Sewing Techniques For Theatre

Sewing Techniques for Theatre: An Essential Guide for Beginners distills the intimidating art of sewing down into simple, quick, and effective lessons to prepare readers for an entry-level position in a costume shop. The lessons follow an hour-by-hour structure, offering detailed instructions to creating 11 sewing samples, a scrub shirt, and a tote bag. Embedded in the projects’ directions are lecture materials on safety, irons, fabric, and patterns. With a wealth of hands-on exercises, review questions, photographs, and step-by-step instructions for compiling a portfolio, this guide teaches aspiring costume technicians about the culture and machinery of the costume shop, and equips them with the necessary skills to begin their career as members of a costume shop team.

All students of costuming need to learn basic sewing techniques to build costumes for theatrical performance. Basic Sewing for Costume Construction teaches just those fundamentals. Cunningham brings decades of classroom experience as she guides readers with clearly laid-out projects covering hand stitching, fasteners, pinning, sewing, and seams. Additional material on measurement, fabric selection, and use of commercial patterns, as well as three complete construction projects, round out the Second Edition. Each project builds on the previous one to develop a full understanding of the costume construction process.

The possibilities for three-dimensional manipulation of fabric - gathering, pleating, tucking, shirring, and quilting woven materials - are seemingly endless. To describe them all would be to describe the entire history of sewing. In The Art of manipulating Fabric, Colette Wolff has set herself just this task, and she succeeds brilliantly. Working from the simplest possible form - a flat piece of cloth and a threaded needle - she categorizes all major dimensional techniques, show how they are related, and give examples of variations both traditional and modern. The result is an encyclopedia of techniques that resurface, reshape, restructure and reconstruct fabric. • More than 350 diagrams support the extensive how-tos, organized into broad general categories, then specific sub-techniques • Handsome photos galleries showcase the breathtaking possibilities in each technique and aid visual understanding by emphasizing the sculptured fabric surface with light and shadow • Textile artists and quilters, as well as garment and home decor sewers, will expand their design horizons with the almost limitless effects that can be achieved.

Sewing techniques are sometimes overlooked in the design process but acquiring these skills can be transformational. The ability to turn a two-dimensional design into its three-dimensional realization comes from having mastered basic sewing techniques. Sewing Techniques simplifies the often complex techniques that lie behind this process by arming designers with the precise information and skills needed to undertake each task. Designers who develop a basic understanding of the processes involved in sample and garment construction often produce successful outcomes based on a more experimental and creative approach applied during the product development process. Developing a sample folio and being able to refer to samples and develop them according to each individual design project is a process that requires experimentation and creative thought underpinned by a basic understanding of sewing techniques. This book explores the essential equipment needed - from fabric types to diagrams identifying component parts of a sewing machine, to machine operation. Throughout each process, clear diagrams accompanied by explanatory description panels allow readers to achieve the best possible results, including how to troubleshoot problems that may be encountered before and during sewing. Each section concludes with a project, progressing from easy to challenging. Fabrics for each project give designers the opportunity to handle different fabric types and understand the complexities of sourcing and selecting. Mastering the basic principles covered in Sewing Techniques will enable both fashion students and the contemporary craftworker to develop their techniques with a view to becoming creative practice-based professionals.

Successful costume design requires a solid foundation in general artistic principles and specific knowledge of how to apply those principles. Cunningham presents readers with just such a foundation and develops it to expose beginning costume designers to the myriad skills they need to develop in order to costume successful stage productions. She begins at the most basic conceptual level—reading plays from a costume designer's perspective. She then follows through with the practical considerations that must be considered at every stage of the costuming process—research, development, sketching, and costume construction. Cunningham has built on the long-standing success of the outstanding first edition with new figures and updates throughout the text, including 24 pages in full color. Examples have been selected from a wide range of stage productions representing a variety of designers, styles, and approaches. Interviews with award-winning designers from stage, film, and other media show the practical importance of the book's concepts. Every chapter incorporates material reflecting the ever-increasing impact of technology, especially computers, on costuming. New to this edition is an ancillary download package (available here), giving students a selection of basic figure drawings to serve as the base layer for digital renderings, ready-made forms and checklists for assembling and organizing costumes for shows, and a list of research and reference websites with easily clickable links.

A how-to guide leading the prop master through planning, pre-production, production, and post-production procedures, budgeting, collaborations with designers and other production areas, and planning a prop shop from the layout of the spaces to the health and safety protocols for shop planning and workplace management.

A History of the Theatre Costume Business is the first-ever comprehensive book on the subject, as related by award-winning actors and designers, and first hand by the drapers, tailors, and craftspeople who make the clothes that dazzle on stage. Readers will learn why stage clothes are made today, by whom, and how. They will also learn how today’s shops and ateliers arose from the shops and makers who founded the business. This never-before-told story shows that there is as much drama behind the scenes as there is in the performance: famous actors relate their intimate experiences in the fitting room, the glories of gorgeous costumes, and the mortification when things go wrong, while the costume makers explain how famous shows were created with toil, tears, and sweat, and sometimes even a little blood. This is history told by the people who were present at the creation – some of whom are no longer around to tell their own story. Based on original research and first-hand reporting, A History of the Theatre Costume Business is written for theatre professionals: actors, directors, producers, costume makers, and designers. It is also an excellent resource for all theatregoers who have marveled at the gorgeous dresses and fanciful costumes that create the magic on stage, as well as for the next generation of drapers and designers.

"As well as being accurate... patterns have been adapted so that they can be readily made up using today's fabrics and sewing methods, and fit the modern female figure... Includes scaled patterns for each costume as well as step-by-step instructions and detailed working drawings. Patterns are also included for all the correctly shaped undergarments which are essential to make each costume look right for its period." -- Back cover.