COSTUME
1890S CORSET CONSTRUCTION
I sewed channels for steel coil boning an used the eyelet machine to punch holes and add eyelets.
I hand sewed on red ribbon binding to cover the edges, then added red laces to match.
I altered the pattern to my measurements, which I cut out of silk and sewed together on the machine.
WEARABLE ART - THE SWAMP
Designer, Maker and Performer
Wearable Art, Garden of Delights 2023
Bute Theatre - Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
BA1 Design for Performance students
I created The Swamp costume using recycled materials for our wearable art show. I was inspired by the life that lives in bogs and swamps, as-well as folk traditions such as the Burry Man and Jack in The Green.
It is constructed with hula hoops tied to net to create the shape, with scrap dyed fabrics, felt, and net attatched to it, With a hat made from carboard. Mushrooms made from foam and fabric, paper mache goat skull, paper dead crow, and natural sticks and leaves were made and added to create the swampy details.
Production photography by Simon Gough
Swamp costume designs and details. I tried to create as many different textures as I could.
FABRIC DYEING
Dyeing fabric using Direct dyes.
Original shirt, I wanted it to be a light stoney blue colour
Mixed the dye with salt in hot water
Labelled dye samples, trying out different dye combinations.
Shirt in the dye pot
Shirt after dyeing
Millinery
Making a felt top hat
Using steam to pull the felt into shape on the hat block.
Hat off the block. I trimmed the brim to a clean edge, and added a strip of excess felt inside to make it fit my head better
I sewed wire onto the edge and used wire to pull the brim up into the desired shape, and then sewed on ribbon to hide the wire
Finished the hat off with some blue ribbon and a big bow
