Summer panda top

Well that's another academic year done and finished with, and it's time to enjoy the summer. But aswell as enjoying the summer and all my free time I like to give myself little projects to keep practising my skills and make good use of my time.

From my last project at CCAD of course I had to buy fabric for it, this is when I discovered my new favourite shop - dainty suppliers in Washington (northeast England) it was like an aladins cave of everything fabric, and craft I was in heaven so like always when I go shopping for when thing I get distracted by everything else that I want to purchase and something that really caught my eye was a lovely panda printed Cotton!! 

I really love animals and especially pandas (not just because they are black and white :p) and I thought this fabric was great so I had to buy it and unfortunately it had to take a back seat and sit in the carrier bag until I had some free time to make something with it. So I decided to make a lose fitted vest top out of the fabric, something simple to get me started again obviously without any tutors help if I were to get stuck. But I must admit to make my pattern I did cheat abit, I already had a vest in the exactly silhouette that I wanted for my panda fabric so I simply drew around it but added a little bit of length to the bottom.

After that I neatened off my lines and had my front and back pattern pieces to make my top. Like I said this was an easy top to make but of course nothing runs smoothly at first when I soon realised I had not bought enough fabric for the style of top that I wanted to make as the pattern was wide at the bottom, (a designers and manufactures nightmare) but after trying out a few differnt ways to lay my pattern pieces to the fabric I found a solution to my problem. I decided to give my top a yoke, this meant that I would. It have to put a seam right down the back of the top which I certainly did not want to do!

After cutting my pieces out I begin to make up my top attaching all of the seams. I always made my own binding by cutting long strips of fabric along the biase pressing it where I wanted the fold and attached it to the arm holes and neck hole to neaten up the edges.  I made my own small hem along the bottom and used a decorative stitch to give it a little more detail. The only thing that I was slightly disappointed with was the fact that the inside seam edges where raw and this was down to the fact that I do not own an over locking maching, but it's something I'm now looking into purchasing :p

Overall I am absolutely thrilled with my top and the way that it has turned out it has defiantly giving me the inspiration and boost to want to make more of my own clothes. It has also sparked off a lot of potential business and career ideas which I need to start thinking about as my final year of been a student looms. I thoroughly enjoyed making this top and can't wait to get back on my machine and start to make something else.... Any ideas?

Jackie Hallatt

Whilst wring my creer plan rort for my course I managed to get a hold of a local costume manufacture, luckily she was able to answer some questions for me so that I could have a more personal insight into the working world of costume and threat re productions. This is a small set of questions that I sent to the Costume manufacture Jackie Hallatt, who lives and works in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I only asked 8 questions but found her answers to be very insightful in terms of helping me plan out my own career and which steps are right for me to take.

1)      What is your educational background? (Did you go to university? What did you study ect?)

After leaving school at 15 ,I completed a City and Guilds course in Ladies Bespoke Tailoring at London College of Fashion obtaining a Distinction. I also gained a diploma in Ladies Bespoke Tailoring also from London College of Fashion, also with Distinction.

I then worked as an apprentice in Ladies Tailoring at Bermans and Nathans Theatrical Costumiers. At a later date I gained a BA Hons degree in Costume Interpretation from       Wimbledon School of Art, obtaining a 2:1

2)      When did you become interested in costumes?

I was always interested in sewing and started at the age of 5 with my mother teaching me. This continued with a love of fashion and it wasn’t until I got the job as an apprentice that I became interested in costume.

3)      What types of projects get you excited the most?

The projects I like best is anything technically challenging or avant garde, something that makes me think “however am I going to make that!”

4)      What made you become self-employed?

I became self employed because there are very few permanent jobs within costume and the only way to work as a costume maker was to become self employed.

5)      What was the first production you worked with? How did it come about?

As an apprentice I worked on a feature film called Return to Oz , I helped make the “wheelie men” who skated around with rollerskates on their hands and feet, it was a great first project at Bermans.

6)      Where do you source your fabrics and materials from? Do you work with a supplier?

I am supplied with all my fabrics, linings, buttons etc by costume supervisors who’s job it is to source the costume makers, fabrics, shoes hats etc etc and balance the budgets on productions. Most of the fabrics come from London, Germany, France and Italy.

7)      Do you enjoy running your own business? What are the pros and cons?

I would rather be employed than run my own company as the responsibility and pressure of deadlines always falls on my shoulders, however I do have a certain amount of control over what I do which is nice.

8)      Do you have a team that works for/ with you? What’s it like to manage a team? What type of employee do you have (pattern cutter for example)

I don’t employ any staff but do use freelance staff to help me make the costumes. I am not a natural manager and find managing people difficult but its lovely when they present you with a pile of beautiful costumes.