I took in a dress by creating darts this morning. I was initially a bit nervous and unsure as I haven’t often done this, however, with help and guidance from Amy, I soon realised it was a fairly simple adjustment and I was really happy with it once I finished it. It made me realise that often the thought of something is more confronting than the doing.
Today I continued with small alterations. I quite enjoyed sewing a protective under-patch on the underarm of one of the sequinned dresses and was happy with its execution. This was to prevent the sequins from rubbing against the performer and causing irritation. It was a good lesson in considering how garments wear on the body and how this should be taken into account in their construction. I also attempted to add fullness into the Moth Maiden skirt, however I soon realised this was a feat outside of my experience and was a point to pass it onto Helen or Sarah. This didn’t feel like giving up, rather assessing my own skills and realising that in order to maintain the integrity of the skirt, somebody with greater construction knowledge would be better suited to working on it.
Today I was focussing on smaller alterations: one included taking out an old bra and fitting the dress with a new one. Frustratingly, although a simple alteration, I realised, after herringboning it back in, by hand, that I hadn’t lined the back up exactly and so I had to redo it and unpick all of the herringbone. Ultimately this was a good lesson in checking my work and the silver lining was that I got in more practice of my herringbone stitching. I also replaced the fingers on the Goblin King suit, which I enjoyed because it gave me a bit of creative freedom with choosing from the spares.
I found today a mixture of exciting, yet also challenging and frustrating. I ended up spending the whole day on the Princess of Monaco garment, as it had a lot more alterations than I realised and these were new to me, so it took me much longer. I really enjoyed problem solving and finding ways to resolve issues with the dress, however only working on one garment made me feel really inefficient and a bit inadequate. Toward the end of the day, I started levelling the hem. Helen had offered to do it, as it was fairly time consuming and challenging, but I wanted to learn and force myself out of my comfort zone. However, it did become very frustrating and tedious. I think doing it at the end of the day meant that my energy was low and my focus was waning. I am going to look back on it with fresh eyes on Monday. I also got my first pay check today, which felt incredibly rewarding. It feels exciting to feel like the work I’m doing is worth being paid for and that it is an ‘official’ ‘real’ job. I feel like although I am less experienced and of course on placement, this validates the work that I’m doing.
End of Week Notes and Takeaways:
Today presented surprises in the alterations I was doing. I found that a job that appeared to be simple (moving fastenings to make a bodice smaller) was more complicated that I anticipated. When I moved them, an overhang was created so that the bottom of the bodice didn’t line up on both sides at the same height. I really liked working out how to resolve this. At first I was intimidated, however, on completing it to a standard that surprises me, it gave me a new found confidence. It ended up being much easier than I realised and has encouraged me to be more adventurous. I am realising that there is no right way to do things, rather there are many options of how you can do it, it’s just using the option that makes sense to you and/or is the most efficient. I feel really comfortable asking for help and advice on how to do things from the others, especially Amy (who I’m also on internship with) and Helen, who is a very skilled costume maker (as well as a bit of a work Mum to me and Amy). The team are incredibly supportive and very willing to share their knowledge and advice. I am really enjoying working with everybody and it has very quickly felt like a close-knit team, I am very comfortable with and find enriching and exciting to work with everyday.
