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| Started: April 2005 Completed: May 2005 |
| This costume has the honor of being my first ever commission. V. exciting - especially for students with no money. Pretty much, the interim minister at the church I used to go to asked me to make her son a vest and breeches for his elementary school's "Colonial Days." Using The Costume Technician's Handbook as a holy scripture, I drafted the patterns by hand entirely from the boy's measurements. This took a rather long time, but then I made a musiln using an old sheet. After the fitting, it was shown that my patterns were perfect in all but 3 places. That made making the actual costume way easier. I made the pattern adjustments accordingly and started on the final version. The Vest The vest is made of a very light black corderoy and lined in black cotton. I drafted its pattern based on the male body block. The most daunting task was the 10 buttons and buttonholes I would have to do for this. Let me just say this : whoever invented the auto-buttonhole foot is my best friend. The Breeches The breeches are made of a medium-weight brown twill, have a 5 button fly and close with a button on each leg below the knee. These were fun, but figuring out how to do a fly properly took forever. As with the vest, the auto-buttonhole foot was my friend as was waistband interfacing. Things Learned on this Project: Buttonholes Flies Drafting full patterns Making a costume for someone else Always make cost estimates based on something tangible (I ended up undercharging because my estimate was too low) |
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