The Pre-production process for costume making

During pre-production of Alice I was a costume maker and had an opportunity to make some of the costumes that would be used in the show at the Old Repertory Theatre in Birmingham.

What I have made:

For the Alice show I made the costume for Tweedledum which consisted off red checkered trousers and a vibrant light blue waistcoat. As well as this I also made an apron that would be used in one of Alice's daughters costume.

Nadine using an overlock machine

An over lock machine locks the sides of the fabric to stop it from fraying. Fraying is when the fibres of thread pull off the fabric.

Skills I have learnt:

I learnt key skills needed that would be required when making a costume. I know how to:

Secure a hand stitch without tying a knot on the end. Instead, I would sewing over our first stitch 3 times. And used this to add on the buttons.
How to do a herring bow stitch (on the left) which has a criss-cross pattern on one side and two straight line stitches on the other and a slip stitch (on the right) that has an angled over-stitch.
I know how to use an industrial sewing machine: how to thread it up, how to use it to sew and how to wind a bobbin.
I know how to use an over locking machine.
I know how to create buttons using a button machine.
I can work with and attach bias binding.
I can make, use and add a seam allowance onto a pattern.

hemming on an industry machine

slip stitch

stitching the seam allowance

Herring bow stitch

Tools I have used

pattern maker
industrial machine
Overlocking machine
needle and thread
sewing pins
safety pins
pattern paper
seam ripper
chalk

The costume designs:

These were the costume designs illustrated by the year 13's, who were the designers. They were approved for the show by the director and creative production team. I used these designs to know how my costumes should look like after I had made them.

The aprons for Alice

In the play, the 3 sisters Lottie, Emily and Annie all have white aprons to wear with their dresses.

I started by making two ties for the apron and did a half inch seam allowance.

I used straight stitch all the way across with a back stitch on both ends to lock it off. The over lock was used to lock off the ends. Then I used a safety pin to flip them inside out before I then ironed them.

I started by doing an open stitch on the embroidered piece of fabric. To give it a frilly look I pulled on the two top pieces of thread on either side, and this bunched the fabric. I then attached it to the front of the apron along with the straps.

TweedleDums costume

Making the trousers:

I made the Tweedledum costume for the Alice. I started by tracing out the pattern for the trousers onto patters paper. One for the front and for the back. I added a seam allowance to the fabric. The bottom was a 4 cm, the sides and top were 2.5 cm an on the inner side of the back of the trousers it was 5 cm.

After I cut out my fabric, I had 4 linings of black fabric and 4 pieces of plaid fabric were going to be used on the outside of the trousers. I lined up the lining and outer fabric together I hand stitch them ,using and big running stitch, so they were tacked together. This was done so the trousers would be stronger and less transparent.

I overlocked all 4 pieces using the over lock machine. This was to prevent it from fraying and it also gave the trousers a cleaner finish. I sewed together the inner sides of the trousers so that it completed the trousers.

I sewed together the inner sides of the trousers so that it completed the trousers. My next focus was to add an elasticated waistband and cuffs. For the waistband I used the pattern to cut out two rectangular pieces then stitched them together to create one loop. This was then stitched onto the waist of the trousers.

Next, I overlocked the top of the waistband and folded it over (the seam allowance stitch as a guide when stitching the case that the elastic was going to be threaded through) I made sure to leave an opening wide enough, so the elastic lay flat in it.

Using the cuff pattern added a 2cm seam allowance around all 4 sides, adhesive white lining was used to make the outer fabric pieces stronger. I then attached it the same way I did with the waist band.

Nadine stitching the waist band of the Tweedledum trousers

Making the waistcoat:

When I made the waistcoat, it consisted off similar skills I had learnt when I was making the trousers. For instance, I had to tack together the outer blue fabric and white lining and had to line up the front and back pieces.

However, I got to learn new skills and techniques such as: how to sew on bias binding to garments, I used a domestic sewing machine to create buttonholes and practice hand stitching to sew on buttons.

The final products: