A Coat for a Fool

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you've all had a thoroughly festive few weeks. I am back in the studio now after a couple of weeks of eating, drinking and be-merrying, ready for an exciting 2015. First of all though, a little project I finished last year on.

I was asked by my regular co-conspirator Rebecca Lee to make a frock coat for her Morris dancing pals Sharp and Blunt's Fool, to get its first outing on Boxing Day.

Rebecca chose a very nice wool-like red plaid, and I used a combination of this pattern for an 18th Century riding outft, and a Burda magazine jacket pattern.

Black velvet for the lapels.

And black velvet buttons on the cuffs.

A pleated tail section with a dipped hem and a couple more velvet buttons.

And my own little surprise of a taffeta under collar!

Pretty swish, no?

Two Weeks in Wardrobe

Rebecca Lee's costume designs, safely stored on the floor.

How to sort costumes when you don't have rails but you do have an entire lecture theatre at your disposal.

Petticoats obligatory.

Order restored after the first round of costume fittings.

A detail from my favourite suit in the show.

Lucky enough to have been in beautiful Kingston-on-Thames in the summer.

Not so lucky with our accomodation on campus; damp and beige, thank God for £1 bunting.

Slightly ropey phone photo of the spider web shaped lighting grid at the Rose Theatre. An incredible venue, well worth a visit.

Glorious.

Snippets

I'm back in that hut at the bottom of a garden in Oxfordshire again, this time for a production of Great Expectations. I'm going to share a few of the costume highlights so far (a trip to Bristol Costume Services is on the cards for next week, I LOVE hire companies).

 First up, fabulous military jacket covered in braid, mmmmmmmm braid.

Next, a couple of delicate embroidered blouses. The first one is commercially made (as opposed to being made for theatre or by a costume company).

The embroidery is really fine, in a pale blue variegated thread on the latte colour silk crepe.

I haven't got round to doing the ironing yet.

The second blouse is possibly a one off, there are no labels to be seen, so I don't know if it was a theatre make or a home make that has made it's way into the costume store.

The scallop detailing on the cuff is incredible, but what had me most intrigued was the embroidery on the body of the blouse.

It looks like a simple running stitch outline, with a trellis pattern in the flower centres, but the leaves and petals look more opaque than the surrounding area. At first I thought it was an incredibly small and neat applique, but closer inspection of the reverse shows that this is not the case.

It's not very easy to see in the photo, but the running stitch on the outside is actually the back of a herringbone stitch that has been worked over all the petals and leaves, which is what's making those areas more opaque. I've never seen this technique before, does anyone know if there's a particular name for it? Clearly it's only effective with sheer or semi-sheer fabrics, but it's so clever!

Finally it's this late Regency velvet and damask gown. There are so many details in this dress that I love.

Narrow braid over the curved bodice seam.

Pleated front section, gold piping and a crepe chiffon contrast.

MASSIVE puff over sleeves.

I fully expect to see more of this kind of thing next Friday as I'll be in Bath to see the Laura Ashley exhibition at the Assembly Rooms, expect many photos.

City Break, Part 1.

Last Friday I took myself on a day trip to Manchester, somewhere I do not visit anywhere near enough, considering it's only 40 minutes away on the train. I'd spotted the adverts for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair a few weeks back, and then a newsletter for the First Cut exhibition at Manchester City Gallery landed in my inbox. Add to that a long overdue visit to Platt Hall Gallery of Costume and I had a cracking day planned.
A minor 'gas meter battery failing' incident (no hot water and a head full of shampoo lather, rinsing my hair with kettle water in the kitchen sink, four wrong gas emergency hotline numbers and far too much hold music) threatened to scupper my plans, but I made it to Manchester reasonably early. Too early in fact, as Platt Hall doesn't open until 1pm and I hadn't checked the opening times. There isn't a huge amount to see in Platt Fields Park, except the ducks.

 I saw a signpost for the 'Teenage Village' but daren't investigate further, and I found myself unexpectedly detained by a friendly, if slightly odd, man who insisted that you couldn't work in fashion without learning sugarcraft and that I was in town with the Labour conference and friends with Nick Robinson. I politely declined a request to be his penpal.

Platt Hall itself is a beautifully restored Georgian mansion, a testament to the success of Manchester's textiles industry in the 18th century.

 

I Want It Now.

 The costume collection at the hall is fairly wide ranging, from the 17th century to the present day, and covering men's, women's and children's wear, with an impressive array footwear, hats and bags. My personal highlights were the dresses by Biba and Ossie Clarke from the 60s and 70s, and as always the 19th century held my attention for sometime.

In addition to the permanent collection there was a temporary exhibit of West African textiles, which included this beautiful loom.

Clickety clack, clickety clack.

One day I WILL learn to weave.

 The First Cut, an exhibition of works in paper by contemporary artists is housed primarily at the City Gallery, but there were a few costume related pieces at Platt Hall, including this dress by Violise Lunn. Suspended in one of the upstairs galleries, it is a beautifully delicate piece that seems very much at home in it's opulent surroundings.

 Hopping on a bus full of students back in to the centre (including a brush with that ubiquitous C list celeb, the ex-Hollyoaks actor) I made a beeline for the City Gallery. I hadn't actually looked too hard at where it was so my beeline was none too straight.
I was running out of time by this point as I had planned on attending a talk by Louise Gardiner at the GNCCF, so I dashed past the Pre-Raphaelites and went straight for the paper. Most well known in the exhibit would be Rob Ryan and his silhouette papercutting, represented in some large works and originals of his popular greetings cards. My own favourite was the work of  Claire Brewster, who uses old maps to create intricately cut birds, by themselves or in a huge flock taking flight across the gallery wall, the maps of northern towns give these garden birds a tropical hue.

The First Cut exhibition is on until the 27th of January, and is completely free, so if you're in the North West I strongly reccomend it. I'm certainly going to go back and take it in a bit more slowly, along with the rest of the City Gallery's permanent collection.
I'll be covering my visit to GNCCF in my next post, expect sherry and drum n bass. You have been warned.

Hen Party Purses

I led my first workshop on Saturday!

  

 I'd been asked by Craft Creative, after helping with a yarnbombing project they organised, to come up with a few workshop ideas for their Christmas events. Craft Creative are an events company who specialise in running crafty parties and workshops, both in Liverpool and Glasgow. Perfect for an alternative night out where you can eat, drink, socialise, and learn a new skill at the same time! One of my ideas was for a hand stitched coin purse, not something I'd ever made to sell myself but I thought it was a fun way to combine basic embroidery with using clasp frames and small enough to complete in a couple of hours. I was lucky enough to be booked by Craft Creative to lead this workshop with the hen party of a very crafty bride.

 I stocked up on Liberty prints so they could make their purses extra special.

 

And while I was planning I had what I think might be the best idea I've ever had. (you have my permission to use it for yourself.)

 The location was great to work in, plenty of room for all the materials we needed and lots of light and space. I'd never taught a group of people before, though I'd done a bit of one to one teaching through my work as a costume designer, but I thought I'd be ok (both my parents are teachers so I was relying on some genetic advantage). I'd done all my prep so we just had to dive in, needless to say it didn't stay this organised...

Much cutting, sewing and glueing (which proved to be the most tricky part) later...

 

 

...everyone had a beautiful, handmade purse!