Date: 4/16/09 10:47 AM

I've seen sporatic places where people ask costume questions. There are people who make wonderful apparel, which could also be considered a costume. This could be cosplay, or even a historical gown. Unlike some apparel many costumes require unique construction considerations, and tools.
I define a costumer as some who carries not only a sewing basket but a tool box. There for if 50% of your costume is textile you most likey will have a sewing question.

This would also allow those seamstresses that are making cosplay, ren faire, steam punk, and other genreas that don't quit fit but still require you to make garments. This would be a place to ask questions and not feel looked down upon for it.

I have made things any where from 6 foot tall sock puppet-ish killer mutant leeches, to amzaing recreations of vintage gowns. I have to keep a foot in the apparel world but I still get odd ball questions which are ligitamet sewing questions but I'm afraid to ask because they are not nessasily apparel.

This site has been a god send to me. All the questions of fit, pattern drafting, basic construction, fabric I have found here. I am comfortable asking those questions here.


"How do you applique onto a spandex unitard?"
"How much is too much in a gyspy skirt?"
"I want to make a hoops skirt but don't want to invest in hoop steel what can I use?"
"When they say historically they used hook and eyes, how many did they use? 10?" (just buy hook and eye tape, other wise it's like 30 hand sewn on one's)

Does any one else have those questions?

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"Costume Tech's are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated except to those designers, actors, directors, playwrights, and other theater artists who depend on them." - The Costume Technicians Handbook

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Date: 4/24/09 9:32 AM

I've been thinking about getting an adjustable dress form to use in fitting & remaking gowns for multiple actresses. Does this make sense, or are the dressforms too much of a PITA (by not really reflecting body shapes)? Also, this time a lot of the teenaged actresses are VERY THIN--like size 2 or 0--and I don't think the dressforms go down that small. And if I buy a form it needs to fit me as well, since I won't be reimbursed for the purchase.

Any advice?

Thanks.
Marguerite

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2007 fabric in: 7 1/2 yards; sewn: 7 yds
2008 fabric in, 23 yards; sewn 20 yds; given away 6 yds
2009 fabric in 41 1/4 yds, sewn 29 yds, given away 22 1/2 yds
2010 fabric in 91 1/2 yds, sewn 27 yds, given away 1 1/2 yds;
2011 fabric in: 55 yd.; sewn: 21 yd; given away: 20 yd
2012 fabric in:
2012 fabric sewn: 13 1/2 yds
2012 fabric given away: 7 1/2 yds
2012 projects completed: tunic (3 yd), velvet dress (3 1/2 yd), star backdrop quilt (4 1/2 yd), gift bags & fabric-wrapped boxes (2 1/2 yd)
2012 projects started:
2012 UFOs completed: 6 (Father Christmas kit, 5 dishcloths)

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Reply to Margasweet
Date: 4/28/09 5:52 PM

yes you make perfect sense.

You can get a small size dress form then "padd them out" That means taking strips of polyfill )like what use put in the middle of a quilt and wrap those around the form until the meausrements match your actresses. Then put a tshirt over the top to hold it in place. I had to do that for one of my actors and it worked great.
When it was done I simply undid the stips with pins and they went into a tub called" padding out stuff. I also keep cheap bra's in there so I can have multiple cups sizes handy.

When it get to PITA is when you are trying to do multiple actresses on the same dummy at the same time. IE you are making a dress for Mary who is a size 6 C, and set the dummy with padding to match her, but at the same time you are making a dress for "Josey" and she is a 14 DD. You can't have different actresses on the same dummy at the same time. Does that make sense?

There are alot of good places for dress dummy's and I saw some that go down to a size 2. Make friends at your local department stores. You may be able to snag an old manacin that they are tossing in the trash. We had to do that for our dancer guys. They don't make guy's dummy's smaller that a 34-36 in chest. When you are dealing with 30 in chest guys those store guys work great.

FUN NOTE: We always named our dress dummy's so we knew who we were working on. We had Susan (size 8), Betty (size 10) Laura (size 12) Claudia (size 14) , and Becca (size 18) , we also had Susan (size 12) she was 50 years old but she did her job, but a little wobbly. Our guys were Wes (size 30) , & Angelo (size 36)

HTH's

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"Costume Tech's are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated except to those designers, actors, directors, playwrights, and other theater artists who depend on them." - The Costume Technicians Handbook

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Subject: Creative cleavage Date: 4/30/09 2:22 AM

I'll bite. :)
This year DD is cosplaying this game character.
Disgaea female ninja
My question is about how to best handle the bodice part of her top. She's 36.5 upper bust, 40.5 full, and 33.5 underbust, so she's easily a C cup. Thing is, she'd like to 'improve' upon nature by a cup size, and still not fall out. Also hope to avoid Hollywood tape if possible. How close to the bust point can you get before you're in trouble? <:)
My current strategy is to pare down the inner cups on a cheap Walmart bra if one that fits can be found to give her a built in, complete with shoulder straps. It'd also have to be altered to fasten in the front since the top has a shirt back. I'm thinking the tie thingie in front could hide that too.
Does this seem a sound idea? Anything different you'd suggest?

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Reply to Marilly
Date: 4/30/09 12:34 PM

Quote: Marilly

My question is about how to best handle the bodice part of her top. She's 36.5 upper bust, 40.5 full, and 33.5 underbust, so she's easily a C cup. Thing is, she'd like to 'improve' upon nature by a cup size, and still not fall out. Also hope to avoid Hollywood tape if possible. How close to the bust point can you get before you're in trouble? <:) My current strategy is to pare down the inner cups on a cheap Walmart bra if one that fits can be found to give her a built in, complete with shoulder straps. It'd also have to be altered to fasten in the front since the top has a shirt back. I'm thinking the tie thingie in front could hide that too. Does this seem a sound idea? Anything different you'd suggest?

I was able to take a girl from an A cup to a C by doing 2 things. 1) inserted bra cups that were A/B size. This held her in place naturally. 2) I then hand in inside the bra cup, on the far side add in the pads that push up one size. You can find those at walmart or Joann's.
Another option that I got from a stripper. Don't laugh they do know what they are doing to look that good. Is go down a cup size and wear a demi cup. This way when you put it on you "ove fill" the cup. You then pull the excess to the middle vs leting it spill out all over. If you want even more you use either a wonder bra that has the padding in it already, or add in padding, again on the far side to push the girls toward the middle. Thus creating even more cleavage action.
One thing "Niki" told me is that if you are going out into public and don't want any "puppy noses" poking out, find small flesh colored pasties. That way they are covered and if they want to poke out at least they are covered.
having the bra connect in the front looks like a good idea. You can look into flesh colored elastic, and possibly even clear elastic. Some strippers get the clear elastic to create illusion that nothing is holding part of a dress up. They just use make up to take the shine off the elastic and make it less noticeable.

Does that help?
-- Edited on 5/4/09 10:36 AM --

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"Costume Tech's are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated except to those designers, actors, directors, playwrights, and other theater artists who depend on them." - The Costume Technicians Handbook

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Reply to shanntarra
Subject: Creative Cleavage -thanks! Date: 4/30/09 5:34 PM

It surely does! Now I know what bra type/cup shape to look fo and I hadn't thought about pasties before. Thank you so much.
This is the second human type girl character she's ever cosplayed, but it's a lot more 'sexed up' than the first so it's a learning curve for both of us. Her side is learning makeup for her eyes and the hair extensions stuff, mine is making the costume.
The only hurdle left is to make elf ears.. Cosplay.com will probably have something about that.

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Date: 5/4/09 10:35 AM

Also check out Alley cat scratch. They are a group that do Lord of the Rings costumes. They have a whole section on how to do elven ears.

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"Costume Tech's are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated except to those designers, actors, directors, playwrights, and other theater artists who depend on them." - The Costume Technicians Handbook

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Reply to shanntarra
Date: 5/4/09 9:08 PM

Wow, that's a neat site. Thanks AGAIN. I was thinking of going the soft sculpture route since her hair would hide any ickyness where it fit over her own ear.
Once when she was a kid I did a soft sculpt elf ear on a close fit cap that was part of the costume, but without a support like the cap, it's trickier.

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Date: 5/7/09 12:19 PM

From expereince latex can be tricky but it is doable. Any other assistance you need please let us know.

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"Costume Tech's are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated except to those designers, actors, directors, playwrights, and other theater artists who depend on them." - The Costume Technicians Handbook

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Reply to shanntarra
Date: 5/25/09 4:53 PM

Hi,
Just wondering where you find flesh colored elastic? I haven't been able to find any and have been tea staining mine. It would be easier to buy it.
Thanks,
Laura

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