Vintage patchwork unisex jacket from thrift shop hobo shoulder bags

On occasions I have regrets about living in the middle of the French countryside where there is a dearth of theatre, museums, concerts, art galleries and the more prosaic antique, flea and rag markets. Outside of Bath, Cheltenham, London, Manchester and Paris, one of my favourites was Birmingham. It wasn't that this latter had a huge amount of 'stuff', it was just that it had a wonderful treasure trove of what could come under the loose banner of sari fabric. Imagine my delight therefore when I came across  several items made from such fabric and vintage to boot, at my local thrift shop.

I made this jacket for the magician's costume for the film company I was working with. However, it is something I would wear, though possibly minus the feathers, bells and velvet appliqué and in fact I had a hard time convincing myself to send it off! These sort of fabrics are not the kind you often come across here and they cost me so little, just a couple of Euros for each item. I also found a miniskirt too in similar vintage fabric, made by Uttam of London, which I used in making the pantaloons. This same design would also make a great waistcoat.

Background & Influences

Grimaldi, the magician in the film's narrative is a shadowy, enigmatic figure. All good costume should carry and even enforce information about the character as well as advancing the storyline. I chose the midnight blue velours fabric to contrast the vibrancy of the Indian patchwork, for several reasons. As with Harlequin from the Commedia dell'arte, which I referenced for my costume, the definitions in early theatre of dark and light, good and evil, fool and king, servant and master are often very much blurred. In the theatrical symbol of the double masks of comedy and tragedy, they might be seen, as with the Roman god Janus, to be two sides of but one face. I also wanted to bring in a hint of Pan, with the solid wooden walnut buttons, to tie the mercurial Grimaldi to the Earth. The brash artificiality of the velvet fabric also contrasted strongly with the worn, naturally aged  cotton of the patchwork.

For my mood board on, which you can find on Pinterest (link at end), I took an eclectic mix of images. Works from painters, such as Victor Nizovtsev, tarot cards, serviettes, jewellery and photography such as Pierre-Louis Pierson's amazingly contemporary-looking portrait La Castiglione taken circa 1863. For this costume as with the others, there was also a reference from nature, in this case I chose the peacock, a bird associated with the sun and the moon, which is said to have the look of an angel and the voice of a devil. I used actual peacock feather's for Grimaldi's mask (above right). The Peacock is also associated with Argos, the all seeing instrument of the Greek Goddess Hera. When he was slain, she took his hundred eyes and placed them in the tail of the peacock. For this reason perhaps in Europe, unlike within other cultures, peacock feathers are considered unlucky and associated with 'the evil eye' or bad fortune.

Design and Construction/Confection

I felt both these processes to be very organic because the actual shape of the hobo shoulder bag informed on the design. With its long shoulder strap, half moon opening at the top and square cut base, it cried out 'waistcoat' to me when I dug it out of the bottom of my wardrobe. In fact the jacket just seemed to grow out of the fabric as soon as I opened it up.

 

These patchwork shoulder bags were already lined with a thin dark blue cotton but as I wanted a strongly defined line to my jacket body I removed it. This revealed the interesting original sewing beneath and also gave me a better view of the fabric I had to work with. The actual shape of the shoulder bag, when completely undone and trimmed to size gave me a very close approximation to the shape I wanted, for my jacket front, as you will see from the photo. I also referenced the line of one of Andy's linen waistcoats, which I particularly liked and a 1930's gypsy waistcoat, this can be found on my Pinterest board. I used a thick red felt I bought as a remnant and had used on other projects, to line the front of the jacket. Not only did this reinforce the shape I wanted but also made the jacket exceedingly comfortable to wear.

Once I'd decided on the shape of the patchwork piece for the front, I then used it as the pattern to cut the other pieces from the velours (right front and the single piece for the back). A word here about this velours fabric. Climb the Ivy Films is a new, small independent company with consequentially a very small budget. This suited me well, as I was intending to refashion most of the costumes and when I needed to buy I bought cheap. France is great for this because many of its fabric shops or should I say emporiums, are like Aladdin's caves. Fabric is often sold in cut lengths, some is end of line, bankruptcy or unwanted orders from other shops. There is also a big tradition of carnival in Europe, with the most famous being Venice. There is thus a wide choice of costume fabric, such as velours, sold in great widths (150cm or 60"), for around 5 Euros (5-ish dollars) a metre. If I was making this jacket again for myself, I would make it either in quality velvet or organic linen. It would also be easier to sew! For Grimaldi though who was a mercurial spirit and to be filmed in low light, the velours was perfect!

As I've explained before, with this set of film costumes, I was working at home in France and the actors/actresses were in Scotland. I had detailed measurements from which Andy had been able to design and make an adjustable dress form from pallet wood. In the case of Grimaldi, however, the actor's measurements were the same as Andy's. I therefore used him as my model, in particular for shaping the back of the jacket, positioning the front and sleeves, buttons, feathers, velvet diamond shapes and bells.

The sleeves I chose to cut from a pattern I already had to hand. It is so much easier if you have a dummy or model to fit this to.

So, with the help of the dummy I set my sleeves and also worked out where to put the fastenings. The buttons were cut from a walnut branch from our tree, which had broken off in a storm, been left to dry naturally and then hand sawn into 'slices' and drilled.

The velvet lozenges in contrasting turquoise to give that hint of the Harliquinade, were cut from some fabric remnants and lined with the same red felt as the jacket. They were then finished with gold bells cut from a rather garish inexpensive braid of bells which was sold in the carnival section of my haberdashers. Once cut off to make separate bells they worked well. It also meant that Grimaldi would have a faint sound as he approached, something I checked with the director before I sewed them on!

As you can see from the photos, the other important design criteria I used to convey narrative was that asymmetry should figure very strongly in the costumes. This again was to reinforce the concept that everything was not entirely as it seemed. This is a device you will often see used in film noir, with directors and writers influenced by the early 20th century German Expressionist Movement, in art and art cinema, as with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (film still left). It's also often quite subtle and you may not even notice it unless you are looking but it turns up in what you might think are the most unlikely places and gives you a nod of recognition.
 

Through the whole creative process of film costuming, you are ever aware that your work may only be on the screen for a few seconds. The piece you designed may be reused on other projects or refashioned for streetwear. Whatever, the joy of working in film, for me is that I know what I made, even if, albeit metaphorically, most of it was left on the cutting room floor!

If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it and also about joining this blog to be assured of new posts. Please also feel free to ask questions or make comments in the section below.

All the very best,

Sue

© 2016 Sue Cross

Thanks for Pinterest board images - In order of appearance: artodyssey1.blotspot.ca, Monsieur R, theconstantbuzz.com, imdb.com, Kickstarter

You can find them and more on two of my boards: Inspiration for Costume and Noir

Link for home-made dress form: http://thegreenlever.blogspot.fr/2015/03/pallet-wood-dressmaking-and-display.html#.VP245zWYO1E

Refashioning Project: Boho, ethnic, romantic skirt/dress fusion Part 2 - Making a chatelaine

I've worked on costume and window display projects in the past and my best friend has always been the glue gun. This includes the time I made thousands of fabric roses for an artists' group working on the Spring windows at Fortnum and Mason and I still have the scars to prove it. This time however, with camera close-ups and strenuous physical movement by actors, I decided I would stitch and often hand-stitch most of the costumes and accessories, which is probably why it took me so long! Being a glutton for punishment, the worst design idea I had was the witch's hat veil but more of that later.

   Hand-sewing black on black, not a good idea, felt on tulle, even worse....

The Chatelaine

I'm starting with this accessory as it is one which certainly should make a comeback into everyday life. It was also a relatively easy piece to source and put together, furthermore it involved a satisfying mix of refashioning and upcycling. The chatelaine, being worn either by the housekeeper or 'lady of the house' carried all sorts of useful items such as keys and scissors but I, imagined the old woman/witch would have a different set of accoutrements.

The chatelaine on the right comes from the Pinterest boards of steclub.ru, which has many other fine examples on show. Instead of silver filigree and chain, mine has as its basis, a surprising find from a French haberdashers. To wit a bikini scarf made from blue thread interwoven between feng shui lucky Emperor coins!

It's probably not the usual item on a tourist's bucket list but fabric shops in France can be wonderful Aladdin's caves and well worth a visit. Our local one is piled high, from floor to ceiling with folded lengths of fabric, which are sold as whole pieces or you can purchase metre lengths. There are rolls of fabric too, mainly furnishing fabric and also a great deal of carnival and fancy dress material. There are hundreds of metres of lace and ribbons, sequins and buttons and made-up parcels of 2 Euro 'Lucky bags' from which I got the above. The shop owner buys from auction, so you never know what is going to turn up but I've bought 1920's original metal lace pieces and 1930's silk and cotton spools.

The other ingredient in the mix was a Turkish-style slipper. I had bought this for pennies at a thrift shop and worn them to destruction over the previous Summer but had saved the uppers for future use. Seen here above is the remaining piece of one upper after I had cut out the central motif to use on the costume collar. As the upper was lined with a faux silver leather and the top fabric could be split from it, this gave me options to use thinner or thicker sections of slipper, so as to cut out complete motifs (as above) and/or to remove individual beads and sequins more easily. Somewhere in all my belongings resides the actual Turkish slippers I bought in Istanbul, which I was lucky to visit as a child. They are not to be compared with the false ones. Their workmanship is exquisite formed onto a beautifully shaped piece of leather sole and it was this visit which informed on my life-long love of beadwork and embellishment. However, with the magic that is cinema, the witch wore rich rubies from her red slippers.

So having found a suitably narrow, navy blue belt on which to base my chatelaine, one given me by my cousin, I started to deconstruct the thread and tassels of the bikini scarf, so as to rebraid and remake them into the supporting hangers for the witch's paraphernalia. To keep each chain separate and facing forward and also to carry on the theme of fortune telling and introduce a far eastern theme to my witch, I used the emperor coins and held them in place with beads taken from the slipper. Feng shui coins are considered to be even luckier when associated with the colour red and I do like the fact that this detail will, according to the shooting schedule, be picked up by the camera. In reality whether minute detail is seen, is not an issue, I will know it is there!

Vade mecum or Grimoire

I had real fun planning and making this. I had decided to use only one slipper on the whole costume and as most of it already had a designated place in the design, I was down to small sections but these made the finished book look even more ancient and mystical.

For the book covers I used one of our standard materials (other than pallets), fruit crate wood and covered the front and spine with slipper fabric.

The pages were made from a paper napkin, which had a great mediaeval illuminated manuscript design. The back cover had the same design but in a thicker tissue paper (shown above left) I had found some years earlier and used to cover and upcycle an old dressing table mirror.

This sort of ephemera turns up regularly in thrift shops for a few cents, relics of defunct craft and card making shops. It is well worth squirrelling away for further use and keeping all the scraps too!

I sewed a row of beads from the slipper onto the spine, to both embellish it and define the edges of the book. The whole piece was glued together including adding a 'lock', of which I'm sure the witch would approve.
 

When the character moved  it would not matter if she was in close-up as the book would have interest visually from both sides. I also wanted to make the accessories look real. I think costume should help to carry the narrative. This also helps to expand the character, particularly within the limits of a short.

Potion or Poison Bottle

Again this was another fun thing to make and used up yet another item from my hoard, this time one of those small perfume bottles that come in duty free collections.

This was created with the aid of an old wine cork, sculpted to fit, gold thread, beads from the slipper and some purple/violet watercolour paint! This time the glue gun proved invaluable!

I also added a bouquet of feathers both from my own chickens, which I always collect when they moult and some Guinea hen plumes from my neighbour's poultry. This I decided was some unexplained aigrette, a totem of the witches fabrication and gave  balance to the chatelaine. I made it from a bunch of feathers, with the ends enclosed in a piece of slipper.






You can find my Pinterest Costume Inspiration Board here and find out more about The Golden Goblet and Climb The Ivy Films here


If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it and also about joining this blog to be assured of new posts. Please also feel free to ask questions or make comments in the section below.

All the very best,

Sue

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© 2015 Sue Cross

Refashioning Project - Boho Chic, Ethnic Gown. A skirt and sheath dress fusion.

You know how it is, your favourite skirt, worse for wear, is languishing at the bottom of the wardrobe, also hanging on in there, is a long silk sheath dress in a difficult combination of colours and moreover too tight around the hips for comfort. Yes, if like me you are a sucker for quality fabric at knock down prices then fear not, here is a project to accommodate both pieces and get them out of the wardrobe and back on to the street or in my case onto the set.

   Rosie Willis in full costume on location filming The Golden Goblet from
   Climb the Ivy Films

The Backstory

Over Christmas and the New Year 2014-15 my niece, the filmmaker, Vic Lockhart and I discussed her upcoming project for which she had asked me to create the costumes. The inspiration for the above dress was taken from the idea that although the screenplay was based on an old Estonian folk legend, there would be no rigidly fixed geographical or costume references. I just had hints and colour combinations received from mood boards and an idea of each costume being inspired by a signature wild creature. In the case of Rosie's character I chose one of the standard Gothic Witch familiars, the Raven.

I started by building up a Pinterest board. This was fun and I found many images to inspire me, such as Madre by Natalie Shau, via Tina Tarnoff's blog: Thought Patterns. In the spirit of mend and make do - very common amongst independent film companies, I wanted to use fabrics and notions which I already possessed. This not only helped with the tight film budget but also allowed me to get creative with a backlog of materials which needed to be seen. Fabrics should move. I'd boxed mine up for too long, gloating over my hoard like a dragon with its gold.

The Skirt

This was a Christmas present from way back and I had worn it so often, the lining was beginning to creep disgracefully into old age. The fabric design was a vague mishmash of ethnicities, also typically for a mass-produced, machine-stitched skirt it had more embellishment on the front.

 

I calculated that I could get at least two if not three inserts out of it to fill out the skirt of the sheath dress and that there would be enough left over to make reasonably full, leg o'mutton sleeves. An added advantage was the colour which was a great match and broke up the rigid lines of the stripes and created what I wanted, my take on a sarafan or Russian trapezoidal pinafore dress.

These type of traditional costumes are redolent of many Eastern and Northern cultures. This one I pinned from folkcostume.blogspot.jp and shows a 1930's Hungarian dress from from the town of Mezőkövesd and its environs, famous for their embroidery. I was particularly concerned to get the trompe l'oeil effect of an apron over a skirt aka pinafore dress.

I was also very happy I had enough material in the seams to open up the sheath dress and to insert three sections of embroidered skirt. Whilst in the planning stages, I contacted my niece to check on how much movement Rosie needed in her costume and found that one shot required her to run through the forest! After that I decided to check with her for each costume but the script revisions and even the shooting dates were posted so well in advance and I could find from the schedules exactly what was required physically of each character. This also helped to inspire the costumes too, as for example, when I found ballet was on the bill, I went off on a whole new tangent.

The Dress

One of my weaknesses is that I always buy silk whenever it is at a knock down price. This means I have a plethora of scarves but also items like this silk sheath dress, which I bought two decades ago from Next to Nothing in Birmingham U.K. for a couple of quid. I had Rosie's measurements up on the pallet wood dress form Andy had made me and calculated that to split it along the seams up to the hip would give her plenty of movement and the required full trapezium shape of the sarafan.

The Fusion:

I cut my three inserts from the front of the skirt, thus exhibiting the best of the beadwork for the hem of the dress. Above you can see the raw broken-down skirt skirtfront with one of the inserts in the foreground and before pressing! I then cut the sleeves from the back of the skirt, with the sleeves and the inserts running in opposite directions on the fabric. Thus I used the gathered sections of fabric, which made up the waistband of the skirt to full effect. In the former case this was to create the triangular side and back pleat and in the latter to create the cuff of the sleeve and the leg o'mutton top.

Skirt to Sleeves

I just used an old sleeve pattern that I liked but it would have been as easy to cut the sleeve out simply by eye, as the back of the skirt, once folded makes a natural sleeve shape! You can see how the cuff forms by itself and the leg o'mutton top is a natural progression from the shape of the skirt.

I eased the top of the sleeve into the sheath armholes, neatened the cuffs and embellished them with a hem ruffle from an another defunct old skirt in the same tones. As you can see I toyed with the idea of using a fake fur remnant left over from a wolf puppet but eventually settled for real chicken feathers from my own poultry.

However, I did use a fake fur motif on one cuff and on the other one, added a few of the beads from remnants of fabric from the front of the skirt.

Skirt to Dress

Making your own clothes is just the same as cooking your own meals, you become more aware of how things are put together and thus a better judge of good workmanship. When I buy a dress, for example, I turn it inside out to look at the seams and always check fastenings, in particular zips. In the case of this silk sheath dress, I fully expected it to be cut to the absolute limit to save on fabric and therefore costs, so adding the gussets was an ideal way of modifying it to fit. Here you see me easing these latter into the sides of the dress. As I mentioned before, typically the front panels of the skirt are more luxuriously embellished, here with bugle beads, some of which were missing and I replenished from remnants. These beads also added some weight to the finished frock's hem, improving both the way it hung and the way I envisaged it would look when Rosie moved.

As already explained, I had decided to split the silk sheath dress to the hip on both side seams but I found that the length of the gusset or insert made from the whole length of the skirt was just a few centimetres short. I therefore, cut some triangular pieces out of remnants from the skirt back and embellished them with a few beads to match up with the design on the hem. I also added another row of embroidered stitching. 

I then fitted the gusset at the back of the dress buy opening up the back seam, this again added weight and movement to the final costume.

So here we have this pinafore dress/skirt sheath fusion, before I started adding the elements to make a complete costume but quite ready to be worn out on the street or to a party. The trapezium-shaped shift was also a traditional maternity dress, so here too you have the chance to make a chic, romantic party frock from refashioned presently unwearable garments. You can however, see the start of the chatelaine, which can be found here and it also shows the trompe l'oeil apron look of the sarafan I was hoping to achieve.

You can find my Pinterest Costume Inspiration Board here and find out more about The Golden Goblet and Climb The Ivy Films here

If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it and also about joining this blog to be assured of new posts. Please also feel free to ask questions or make comments in the section below.

All the very best,

Sue

RELATED ARTICLES

How to Make a Gothic Witch's Hat from Remnants and Found Objects

This project was a great deal of fun because although I had the design firmly set in my mind when I started, I still allowed it to...read more

How to make a chatelaine for a witch costume - refashioning project

All the essentials for the best dressed witch from refashioning and recuperated materials...read more

© 2015 Sue Cross