendering of the wedding dress so I can point out some elements to watch for. 

The white skirt and underbodice are made of polyester satin.  The pieces that I showed you yesterday were for the underbodice.  If you remember, those panels were lined on the inside with cotton coutil, a material commonly used in the construction of corsets.

The overbodice - the pale, shimmery material with pink flowers - will be made out of acetate.  Acetate is a thin, fairly transparent, and lightweight material.  For that reason, Kelly will line the overbodice with cotton coutil lining, just as she did for the underbodice.  The pouf sleeves will be made of a dark rose silk dupioni.

In this photo, you can see a pile of precut acetate to the left of the sewing machine.  What you see running through the machine is a piece of acetate being lined with cotton coutil.  The cotton coutil is facing up; see the yellow wax lines?

   

Kelly's just zipping through those pieces!

This is a closeup of what the finished edges of each piece looks like.  The process is called "serging" or as many older readers might know it, "overlocking."  This ensures that the seam allowances won't fray as they get worn, altered, and cleaned over the years.

Before we end for the day, I wanted you to see the practically finished underbodice.  The first photo is of the outside of the garment.  It's the white polyester satin that the audience will see.  The following photo shows the inside of the underbodice.  This is the cotton coutil flat-lining that we talked about yesterday.  See?  You can still see all of the yellow wax lines and some pencil lines, too.

As a teaser, here's the first shot of the underbodice getting fitted onto Ryann.  We'll finish up this weekend!

Blogumentary 7

Hello, folks!  This is going to be a long post.  Ready?

So far, we've gone through the process of creating paper patterns, testing the accuracy of the patterns by making a muslin mock-up, fitting the mock-up on Ryann, and making necessary corrections discovered during the fitting to the paper patterns.  Now we're ready to actually cut some material.  Whew!

This is how the pattern for the dress is stored; all materials and the pattern are place in one basket for easy accessibility.  The paper patterns are neatly labeled, folded, and placed in one envelope.

Kelly is going to cut out the pattern for the bodice of the wedding dress first.  Before she begins, she presses the material.  She's placed a piece of organza between the hot iron and the white polyester satin so that it won't stick or burn.  Once pressed, the fabric is spread onto the work table.

The third picture (the one directly to the left) is the paper pattern for the bodice of the wedding dress laid out flat.  Starting at the left-hand side and moving to the right, you see the scalloped left front piece of the bodice, the left front arm-hole, the left back arm-hole, and the left back panel.  Notice how carefully the paper patterns have been labeled?  Kelly even includes notes on seam allowances and location of the bones.

Using a pattern weight to keep the paper flat on the fabric, Kelly lightly draws the pattern onto the white polyester satin in pencil because it will be the front of the bodice.  The bodice actually has two layers: the outside layer which will be seen by the audience and the coutil flat-lining panels, which are on the inside of the garment and lays against the actor's skin.  The light grey pencil lines will not be seen through the fabric once it's sewn.Then she goes around the entire piece with the ruler, adding the appropriate seam allowance.  Remember that seam allowances in costuming are larger than commercial clothing because the costume will more than likely become a stock piece to be worn by several different people over the course of several seasons.

In the next series of photos, you'll see how the coutil flat-lining panels are marked out onto the fabric.  Because they will not be seen by the audience, Kelly places the white fabric over a sheet of yellow wax tracing paper and then, with the paper pattern laid over the fabric, she uses the tracing wheel (the little pizza cutter I showed you earlier) to trace over the paper pattern.  If you click on the thumbnail to the left - the one that looks like a white square - you'll actually see the yellow wax transferred onto the white satin polyester.

Carefully following the lines she has transferred onto the white fabric, Kelly cuts out each piece.  The final two photos show a front panel of the bodice, grey pencil lines and all.  When you turn the panel over, you can see that the coutil flat-lining with the yellow wax lines has been pinned to the front piece so that they can be sewn together as the bodice is assembled.

Come on back and I'll show you just how close we are to the final product!

Blogumentary 6

Hello, intrepid readers!  It's been a while since we last met so let's review.  I left you with a partial mock-up of the final design being fitted onto Ryann.  We're going to pick up today with Kelly adding the bodice and the sleeves.

Lysh, the designer, is involved in every fitting to make sure that her design is realized as accurately as possible. That's Lysh there in the middle.  Also, if Kelly has any questions, Lysh is right there to answer them and keep the process moving. 

Once the underbodice has been pinned into place and the neckline discussed, Kelly adds the overbodice of the wedding gown.

Next, the ornate sleeves get pinned into place.

Martha Cooper, Costume Technology Supervisor, assists Kelly as she pins on the second sleeve.

There's a lot of pinning, pulling, and pinching (of the fabric, not the actor!)going on here.  Remember, the muslin mock-up is used to test the accuracy of the paper pattern piece that Kelly created by placing Ryann's measurements from the Measurement Chart onto the dress form.



 

If major alterations are required, the mock-up would be deconstructed so that the paper patterns could be corrected.  If minor alterations are required, deconstruction is not necessary; measurements will be made on the mock-up and then transferred onto the paper pattern.  And here it is: the completed mock-up!  Come see us tomorrow and see the next step.

Blogumentary Part 5

Now that we’ve gotten to the mock-up phase, I wanted to show you the original rendering as a reminder of our finished product. Let’s see how the mock-up fits, ok?

Before Ryanne can put on the muslin garments, she must put on the corset that Kelly placed on the dress form. 

"I can't breathe!!!"

A petticoat is added as well as the mocked-up bodice. Kelly pins the bodice into place with large safety pins.

Yes, folks. Ryanne is stuffing her bra. Part of the
period silhouette is a tiny waist with your breasts pushed up under your chin!  Come back and see us in a few days and I'll show you the sleeves!

Blogumentary Part 4

Hello, readers!  So sorry I'm late; let's get started.

On the last post, we watched Kelly draped Ryann’s dress form using Lysh’s drawing of the wedding dress and the Measurement Chart.  This time around, I’m going to show you how the muslin pieces that Kelly pinned onto the dress form are used to create the paper patterns for the dress.
 

The muslin pieces are taken from the dress form and laid out on grid paper, making sure that the fabric is lined up with the straight-of-grain vertical, and tacked down onto the table.

Remember that mini-pizza cutter your mom had in her sewing box?  That’s a tracing wheel.  Kelly uses the tracing wheel to trace over the muslin pattern to punch holes into the grid paper underneath. When Kelly removed the muslin, the pattern has been transferred onto the grid paper.

Kelly uses a clear ruler to check her straight lines and to draw over the perforations created by the tracing wheel and labels the new paper pattern.  Before cutting out the paper pattern, Kelly establishes seam allowances to accommodate necessary alterations.  Seam allowances in the theatre are always larger than those you find on commercial clothing.  A costume piece will more than likely be worn by more than one person over the course of several seasons and the extra fabric allows the item to be let out and taken in as necessary.

The pattern is labeled clearly and then cut out. The same process is repeated for the back of the bodice.

Both paper patterns are laid side-by-side to “true them up.”  This means lining the pieces up front to back and making notches to line up the fabric correctly when you sew.  Notches are placed along long seams and anywhere the draper feels the stitcher might need guidance.

These two pictures show the finished flat patterns for the sleeves of the wedding dress.  Using the pattern created from the dress form, a mock-up costume is created out of muslin.  Muslin is used because it’s inexpensive and easy to work with.  You can make a mistake with muslin without worrying that you’ve blown your budget!

Come back in a couple of days and I’ll show you how the completed mock-up will be fitted onto Ryann.

Rocky Horror Costume Contest!

Rocky Horror Costume Contest on Feb 20^th!

In conjunction with The Rocky Horror Show, the School of Theatre will host  a Costume Contest on Wednesday, February 20th at the Lab Theatre.  Come dressed as the infamous Frank N Furter, as favorite character from the show, or dress your sexiest to participate.  Three winners will be selected by audience vote – the categories are:  Best Rocky Horror Character, Most Creative, and Sexiest.  Winner will receive a School of Theatre T-Shirt and a $25 gift certificate to one of Tallahassee’s favorite pizza parlors, Mellow Mushroom.  The contest  begins at 7:30 pm in the Lab Theatre - Buy your ticket today and work on your winning costume!  Log onto tickets.fsu.edu to purchase your tickets.

Blogumentary Part 3

Constantly referring to the Measurement Chart and Lysh’s rendering, Kelly pins black twill tape to the dress form to create seam lines.

The tape serves as a guide for draping the fabric. The area that is framed by Kelly’s hands shows clearly what the neckline should look like.

She uses a clear ruler to double check the placement of the shoulder seams.





Now that the seam lines are in place, Kelly begins draping.  She says, “Draping can be  described as throwing muslin at a dress form to create a garment.”  Each piece of muslin is pinned directly onto the dress form.



 

Kelly continuously references the original design as she works.  She draws directly on the fabric with a pencil and begins the first step of creating the actual pattern.  See how she's tracing right over the black seam lines?

The close-up photo of the labeled bodice is a little blurry, but I wanted to show you the raw shape of the pieces while they were still on the dress form.  There are many layers in place here: the padding, the corset, the twill tape (seam lines), the muslin for the bodice, and the muslin for the long-sleeved coat that goes over the dress.  If you refer back to the rendering, you can see the shape of the garment beginning to emerge.

A draped dress form looks like this .  While the front and back of the form is draped, it’s unnecessary to drape both R and L sides of the form, as the patterns for both sides of the costume are identical.  When you’re on a tight schedule, it’s better to work smarter, not harder!

Stop back by on Monday, 2/11, and we'll watch Kelly create the paper patterns that she will use to cut the fabric for the dress.  See you soon!

It's Just a Jump to the Left...

The Time Warp rehearsal ... get your tickets now to The Rocky Horror Show.  Some performances are sold out ... click tickets.fsu.edu or call 644-6500.

Blogumentary, Part 1

Hello and welcome!  My name is Marta and I am a first year graduate student in Theatre Management.  As Cameron said earlier, “I want to take you on a journey of discovery and seeing.”  Specifically, I want to show you how a costume, once designed, is created.  A page to stage blogumentary, as it were.  Because this is what we refer to as a period piece, the goal is to design costumes that accurately reflect the time period in which the play is set.  The Tamer Tamed is set in Italy, 1610. 

Work began the second week in January, 2008.  The mission for that week was to get the entire dress patterned.  My goal for this post is to show you how the process gets under way.  Come on; let me introduce you to some folks!

This is Lysh DeVries.  Lysh, a second year graduate student in the Costume Design, is the costume designer for The Tamer Tamed. 

After hours of research and many conversations with the director, Lysh’s designs are now complete.  These renderings show us exactly what Lysh wants to see the cast wearing onstage.

For our purposes, we are going to follow the creation of one costume in particular: Maria’s wedding dress. Beautiful, isn’t it?

This is Kelly Homan.  Kelly, a second year graduate student in Costume Design, is the Head Draper and is responsible for creating the pattern that the stitchers will use to make the wedding dress.

The first step is to schedule a fitting with the actor.  Accurate scheduling is one of the most important aspects of the process and it is not as simple as it sounds. 

Stop back by on Monday, February 4, to see how all the information Kelly has gathered is used to start creating the actual pattern for the dress. 

To get the process rolling for our wedding dress, six schedules are coordinated: the cast member, the designer, the assistant designer, the costume technology supervisor, the costume design advisor, and the head draper.  Keep in mind, there are as many people involved for each cast member and each costume!  There are twenty-nine cast members.

The end result of that first fitting is The Measurement Chart.

Welcome from Cameron Jackson

For several years the School of Theatre has been looking for a way to engage the community in the work and ideas that we are continually creating.  This is one of the ideas. The School of Theatre blog will highlight the doing and the study. This is something that we are engaged in continuously, though we commonly only present the performance portion of the project to our audience. To separate the doing of art from the study of art is like separating the experiment and theory sides of science. Both activities are enriched by taking place in the presence of the other. The scholar gains insight from understanding how works of art come into being, and the artist’s vision is sharpened by scholarship. Art helps us to understand the world better, and the insights of the people who do it, stimulate and challenge thought within the scholarly disciplines.

Here's the challenge: I want the engage our audience, I want to create experiences that will take you away, but I want you (the audience) to stay right in your seat, be present, watch the show, engage in the discussions and read the blog. I want to take you on a journey of discovery and seeing. I feel that part of my job is to organize a way for you to see all the wonderful things that are going on here at the School of Theatre.  We will be posting on a weekly basis – watch our progress and our process through this … our new blog.

See you in the theatre!

Cameron Jackson

Director - The School of Theatre at Florida State