Shadowing Day 3

Today for shadowing when I arrived at the dance costuming department, the team was steaming jersey shirts. These were shirts they ordered for costumes, so naturally they had creases in them from being folded in the packaging. 

When first taking the jerseys out of the packaging, they were numbering each of them so that when they hand them out to the dancers they can keep track of which pieces of clothing are given out to who. This will make it easier when these pieces are returned. I also learned that each time they make an order, they not only order the sizes they will need for the specific dancers they are ordering them for, but they order the full range of sizes. They do this, because this allows them to be prepared for any future projects they may need to use them for.

Something really cool that was going on today, was that Abby was hand draping the fabric for a toga costume. She had the dress form and was pinning the fabric in place. This was so she could see how the fabric would lay as she was putting the fabric in place. Once they had the fabric pinned in place, they hand tacked in onto the leotard underneath the draped fabric. The really great thing about this, was that Abby and Jocelyn were the two students making the total 6 togas needed, and were given complete creative freedom with the draping. Because of this, all 6 togas were completely unique individually. Below is the toga Abby draped.

The above toga compared to the below toga, made by Jocelyn, shows the creativity used by each team member to produce these unique togas. It adds a level of interest to the costumes, which are meant to look like statues.

Jocelyn was making yet another tutu today, because she found while steaming all the finished tutus, that one of them had a rip in it. This meant she had to remove the waistband from the ripped tutu, and make another one. To accomplish this, she had to sew together two tutus to make it the correct thickness, then sew the waistband onto the new tutu.

Something else that is present in the costuming department, is that sometimes mistakes are made and the team has to figure out how to solve that problem. Abby was examining the toga she had finished draping and noticed that there was a cut in both of the sleeves. Sometimes mistakes happen, and in this case, Abby decided to try and sew the slits shut, and hope that they weren't noticeable when on.

It was really great, today I got to see how they do fittings. A dance group came in in black biketards and lined up next to the wall. Members of the team handed them each their assigned togas to slip over their biketards right there so we could see how they looked on them and if there were any adjustments that had to be made. The dancers knew they just had to stand there and let them examine. The director of this dance group also gave a couple suggestions. Once they adjustments were made, the dancers returned their costumes and left and the team was put in charge of making the minor changes. Thankfully the fix Abby made on the sleeves of the one toga weren't noticeable, so the fix she made was sufficient.

Today Savannah was making biker shorts, or biketards, for all of the dancers in all the numbers, which meant she had to make nearly 60 of them. The biketard is something they wear under their costume to keep them modest.

It took Savannah a bit of time, but she was able to do the preliminary steps of piecing together the biketards for each of the dancers. This work was done on the serger machine.

Something I discovered today was that the dance costuming department has their own custom tags they sew into each piece of clothing they construct themselves. On the front it has the school name and their costuming department name as well as a place for a number and size.

On the back side, they are able to write the name of the dancer the piece is for and the measurements of that dancer so as to keep record of it.

A fun project the team was working on today, was figuring out if they had a men's vest as was requested from one of the dance groups. They found a corset previously used for a female, but found that they could fit it on the men's dress form. They were brainstorming ways to adjust it to be appropriate for a male.

They decided that taking out the boning would lessen the structure of the feminine fit and would allow them to put in some darts to get rid of the curve at the top and the bottom of the vest. Jocelyn removed the boning and one of the team members would be put in charge of making the alterations needed. The boning was made out of metal, so was very sturdy and could be repurposed or used for another project.

The other portion of the vests that specific dance group needed was belts. They had to make three from scratch, and Jocelyn was put in charge of this with a little help from Abby. When going to cut out the fabric, they had to take into account the measurements of the men they were making each of the belts for.

Jocelyn then began sewing each of the belts for the vests folding the edges over so they had a nice finish. She had to sew on pieces of velcro, as this would be the method to keep the belts on the dancers.

Today I also had a chance to really catch up with Sister Knight and get an idea on how the projects and timeline were coming along for the two performances happening in November and December. She was telling me how she is simultaneously working on the two shows at the same time, being on the tail end of the one and the beginning of the other. As the final costumes are being made for the Extravadance show, they are having costumes and fabric and accessories arrive for the Christmas show. Unfortunately in this process, decisions are still being made for the performance, which means each week when everyone who is involved in the Christmas show meets up, they give updates that then have to be accommodated. This means Sister Knight and the team sometimes have to send things back that are no longer applicable, or remove sparkles or sequins from props and clothing to accommodate. It's a lot to juggle all at once but is definitely made easier as everyone works together as a team.

I'm really finding that a lot that goes on in the dance costuming department is creativity, innovation, and repetition. To work in the dance costuming department you have to be confident in the work you're doing. Sister Knight really puts her trust in her students to get projects done. Another thing these seamstresses need to be okay with, is changing things a little and taking criticism through every project. They have to be okay with making mistakes, because they will happen. These girls are very strong and able and it is really cool to see everyone work together to produce really great costumes.