Mid-Way Reflection

I chose to make this Cruella Costume as I hoped it would be motivating and help me to keep with my time plan I made at the beginning of the project. Although it is exciting and I am really enjoying it, my time management is not what I would like it. My Easter Holiday was when I started to drift away from my time plan and I was not as productive as I had planned. Perhaps I should have taken into account that I would want a break from my work and only set myself smaller tasks to do.

However, this all sounds negative but I have got my motivation back and have realised my issue with my time much sooner than I have in recent projects. I have got the time to get sorted and achieve the costume I want and to a standard I wish to achieve.

On another note, I've found it difficult to keep up to date with my blog during this project. This is bcause during a making project I tend to avoid my computer as I find the internet a distraction.

Working in Faux Leather

I've found working with the jacket I sourced off Ebay completely different to work with and not like anything I've used before. It has been a bit of 'Trial and Error' to understand how the fabric acts however, as the amount of fabric available has been limited it was important not to waste anything.
When placing my top fabric over the cotton drill to match and hide the seams, I noticed the difference in the fabrics and how the leather does not have any 'give' in it and also how I cannot make mistakes with it as any machine or pin marks are permanent and will be obvious if seen!

I am really happy with how the top fabric looks on the corset and seeing this has given me motivation as I lost it during the Easter Holiday's. My next stage with the corset is placing the studs and putting in the busk, which I am nervous about because the studs must be in the right place first time round as I cannot change it once I pushed holes in it.

Sourcing Top Fabric

I wanted to have an element of recyling in my project as I think it will add another level of problem solving which will give me more skills in the industry. Recyling because of funding is a large part of theatre currently, and as I've not properly explored this avenue I wanted to use an old jacket for my top fabric for my corset. This has made me much more aware of the fabric I'm using and how much I waste in other projects. I also wanted a leather looking fabric and I want to put studs on the edges. The choice of fabric and the stud idea came from my work placement at We Will Rock You. I was doing a lot of work using leather and studs for the main character in the musical and I thought it would be great to put the skills into practice and on a larger scale.

The leather jacket I sourced from ebay for £10 and it has two pockets on the front. As fabric is limited I decided to use the pockets on the corset, on the centre panels of each side so they are directly under the arm. This makes my corset more contemporary and links with the studs which is also a modern feature.
I do not want to make a historical corset but it will be in the style of a 19th Century corset and the patterns are very similar. The exernal embelishments will make it contemorary and more like the character.