Lauren Hadley, Lab

For this week’s lab hours, I had the opportunity to help at the first dress rehearsal for Mary Poppins. When I first arrived, it was complete chaos. Half-dressed actors and actresses were running around asking questions about their costumes because they were unclear what went with what. I mainly focused and helped with the female actresses, zipping up, safety pinning, and bobby pinning. Since it was the first night of dress rehearsals, the actors only had to put on their costumes and did not have to worry about hair or make-up. Aliya, the girl who played Miss. Corry, and I did not know how to put her costume on. We were confused with all the petticoats and bustles she had. Finally, we asked for help and figured it out and she looked great. Taylor did a wonderful job on her costume. One of the biggest challenges of the first dress rehearsal was that a lot of costumes still needed mending or altering. I did not think there would be that many but there were a ton. When and if we came across a costume which needed fixing or altering, there was a system. You wrote the name of the actor or their character, and exactly what needed to be done. When I got there, only 3 alterations were on the chalk board, by the time I felt, the entire board was covered and an additional five pages of notes that Dan had taken. Side note: Dan is a super star! From my observations, he helped so much backstage and there would have been a lot more chaos without him.

** Below is a picture of the finished product of Bert's patchwork vest.

Lauren Hadley, Lab

Oops! I was only able to complete one hour of lab work last week because I left my last hour to do on Friday, and then my car was towed (stupid security!) and I had to find a way to town to pick it up.

However, for the hour I did do lab work, I was able to sew all the individual patch work squares together. I was so amazed at how 100 squares sewn together creates a new, unique, piece of fabric. I felt so accomplished and proud of myself. After that, I found the vest pattern I wanted and cut out the pattern from my new piece of fabric. That was a long, tedious job. I also poked myself with pins multiple times. Ouch! Before my hour was up, I was able to put together a couple pieces of the cut out pattern and it finally began to look like an actual vest. Thankfully, someone was able to complete the entire vest and when I saw Bert wearing it, I was so impressed with how it turned out.

After the first dress rehearsal, a few suggestions were made regarding the patchwork vest in order to make it look more realistic and easy for Bert to quick change in. I hand-stitched three green buttons to the left side of the vest and used Velcro on both sides for a quick and easy change. Unfortunately, I did not know that you aren’t supposed to use sticky Velcro on fabric and went to stitch the Velcro into the fabric to secure it and almost broke the machine. SORRY!

Costume Critique :Kami-Sama Kiss

I just started the second season (that has been coming out finally!). I love this show soooo much. As normal, this started out as a book so the original designer of everything is the author/artist Juilietta Suzuki.

This series is based on modern day Japan but it also mixes traditional Japanese mythology into it. Nanami is a regular high school girl but was abandoned by her father who owned a large debt because of his gambling addiction so she was kicked out of her house. She meets a man in the park who is up in a tree evading a little pup barking at him. Nanami merely tells the dog to go away and in short, the man kisses her forehead telling her she has a new home. She later finds out that he was the land God of the region and he passed his Godhood onto her, making her the new God of the land.
Even though she is a God, she still attends high school and wears her usually school uniform.  You rarely see her in formal attire, one of those times is when she purified and blessed the land with a dance at an annual festival.
Along with the modern clothes, it also has that spice of feudal Japan because of her servants which are spirits which leads into my favorite costume modeled by Tomoe

He is a fox spirit that usually wears a traditional Japanese outfit of some kind unless he's going to school with Nanami. I just love traditional Japanese clothes and the elegance to it. Tomoe's clothes change of course; his Kimonos are never the same but he does have one he usually fights in.
If you love romantic-comedies and traditional Japanese mythology and clothes: this is the show for you ;D

Lab hours

These lab hours were a lot more productive in my opinion. At first I didn't want to touch or think about the sweeper caps because of a recent frustration with the pattern so I worked on smaller things. Alpha asked me to work on Katie Nana's hat by adding a black ribbon around to cover up the sky blue part. That took me an hour to do which I find strange. I always seem to take my time with handstitching things. I then worked on making the hat look more Edwardian. originally, the hat had a down curve to it making it a sun hat/ With Alpha's help and creative mind, I stitched it down in a couple of places and gave the brim a wavy shape and dispelling the sun hat look! For the last hour of my lab work, Sister Dooley gave me a new hat pattern which had much better instructions to it than the one I found. I was able to make two hats but there is still a little bit of work needed to be done on them but it wont be too earth shatter if it isn't done

Lauren Hadley, Costume Critique

This past weekend I watched Catching Fire, the second movie of the Hunger Game Series. The wardrobe choices in this production were incredible. The magic and talent behind the seams was Trish Summerville. This costume designer is best known for her work on another production based off a book, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Summerville has worked alongside many celebrities like Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera. She is also the first-ever costume designer to collaborate designs with the clothing store H&M. 

Fantasy is one word which can describe the wardrobe of the characters on Catching Fire. Katniss Everdeen, the main character, played by Jennifer Lawrence had a variety of situations and scenarios which required different types of wardrobes. One of the main costumes she had to wear was during The Games. Summerville said that The Games costume was one of the most difficult to create. She said, “…it had to be functional, fashionable and look good. It had to fit 24 different body types, from young bodies like Josh [Hutcherson], who's a completely fit, in-shape, and athletic 19-year-old to a 78-year-old woman. It also had to be something they could swim in, run in, and it had to be cool enough when the temperatures were hot. It had to be suitable for stunts, so I had to incorporate pads that were decorative and fashionable on the exterior of the costume, as opposed to trying to shove them underneath where they'd be seen.” I thought the outfit she wore while fighting and participating in the games was very realistic and was something I wanted to add to my own wardrobe. Katniss’s outfit which I wish belonged in my closet was her beautiful, intricate wedding dress. The wedding dress was something that was created and designed specifically for the film. Summerville said it was also difficult designing a dress which catered to the fans desires and the character of Katniss. Summerville said, “That wedding dress already has garnered plenty of attention. The gown, the work of Indonesian designer Tex Saverio, featured a metal bodice layered with silks and decorated with Swarovski crystals and weighed close to 25 pounds.” They needed a dress which was wonderful and unique in every single way but was still light and flexible, that would be able to twirl as Katniss moved. 

 

My second favorite costumes of the production were worn by Elizabeth Banks, who played the character Effie Trinket. Her character was very flamboyant, and magical. Her entire look, from her hair to her shoes, was unique to each outfit she wore. My favorite costume Effie wore was entirely covered in butterflies! An interview done with Summerville, she said, “a lot of [Effie’s] dresses she can’t really sit in, and the waist we had cinched in quite tight. Some of them have these metal belts that kind of cut into your ribs. That really helped with her posture and the whole concept…  She looks quite incredible, but she’s never really relaxed and comfortable.” Although I could never wear any of her costumes in real life, they are all incredibly detailed and beautiful. Her costumes definitely suit her character and fit her eclectic personality. 

Taylor's lab hours!

So, this is what I did this week:

I sewed Mrs Correy's costume. Man, I have to say, I have spent so much time on Mrs. Correy's costume. I kind of want to move on with it. But at the same time, I'm so excited that I have been able to make such a cool costume!

I sewed this skirt together this past week. Let me tell you, that was a lot of layers. I had to put two lines of stitching in in order for it to all stay.
1 layer of waistband. 2-3 layers of red skirt top. 1 layer of green skirt. all together, it was sometimes 5 layers.

I the waistband, I put on Velcro. Putting on the Velcro was Sister Dooley's idea, but it was a good one. One thing that we as students in the costume shop understand is that we need to be able to reuse whatever we make. In order to make the skirt more reusable, I put Velcro. Everyone is different shapes and sizes. The Velcro allows for adjustment. I was especially thankful for it when I tried it on, haha.

Also, I (and others) found petticoats to make the skirt poof. Poof is awesome, and necessary. We also found the bussel. The bussel makes the butt big. Let me tell you, the costume all together looks awesome with the butt poof. I'm excited for Aliya to wear this.

I also made letters and accessories. I just need to stitch the black letters on the skirt (so they're removable for future wearers.)

This week, I plan to stitch those letters on and move on to statue drapery.

Lauren Hadley, Lab

            This week, I was finally able to use the sewing machine! I was so excited. I was asked to being creating a patchwork vest for Bert to wear during Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious scene of Mary Poppins. My first step was to choose fabric for the different patches. Sis. Dooley suggested to choose some colors which matched the other actors in the scene. I choose brown to match the customers, blue and pink to match Miss. Corry and her daughters, and random patterns to add dimension the vest. I then worked with Sis. Dooley to determine how many single patches would be sufficient to create the entire vest. We decided on 10x10 with each patch, or square, being 5 inches all around. Next, I cut each individual square or fabric using a pizza cutter like device (I am not sure the proper name). It did take me a couple of hours to cut out all the patches because I wanted to make sure all the edges were as straight as possible and that each side of the square was 5 inches long. Also, because some of the fabric I chose had been sitting for so long, they had many folds and creases which needed to be ironed out before cutting. After all 100 squares were cut out, the real magic begun. I now needed to assemble all the patches together to create one big quilt. Initially, sewing the patches together was difficult and tricky because you couldn’t stop. After you sew a straight line along the side of one patch, you quickly but carefully, add another patch without ending the stitch. Confusing? Yes it was. I was only able to finish one row of 10 patches before I had to leave. Hopefully I can finish the entire project by next class period.