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Overview
- Read the play
- Asses resources: Time, Money, and Labor
- Consult with the director
- Get others to help you
- Do the paperwork: lists, drawings, reproductions of research.
- Make a schedule (Found costumes take about 10 hours, personally made outfits can take up to 30 or 40 hours.)
- Make/buy the costumes.
Advice
- Do not panic - write everything down.
- Make a spreadsheet (see below)
- Have a travel-size folder to keep things in
- Find inspirational pictures. The best place to go to determine the "look" of a costume period is art work and costume books. When looking at these books, you should look for the general lines of the costume first. Detail work comes later. Questions you should ask are: - Where is the waist? - What type of sleeve are we dealing with? - Is the neckline high or low? - Are there any outstanding features that immediately capture my eye? When you have answered these questions, you are ready to start browsing through pattern books for patterns that highlight these features. Once you have achieved the basic look of the period, you can go on with other concerns such as unity of line coordination of color, and overall appearance of the show.
- Be creative with fabric - dye it, pleat it, make it more fun (just be careful, this takes time)
- Having costumes is more important than having perfect costumes
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* The bottom layer of your sewing will “creep” because of the better traction of the feed dogs – therefore, if you want to ease something into a seam, put the larger amount on the bottom side and the machine will do your easing for you
* All bobbin cases (some machines don’t have them) have a little metal slot which the thread goes through. If you put the bobbin in line so the thread unwinds naturally in the same direction, then you have it in the right way.
* If in doubt about the way to thread a machine, remember that nearly all machines go from the spool to a hook, through a tension disc, to another hook, and either down or over a set of bars or a series of hooks to the needle.
* Most needles thread from front to back, but some go left to right. Those that go left to right often have the thread go down the side of the machine rather than down the front.
* All machine needles have an obvious front and back.
* 20% of the time, if the thread is breaking, the needle has a rough spot or is in backwards.
* 50% of the time, you have tension issues. Other causes are weak thread and machine timing.
* Excessive knotting and looping means the top thread does not have enough tension on it.
* Most patterns use 5/8” seam allowance. There may be a tape mark on the machine at this point.
* All machines will have tension problems. Experiment.