Ballet (nearly) Blanc

So whilst I'm on a roll here are the rest of the shots of the completed Self Directed Project aka' learning to make the pretties'.

There are infact a few petals still pinned rather than sewn down to the costume, and once again, stuck with a camera/backdrop/ lack of decent lighting that does not show the costume off to its full potential.

Even so, I have taken quite a few shots from different angles as well as taking some snaps of my decoration and sleeve samples.

Just a few photos!

I cant wait to get on and make up another bodice(draft a whole new pattern) and make some variations using different materials and shapes for the skirt.


My first challenge will be something like the wood nymph-y costumes seen here in a version of Sleeping Beauty. I just love them and any excuse to work in green.

What A Sylph

So here is a video of the Ballet Blanc that inspired the original costumes that were designed by the tutor for this unit. As these are the last photos I have of the costume before the SDP blog part of the unit comes to and end(I still have an extra two days for the costume) I thought it was quite fitting.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDoMNpNlzY

The costume itself is complete, having finished the levelling of the skirt, adding the invisible shoulder straps and finishing off the back closures since Thursday I have spent today attaching the bodice to the tutu by hand. Which turned out to take longer than expected.

The last stage is to add the decoration or the petals onto the costume by hand as seen in the design here.

There are to be 64 of them spread across the costume in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

The petals are made from the same net tulle as the skirt and have been painted with 5 gradual layers of dye-na-flow silk paint.
Here are the photos of the petal being pinned on in stages. As I sew them on by hand I will be re-adjusting them to get them perfect but here is the cosume ready for its last stage.

When hand in of this unit is complete on Monday and the costume on Wednesday I will take the final finished photos and post them up to see.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

In the last week of SDP the end is in sight and my costume is closing fast to the finish line. At the last check in the bodice was complete and so my next job was the levelling of the skirt.

 Out of all the images posted during the process I loved the white 'clouds' that gathered in the studio for this task. In fact they reminded me of the spider web trees.

The skirt needed to be levelled and graduated layer by layer and was a time consuming step of the process. Once complete the skirt was steamed to within an inch of its life to help the net lay flat and look fresh.

We presented as a group on Thursday as well. We had a collective of 18 minutes and all the tutu's were together on stage in their different stages and we each talked about different aspects of the unit such as context, construction, history and decoration as a few examples.

By this stage I had the costume looking more or less complete and I had pinned on a few of my petals for colour reference. We had two models on stage, one of which was in Dexter's sample, alas no photos of that! But altogether I could really see what they would look like as a Ballet Blanc Corps.

Ballet Bodice Construction

Well, that was a very busy week. Less than two weeks to go before the end of the academic year for me, so it comes as no suprise really that I have not found the time to squeeze in an update before now.

But here it is. The bodice was up to the stage last time where it was ready to have the top and bottom edges piped and then slipstitched down to the back and then finishing off the CB's and putting on closures, ready to be attatched to the skirt before decoration is applied.

I found the slipper satin very hard to use as a piping material, it is exceptionally prone to twisting and wrinkling as you sew it and for some reason I found it hard to sew the material in snugly to the piping and as such I am not overly happy with the result. But my misgivings are for another more reflective post as I have much to muse over in terms of how I think the costume is turning out.

Here are some photos of where I am up to now, as well as some photos of the bodice pinned to my mannequin at home- although please note that my mannequin is larger than the bodice and so it is not sitting quite right and is not looking at its best.

I am also in the middle of levelling off the skirt layers and still have three more to do, once I am finished those photos can go up as well.

So left to do:
Put on hooks and bars
Finish levelling of tutu layers
Attach bodice and tutu
Put on invisibe straps to bodice
Decorate with dyed tulle petals by hand

Romantic Tutu Skirt Construction Photos

Well, the mountain of tulle that was sitting at my machine last week has been magically transformed into an ethereal tutu by fairies.

Okay, so there were no fairies but I have carefully layered up the net onto the basque and will show via a large amount of photos just how each of the delicate layers, with increasing number of panels create this light, delicate and enchanting skirt.

It is all mounted onto the basque which has no knickers like a plate tutu, but instead the net stops at the bottom of the basque where a dancer will be wearing specialists tights underneath.
The skirt is now ready to have the layers levelled, as they are all different lengths at the moment(and also the skirt is generally too long coming almost to the ankles presently). Finally I need to add the fastenings at the back and then the skirt will be ready to attach to the bodice.

So here are the snaps of the basque, and then front side and back view of the skirt as I build up each layer.

Layer 1:

Layer 2:

Layer 3:

 Layer 4:

Layer 5:

Front shot of skirt all layers on in a better light.

Left to do at the moment is:

Levelling the skirt
Adding closures to the back
Cutting out petals for decoration and hand painting/dyeing them
Finishing the bodice piping and slip stitching
Finishing the back closures for the bodice
Pressing the bodice and attaching to the skirt
Application of decoration by hand