The alteration stretch, day one

The final hurdle has now set in for the show. This week is the intensive week where everything needs to get finished ready for the dress parade. The dress parade is a bit like and inspection for the costume, making sure the costume designer, director and our course leader approve of our costumes and if not what parts need to be changed.  This is so that all last minuet things may be sorted before the performance.

However before the dress parade comes the alterations and amendments which were needed from the second fittings. Today has been all about the skirt and following the fitting amendments sheet which included:

• Remove one pleat either side of the CB line
• Make sure a secure fastening is fitted as actress is being dragged across the table.
• Hem line must be 24cm from balance line draping down into the train
• Bias tape hem line
• Overlock all seams in the same colour as fabric

Removing one pleat either side of the CB line was quite simplistic to begin with, however as I no longer had any more cotton/wool blend fabric so I had to try and take a certain amount out of the waistband to accommodate the extra amount of fabric. It concerned me that by doing this the finishing of the skirt would be inadequate and that I had not left enough which could be turned under and slipstitched. However a 0.5 cm allowance was left at each end so this could, with a lot of heavy pressing from a hot iron, hold a flat edge long enough to secure each end with a solid slip stitch. Normally a slip stitch only uses a single thread and used to bind fabrics together, however I decided to double up the threads to add to the security. The waistband will be the most heavily used part of the skirt structure, it will take the physical restraint when the actress is dragged across the table, as well as from the extended movement and physical activities required within The Canterbury Tales. This being said I also added extra stitches to the fastenings, especially the hook and bars as these will be holding the entire garment up. The second bar has been moved 3mm outwards to allow extra room for the actress, this can be hidden underneath the tunic so if there is an issue during the performance it may be resolved and hidden. All of the seams were overlocked once the waistband was corrected. Using the same pink threads that were used for sewing the garment each seam was overlocked together. Once this was done I found out a very useful piece of information from my lecturer. When overlocking, always overlock each side of the seam separately and not together. This is so that when the garment is ironed the seam shall lay flat. She has said to leave the seams now they have been done as in this instance it shall not effect the garment. However in future I shall take her advice and work all my seams so they are flat. 

After a very long day dealing with the alterations, I decided that in the best interests of the garment to work on the balance line the second day of working instead of cramming everything in to one and making mistakes.