The finished WW1 Trench Coat!

The trench coat is finished and on display at Whitchurch Silk Mill, here are a few pictures I managed to take before it had to be shipped, my husband very kindly agreed to model.

Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat

“Almost every man looks more so in a belted Trench coat”

Sydney J Harris

This is my second post on the trench coat I am currently making for Whitchurch Silk Mill. The design is complete and the fabric and notions have been sourced. The next step is creating a pattern and in this post I’m going to discuss cut, fit and size.

Not every soldier would have had the luxury of heading over to Haymarket and having his uniform plus extras such as an all-weather coat especially made. While the lower ranks uniforms were off the peg, officers could afford to head to a tailor to have their items bespoke made.

Tailors were sent instructions from the war officer on how each item of uniform was to be made, to ensure uniforms were in fact uniform. Books were published focusing on creating military patterns and aimed at tailors.These books are a great source of information for costumiers today looking to remake WW1 uniforms. The book I am using is one I have used before for creating WW1 uniforms.

The publishers also printed a magazine, which they mention above. Here is an example of that magazine during the war; it included different patterns in each issue.

This is the pattern closest to my final trench coat design, which I plan to adapt.

This is how the patterns are presented in the book, if you have any experience of pattern cutting you will see that they are quite different from how patterns are laid out today, I imagine this looks fairly abstract to non cutters!

The book also gives very detailed instructions on how to take measurements

But what size should this trench coat be? What size was the average man in 1914?

Any man willing to enlist and join the army could do so providing he was of the right height, age and he passed a set of physical tests. He needed to be taller than 5 feet 3 inches and aged between 18 and 38. Remember many man were so keen to go to war they lied about their age!

The average height of the recruit in 1914 appears to have been around 5ft 5in, with anyone above 5ft 7in being considered quite tall by the standards of the day. The Average weight would have been around 8 stone and the average age would have been around 30 with a chest measuring 34”

This is quite a bit smaller than today’s average

It just so happens that I am 5 feet 5 inches tall, but I must be considerably better fed, as I weigh nine and a half stone, even at my thinnest, aged about 30 I was a good half a stone heavier than our average soldier. If we look at today’s BMI charts I now sit smack bang in the middle of the healthy weight section, our soldier falls just into the underweight section. So why was the arrange recruit so small?

In 1915 the total available number of men of military age was 5.5 million, with around 500,000 more reaching that age each year. By late September, 2.25 million men had been enlisted with a further 1.5 million in reserved occupations. Of the rest, the recruiters had uncovered a shocking fact; almost two in every five volunteers were entirely unsuitable for military service on the grounds of health.

Some men were disabled by accidents, others suffered from inherited conditions and many had diseases, which are although almost unheard of today were common in 1914. Skeletal tuberculosis affected bones and joints and was a major cause of physical disability, as was Polio which could have a lifelong impact. Poverty also gave rise to another common cause of childhood disability; rickets, a bone-weakening disease. This might help to explain why so many men were turned away.

The sad fact is that many men at this time were under-nourished and enlisting offered them the change of three square meals a day. This is reinforced by the fact that after enlisting many young men put on a stone in weight and grew 2 inches while being properly fed and taking part in physical training.

Officers generally came from more well off backgrounds and as such could expect to be better fed and perhaps a little larger than the average soldier. All of this was taken into account when deciding on the size of our Trench coat.

I am told the silk for the lining is being woven as I type so it wont be long before I can start construction, expect more news quite soon, bearing in mind my blog has its own time, just like Narnia, which is much slower than your real world human time, oh and I have a book to finish

Critical Incidents

I completed my PGCE eightish years ago, one of the course work assignments was a journal of ten incidents and my reflections on them. We were told we could present them in any format we liked as long as we stuck to the word count. Being an art and design teacher, I made mine an illustrated scrapbook. My tutor was so in awe of it, she asked to keep hold of it when I finished my course.

Many a poor student had it inflicted on them over the following years, who my husband says must have considered it the work of a failed artist, and to those people I apologise, it is over the top, to say the least!

All these years later my journal ended up back in the art office and my old colleagues returned it to me. I enjoyed reminiscing and seeing my past self, I had forgotten a lot of the work that went into it.

It’s hard to share in pictures, there are so many interactive elements, but I have done my best.

The book starts with a portrait of me, based on one of my favorite paintings (I was a contextual studies teacher) I wonder if any of you can guess the painting? A clue: focus on my stance, not the backdrop! I think a prize might be in order for the first person who manages to guess correctly!

Issue 1 explores an incident in which one student attacks another. The notes and drawings are based on the life and work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the evidence bag is a real one, I sweet talked my way into a wodge of them when I was at Uni, the text is in the evidence bag.

Issue 2 is about re-enactment and teaching history, this page has lots of pull out flaps, and fold out diagrams, the pictures show me playing Emma Hamilton!

Issue 3 is based on my WW2 work, there are flaps that fold out at the side, every inch is covered with period images, some of photos are of my own relatives, the text is inside the envelope.

Issue 4, on the challenges of teaching fashion construction is printed on hand decorated fabric which I made into the dress shown on the left. Talk about time to kill!

Issue 5 is based on an experiment I conducted to discover what impact what I wore had on how people reacted to me in the classroom

Issue 6 explores teaching numeracy in art and design

Issue 7 is about teaching students what the industry is really like

Issue 8 is about history, fashion and fur

Issue 9 is based on a college trip to the V&A, the pages on the right fold in and down, the drawings and pictures are all my own, which I managed to complete in between stopping the students from setting fire to things in the gallery and hauling them out of McDonald’s

Issue 10 talks about me learning a new skill knitting, and reflects on teaching traditional female crafts and women’s suffrage, I wrote a history of women’s suffrage on the yarn before knitting it, there is a picture of me, which I have misplaced, knitting this sample. I remember writing on the yarn between classes, it took ages, as you would expect.

The whole book feels like a time capsule, from a place long ago and far away. somewhere I enjoyed revisiting.

“The best sporting weather proof that the world has yet seen or is ever likely to see”

Sometimes I get projects that are simple, client A wants costume X, I make costume X and everyone is happy. Simple.

 

Sometimes however I get the chance to work on much more complex projects, projects that require research, thinking, testing and decisions, these are generally more interesting if a little more challenging.

 

At first I thought making a WWI Trench Coat for Whitchurch Silk Mill was going to be one of the simple projects, but this is turning out to have so much more depth than I imagined possible and as much as I can I’m going to share my process with you as this project unfolds.

 

Whitchurch Silk Mill is the oldest silk mill in the UK, still in its original building in rural Hampshire it is a working Georgian water mill that still weaves silk using 19th century machinery. They used to weave silk for linings for Burberry coats and for this project I have been commissioned to make trench coat to be lined with a special one off commemoratory silk to mark the anniversary of centenary of the First World War.

The “trench Coat” was really the first raincoat, made of gabardine a waterproof heavy-duty cotton fabric invented by Thomas Burberry in 1880. worn by officers in in the Boer war, where they were a real hit, being lightweight, waterproof and hard-wearing.

 

They became called “trench coats” in World War One, in which they proved to be ideally suited to trench warfare. Their popularly has continued and they are considered a design classic today. You may have spotted one being worn in episode 4 of the BBC WWI drama The Crimson Field.

The design changed during the Great War as improvements were made to assist the trench bound wearers. The first challenge was for me to choose which version of the coat to make (Cue Lindsey following white rabbit down research black hole…)

 

The trench coat you see today is typically double-breasted with 10 front buttons, wide lapels, a storm flap, buttoned pockets, belted at the waist, buckled straps around the wrists and buttoned shoulder straps.

 

The early coats were quite different;

Single breasted, plain, long and full, these coats from The Burberry Catalogue in 1905 are much the same design officers took to war in 1914.

 

During the war the design changed to suit the needs of modern warfare, key changes were the wrist straps, to keep the mud out, the the storm flap to keep the rain out, shoulder straps to keep kit straps fully on the shoulder and D loops on the belt which allowed for carrying more items of equipment around (not hand grenades, that’s just silly) shown here on an original coat.

We wanted our coat to tell the story of the Great War, so we chose to go with a later design allowing us to explore all of the above, but we were also keen to make sure it is not just a modern coat, our final design is very similar to this design from this poster from the IWM collection.

Now we have the shape, next is the Fabric, we need a gabardine or drill cotton in the right colour, but what is the right colour?

Officers heading over to Burberrys Haymarket store could have coats made up in a range of colours, this was after all a bespoke item, but there was only really one colour suitable for a war time coat, especially if it was to be worn as part of your uniform.

Khaki, or drab which has its origins in India is used by armies around the world for their uniforms. The word Khaki comes from the Persian word meaning soil. It has been used to denote both a yellow-brown and a green, but like dirt, over the years is has been applied to a range of colours.

you can buy precoated waterproof cottons to make raincoats today if you wish, they come in a fairly standard palette shown below.

the top colour being a little too cream and the second one down not quite being a drab enough green, the main issue with these fabrics is the grain, or lack of, these are very tightly woven cottons, you can hardly see they have been woven at all, but look at this close up of an original WWI Burberry trench coat.

We need a fabric with the same weave, weight and drape to be able to match the look of the original and this is I think is almost more important than colour. Saying that we have managed to find a fabric which meets these requirements and is only a shade or two darker than we imagine the original would have been when new.

In my next post on this project I will talk about creating a pattern and the fitting process.

 

 

love, loss and the unfinished

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes work never begun

– Christina. G. Rossetti

All adventurous sewers have one. Mine is currently in the form of a large blue plastic laundry basket

Every year in that fatty bit in between Christmas and New Year I challenge myself to sort it out, i.e. finish or chuck items, but then the year rolls on and I move on to real projects, needed, wanted, loved things.

Mine is normally overflowing, I start by listing all of the items, this normally fills an A4 sheet, easily 30 plus items.The plan is to cross each one off as I deal with them, mostly because I like crossing things off lists.

Some of them are quite old, some started as something for a client and were discarded or replaced, some where personal projects not finished in time and similarly discarded, some got boring or became a challenge all ending up in the same space, some are just in need of mending and thus ignored if at all possible

Only this year, having I have cheated and continued my quest into January and filling my space moments I have finally toppled it. Maybe I just got feed up of selling the same old bags of fabric every year.

Yes, My unfinished sewing projects basket is empty, having inherited USP ‘s including discovered projects from as far back at the 1920s and found some in museum collections I am fully aware this is quite an achievement.

I felt quite chuffed for about ten minutes, then a little empty, like my life had lost a little bit of meaning, I think there’s a reason we leave projects unfinished, but keep them on hand, I think I might have messed with sewing karma. Perhaps they are a talisman for long life and continued craftiness? I can’t die or get a proper job, what about my USP’s?!

And now what have I gone and done? Now I am left with large pile of quite random finished items I have no use for, and have created a whole new job in re-homing them, and we all know any money I make from selling them will be re invested in more fabric.

Just as some people distrust those with clean desks, I think there is a good argument for being wary of those sewers who do not have USP’s, In fact I fear the projects we dont finish tell us more about ourselves than those we do.

I am not afraid. I was born to do this.

I am not afraid. I was born to do this

– Joan of Arc

I have been struggling a bit this week to come up with a good topic for a post. But having taken two months off to move house (and studio) at the end of last year I am only just getting back into the swing of things and my current daily grind of completing quotes, calls, funding apps, audits, filing and clearing out my bottomless basket of unfinished sewing projects isn’t the most interesting fodder.

But I was reminded by a visit from my landlord, whom is quite star struck at the excitement of renting to a costume designer (apparently you don’t meet one of those everyday) that I had not replied to the last person who asked me advice on how to get into costume. It occurred to me when first asked that it would make quite a good blog topic, so I planned one and didn’t write it, so I’m sorry Lucie, this is for you.

When I tell people what I do the normal reply is “wow” followed but a short vision of glitter appearing before their eyes, this normally indicates that they think this is both exciting and glamorous, sometimes it’s just glitter, but that is rare and really quite weird, unless it’s panto season, then its standard. But as my landlord discovered the reality of the day to day life of a costume designer is much less interesting.

Currently the reality is: (picture the scene reader) a woman in novelty slippers, surrounded by pins and covered in threads, stitching, while Midsummer Murders episodes loop in the background.

I started out in fashion, but soon discovered I’m not as good at coming up with new stuff as I am at copying old stuff. And by “copying” I mean pulling research together to make something new, naturally, but also making something which fits into a pre designed space, story, stage, props, character, actors etc.

I fell into costume design through my work volunteering at a museum, much of my work still involves museums. I love working with museums, in my experience they are always excited to see what you are doing and hear your ideas.

The truth of it is, that of the many people I have trained with and later those I taught myself, very few now work in costume, many have decided, or been forced to go with another option. I too have had a few “proper jobs” along the way to help ends meet.

In reality I call myself a costume designer for simplicity, despite the fact that is not all I do, but people get bored if you say you’re a costume designer, come teacher, come museum consultant, come project officer, come artist and so on. But even if I didn’t enjoy it I think I would have to do so many things to keep working and I enjoy varying what I do. Often it boils down to not being able to afford to employ a project manager and thus having to do it yourself.

You may imagine that perhaps the realty of say, working on a film set is much more glamorous then heaming dresses in the studio. Well yes I can be exciting, but mostly it is very cold, or hot, with lots of waiting and then moments of pure madness and the days are very very long. Way after everyone else has gone home you will still be sorting, washing and prepping for the next day.

If you imagined that costume design would involve attending the Oscars to collect your award, you would be right, but only if you are willing to do what it takes to become that 1%.

How to get there is no big secret, you must forgot all things other than costume, you must live and breathe it, you must have no time for true love, or any love, family, children, even living in one place is near impossible. Oh and you must also be lucky and confident enough to go for the breaks in the split second that they happen.

One of the reasons I am able to work as I do is because I am a reasonable bid writer, you would be amazed by the skills you find useful in costume, and many of these come from those “proper jobs” you are forced to take along the way.

Not that I want to put you off a career in costume, if it is your dream, follow it, but believe me you when I say will have to fight for it every step of the way.

And with regard to “tips”

1, The more skills you have the more you can do, always keep learning new things and improving your current skills set.

2, Attend as many costume events as you can, make yourself known, make friends and find out all that you can. Much work can come from talking to the right person in say, the yoga class you just both happen to take…

3, Collaborate, sometimes having people to call on is the only way to get the job or get the job done.

4, Learn to live on next to nothing, then when times are hard you are less likely to have to give up your dream and get a proper job.

5, Volunteer, sad but true, unpaid work is the best way of making contacts and getting on the inside. I funded my year of voluntary work by working six days a week teaching and volunteering one day a week in a museum. But always go into it with what you want to get out of it clear in your mind and be ready to change directions if its not working for you as well as for them.

6, When you see an opportunity, never hesitate, you are rarely the only one who can sees.

7, If you don’t have the financial backing to just have a go, remember having to work hard for what you want makes your stronger, and hungrier. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t, think of each “can’t” as more fuel in your engine.

Good Luck!

Do not be angry with the rain

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”

 ― Vladimir Nabokov

New years day, I am woken by the rain on my window, it continues, keeping all but the very brave or foolhardy inside. I am happy to curl up with my books researching Frankengirl till it dawns on me that my actions are once again being lead by atmospheric forces.

This time last year when Kaddy, I and our friends at the Polar Museum were busy making plans for The Snow Queen every meeting was met with approval from the Queen herself, varying from a light flutter of snow to a near blizzard, this was something we got used to and it was quite normal for text and textile inspiration to hit while trying to go about our normal life’s in the mitts of the Snow Queen’s weather favors.

 Well Kaddy my dear I think it’s happening again

Mary Shelley Wrote The Modern Prometheus in the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Stuck inside thanks to the rain, the party spent their time sitting round the fire reading German ghost stories, the rain continued and they progressed to challenging each other to write their own. Shelley was inspired by the groups discussions on the 18^th century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin* who was said to have animated dead matter, the story she wrote grew up to become became Frankenstein

“I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for SUPREMELY frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world”

– Mary Shelley

Frankenstein was written in the long rainy summer of 1816, 1816 become known as the year without a summer, the Summer that never was, the year there was no summer, and even eighteen hundred and froze to death, It was very wet and very cold. The weather effected large parts of the world, causing poverty and famine as crops were destroyed.

It could just be rain, which we get a lot of in the UK anyway, Moving from one the country’s driest areas (Peterborough) to one which regularly floods (Worcester) must have had an impact…

But then…

But then I remembered that the other day while walking to town the rain started to come down so hard I was forced to shelter in the doorway of the building, the Pandora that I am I was soon inside and exploring the building, this really is a story for another blog** but the upshot is that this lead me to a huge revelation about my work on the project

And then all of a sudden, I knew our new boss was in the building (so to speak)

So Kaddy, expect rain, and expect it to force your hand in wonderful ways

Personally I have already swapped my red shoes for some red wellies…

Signed

Your pale student of unhallowed arts

* Another physician and poet Keats fans!

** New Years resolutions and that, that post might even be soon!

Costume Designers have a lot to answer for

Once upon a 2013 a fluffy headed seamstress collaborated with a talented poet lady in a wonderfully friendly museum at the edge of the world and in the centre of Cambridge. And it was magical.

Much later the very same seamstress was given a book, a book which started a train of thought and a bucket full of memories.

It all stated with this little ladybird book, a present from my husband.

As a little girl I loved my ladybird books. I didn’t have this one. I remember I had one on swimming, Journey to the centre of the earth and Thumbelina, I think I also had The elves and the shoemaker, never-the-less I grew up to be a costume designer (rather an an elf or a shoemaker) so this book was love at first sight.

It is very much a product of this time, sweet and funny at the same time.

Just look at these early costumes, what lovely tidy hair and make up ladies, jolly well done!

 And having spent a lot of this year making regency dress, I found this picture most inspiring, I think a stripy 1960s style empire dress may be essential to my future regency projects.

But by far my favorite page in the book is this one on the of the clothes of today, a few points here

– Nice car

-Father is clearly a cad, Don Draper best watch his step, theres a new ladys man in town

– Mother’s trousers may have shocked her great grandparents but I am shocked by her daughter unreferenced hotpants and  devil may care attitude

 This lead me on a whimsical journey not to the centre of the earth but to the internet and what I found is that the project Kaddy and I worked on this year and our next project have both been made into ladybird books, so of course I brought both of them immediately.

 The Snow Queens, inside cover was for me a rush of childhood memories,

 A few points about this version of the book

This Gerda has very simpler taste in hats to both Kaddy and myself

The Snow Queen has a cape which people can get in, much like our snow queen experience

 The little robber girl is a cocky child, but that might just be because is she not stuck in a 1970s nightdress like Gerda, no wonder she’s crying poor dear, that looks itchy and highly flammable.

Kay spends his time with the snow queen much as I will be spending my Christmas break, trying to solve an impossible puzzle, mine is making a map from hundreds of tiny layer cut compasses, made during the project.

Frankenstein is one of one two Ladybird horror books, the other being Dracula

 The most surprising thing about this simplified version of the story is that Victor Frankenstein is played by Bradley Wiggins, wearing his own collection of mod suits.

 Here Bradley appear to talk both to himself and his older self. No wonder the blonde looks confused.

 The monster is based on the classic 1931 film version of Mary Shelley creation.

Here is said monster with his maker Bradley Wiggins, who appears to be off to addition for the role of Sherlock Holmes.

The monster is made from bits of humans. Why then if victor can be so skilled as to give life to assorted lumps of stitched together flesh, does he make such a hash job on the monster? Where would he even find such parts, and why is he green? Did he run out of thread and have to start using bolts?

The blame lies with the films designers

Make up designer Jack Piece created Boris Karloff’s iconic flat headed monster, As well as other monster makeup for Universal Studios. The look took four hours to complete and required collegian, cotton, gum and green greasepaint. Green was used as it looks very pale on black and while film, and this is the reason the monster is frequently hereafter depicted as green. The neck bolts also come from this film, they are in fact electrodes as electricity is used as the life giving force.

The films costume designer was Mae Bruce, she created the poorly fitted suit and huge shoes, also frequently referenced to this day.

 The films monster is still commonly accepted as the visual representation of Mary Shelley’s creation to this day, as this little books shows. And look what else I found while hanging out in the Lego shop.

Merry Christmas Kaddy, enjoy your gifts, I look forward to working with you in 2014

 Your own fluffy headed monster maker

Wanted! Victorian footballers!

Hi

 

We are currently looking for performers to take part in a costumed performance at the big Weekend In Cambridge on Saturday the 6th of July.

 

The performance will celebrate 150 years of the Cambridge Rules (the rules upon which todays current games was founded) and the Football Association’s 150th anniversary.

 

The performance will be staged on parkers piece and will illustrate what football would have been like before the rules were implemented.

 

Actors will need to physically fit, as it will involve running about for an hour. Knowledge of football would be an advantage. We are looking for about 14 actors in total, males and females welcome, (you will be depicting men) Actors will ideally be based in Cambridge or willing to travel. The piece will work around key events, but a fair amount of devising and audience engagement is likely.

 

Rehearsals will take place on the Saturday morning from 10am and the performance will be between 2pm and 3pm

 

Reasonable travel costs will be covered, lunch will be provided and paid a small fee. There will be also photos and footage of the performance and we are expecting good press coverage.

 

Any interested actors should get in touch ASAP. Please feel free to pass this information on to any other groups who may be interested in taking part.

 

Thanks,

 

– Lindsey

 

 

 

 

A feast for your eyes

A feast of medical loveliness for you to enjoy with you eyes, from the Cambridge Folk Museum