Category Archives: How-To
Practical Millinery, published by Whittaker & co., 1897
Needlecraft magazine, July 1925
The first page spread isn’t complete–I only just noticed that my sleeve got in the way of the Quaker Puffed Rice ad, and there’s supposed to be a poem or quote on the first content page that’s been excised. I’ve reached out to a cross-stitch artist in Illinois who has a copy in hopes that she’d be able to provide the missing information, and will update as needed.
Update Aug. 2: Have replaced the sleeve-tainted scan with a fresh one in the slideshow and gallery, but have realized that this scan is missing at least two page spreads. Further updates will be made once I’m next able to access the original material in-person.
Continue reading Needlecraft magazine, July 1925
Heminway Tie Book No. 2, 1920s
Now to round out the pair, here’s the second of our two Heminway tie books. I’m not entirely sure what year it’s from, but after scouring the Internet and copyright records I’m reasonably sure it’s from between 1920 and 1923–my educated guess is 1922 or 1923, but don’t take that as expert opinion.
Continue reading Heminway Tie Book No. 2, 1920s
Heminway Tie Book No. 1, 1920
This is the first of two Heminway Tie Books in our collection. I’m actually attempting to make one of the ties, but boy howdy it’s slow going! Who could’ve ever thought that following a 101-year-old pattern book wouldn’t be the best way to learn to crochet?
Continue reading Heminway Tie Book No. 1, 1920
Lion Costume for Head Over Heels (Film), Diablo Valley College, 2021
I don’t know if this would have come as a surprise to me if it were not 2020-2021 when we went from the idea of doing Head Over Heels as a first part of Fall semester stage musical, to a film production taking up the whole Spring Semester and only premiering for streaming download this June of 2021 (final weekend of streaming is 6/18/21-6/20/21), but I did not realize until we were a week or two into filming that there was supposed to be a lion in this show. For a long time I did not have a script (while we were getting the OK for making a film) and I did most of my designs only having seen a “Slime Tutorial” of a production taken from dodgy angles before putting pen to paper. So when I was asked a week into filming what the Lion costume was going to look like, my reaction was “What Lion Costume?”
Continue reading Lion Costume for Head Over Heels (Film), Diablo Valley College, 2021
Making Masks for the “Head Over Heels” Chorus
The masks for the chorus of Head Over Heels (Film, 2021 Diablo Valley College) were made by sewing a cloth cover which had been drawn with sharpies to a KN95 mask. You can see the images below of the cloth covers before application to the masks. If you want to make a similar mask you can print out these pages and use them with a light box to see and draw out the images to replicate or adapt these designs.
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Measuring Yourself for Costume Construction
Since Covid has made close interpersonal time with people who are not members of one’s own household a problem, coming in to the costume studio just for measurements, or asking a friend to come over to do measurements, are potentially a hazard.
While some brief interpersonal time may be unavoidably needed for a costume fitting, for the duration of the current plague we want to make this sort of thing as minimal as possible.
One of the ways performers can help is by learning to take accurate measurements of oneself at home.
Continue reading Measuring Yourself for Costume Construction
Early 20th Century Sewing Instruction Books at Hathitrust
I had the good fortune to get funding to purchase 25 sewing machines to loan to students who are stuck learning online with my Sp 2021 costume design class. I discovered last March when we went on lock down for Covid-19 that only 2 of my 30 students last Spring had sewing machines at home. One had purchased one before the lock down, and another did so as soon as we were all sent home for the duration of the semester. All the rest had none.
Aging props
Aging props is half the battle when making your props fit into the scenery.
This page discusses weathering to fit a medieval setting from melty candles to fraying: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/create-medieval-fantasy-props/
This page shows how to age paper, add rust, and give your props a story of how it was used: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-weather-and-age-props/
This video goes over weathering through dry brushing techniques: https://www.punishedprops.com/2018/02/19/dry_brush_weathering/