LOTR Costume Message # 46568

A few to add to Sarah's very strong list of good books
on costuming

1)Stage Costume Step-By-Step: The Complete Guide to
Designing and Making Stage Costumes for All Major
Drama Periods and Genres from Classical Through the
Twentieth Century by Mary T. Kidd (ISBN 155870406X)

I like this one because it is very much the basics and
how to build on them. I have used this book to figure
out how to make costumes for puppets, dolls, and
humans. I have use it more as a suppliment to some of
the other books Sarah recommended.

2)Patterns for Theatrical Costumes: Garments, Trims,
and Accessories from Ancient Egypt to 1915 by
Katherine Strand Holkeboer (ISBN 0896761258)

This one is a down and dirty get the costumes done
book but it has a lot of information including how to
scale patterns which can be sometimes the hardest info
to find. The head of the costume shop at the Yale
School of Drama when I was there use to give copies to
her students as a graduation gift.

Best-
Kathleen

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LOTR Costume Message # 46546

Here are a few of my favorites:

1. The Costume Technician's Handbook, by Rosemary Ingham and Liz
Covey, ISBN 0-435-08610-3. This includes lots of stuff on making
costumes, including how to draft a basic block from body measurements.
My friend who used to run the costume shop at Mount HOlyoke assigned
this book to her students.

2. The Costume Designer's Handbook, by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey,
ISBN 0-435-08607-3. This is about design, including color stuff.
3. Jane Asher's Costume Book ISBN0-932086-31-4. I like this one
because it helps me think outside the dressmaking box. The costumes
are mostly things you would whomp together for a single occasion, but
the ideas are very creative.

4. From the Neck Up, by Denise Dreher, for hatmaking. ISBN0-941082-00-8

5. Elizabethan Costuming, by Janet Winter and Carolyn SAvoy. Doesn't
seem to have an ISBN. An Other Times publication, 386 Alcatraz Ave.
Oakland, CA 94618. Probably available through SCA merchants. These
ladies do stuff for Ren faires, and the book is full of how to draft
corsets, sleeves, doublets, etc. and how to make the detailing correct
for various layers of society. Also how to choose and adapt commercial
patterns for period looks.

6. Period Costume for STage and Screen, by Jean Hunnisett. ISBN
0-88734-653-7 This is the volume on medieval through 1500, mostly
women's (some sleeves adaptable for men's) Good techniques, also gives
a good understanding of how to get from a drape to a pattern.

7. The Medieval Tailor's Assistant, by Sarah Thursfield (1200-1500)
ISBN 0-89676-239-4 I just got this one fairly recently and haven't had
time to actually work with it much, but again it's very good on
translating between what it should look like made up, and how to get
that with what shape pattern.

8. Fundamentals of Men's Fashion Design, a guide to casual clothes. by
Edmund B. Roberts and Gary Onishenko, ISBN 0-87005-514-3. This is
geared toward conventional modern men's clothes, but does give a lot
on how to draft and adapt patterns, so once you understand the ideas,
you can apply them however you want.

9. Fitting and Pattern Alteration, a multi-method approach, by
Elizabeth G. Liechty, Della N. Pottberg, and Judith A. Rasband. ISBN
87005-739-1. Again, geared toward conventional modern clothes, but
very valuable in getting a good, flattering fit in any garment.

10. The Art of Fashion Draping, by Connie Amaden-Crawford. ISBN
87005-634-4. I haven't had as much time to use this one as I would
like, but I'm glad I have it. It's about how to use a dress form to
drape a pattern directly on a "body", and then refine it into a flat
pattern. As you might expect, there's a fair amount dealing with, if
you want it to look like this, you have to shape it like that.

Start with the Ingham/Covey, I'm relatively confident they are in
print and readily available, maybe through special order at your local
store.

- Sarah