First Fitting

The First fitting wait very well.  Not much needed changing or altering.  It need to be taken in a tiny bit on both sides of the front panel. 

The other thing that needed changing was the skirt.  When cutting out the calico, I didn't leave a seam allowance, so it was very tight.  I also cut/drew on the slit that i want to have on the final skirt.  I also then added on the shoulder straps, both front and back.  

Pattern Cutting.

The next stage is to decide who i was to use for my model, then gather their measurements.  I decided to use Cat Mednick. 

Next, i needed to find a suitable manikin, and pad it out if need be.  I was lucky, as I found one that was ideal for my model.  

Now I have my measurements & a manikin with the right measurements and size.  Next I needed to start creating my pattern pieces on the stand using calico.  

I started this by drawing the shapes that i want to create.  I was doing this using my design & the pattern from the corset i wanted to created.  I did this to create the whole corset.  

This is how it looked during the process. I used large pieces of calico, and cut them out to the shape leaving large edges, to allow for a seam allowance.  Once I had all the piece's drawn, I took them all apart, drew them onto pattern paper, then back onto some new calico to create a toile to fit.  

Design & Corset Research

Now I have a character, and I have a design or two, This is My design, that I am going to be working from.

The Main influence on the costume, is the shoulder Armour. I found this inspiration after one of Anne's lectures, and showing images from fashion designers, including Jean Paul Gaultier. 

Now I have found a design that I'm happy with, I need to find a corset that will fit in with my design, and that I like.  I didn't look for long before i found one I liked. I only really had two preferences to look for:

• No Front opening
• Lace up Rear

So whith this in mind, i set about looking through books, and came across 'Corsets - Historical Patterns & Techniques'

From this book, i found the corset which i wish to use, along with the pattern used to create it. 

Corsets, Historical Patterns & Techniques, Jill Salen

So, now from having this corset and the pattern/Line drawing I started to add the detail of the corset into a design and Technical Drawing.  

Character Research.

To start Getting Ideas for my Characters I Look through the list, and look into which characters I found interesting. Three came up at first:

• Valkyrie
• Frankensteins Wife
• Boudicca 

From this list, I looked a bit further into each character, mainly looking a different interpretations of each.  Looking at different pictures, and back stories. This research then narrowed the list down to two, Valkyrie & Boudicca. I decided to create a costume for Boudicca, as the warrior queen image really got me thinking about ideas.  I then looked further into her character and started to find key images of two styles that I could follow. 

                                            

From these two pictures, i looked further into them, and started to favour the idea of using the warrior queen symbol.  I want to create something that plays on the queen side of things.  I want to portray beauty, power and royalty.  From researching further, i started to find more images, one stood out, as ver similar to what I hope to create.  It shows the colours i thinking about, and the whole shape.