Filming!

Last week we managed to find a date where we were all available and able to access the factory, and so the filming was able to go ahead! I thought I'd show you a few 'in progress' shots from the day- although I'm keeping some of the shots under wraps until the exhibition in March!

Here are actress Chris and filmmaker Jon on the way to the first location for filming. Hi Viz and safety boots were worn wherever possible as there were lots of forklift trucks going to and fro.

Jon is following Chris with the camera as she crosses a courtyard and enters the next building. You can just about see on the green beam, a plaque saying '1864', when the building was created.

You know it's art when someone is filming the floor! The paint was swirling around these bucket washing machines, and looked very similar to some swirly printed fabric that features in the underskirt. Jon will be looking at ways of editing shots like this into the film to capture different sights in the factory.

Chris emerging through a large automatic sliding door! Should make a dramatic shot. We did have to take this shot a few times, as we weren't the only ones using the door- and there was no knowing when someone other than Chris might appear in the centre of the shot!

Me doing my best to blend in! As the assistant my role was to help Chris into the costume- but hopefully not draw too much attention to myself.

Keeping warm and visible between shots!

A rotary printer. The fabric passes underneath the cylinders, and they roll the print onto it. There are two of these cylinders currently on this machine- but they can have lots more- depending on how many layers of colour are needed to make the desired print.

An interesting pile of fabrics!

And here are two of the digital printers. I love how much the resemble the more familiar paper printers that we connect with computers- only many times bigger! 

Polythene night gown

My latest addition to the factory dress is a polythene night gown, for the very beginning of the film where we see the fabric all wrapped up in plastic! It also has a thin layer of linen under the plastic layer, so it's a bit more comfortable to wear. I'm hoping this will look nice on film as it flutters around quite a lot- it will be good to see the movement.

Final fitting and details

The first part of today's costuming involved splattering paint all over the grey clothes that I pictured in my previous blog entry- but sadly I forgot to get a picture of the new paintwork, so you'll have to wait to see that!

Here is Chris trying on the dress one final time before the filming. There were a few things I wanted to check- mainly that all my fastenings were in the correct place, but also that the fabric was sitting in the right place around the neckline, and where I had changed a couple of bodice seams after the last fitting. I found that I needed to take in the back seams just slightly, which I have now done, along with edging the bodice in a turquoise binding.

Tuesday

The cape has been slowly advancing this week- apologies for the lack of updates! In addition to the factory photo printed fabric, I have included bits of other fabrics that feature in the main dress, in order to give some continuity to the outfit. I have also included some stripey colour test fabric in the lining of the cape, which I found in the factory shop at Standfast last year. It seemed to be to be something you would only find at the factory, and not generally for sale elsewhere. Plus it says a little something about the printing process- so why not include it!

I have sewn in hook and eye tape as a fastening for the bodice- but before I did this, I took the length of hook and eye tape, and dyed it pink, so it is less eye catching if you can see it slightly when worn.

I have ordered two cutrain tie back tassels to finish the hood off- as many from this era had two tassels on them. They would render the hood decorative and not practical though, as one of the tassels would the hang over the face if the hood were up! Still, this seemed to be the way of the fashion, and often cape hoods were not full anyway- but pretend decorative ones that couldn't be put up.

After the earlier photos were taken I added another ruffle to the bottom of the cape in turquoise, and a thin decorative stripey ruffle along the cape lining, to mask the stitching line for the hem and give an extra detail.

In a slightly less colourful realm, I have been having to think about what I shall wear in the film that is made of the model being dressed in the costume. As the assistant to this process, its likely that I shall be seen in the film too- and so I need to be wearing something appropriate. I have had two main directions of thought for what this might be- either a Victorian maid's outfit to match the era and world of the dress, or a modern worker type outfit in order to blend in with the factory. In the end I settled more for the modern day look, as that should take less attention away from the dress itself. Something that blends in seemed like a good way to go, so I hit the charity shops in hunt of grey. The workers in Standfast don't seem to have a standard uniform- just comfortable practical clothing. I discovered a couple of linen shirts with a suggestion of Victorian style pleats and details, and thought it might be nice to build the outfit around them, to keep a flavour of the old and new in the outfit.

I'm pleased with the over all colour theme, as it is quite non-descript, and is reminiscent of the background colour in parts of the factory, but also not unlike the colour in some of the old photographs of Victorian workers I have recently been looking at! 

This week also included a trip to the factory to re walk through the proposed locations for the film. It was handy to refresh our minds of what is to come (and to pick up a little more fabric from the factory shop of course!). I liked this interesting steam machine! In this photo you can see a lot of the grimy grey colour of the clothes above- I'm thinking of working into them a bit and making them look well used and paint splattered.

Printed fabrics arrive!

Here you can see the different files that I sent for printing at Standfast. I'm really excited to have the final fabric puzzle piece in place for my project- now all parts of the costume can be finished! I got it printed in two different sizes, to see which works best. I really like the bold circles in the larger images- but overall less images would be included if I cut a shape from that piece.

So here I am cutting out the cape pattern in the fabric with the smaller print. I'm sure I shall find a use for the larger images too...

Ruffles!

One of my favourite inventions is the pleating/ruffler foot for sewing machines- this magical device scoops the fabric into a nice even pleat with every stitch (or every six or twelve stitches depending on the setting). It's a massive time saver, and much more regular than pleating by hand. Though it still took hours to make this many metres, as preparing the strip for ruffling still involves much cutting, pressing and edging first.

I re cut the 'bertha', as this piece of neck decoration is called. The previous way I had cut it had the fabric going in to the armhole, and after a bit more checking of historical references I felt it was more correct for the front and back to meet at the shoulder seam and sit slightly over the sleeve seam. I am yet to affix it properly- just pinned in this photo.

I have affixed the ruffles on the skirt and the sleeve to give a stronger contrast between the fabrics.

And finally today I have begun hand stitching the white diamonds to the purple ones- I want them to sit flat on top of one another, but don't want a visible stitching line, so hand stitching is the way forward!

Alterations and detail

I've made some decorative diamonds, following in the style of a few skirts I've seen from the 1860's. I thought this butterflies print was very eye catching and unusual when I saw it in Standfast, so it's nice to find a place to fit it in!

The cartridge pleating is now officially stitched into place, and the waistband of the outer skirt finished except for a fastening (I shall do these for all the garments in one go!). Today I also took up the hem of the skirt and finished it off- after moving the turquoise layer of fabric up a few inches to avoid loosing too much of it. I hemmed the turquoise layer and the pink layer separately as I felt this would give a sense of more thickness at the bottom, and with more layers it should be harder for the outerskirt to get pulled under the lowest edge of the crinoline. 

I've started positioning the diamonds on the skirt- but more to do tomorrow! 

Second fitting

I was pleased with the progress of the costume for the second fitting. The box pleated hem sat at the correct height from the floor, which was a relief- I wouldn't like to do that again! The skirt waistband was the right length too, so all I need to do for that skirt is a fastening, and it's ready to be worn.

The chemise that I have made using plain fabric worked well too, as it sits off the shoulder and is therefore nice and easy to tuck underneath the outer bodice.

The outerskirt's waistband fits well- so the next job on this is to properly affix the cartridge pleats to the waistband. Each pleat will need individually hand stitching to hold it in place 

The hem is a bit too long around the front, as most of the turquoise level is on the floor and is getting swept under the crinoline- in order to shorten the skirt but not loose the turquoise I shall have to move the turquoise up a bit. This isn't too catastrophic an alteration to make though!

I have a few alterations to make to the bodice to make it fit correctly, as this is the most critical part to be exactly right. The shoulders need reshaping slightly, and some of the side seams altering before I sew in the hooks and eyes to fasten it down the front. Then of course the decorative pleats can be sewn on properly, and maybe a few more details added!

Pleats, cape and underwear

I've made a waistband for the outerskirt, and have started to attach it, ready for another fitting tomorrow. All the skirts from the mid 1860s that I can find appear to have cartridge pleating at the back- so there was nothing for it but to dive in and do them properly. They are a more complicated form of pleating, made by running two strong threads through at regular intervals, so that it pulls tightly into a regular concertinaed pleat. This enables you to get more fabric gathered into a short space.

This photo shows how they sit at the back of the bodice

I've also cut out a shape to try on for the cape. I think at the moment it is longer than I want it to be when finished, but it's good to cut longer to begin with and then shorten if required. I think this fabric will end up being the lining.

Here are some very simple undergarments I have cut out. The Victorian ones were usually more delicate and covered in lace- but I want these to represent the plain base cloth in the printing process, so I'm not sure it it is suitable to make them overly frilly! I shall see how they look in the fitting, and this may inform how much detail to add or not.

Photo fabric printing

My sister has helped compile some photographs from my first trip to the factory into a file that shall be printed (as long as we come across no compatibility issues) on to fabric at standfast.i shall turn it into a cape to go with the dress!

Underskirt almost finished!

I finished attaching the pleats today, and also sewed on a waistband to the underskirt. I may need to adjust the height of the pleat if it is too far from the floor on my model- but I'll check this on her!-pleased to see a garment looking finished!

Box pleated hem

This is box pleating...it takes a very long time as each pleat is measured and ironed individually. Three times the length of the hem is needed in the pleat, I feel I shall be doing this for some time, as the crinoline shall also have one!

More colours!

Bringing in some turquoise to the hem today. I also shortened the underskirt as it was much too long!

Bodice alterations

I took the bodice apart and altered the panels according to yesterday's fitting- this meant re-cutting the pieces as some needed to be longer in places, or the seams needed shifting to make it look a bit more in keeping with the design I'm following. 

I cut the pieces in two fabrics- a backing and an outer fabric. To the backing I attached some boning, before tacking the outer fabric on. This means the boning channels won't be visible on the outer fabric. I have used plastic boning for this garment, as it only requires some light structure- the steel bones in the corset do more of the work.

After tacking the backing and outer fabrics together by hand, I then overlocked around each panel to hold them firmly together, and to seal all the loose threads in and prevent fraying. It's important to tack them first for two reasons- firstly the fabrics tend to move around too much for this to be effective without tacking- and pins never do the job quite as well. Secondly, if you did try using pins they can also damage the machine's needles, or worse the cutting blade. The cutting blade trims the fabric as you overlock, so that there are no loose threads sticking out- but it also means you have to be controlled or you might just cut a big hole in the fabric by accident (yes I've done this before!).

Finally today I sewed the bodice back together and remade the sleeves in some colourful fabrics! I'm beginning to introduce more fun colours- pink and white are not enough for one of my creations- and this is a dress that wants to appear bold and outrageous in a factory environment! 

First fitting

Here is the first fitting with my model, Chris. She is wearing a corset and undergarments of her own in this fitting. These are things that I shall remake in fabrics of my choice (using hers as a pattern!)- but for this stage it was a good shortcut to check how the fitting of the other garments is going.

There is still work to do on the crinoline- a pleated frill needs adding to the bottom to make sure the skirts that are worn over it don't cave in at the bottom and break up the shape.

The green underskirt is quite a thick fabric, which helps to disguise the hoops in the crinoline. I have chosen blotchy and misprinted fabrics for this skirt to introduce colour- but not show the highest quality of printing on the level of the costume.

I failed to get a photo of the bodice toile being tried on, so here is a photo after the fitting. It needed pinning down most of the seams to reshape it closely to Chris. I will now take it apart, reshape the panels and cut them out using the final fabric.

Below is the crinoline after the fitting! I like how it concertinas on the floor