Sticks and stones my break my bones but accidents do make for surprises

There’s always that one time in your life when you feel everything is going right..... and then all of the sudden everything comes crashing down around you. I personally had this while I was working on a costume store project for my Uni course in 2012.

During the weekends I had a part time bakery job and I fell down 2 flights of metal stairs and broke my right arm. Now for most people this wouldn’t have been a problem; however when you’re a costumier and your right hand is your sewing hand it does tend to become an issue. I was instructed no machines, heavy fabrics or heavy lifting - so how was I supposed to pass my unit?

The answer came in the Breathe Project which was part of the 2012 cultural Olympiad. Diverse City are a cast of 64 disabled and non disabled performers from both the UK and Brazil who put together in a diverse project which became commissioned by the Unlimited programme.

The story behind the project was that Seven Wind Gatherers came together from all over to compete in a battle to see whose wind will be chosen to start the sailing events. However the battle is interrupted by the arrival of 'The Breathers' (The Breathe Project) who are uninvited guests that have washed ashore from many lands.

'The Breathers' find that no one has the strength needed to become the only gatherer to send the boats out to sea.They start performing however they get silenced by the evil Doldrum who takes some of them. The Breathers show that through a performance of aerial work, song and dance, theatre and circus skills that they are the force that can set the winds free. They help the sailing events to begin.

As I was unable to sew any of the costumes, I set my mind to the textural elements, as well as the colours. To begin with I helped to dye the base costumes in a variety of sand and earth colours; these took two days over all to do due to the quantity of them. As well as this I added a mixture of white paint, acrylic and sand to create sea enemies. It’s quite good fun trying to work out patterns of formations which would be highlighted in stage lighting.

Using various ropes, wool and strings I plaited, wove and crocheted bracelets which were worn by the builders group and they also had latex seaweed woven through them for added authenticity. The base costumes came to life with woollen plaited seaweed and barnacles in an array of colours.

In Earth colours, plaited strings got added to overalls and crocheted ropes were added as ties to cloaks. I also ended up making a few thousand crochet and acrylic shaped barnacles, as well as teaching others how to make these through a series of workshops.

The performance was incredible and everyone looked amazing on stage. It was wonderful to see that it doesn’t matter who you are, there is always a way to perform.

How to make 6000 fabric roses (more or less!)

In 2011, myself and my good friend Becki organised a Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party. Four years later - and we are still at it! The costumes we currently have I made last year, after we decided to invest a little more into them to make them last longer.

The White Queens dress was a major highlight and learning curve when I was making the costumes for The Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party. It taught me that not everything can be rushed and the most beautiful things take a bit of time and patience. 

Made up of 12m of silver duchess satin, 5m of lace and countless handmade roses, the costume took its pride of place amongst the Mad Hatters team on Saturday 27th July 2013.

The dress overall took six weeks to make and a large amount of the time was dedicated to the handmade ribbon roses which adorned the dress. After a while, I found these to be quite therapeutic to make.

With an enormous amount of thanks to volunteers, family and friends the dress to date holds approximately 6000 roses with more being added at steady intervals for future events. Within a number of the roses on the White Queen's dress I also glued beads, and tiny plastic crockery.


Below I have written a step-by-step recipe of how to make a single rose.

These fabric flowers can be made in all different sizes and colours. They would look beautiful decorating almost anything - from a dress to a pair of shoes. Maybe you'd like to personalise your bag, or make a hair piece - the possibilities are endless.

I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did, and if you do make some, please post photos of your final creations on my Facebook page, its always wonderful to see everyone’s creative talents.


How to Make Fabric Roses

1. Cut a length of ribbon approx. 30cm-40cm long (depending on the size of the rose)
2. Fold the ribbon in half
3. From the half way point turn the ribbon so that it sits at a 90-degree angle
4. Fold underside of ribbon over the top of the upper ribbon, this shall create a boxed 90-degree angle
5. Repeat process 4 until you have 2.5cm of ribbon left
6. When you reach the end take the under ribbon and loosely wrap it around the upper ribbon to form a tail.
7. Pull the upper ribbon (tail) through the wrapped ribbon gently and the ribbon shall start forming petals.
8. Once the required amount of petals are formed cut of any excess tail ribbon.
9. Burn bottom of ribbon to hold or if using a non-synthetic fabric, sew ends together.

Is greed always such a bad thing?

Is greed always such a bad thing? For my 7 deadly sins project I can guarantee it was not the case.

The 2012 Seven Deadly Sins project started of as a simple corsetry project to help myself gain a greater knowledge of corsets and how they’re made for future bespoke costume orders. After talking with Evad Photography, it quickly expanded into a full costume range, hair and make-up and photo shoot.

Greed is the sin of desiring and pursuing material good and possessions, so naturally golden colours had to be the main base of the costume with heavy jewellery incorporated into the outfit. As Thomas Aquinas once wrote, "Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." 

The wonderful Daria who modelled greed pulled the character off with style and flair, by showing the objects that humans most treasure. Her initial costume design was quite complicated, with a fully flared wrap around slit skirt to go with the corset, jewellery and accessories. After talking with the model we found several compromises that worked with the character.

I made Daria's corset from a medium coutil, with an outer layer of patterned satin, which shone when hit by the light at the right angle. I chose this material specifically as I felt that the occasional glint of gold showed wealth well. I gave the corset a rounded top and a slightly tapered bottom that were both bound with gold coloured bias binding. The corset had a fully functioning busk and each of the boning channels contained either flat steel bones or spiral boning that were tipped for comfort.

The skirt was originally designed to be fully flared with a long front slit, however at the time Daria was under the age of 18 and I personally felt this would be an inappropriate design for her age. To combat this problem, I chose to manipulate the skirt once on the model, to create a draped effect that preserved modesty. A tiara, necklace and bracelets were added to portray the indulgence of the character and gold coloured shoes completed the outfit to show the need of material possessions.

Evad Photography spent an entire day working with the 7 models and when it was the turn of greed, he chose to use various lighting effects and backdrops to enhance the costume and model. A long day and several weeks of work were put into the costumes, and it was wonderful to see the final products that represented each sin and that the models enjoyed themselves.

All photos (c) Evad Photography

Time for Tea?

Well it was for the March Hare at the Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party. The Character played by Molly Dore was a fun, eccentric and slightly crazy hare who enjoyed tea time. In accordance with designer Elizabeth Cooke’s designs the character, the costume couldn't be anything but a little balmy.

Fake Fur Breeches

I started of with fake fur breeches. Taking into account the actress had to be in these all day and the weather was very hot, trousers were not an option. The fake fur breeches were lined with hypoallergenic lining to prevent any skin irritation as well as draw sweat away from the skin. Pink tights were allocated to the actress which were placed underneath the breeches to help give the over all appearance of a hare.

Knitted Waistcoat

To match the breeches came a green checked shirt with oyster shell buttons which related to the walrus and the oyster story and a knitted waistcoat with 9 pockets placed all over it. These were used to hide various clock faces, nik-nacks and personal items for the actress.

Hat and Ears

My favourite part of the costume was the hat. The hat began as a basic boater hat which was then transformed by adding fake fur march hare ears and crochet tea cups. The ears were made out of a milk bottle, fake fur and hot glue. The sides of the milk bottle were the perfect shape for the ears, was lightweight and allowed the ears to keep there rigidity.


Each of the tea cups were made out of donated wool that was crocheted with s size 6.5 hook. The cups were made into 3 sizes and then attached using a ladder stitch at various angles. I also made a little crochet doily using double crochet to expand. The final touch was a bright green ribbon with various buttons sewn on, placed around the centre of the hat.


The over all costume was very effective and Molly pulled of the character fantastically. I was rather happy with the outcome for this and look forward to seeing it used at more events.

Felting

Getting to know new materials and techniques are always a fun experience riddled with complications and achievement. Everyone has a different way of attempting each technique.

I learnt how to do basic felting during my days at college and over time honed my skill to create articles of costume and pieces of artwork. Each attempt I made had a different result. I found that my personal preference was using merino wool tops and a bamboo place mat to make felt and then cut everything by hand after.

Of Bees and Mist Costume

In 2010 I was commissioned to make a costume for a character called Eva in the book ‘Of Bees and Mist’.

Eva’s character was a manipulative mother in law who liked to control everything. She kept a rose garden that she was very proud of and the bees were her constant drowning.

Part of the costume was a headpiece, which I decided to make partly out of felt. I started out making the base for the headdress and decided to use sinamay as my main material and manipulated it with a thin silver wire to create the shape needed.

Using the cuttlefish method I cast bees out of pewter which were then drilled and wired with a thick steel wire to hold the weight. I finally made various sized rose petals out of felt using the method below. These were then sewn to the base of the headpiece, and beaded where needed for surface decoration. The wired bees were twisted into the base and then, using a dab of hot glue I added the felted petals to hide the attachment.

The overall finished piece included a dress to go with the headpiece, and communicated the character's personality effectively, while suggesting there may be more to her than meets the eye.

I enjoyed making the felt as it allows you to watch the material being made right before your eyes and you get to judge on the over all density of the material. I went for quite a thick density as it helped bulk out the base and gave added texture to the piece.

How to make felt 

You Will Need

• Merino wool (or other fine wool tops)
• Plastic bubble wrap
• wool yarn (if wanted)
• thread (if wanted)
• water
• bamboo matting

Instructions

• Using merino wool or other fine wool tops, pull the end fibers out gently and lay them down on plastic bubble wrap in a square with all the fibers in the same direction. 
• Repeat the process above but with the fibers laying in the opposite direction. Make sure that you cannot see the previous layer through the second layer but still keeping the wool tops fine. 
• Repeat this process with the fibers running in the direction of the first layer to create a third. 
• In addition to the basic felt it is possible to create a design on top of the third layer using whatever colours you like as well as using other fibers such as wool yarn and thread to add a raised effect. 
• Sprinkle a very small amount of soap flakes over the piece and then add a small amount of hot water. 
• Place a second piece of bubble wrap over the whole piece with the bubble-side downwards and rub over the plastic to disperse the water evenly. If necessary, add some more water to ensure that the wool is "wetted" out but not too much so as to drench the piece. 
• Carry on rubbing until the fibers start shrinking together. To increase friction it is possible to roll it in bamboo matting. 
• Finally roll the piece in a ball in your hands only when you believe the felt is nearly complete and throw it down onto the mat repeatedly, This shocks the fibers into shrinking more. 
• Rinse out the piece and leave to dry. 

If you are interested in learning more about felting, please contact me to discuss either private lessons, or attending one of my future craft workshops.

My first cosplay commission

I really enjoy it when clients ask for something a bit different or out of the ordinary for a bespoke costume, it always sparks my curiosity. When Becki from S&S Cosplay approached me and asked me to design and construct her costume for Eurogamer 2012, I was really intrigued and ready to try something out of my comfort zone. The character she chose was Elizabeth Comstock from the game Bioshock Infinate.

 As someone who doesn’t know much about games my first job was to research the character and find out what the costume entailed. After about an hour I had found that the character was a 19 year old girl whose costume consisted of a Victorian style royal blue dress and bolero and, my favourite part, a white and silver corset.

Material Choices 

As my client has sensitive skin, I had to take into account fabric choices and what trimmings would be appropriate. I also had to make sure the corset was boned correctly as Becki suffered with a bad back.

I chose to use a royal blue cotton for the dress and white polycotton for the trim with white lace as there was 7m of material alone in the skirt and as the garment was to be worn for an entire day, it needed to be as light as possible.

The bolero matched the dress in materials and the corset was made of a white herringbone coutil with silver binding. Each of the garments were lined with hypoallergenic lining to accommodate Becki's skin. 

Whilst making this costume... 

I found whilst making the outfit that the corset was the trickiest partas I had to use two types of boning, steel and spiral. I had to take into account the seam allowances changed per panel and the length of boning needed varied per panel.

The dress was quite simple to make once I gathered the skirt, and there was a lot to gather with 7 meters of material encased in the waistband. I also took into account Becki may like to wear the outfit again for a different event so I allowed room for a crinoline to be placed under the skirt.

The Final Piece

It was lovely to see the costume worn and Becki even sung on stage with the song Will the Circle be Unbroken from the game, and she has also recorded this song and put it on YouTube while in costume. 

Working on a cosplay outfit was something I never thought of doing but I really enjoyed it, and I have taken on another cosplay commission recently.

 Becki says:

"Tanya made the perfect outfit for me, including a fully boned corset - she even supplied me with ribbon for my shoes! She was thoughtful and inventive throughout the costume design and making process, always checking with me before making a change from the original. I wore the costume all day and it was so comfy and easy to move in - I love it! I won best skit as well, and had loads of people tell me that my costume was fantastic."