Vicky Hipwell

Welcome to my Blog, i will be writing about my Self Directed Project at Art University College Bournemouth. I am studying BA (Hons) Costume with Performance Design in the second year.

Friday 23 April 2010

Midway Reflection

Midway Point Reflection

Through out the workshops i have tried my best and tried to learn as much as i can, sometimes i feel that my work isn't up to the standard i would probably would have been able to achieve if i was creating a garment how i have been previously been taught. But if i look at life/costume construction that way i will never learn anything new, so i am happy i am learning a new skill. To think there are only 6 people in the 2nd year that know how to construct a ballet costume it is rare to have this skill which i do not think i would have had another opportunity to do before 3rd year or the industry.

As we have a workshop every week, i find that really good for time management as we all know what we have to have done by each workshop. I do find that i have good time management and if i was following another brief i still think i would be able to cope.

I'm really enjoying SDP, i find there is a right amount of freedom that we have, because before we have had registers and workshops everyday it sometimes gets too much. So when I'm ready to work i will come in and work because i am ready and not because i am told to. I find this motivating because i can work straight for days and if i am feeling tiered or i have something to do/get i can without worrying about missing out on anything.
I like that i can choose to come in or work at home, because sometimes i believe i can do some work at home and feel better about it.

This project will help me alot in the 3rd year as i will understand what i will have to do by myself, and how it will work, i think it is a great introduction to EMP in the 3rd year. It will help in my time management, and self planning. As i will be bale to compare how long something has taken in this project and will be able to balance my time well in the 3rd year.

SDP will also help me for the industry as it iwll make my independent learning and my deccision making stronger, as sometimes i feel like i need to check that i am doing something right, when i know i should have more confidence, and keep refering back to my notes or do some mroe research.

Blog Tutorial

Tutorial

I was advised that i should group my tags, i hadn't realised i could do that before my tutorial, i prefer this way as it makes it alot easier to see and grouping them means less tags and easier to follow.

The blog will help my in my final evaluation so i need to make sure that my post are evaluating my steps and how it will help me in the future also self development.

Happy with my progress so far, but to improve blog to do following:
Notes:
-What can i take away from the skills i am learning in future.
-What/How will the skills i am learning help me in 3rd year.
-Expand on the bigger picture on how i see how things have gone. Not just on how i feel things have gone.

Sunday 18 April 2010

Temporary Stringing

Temporary Stringing

When i was doing the stringing, it took me a couple of goes to get the motion right. At first i wasn't using them as a loop, i was tying them and creating the loop by going through layers up and down.





This is midway thorugh my stringing. Above you can see which part i havent done.

When i got the technical side, i found it alot easier and it was doing the job it was supposed to be doing, bringing the layers together with a slight pull if the loop.

It looks alot more controlled now.

Squashing is next-Under my bed it goes....
This is an underneath shot after i had strung it and squashed it.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Learning Outcomes for SDP

Planning-What am i doing for SDP, and what do i want to achieve from my project?

In this unit I will be exploring and developing my skills in a new area of costume construction. I will be working along side a group to produce a collection of ballet tutus for clients from Arts Ed. The costumes will be used in their ballet end of year show next year. I will apply the technical experience that I have achieved through previous briefs and continue to develop my self learning. I will practice draping on the stand, altering the tutu and learn about the ballet costume silhouette. During the course of this unit I aim to achieve a deeper understanding of costumes in performance. This will be accomplished through learning how a ballet costume is constructed through workshops alongside research on how the ballet was first recognised to how we see and interpret it today.

I have chosen to construct a ballet tutu for my Self Directed Project because I have never challenged myself to this extent before. I have never constructed anything for dance, and I believe it is a completely new skill to learn from a non specified costume construction .It will also help me in future job prospects. I also believe that this is the only opportunity I will have to be taught how to make a ballet costume in university as I am very interested in making costumes for dance shows. I am excited that ballet will be my first learning opportunity. It will be a great place to start having a complex costume construction to learn and it will hopefully help me in understanding further areas of dance costume construction.

Leaning to construct a ballet tutu will help my self learning as I won’t have workshops throughout the construction I will be having a workshop for what needs to be constructed before the next workshop, just as the industry would work.
I feel this unit will push me and improve my technical skills. I do believe this project will make me work much better from notes as previously I have been going ahead without reading the workshop notes. To achieve a level of self learning I will have to make detailed notes to refer back to and individually problem solve which I feel I do need to work on. I believe I am good at time management, and I quite enjoy organising the time I have productively.

I plan to produce my research through my blog and a file. This will include the history of ballet, and how it has formed from what used to be, to what we know today. I will also be looking into how the ballet costumes developed with the development of the art of the ballet.

I will be evaluating areas of construction throughout the workshops’ on my blog referencing to final completed photos for personal development.

Week 3

Workshop 3:
Attaching Basque
Channel
Leg Frill
CB Knickers
CB tutu
Draping Bodice
Dye Fabric
Adapt Patterns
Cut Bodice
Construct Bodice
Steel Hoop
-Button Hole Hoop
Stringing

This week there was loads to do and I was really apprehensive about getting it all done.

It’s all the finishing touches to the tutu that makes it less of a massive ball of net, and more of a tutu.

Attaching the CB’s of tutu and the Basque to the knickers/tutu was very straight forward. What I found difficult was the CB of the knickers, I had no idea where the seam was meant to fall or how it was meant to be done. The reason for this was because the CB was sewn up on the tutu, it made it look as if the seam was meant to be on the inside, but the whole of the tutu construction, the seams have been on the outside, as it is all about making the costume/tutu the most comfortable we can.

The CB of the knickers was just tacked into place with the seam on the outside again - more comfort for the actress. It is only tacked because of the fitting, if it needs to be taken in or taken out at all, it is easy to amend.




Bodice Draping:
We did bodice draping on a stand for assessment-this is because we are making a bulk costume order for the Arts Ed, they have to be exactly the same, so we have cut the bodice from Dexter’s patterns. To show we understand how the ballet bodice is constructed and where the seams go to enhance the body and the movements of the ballerina we have drafted a bodice that we think would be most suitable for the ballerinas if we where to use our patterns.
The bodice draping we did for assessment I found really enjoyable, when I got into it, it became a little bit of an obsession, I wanted to get it smoother and smoother with any pin alteration I could. I was really happy with how my bodice looked; I don’t think I could have got it any smoother without causing myself more problems, I would have moved a pin and miss aligned everything.


Creating the bodice lines made me realise the some bodices don't enhance the body/let the body move very well at all. Creating the lines in this bodice made me see how the seams in the right places can really flatter the figure.
All of this knowledge will help me in my final year and help my construction/drafting patterns get only better.

Dying Fabric:
When we all dyed our fabric, it was very testing. As the fabric was gold it had the yellow base that we firstly didn’t consider, so we tested the samples and the blues were turning green, the pinks were turning orange and the lilacs were turning pink. To get the desired colour was really hard and testing. Each fabric took differently to the dye, so it was rare that we all had one dye each. I personally had two, one for the net and viscose. One for the main fabric, we did them in the vats as we needed a large amount of water as there was such a large amount of fabric.
Some of us had to add dye into the vat after the dye had already been decided as it was coming out differently every time.
Over all I am really happy with my 3 different fabrics, I think they work well being slightly different shades of lilac they complement each other.




Cutting out the bodice was straight forward, firstly on the drill, where all markings where transferred from the patterns we altered for our artist (noting cutting on the BIAS and straight of grain.)
Each one of the patterns I placed onto my fabric, ironed the air out and pinned them onto my fabric, again, noting the bias and straight of grain.
When I put the bodice together I pinned the seams alternately one with the pin heads pointing to the top and the next seam would be so the pins would be facing the hem. This was done because there are so many panels, it would move much more easily than a less panel bodice would. When stitching the foot on the machine pulls the fabric one way, and as the pins on the next seam alternate, the next stitched seam would counteract the possible movement from the previous seam.

Finishing touches to Tutu:
Putting the steel hoop on layer 7 in the channel to flatten the tutu and control the layers and push them in the right way. The idea is to get the pleats from the knickers to fan out like a perfect ray of sunshine towards the hoop, and after for the net to lie flat, not twisted.
I found this hard to get the steel hoop in, because i was worried about the channel ripping, it was much more time consuming and harder than i thought. To get it to lie flat was a real struggle. It took me a while to come to grips with the method and the logic's behind how the hoop effected the tutu and how the gathering of the pleats affected the shape of the hoop, and how the more of the hoop that was put into the channel it made it flatter.
This prepares for the stringing. The stringing is done to the either side of the hoop so all the layers are pulled towards the steel hoop.

Notes:

Day by day to do list really helped. Continue to do so.

Make sure every task is done in the day that i have planned to do. If completed with more time to spare than thought, carry on and start the next job, nothing like preparing things when you can.

Make decisions along the way that might help in the long run, i.e seeing the fabric was a little crimpled, and testing solutions out to flatten it.

Week 2

Workshop 2:
Construction of the Tutu


This week was to Construct the Tutu, I was really nervous about having to pleat the net into the quarter marks of the knickers.

Measuring out the metres and metres of net was very daunting, and seeing where it was going to be attached too was aswell. I had no idea how it was possibly going to work.

Scalloping the edges is so the edge of the tutu is soft on any dancer that may be dueting with the ballerina, and also it looks better than a straight edge. Scalloping was quite therapeutic, I enjoyed scalloping the edges. I kept the bulks of the same sized pieces of net together and scalloped them in a group. It still took me a whole evening even doing it that way. Some edges weren’t cut properly/smoothly so I went through them and snipped the rougher edges.

I started on the smaller layers, so I was starting with the smaller pleats.
I found it ok and I was surprised how quickly I picked the pleating up, compared to my first samples.
Learning how to pleat by eye is a skill defiantly. Which i will be able to take into my 3rd year for EMP and into the industry, it will help advance my construction skills for the future as hop fully i can only get better.


When I had pleated them all I was happy with them all, the smaller ones more so as I found when I had to pleat the larger net the pleats went a bit irregular, and not as good as the smaller ones.

I think this is because it is a completely new area of construction for me, and having a dead line to adeah to aswell as learning the new skill is pressurising.

To attach the tutu net onto the knickers was straight forward if the hand out that Dexter did for us was followed strictly. It indicated which layer was to be sewn on which way the seam allowance on the net needed to face so the net was facing the right way, also where it needed to be sewn, on which layer of the knickers. This really helped because I have never done anything like this before I hadn’t the first idea how to construct a bodice, which later was to go where etc. Unfortunately there a miss communication on a couple of section through the group and Dexter which has caused a few problems later on down the line.

The channel and leg frill wasn’t cut out. The channel was meant to be attached before the pleating and the leg frill was meant to be attached half way through the joining of the net to the knickers. They both were really hard to attach after going past the construction parts of ‘no return’ but I went along with it and worked with what I had.

I found it hard to attach the leg frill at home as I don’t have enough space, I firstly attached it with the elastic stitch over the bias binding when it was supposed to be above the bias binding (the bias binding is used for the leg elastic, which I wasn’t aware of when I applied the leg frill the first time.) When I had to unpick it, which was a job that took me much longer than anticipated, and didn’t work very well with my schedule, set me back at least a day.

I re did the leg frill, re pleated and re attached which was a much better job the second time round, and I made sure I attached it above the bias binding. The second time around I was much happier with it, it looked much neater and the pleating was better too.

Over all i am happy with my tutu but i do feel i could have improve on the larger pleated net layers, i think this will come with time and practice. Over all i am happy with my tutu construction, do feel it could be better, but at the moment i am concentrating on learning the skills and practicing the new construction methods rather than spending so much time on just completing something and not being able to continue with the next step becuase i have spent so much time on the contruction.


Notes:
Dont rush to get onto the next job, only causes more problems and not high quality construction.

Make a "To Do" list when tasks seem to much to deal with. Day by day.