18th Century cat costume

So the rest of the costume that goes with the wig is starting to take shape. For this costume we were given only 4 weeks to make the toile and the real thing (at the same time as an essay and other context deadlines) so as you can imagine its been pretty hectic. We have until tuesday the 4th, so i am 2 weeks in and already finished the toile and quite well on the real thing so i think it will all be fine :)

 The back has a pleated peplum that i have just spent all day embroidering along the border of with a trailing flower design that i drew out myself.

 The Front of the Bodice has a diamond opening design, and underneath is a dip dyed chemise. Worn over a pair of panniers and a pair of breeches, which you can just see at the bottom. The breeches are made of an embroidered cotton.

The wig reaches down to below the peplum. Uunderneath the pleats of the peplum is a laced up corset, the lacing is then covered with the en fourreau back is done up with an invisible zip down the centre seam.

Detailed photographs will be taken on my good camera with the costume on the model rather than a mannequin once it has been fully completed. These ones were just taken on my friends i phone so they arent great quality

Rachael
xxx

Making an 18th century 'cat' wig...

So for our next project, 'School for Scandal', we have to make one of the costumes and we only have 4 weeks to do it! That includes the toile and the real thing. In my design interpretation of the play i made all the characters have animal characteristics; the character that I have chosen to make is Lady Teazle who i have made into a cat. The wig on this character is the main feature, which i decided to make first to get it done and not have to worry about it anymore.

I started with the longest curliest wig that i could find in an auburn colour and bought two of them so that i could then use the second one to add length.

I made to frames out of thick milenary wire in the shape of cat ears, then covered it in a thin layer of wadding.

I put both of the structures on the top of the wig and sewed them down in the position that they looked best.

Bringing strands of hair from all around the structure i wrapped it round the ears and then arranged it on the top in a hopefully aesthetic way.

At the back I  curled the different sections in circular sections and pinned them in place and then hand sewed all around the ears and curls so that they were all securely fastened onto the frame.

For the braid i cut apart the second wig so that i had three strands of extra length and then glued and hand sewed them to three strands of the original wig. Once they were all attached together I braided it all together into one long braid. Unfortunately the part where the second wig was attached is thicker that the rest which i am not entirely happy with, but i don't think there's anything i can do about it. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad?

Theres still some finishing touches to make, bows and ribbons to add and some smoothing down to do. The Wig is slightly frizzy in places with the hairs sticking up a bit, does anyone have any tips how to  keep wigs in good condition and smooth down static and stray hairs? I have tried hairspray but it doesnt seem to work on the synthetic wig. Any tips would be great :)

xxx

Marie Antoinette dress

Made a small amount of progress on the Marie Anntoinette dress, i found 5 metres of a lovely blue silk fabric on ebay

As per usual the photograph doesnt do the fabric justice and the shade doesnt quite look right but it really is very close to the colour of the real thing i think.
I also found an antique broach which looks very much like the belt clasp that she is wearing on the red velvet belt

Its possibly a bit too small, but i think it will suffice :) Looking forward to starting making this although it will be a while before i can start, early may at the earliest.

Elizabethan Dress Completed

My final fitting and crit for the Poppea Elizabethan dress was on Monday and i finally had chance to sort through the photographs and pick out the best ones.
Here they are;

Unfortunatley the corridoor was pretty small so it wasnt really easy to get full length photographs, but they will definatley be taken during the fashion show in may once i have the shoes as well...

Elizabethan Collar

For my 1600 Poppea Costume i wanted to make a standing collar, it took a loooooong time and was very fiddly but i am very happy with the result...

Summer Project

As always when i have a lot of work I always end up thinking about the projects that i want to do in the summer, i really want to try making this dress from Marie Antoinette;

 I found this fabric on ebay which is a pale blue silk dupion fabric that i think will work well for this dress. I will also probably need to buy some blue chiffon and i red ribbon. Luckily i already own a oval buckle just like the one she is wearing so that should be perfect :)

Poppea Costume

Sorry i havent really been keeping this up to date recently, college has been very busy this year and there are quite a few deadlines coming up. I am currently working on a costume that will be completed and displayed in the final fashion show at the end of the year. Its quite an interesting project as we were all given the same character from the Opera The Corranation of Poppea, but given different eras to design it it. We then had to design a costume all in red that had a sheer outer layer so that all the underwear (corsets, drawers etc) are visible. I was given the earliest time which was the 1600's, so its late Elizabethan. Here is a picture of the toile of the costume;

There will also be a standing collar, but i havent quite worked out how to make it work... I have begun the real thing, with the jacket being made of a red lace fabric, with braid latticework sleeves and chiffon skirt.
The underwear is all made from linen and cotton fabrics. This is a close up photograph of the jacket by itself on my mannequin;

There is a fitting of the costume tomorrow with my model so hopefully i will get some good photographs of the progress.