Work Experience - London 2012 Olympics Games Opening Ceremonies

I was happy that I was offered an interview for Costume Workshop at London 2012 Olympics Games Opening Ceremonies but sadly I was unsuccessful at the interview so luckily I got a place for volunteers for 1week's experience last March '12.

There were a couple of jobs I have did:

• Sewed by machine tons of black/white collars, can't remember what this for.

• I sewed by hand the label on dresses same this dress which was quite heavy.

•  Me and my friend Lucy were transferred to another place to help dye/break down the victorian era costumes. I grated, brushed and made them dirty by putting them on the floor and standing on them with my shoes.  I found it really interesting and a lady named Cheryl showed me how to make them dirty, she added varnish on costumes to help the dust such as earth/coal to stick to them. There were over 10k costumes in these rooms for dying/breaking down.

Later that afternoon, the Artistic Director named Danny Boyle (he worked on the films - The Beach, Slumdog Millionaire and others) came to the breaking down room with the Designer, Suttirat Anna Larlarb to check the costumes to see if the damage was good enough. (I saw that he was happy with it) I was excited to meet him and we had some photos taken of us (Lucy, me, Danny Boyle and 2 girls that I hardly knew). He was so lovely and calm.

After the Opening Ceremonies finished and I found this book called London 2012 Olympics Games Opening Ceremony Programme and I FOUND my name in it and I was tearful and was so pleased with myself.

Work Placement - Royal Shakespeare Company

I attended a placement as Costume Assistant at RSC Costume Stores in Stratford-upon-Avon last November '11 for 2 weeks. After I left they ask for Casual work (6 months contact)

RSC Costume Stores has 3 floors of costumes and over 10,000 outfits:

Roman
Tudor - Carolean
Elizabethan
18th Century
Regency
Victorian - Edwardian
1920s to Modern
Military
Fantasy
Children's
Underwear
Shoes
Jewellery
Breakdown costumes

Check it out the Website.

My main 3 jobs to do:

First - Tidy and clean the outfits making sure the colours and timeline are in the right order, and always check everything because there could be moths living in the outfits and they make holes or cause mould.

I found some trousers which had been badly damaged by moths who were living in them and eating the fabric.

I also tidied up the scrap fabrics, rolled up the socks/tights, paired the shoes/boots and tidied the shelves and boxes.  There were also moths living there as well! I added one of outfit on the stand for display the customers.

Second - A rail of costumes which had some damage after they were returned which we decided not to fix (gladly we charged them for the damage.) The damage was:

Dirt or blood on the boots
Make-up on the collar or neckline
Tears
Fell apart
Smelly never being wash or dry cleaned
Broken
Lost

We all worked on this cleaning and sewing the outfit. We were all disappointed. I sewed the purple 18th century dress after a awful tear in the underskirt by the crinoline as the steel boning had not been filed to a curve, which was why the fabric had got damaged.

Another job was sewing a Tudor Dress with missing beads on the neckline and the boning which had broken through the fabric.

Before

After

Also, lots of small things to sew such as buttons, mends to small tears or completely fallen apart like this collar.

Third - I volunteered to help with member of staff to communicate with the customers. I searched and found the costumes they wanted.

I stocked them on the list with the description, condition and cost for 1 weeks hire and checked if the costumes were clean before going to the customers.  I then bagged them ready to be sent away.  This is the same with the deliveries.

The costumes come back from the customers and we check and restock. As long as the garments are OK they are the taken back to the rails.

It was good experience working at the Royal Shakespeare Company Costume Store.  It helped me understand about eras of costumes.  Also I would love to go to the Workshop based at RSC.

Also I had read the Birmingham Mail about David Tennant's Crown check it out on Birmingham Mail.

That's his Crown, my friend carried it.

Final Exhibition - Summer 2011

I completed my 3rd year of Costume Construction in May 2011. I decided for my exhibition for my Final Major Project to be of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I displayed a 2 foot tall Alice, Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter on my stage including props. University of Glamorgan added my information of myself and this project, check it out.

Final Major Project - Alice in Wonderland

For my Final Major Project, I decided to pick for my project Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland because I LOVE the Costume Designer Colleen Atwood because she always works with Tim Burton. Her work with costumes was brilliant because the colours she uses really reflects the mood of the film.  I bought a book from amazon and it was good, lots of information, pictures and interviews with the cast of this film. I really enjoyed reading the book and found it very helpful linking to my project.

After lots of research into the era where the costumes were influenced from, I had travelled to different museums to visit the costumes from the Elizabethan era, 18th century and Victorian era fashions. I also researched various books. I found the pictures that I used to pick small ideas of Elizabeth's bodice with beads and lace, 18th century skirts and Victorian men's outfit to compare to my work. I looked into the detail, the designs and fabrics. I also looked at books for pattern blocks to compare the costumes I wanted to make. Also I had found 2 models for the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter.

Queen of Hearts

I became quite obsessed with working on this outfit because there was lots of detail and it kept me busy and excited because of the different types of era it covered.  The bodice was 17th century and the skirt and petticoat 18th century. The work on the bodice involved boning with a drill fabric and I put it with a bumroll and petticoat on the model who was thin and I found it difficult to make alterations, it was a big job to change the pattern so I decided to find a more curvier model

Finally I found the model for Queen of Hearts. It fits perfectly so I decided keep her until the end of the project.

I added a Bumroll, Petticoat and Silk red skirt and checked the hem line to make sure it touched the floor. I enjoyed doing the pleating on this as it needed to be accurate.

Nearly finished, I added all of them on the mannequin because I added polonaise to the measure from waist to floor and add more longer. I was very pleased to see it. Later I added Gold small hearts on the centre front skirt sewn by hand.

I added pearl beads with a gold chain on the chest, net fabrics with red ribbons and black beads on the sleeves. I was disappointed I didn't add black fabric with a white collar onto the chest to cover the skin and sewed on a black gather around the gold hearts on skirt after DEADLINE. I was happy that this costume was finished after 1 week working on it.

Mad Hatter

This is the first time I made a proper man's victorian outfit, I always wanted to make men's costumes. I started making the pattern block from this book - Men's Garment, 1830-1900 Guide to Pattern Cutting and Tailoring by R. I. Davis. I made some calico and it was LOTS of work, lots of alterations. I did the  calico 3 times because I had to move the seams around to compare Mad Hatter's jacket. I kept fitting on my brother to check there were no mistakes or complications.

Finally, number 3 jacket fitted well on my brother and the seams were in right place at the back of jacket but I had to add the waistcoat inside.

I liked making the waistcoat because some I was able to improve my skills by making pockets using Welt Pockets. After the was waistcoat finished, I dyed it darker using a grey colour to make it look old and worn.

Very pleased all costumes are finished. I worked on dying and distressing techniques - waistcoat, trousers and bow tie were dyed darker and made to look old, dirty and worn. I distressed the jacket using a cheese grater and added some coffee powder because the Mad Hatter loved the Tea party.

Little Alice

This is an underwear blue dress for Alice who was 2 foot tall so I found a mannequin which matched the height (2 foot tall). I made it pretending for it to be damaged by Alice growing from small to big, so I added detail using zig zags, gathers and overlocks.

My final work after 3 years studying Costume Construction on Screen and Stage. This is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I was supposed to set up 4 costumes but the last costume was big Alice using Queen of Hearts' colours, I wasn't confident with it and felt it was wrong so I decided I didn't want to involve it in the display. The pictures were taken by professional photographer Kate Evans.