Changing Directions

So we had a plan and we had a direction, however with a change of tutor you also get a change of plan.

Not a catastrophic change of plan it can be worked through, but for the majority of the time we were in university my partner and I felt lost at what the new direction of work would be.

With lots of consultation and questioning about how we would have originally constructed our dress, under skirt and chemise; it was changed.

Instead of it being a cut through dress, all cut in one and then pattern matched and sewn together. We will instead be attaching and cutting out our bodice and skirt pieces individually, then sewing them together again. Sewing and completing the bodice, then completing the skirt and then finally constructing them together.

The original way to construct out dress

The new way all of the pieces played out and treated as individual panels

We have been gratefully informed that what we are doing now is as hard as trying to construct the cut through dress; and advanced for what is expected of first year second term students.

Althought perhaps not all questions have been answered, by the end of the day I was starting to get an idea of what direction we were going in, and feeling less overwhelmed by what we would need to do and the amount we still have to make.

By this time we has already constructed out bum pad, out lining corset and bought and dyed the correct amount of fabric. As you can imagine there was an amount of time where we felt that if they change this too much we won’t be able to get in made in time, or we will have to spend more money on more fabric. Considering then again that we had already spent over the £50 a costume budget, and that was only out main dress fabric, spending another £15 on the under skirt and chemise fabric and trimmings.

However all was well. We had to have quick fittings with our actress, supervised by our new tutor.

With these new fittings we had to make changes to our patterns, nothing too major. However so much so that I will cover this in another blog, perhaps naming it the “Shot Gun Fittings”; I think it is funny, before you decide to judge me.

But that about covers everything we have had to change, having not quite not decided on the construction of the skirt or the chemise it means we have more decisions to make and new directions to take; but also helps to give up more ease of movement on how we will be making these other items.

So with our new direction let us get back to work xxx