Felt Skull Cap

Due to the expense of all the pre- made millinery products I decided to make my own felt skull caps as felt is rather inexpensive in itself. I have backed the felt with a heavy weight black interlining to strengthen the fabric. To make the caps it involved using the steam iron to gradually soften and stretch the felt around the shape of the head block and pinning it in place. Each cap does take quite a bit of time and patience as each section needs to be heated up and stretched around the head and securely pinned into place. It is not possible to try and by-step certain parts of the processes, for example not putting in as many pins, as without each step it is impossible to get a perfect finish.

Felt Stiffened with Interlining

The interlining stiffener does make the process a little harder as it takes longer to work the felt around the head. It also makes it more difficult to completely smooth the gathers of the fabric out around hem of the felt, but this is nothing a little perseverance cannot overcome. 

Head Block Mannequin

Pinning the Felt around the Head

Once the felt had been moulded into place I used a strip of binding along the hem to prevent the felt from shrinking back to its original shape. This was tacked and then sewn in using a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine; the excess felt can then be trimmed off. Each hat has been an individual learning process in itself. Determining how much fabric to use was the biggest challenge, as it is not until the hat has been fitted round the head that one knows how much felt is actually needed. I finally worked out that each hat uses around a 12inch square of felt to allow enough excess for it to fit. As the skull caps purpose is to purely maintain the shapes of the headpiece they do not need to fit tightly to the head, so the different sizes of peoples head do not need to be taken into account as the caps are just placed onto the head.

Pinning the Felt

Binding Tape

 

Finished Skull Cap

Fabric Shopping

I have been making some further test hats around the hat block, as I have only been tying them around my own head. Tying the Geles around a detached object was quite different as the hat block does not behave in the same way as a human head. However the block meant that I was able to pin some of the fabric in place and overall created a neater finish. Once the prototypes had been made out of calico, we discussed the idea and it was agreed that the fabric should be in an African style patterned fabric rather than a plan white. The plan white had originally been chosen as the play uses multimedia projections which they wanted to be picked out on the costumes, however a folded piece of fabric is unlikely to show up any projections also the patterns and styles of the hats instantly suggest African women.

Example Gele

 I made a mock up hat using some patterned fabric found in the faion shops. I backed it with some heavy calico which i tacked together to hold them in place. the two layers of fabric made the whole piece a lot firmer which will be good when I come to make the finished pieces. I also really liked the two toned affect of the pattern and the plan, so I will be maintaining that for the final pieces as well.

Patterned Gele

Back of the Gele

A shopping trip was arranged to sample fabric and the options available. I looked at the patterned fabric in John Lewis of which there was only a select few, these all came in at around £10.00 a meter with each hat using 2 meters this would have been a costly choice. I then went to the fabric shops in Shepherds Bush which had a wide range of patterned cotton where I bought 8 meters of patterned fabric at £2.50 a meter. Some of the fabric has quite a stiff waxy feeling to them; as they off cuts from pre- cut fabric which is used to made traditional African and Asian clothing, so will need little starching and will hold well when it is are folded.

Fabric

Whats that now ... Plan G?

For the last week I have been playing about with the construction of the Geles. Although tying them is relatively simple, they are not designed to be worn several times without re-tying them. This means that in order for them to be used for several performances they need to be more sturdy/ substantial around the head band as the fabric begins to unravel once it is taken off the head. I have been exploring ways to strength the part of the Gele that ties around the head. One option is to use a Sinamay product which is a stiff, straw like material that is weaved to make hat bases, mainly used for fascinators and are around £5.00 each. Notwithstanding this products uses, it does not work in this situation as they are only 5 inches in diameter, whereas, I need something that will start at the back of the head and cover all over to the forehead. 

Sinamay Hat Base

A further option is to use a felt hat base that can be steamed over a hat block into the desired shape and then cut to size. I did some Internet research into these products and also visited two millinery supply shops, Milliner Warehouse and Macculloch and Wallis, in London to see firsthand what products could be used. I found that a Wool felt cone hat base was around £6.00 and a Velour felt cone was £21.00, so even using the cheaper product 12 hats would add up to over £70.00 which did not include the rest of the fabric to make the Gele. This was TOO much ... especially as we don’t have an extensive budget. 

Felt Hat Base

Plan three was the possible use of wire/ corset boning or similar to make a head band that could be inserted into the headdress or manipulated to make the size skull cap that would be needed. The final decision taken was to buy some black felt; that in itself is relatively cheap, that can then be steamed into shape over the hat block. When these have been prepared the fabric can then be stitched to the base and built up around it to make a sturdy head piece that will last the course of all the performances. 

The Gele

I have been trying to make a mock up example of a possible headdress. I have found that starching a heavy weight calico works really well and easily allows the fabric to be wrapped and tied around the head, but still be stiff enough to hold its shape. There is, however, a draw back with this method as once the headpiece has been removed it does not hold its shape and begins to fall apart. This means that they would have to potentially be re-tied for every performance. A few solutions could be making the fabric stiffer with an inter webbing between two pieces of calico and then sewing parts of the piece in place. Another could be to stitch in some wire or flexible boning along the edges to make it more sturdy. These are all things I am hoping can be discussed with the group during the tutorial.

African Chief

At the Presentation to Walk Tall  there did not appear to be any designs or ideas for the African Chief costume, so I have gathered together a few images of possible outfits. When the brief was first given there were a few ideas from the producers about either a more traditional African costume or military dictator. A few of us discussed some ideas when we got back to uni after the presentations and thought that a dictator may be a little too sinister for a children's performance so decided to look into the more traditional African clothing. Designing the costume after meeting the actors has made this process a little more simple as we were able to picture the man who would be wearing it and build it around him. We talked of a loose fitting Kaftan style shirt and trousers with a round hat. These costumes are called Dashiki and the small brimless hats are Kufi's.

Dashiki

 

Kufi

Walk Tall Presentation

We met up with the Walk Tall charity organisers who are producing the performance at Manor Primary School to present our designs and discuss further the ideas for the show. All the designs were placed on the stage so the organisers were able to look over all the designs and research and discuss with us how they could be translated into the really thing, what would be feasible and what they would like to adapt.  I was pleased that they all liked my designs for the African children and the ribbons/ wings for their arms, which had been requested by the parents involved, as I was not very confident in my work to begin with. They also liked a poncho design for the children as these would be easy and cheap to make, but also really effective, so we are now going to look into combining the ideas together. This would mean that the leader of each element group (fire, water, air and earth) would have the more complex costume and the other members of the group would have the poncho.

Designs for the African headdresses/ Gele were also well received, as they are quick and cheap to make, but also will have a real impact on the performance. For this a few prototypes need to be made, it could be that a starched piece of calico or cotton would work, or it might have to be made of layers of fabric with a stiff interfacing.

All the designs were then shown again to the children and parents who are performing the show. Some of the parents had a few reservations about the adult African costumes as they were a little different to how they had imagined. However, I think it is important to stay away from stereotypes and what we think African wear, but rather base things on sound research and knowledge.  

Overall as a team we have further subdivided into two sections one group will be working on the African costumes and the other on the Victorian. We will still meet as a whole team and cross over where the help is needed.

Element Costume Designs

I drew some further designs for the Childrens elements costumes just to give a greater variety and possibilties of what could be produced.

Water

Air

Earth

Fire