The Wait is Over...

Hello once again dear readers and I'd like to take some time to explain my two month absence from all things frivolous and costume-based; namely, research.

Oh, you need more of an excuse than that for leaving you shivering alone in the cold, dark woods?  Oh, okay.

Let me explain then.  Pull up a seat and get a cup of tea, I'll wait, it's only fair.

Good?  Good.  Let's take a walk through how my brain works when I'm trying to make something - there are certain points I'm trying to hit whenever I put something together.  As well as looking good, I always try to ensure that my costume pieces are strongly constructed, easily maintained (machine washable for sweaty days at conventions), well fitted, true to the source material and most importantly (to me anyway) have some base in historical accuracy.

Now I'm all for weird and wonderful out-there costumes, in fact that's one of the best parts of this slightly bizarre hobby, getting to see and take part in the creativity of the costuming community, but for my work the garment needs to function as a garment first and a costume second.  This is why all of my pieces feature working button-holes, no zips or Velcro, limited use of press-studs (which, incidentally were invented in 1885) and not feature any synthetic fabrics.  Fine rules to live by I hear you say, but what the sweet baby Jesus does this have to do with a lack of blogging?

Research, that's what.  Knowing that there were a few new pieces I'd have to be making for May's Comic-Con, I needed some inspiration as to which direction to take.  As has become customary, I'd be sporting a new coat for the event, plus Scott over at www.mudbagrunner.blogspot.co.uk was in dire need of an update.  Seriously, his costume was one of the first I'd completed and it's starting to show.  Mainly because he hasn't washed it in about a year, but more for this comparison:

See the difference?  I was still finding my feet when I put Scott's costume together, adding pieces as I thought of them, inventing ways of constructing things and generally botching the whole thing. An updated, better made version was needed.  Badly.  

So, the research began.  Having just finished off Assassin's Creed Unity (buy it for the graphics and the side story, the main story-line is lazy and often boring - play Rogue instead), I started reading around the history of the French Revolution of the 1790's, a subject I had a passing knowledge of but little more outside of a computer game.  The Reign of Terror, the Sans-Culottes, Robespierre, the Enragés, the Hérbertists, the Jacobin club, I really got caught up in the subject, down to the dress of the period and fashions.  It really is in interesting period of history, both the Revolution itself and the years surrounding it in terms of developments of fashion and clothing.  Indeed, the very idea of the revolutionary army being made up of the common man and woman termed sans-culottes, which translates as "without culottes," culottes being the word for the fashionable knee breeches worn by the aristocracy in 18th century France, really caught my attention. 

This led me into various avenues of enquiry, including but not limited to styles of button, the cut and cloth of the various social class's clothing, symbolism within dress and colour palettes.  Without realising it, I'd unwittingly stumbled across the idea I needed to push ahead with my next batch of costume-making.  The little 'un (on the right in the right-hand picture above) was fine, her coat, hood and shirt were all of a standard and style I was happy with, while my other half (on the left in the same picture above) could do with a new coat and corset, but neither were desperately needed.  We'd reached the conclusion that we'd buy a corset instead of me making another one, which I'm still not happy with but I lack the time and capability to make a convincing corset (so far...).

So what will I be concentrating on then?  Well, simply put, I have two new coats to make, along with two new hoods for myself and Scott.  This issue of fabric choice was always going to be a foregone conclusion, the same range of cotton drill that I normally work with, lined with either the same material or a lighter weight cotton depending on the demands of construction, as were other details, such as buttons choices and thread.  What I really needed was to choose the style and pattern to use. 

After some back and forth, I settled on Simplicity's 4923, a pattern I'd made years ago for a work Hallowe'en costume contest.  Which I won. 

I'd be using the coat from this one, which I adapted according to my taste; the two side darts were originally included on the coat, but I later remove them as they added too much bulk to the skirt section, being as I'd constructed both the shell and lining of the coat in heavyweight cotton.  The back dart was left in place, but cut down the middle to leave a divided skirt.  Alongside these changes I also modified the sleeves to remove the enormous turned-back cuffs, plus pulled them in tighter down to the wrist to reflect the historical changes in the justacourps coat going into the 18th century.  Enough talk, time for some pictures:

The complete coat, knee length and constructed of dark blue cotton twill, medium-weight interfacing through the body and lined with a cream cotton twill.  You can also see the start of the bias-binding on the edges, applied in dark blue with a "rustic" decorative stitch to hold it in place.  This was a standard setting on my sewing machine, which I applied by eye in a contrasting brown thread.  Here's a picture of the completed cuff, though the sunlight/camera flash has thrown the colours off a little:

I wanted this slightly rough and inaccurate look for the edging to give the coat a rustic feel to it; indeed in researching the style of coat I wanted I came across several pieces online describing the general crudeness and rough finish that the average man or woman's clothes would have historically - while high status pieces would impress even today's most scrupulous fashionista's, the day-to-day wear of you or I would often feature unfinished hems, raw edges and crudely executed button-holes.  For this coat I was using a roughly accurate pattern for a justacourps 18th century coat, cut in the style of the aristocracy (plus the addition of side slits and modified sleeves), but realised in more everyday fabrics and decoration.

Above you can see the back of the coat, though somewhat badly affected by the unseasonably sunny day we have today.  On the left is a picture of how the front lapels will button open and turn back once the coat is complete - this will take some time to work out exactly, but more on this once the hems are completed.  

But wait a minute, surely I've achieved more than this in the two months since my last post, right?  Right.  I've been designing hoods.  Well, I say designing, more like drawing, cutting, patterning, fitting, getting frustrated, throwing things around, drawing cutting, etc. The long and the short of it can be summed up in the following photo:

And that's not even all of them.  It's gotten to the point where I've had to name the patterns so I can tell them apart, including such delights as the "Stalker Mk.1," the "Hero Mk.2," the leather "Brute," the Mk.1 and Mk.2 "Revolution" hood, the list goes on.  I'll be featuring a few of these designs in a future blog post, just as soon as I can find and buy a freaky mannequin head to photograph them properly - laying flat you can't see the structure I've worked in to make them sit correctly.  That and you don't want a post full of pictures of my face, trust me.

Apart from that, there's been a start to Scott's new coat in the form of a divided tail section, plus the start of a side project, that may or may not see completion - I'm not entirely pleased with the set-in sleeve:

I'll leave it here for today as we've got houses to view this afternoon.  Stay tuned in the next week for the upcoming posts about whether I've achieved my goal of designing a hood that doesn't need wires to hang correctly (spoiler - I have!), plus updates featuring exciting news on buttons, sword stand-ins, belts and more.  I'll leave you with two images from my research that inspired me - note the "Revolutionary Cap" above the coat in the left image, there's a hood inspired by that and the "Sans-Culottes hood" in Assassin's Creed Unity coming...

Until next time.

Costume Making 101 - Reasons (excuses) for a slow blog week...

1.  Applying graphics at the office

The handywork of yours truly and my friend Scott over at www.mudbagrunner.blogspot.co.uk

2.  Designing.  New Comic-Con, new coat, you know the rules. 

And the final design:

Drawn by me over prints of the pattern I plan to use, everyone's favourite, Simplicity 2333.

3.  Internet distractions of things I want.

4.  Oh, and this.

Nice cameo by the Axe-gun.  Everyone loves an Axe-gun. 

Next week will be more productive.  Honest.  In between house viewings, estate agents, finishing sequence 6 of AC Unity (buy it, buy it, buy it!) and various other things.  I think I've also started my Dishonored Corvo Attano prop purchases, so more to come on those too!

Breath. 

Until next time. 

Costume-Making 101: The Hood Continue-eth

A day of progress it seems - day away from the daily grind to sort some bits out has meant some time to dedicate to the work-in-progress...

To business - I'd got the hood lining finished and the pattern for the shell cut.  Time for some assembly methinks!

First off, the sub-assemblies; these were put together in the same manner as the lining - the two centre pieces with the added detail pieces for the tip (which weren't part of the simpler lining), plus the side panels with the additional detail panel to help give some structure to the top when assembled.  These were then sewn together and tested with the lining/interfacing:

Which seemed to work out well.  Turning my attention to the back, I sewed the two centre back pieces together, plus the additional dart details:

You'll notice the darts are double-stitched to add rigidity and detail, as were all of the other seams around the hood.  In designing the pattern I'd kept the seam placement to where the hood would naturally need to "fold" around the head so by over-stitching hoped to give it some real shape.

So, centre back attached, shoulders pieces added:

The right-hand picture is actually following the sewing together of the lining and shell.  The edges are left raw as I'd decided to bias-bind the edges to add a cleaner line to the edges and allow a few more lines of stitching.

A trip to Hobbycraft later and I had some bias tape, new sewing machine needles and other bits I needed.  After measuring up and some ironing, more sewing and double sewn edges, we had this:

And onto the other side, by which time it was dark, so the flash on my phone started giving some funny effects to the colour of the fabric.  The photos above show the true colour.

And that's where we have to end for tonight - I have shirts to iron.  Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with how everything's going.  At this point I need to finish off the bias binding for the rest of the hood, add button holes and other details (more on these to come) to finish it off.  The extra seam lines have really added some support to the hood, meaning that in the last photos the top of the hood is barely in contact with the Jelly Bean/head stand-in.

Another update soon, hopefully with some final shots of the hood at work!

Until next time.

Costume-Making 101:  Hood Progress

Just  a quick update for tonight, it's late and I'm tired.  A weekend of entertaining a (nearly) three-year-old monster, house-hunting and bad horror films has taken its toll...

So then, first off an update for the hood lining, complete with the extra-intricate double-stitched hems for strength and structure (done by eye, I might add):

And I finally finished cutting all of the pieces for the "shell" of the hood.  It's a dark blue cotton drill, same as the lining, which despite the flash from my camera is actually a rich, deep red.  

And that's not even a particularly complicated hood pattern...  If you've noticed how some pieces look to be copied parts of other pieces, then well done, have a biscuit.  I'll be doubling up some parts of the hood for added structure and detail lines.  

More to come when I start getting the hood assembled; he shape should hopefully start coming together, including the staggeringly well-designed three-part mantel for easier movement.

Oh, and a motivational picture from Ubisoft's website.  You can buy this product.  It's life-size.  And yours for a fiver under £2,000.  House or statue?  Seriously, house or statue..?

Stay tuned for more!

Costume Making 101: It's Alive!  Sort of.

I've been thinking about hoods a lot recently.  Stick with me.

Last time I'd just started patterning out my new hood design after several attempts that I wasn't entirely happy with up until now.  Nothing to do with the patterns themselves, more with how I put them together.  So, without further ado, progress!

I'm convinced these tutorials online that insist you need add wires and various other things to your hoods to make them stand correctly are wrong, simply because despite what everyone thinks, hoods are incredibly hard to pattern out to look like they do in a computer game.  That said, I'm not for a minute suggesting my way is correct, more that I'm going to explore the options for making a hood without wires to see if I can crack it.  

Despite what I just said, hoods themselves in principal are incredibly simple.  They are two quarter circles for the sides with a middle strip to add width.  Computer game hoods are not.  They are form fitting, gravity defying and covered in seam lines, panels intricate details.  All this adds up to a seemingly impossible set of shapes to draw up and scale correctly.  Simplicity, I'm convinced, is the key:

Even this could be simpler when you get down to it...

The plan then: the lining is (almost) complete, just a few detail lines of stitching and the back piece to add (which I've actually just done but haven't photographed yet), then it's on to the outside.  My theory is that with the correct layers and stitching reinforcement then the hood should sit correctly...

The outer layer will be comprised of the same basic shapes as the lining, but with added panels to make it look more complicated and involved.  These additional panels will also add structure by being double stitched to provide a good, solid seam line.

More to come later in the week, I'll keep y'all posted as to how it works out - patterns will be uploaded whether or not it works so people cleverer than me can have a go!

Until next time. 

Costume-making 101: The next steps

So here we are a week on from Comic-Con - thoroughly enjoyable day meeting a huge number of like-minded people out to demonstrate their costume and prop-making skills.  Next time, Friday trip, not a Saturday; too hot, very crowded and queueing for nearly two hours to buy food and get cash out...  Still, onward and upward to May's event!

Where next then for the intrepid adventures of the costume blog?  Well, a few things to learn from this year's convention and a host of new projects to get started on!

First off, little 'un is sorted for costume now as she chose to wear the brown corduroy overcoat I made earlier on in the year - somehow despite being made for me it actually fit her quite well...  teamed with the pirate shirt I'd made, the sash and belt arrangements from her previous outfit, she was sorted:

The other half seemed to be fine too, until we realised that her coat had ripped at the shoulder seam, largely I imagine to it having been made in a bit of a hurry and not designed to fit over a corset the way that she wears it.

Rather than re-making the same coat, we decided to see what else was out there pattern-wise, in no small way owing to how difficult the previous coat was to put together!

Don't get me wrong, it looks great once finished, but after making and fully lining two of these coats I'm really looking forward to trying something else out - there are so many fiddly panels to get right...

After some searching, we came up with this one:

McCall's M6819, upon further investigation the only pattern apparently MORE complicated than the one we'd used previously...  We'll be going more for the look in the left picture above and I plan to make the bodice/coat and skirts separately to make the whole thing easier to store and wash.  Six meters of fabric should be fun!

Now I liked how my short coat had worked out - this picture especially as it was taken as about a dozen people asked to take photos of me and the missus, thinking we worked for Ubisoft and were there to promote the new Assassin's Creed game - I'll take that as a compliment!

My problem with this design was that to my mind it strayed too far from the original design aesthetic I'd been trying to re-create - everyone else had something based around a long, flowing coat while mine was just too different.   And the hood, I still haven't perfected that. Back to Google and I ended up buying a new pattern:

I liked the look of the lapels, the length and the added bonus of a removable cape, so this'll be my next attempt to get back to the design roots.  I'll be sticking with the colour palette from my previous coat with the main colour being a dark blue, lined with a mixture of dark brown and a paler blue, though doubtless this will change as I get further along.  

Last but not least, my friend Scott's costume.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to join us this time at the convention, but I was planning to update his look either way.  His costume was the first one I'd finished:

As my designs have progressed and taken a slightly different route Scott's Ezio-inspired waistcoat has definitely started to show it's age, plus I'm not happy with the quality of the work compared to the standard I work to now.  I was planning to sit down with Scott to work out what he wanted to go for this time around but decided in the end to make life easier (for me) and remove the element of choice.

This is what I bought as a base pattern:

Burda 2471 - I've wanted a copy of this for some time.  The Napoleonic French line infantry uniform is one of the most recognisable and beautifully designed military coats I've ever seen and I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.  I actually bought two copies of this pattern while I had the chance, that way I can produce Scott's new coat and have my own copy to make for pleasure.  Handily, this pattern also features a waistcoat and trousers, should that be a direction we choose to go in.  Now all we need is a colour choice, as I've already been given a definite "no" to green...

And as always, there's still the question of the dreaded hood.  I've made six now, none of which I'm entirely happy with.  If anyone ever perfects the Assassin's Creed style hood, trust me, sell the patterns and you'll make a fortune from nerds like me.  Some frantic and inspired late-night pattern designing has left me with this:

I'll be putting together a test run soon, so hopefully an update to follow and more on the next round of coats for next year's convention season!

Until next time.