Final Outfit One

Jo's Costume

Final Trousers

The construction of these were successful as I had already gotten the faults out and things that I struggled without on my toile, like the waistband so these overall look neat. I made sure to overall the raw edges and press these firmly as these trousers are not lined, to allow the flowy movement. I made sure to mark the pleats to keep them accurate. 

It was very challenging to get the elastic around the waistband as of the small size. When overlapping the waistband I did it to a too long of a length as once the elastic had gone trough the whole way I couldn't get it back out as of the overlap.This meant that after several tires to get it out, I had to unpick this portion of the waistband to get the elastic out, trim the overlap and sew it back up. This allowed me to pull the elastic out and sew it together before manoeuvring it to be back in the waist. This was time consuming as I was trying to get the elastic out for a while before deciding to unpick it.

I then hemmed the trousers by double turning it to make sure the raw edge would not be shown and pressed this to make it look crisper.

Final Bodice

This was majority constructed on a Thursdays lesson where I was very productive. I cut out the bodice pieces and sewd them together, under-pressing each seam as I went. I decided the topstitched the seams on the front to help with the structure on the front panel and to add a small feature for close up looking. I added the sleeves into the bodice making sure to ease the sleeves evenly creating pleats at the top of the arm, working my way from the bottom of the arm holes to the top so the excess fabric would be at the top. 

When creating the straps for the sleeves the stitches where grinning once they had been bagged out so I topstitched around them to make sure the stitches would stay in place and not come undone. 

Next I constructed the lining which was identical to the outer layer of the bodice. When sewing this I accidentally sewd two panels the in the wrong direction so I unpicked this and re-angled it to be the right way. This could have been prevented if I slowed down slightly to check the seams before sewing them. After this I sewd the bodice RST around the edges and turned this over to then topstitch the lining and outer-layer

At this point I had got an overlocker at home so I spent some time learning how to thread this up. I managed to do this within a tutorial as the directions on the machine and arrows I could follow.

Now that my model has tried it on and I could mark where the bodice sits and overlapped, I cut off some of the back panels then folded the fabric in and topstitched it. I put the bodice of and marked where I wanted the sleeve ties, pining it in multiple pleaces to see where the best position is where it looks natural and like my design. I then pinned this in the final spot and sewd it down, hemming the sleeve first. Now that it was easier to get the elastic out of the waistband in the trousers, I also tightened these to fit on my models waist better as these sat lower than I wanted to.

Waistcoat

I left the waistcoat to last as I needed sunny weather with a higher uv for the print to come out as the quality I would want it to and this week was very hot. To make sure I had enough of the solution I marked out my patterns pieces and painted these instead of a large block of fabric. Whilst this was drying I got the materials out that I would use, flowers, symbolic objects, like the key from the book and film and marks from my mark making experiments. 

Once this was done I laid out the fabric in my garden and quickly put down the objects so that the sun would expose the fabric around them. This was slightly stressful as I needed to do this very quickly as when I was putting the objects down I could already see the fabric changing colour, as of the high UV of eight. I made sure to fill the front and back piece firstas these would be the fabric most seen and then to focus on the collars. As this was a higher UV than I had ever done it in I wanted to make sure I left this out for an approarite time so I googled it, and it said leave it for two to five minutes! I checked on an object and could tell that it was developing very quickly, but I decided to leave it outside for ten minutes, to create a greater contrast and because of how some objects had been slightly moved as the wind brushing them so I wanted the developed images to be clear all around.

To try and stop the wind I wanted to create a slight barrier in the direction of the wind, so I moved a table on its side to act as a wind break which was successful. I didn’t think that the wind would be a problem as it was a very light breeze but it could have been the height, as the fabric was on the floor and the lack of obstacles in the way. When putting the table break down I made sure that it did not project any shadows to jeopardise the print from the sun.

I took the fabric inside after I took the objects in, working quickly so the harsh sun didn’t expose the parts where the objects had been taken off from, and washed the fabric until the water ran clear, with cold water, to stop the process and to get the excess chemicals off the fabric.

I constructed the main bodice of the waistcoat without struggle until I got to the collar. I made sure to evenly distributed it across the neck marking where the middle is and transferring the notches, but it became clear once I had sewn it that this hasn't worked well at all. It was distorting the look of the coat and would not press over flat to lay as it should. I tried multiple things to fit this, like understitching, pressing, resewing, cutting the angles but this did not help it. As I had used all of my exposed solution for this I decided to see what the collar would like if I ssewdnthe seam past the revere sttached on the front panel to see if this would help it lay flat but it didn't. As I couldn’t spend much longer on this to stay within my time plan to make sure that I would have everything finished for my hand in I had to move on, I decided to completely take off the collar. I feel like this has worked well as it looks alot smoother and now does lay flat agaisnt the body. 

It's a shame that I couldn't go with my original design, but this was something that I could not wrap my head around, especially as we are working completely independently this whole week during half term. I added a red ribbon to the back to cinch the waistcoat in, I think this worked well to link to the colours of the outfits, with the velvet working well to make it look more structured rather than a cheaper looking synthetic ribbon.

I decided to bias bind the edges of this waistcoat as I didn't want to line it, so you can see the underside of the cyanotype which feels symbolic to me as there is more that what you can see on the surface which I feel work's well to relate to this costume character Jo. This bias binding kept the edges neat and I made sure to securely pin the tape down and stitch it making sure that both sides are sewn thrown and caught in the stitches. As I didn't line this the fabric is flimsier than most of my garments and the bodices are lined, but I feel like this is okay as the bodice below is thicker so I don't have two thin garments but only the one on top which is more like a thinner jacket for appropriate weather.