Fundraiser: Halloween Film Night

This week has been really busy!
Thursday was our photo shoot for our Russian and Merchant of Venice costumes and also the day of our first fundraiser. The photo shoot ran really smoothly and all the costumes looked really good so I'm excited to see how the pictures turn out.
For the fundraiser we played The Shining and decorated Wayne's room in a Halloween theme to give it a spooky feel! We charged £1.50 for those in fancy dress and £2.00 for those in normal clothing, we also sold jewelery and baked food that we could sell. The night was really successful and those that came were excited to attend another event like this, and so we will probably arrange one nearer to Christmas with a festive theme.
From this event we raised about £120 which is great for our first fundraiser!

Today I went to Leeds and Bradford with my class to source fabrics. I found two fabrics in Bombay Stores which were similar to ones that I sampled from myfabrics which were really cheap! I decided to buy a few meters of each so that I didn't have to pay for postage.
We also visited Whaleys in Bradford to pick up some fabric which we ordered. I picked up the velvet which I plan to use on the corset, so I will need to dye this next week.

After this we all visited Leeds Museum where there was a costume exhibition called 'Heros and Heroines'. I managed to do a bit of research into clothing from the regency period for my next project.

Today the class and I had a meeting to organise fundraising. Next Thursday we are having a film night to raise funds for the end of year show, which will be really fun as we seem to be selling a lot of tickets.
For this event we need to make things to sell and so each of us have been assigned a type of food to bake and something which we are comfortable making.

After the meeting I transferred my corset pattern onto paper and adjusted it to my models size. This was quite hard as whenever I adjusted the vertical seams I had to alter the horizontal ones. I learnt a few tips here and it made me more confident when making corsets with odd designs.

To carry on with the idea of hand stitch I experimented with machine free hand embroidery. I like this technique as it gives a 'home made' feel but is quicker than hand stitching, and so i will mix the three techniques (dying the fabric, printing with dye and embroidering) in order to make the corset fabric.

Today in my construction class I toiled up the corset and jacket onto the mannequin. This took all day as the corset was quite difficult to get my head round due to the style of it, and also as I had to think of a way to join the twins together.

For the past few days I have been playing with the idea of Daisy and Violet being trapped by their guardians. I feel like they were caged birds, and I would like to play with this idea and further it.

Yesterday I learnt how to print with dyes rather than binder and screen printing inks. This stops the pattern you are printing from sitting on top of the fabric, and allows it to be saturated neatly into the weave. The technique works best with silk fabrics which I plan to be working with.
I used the samples I dyed up last week to print on, and once the prints were dry I embroidered into them to create depth and interest.

I have based my designs on the patterns and themes which tattooed women had on their bodies. I'm interested in the difference between the types of sideshow performers ie those born with disabilitlies and those who change their bodies through choice, like a tattooed lady.

Today in Emmas lesson I wrote my literary review on an article discussing how reality tv shows such as the xfactor and American Idol are the modern day freak show. It was the first literary review I had ever written and was quite hard at first. After help and encouragement from Emma I gained a bit more confidence and started writing. Before I knew it I had written my first draft! I think sometimes I need to just start writing my ideas down, and worry about if they make sense afterwards when I'm re-drafting the piece.

This week I have been focusing on working into my fabric dye samples. I have been looking into the tattooed women that preformed at side shows. From this I have taken the tattoo designs and embroidered them onto the fabric samples. I think this works quite well as it gives the fabric an extra dimension and is also relevant to the side show life.
I have also been doing quite a lot of research into the history of circuses and sideshows in order to bulk up my costume research and also to help me with my long study essay. I was quite lucky as in the summer holidays I managed to buy a few rare books off eBay about circus life, and these have really helped me when researching.