Alterations

After I did a sewing machine lesson, last week, I started to teach basic alterations.

I think I chose something too hard for the first one, though. I chose taking the the center back of men's pants.

The reason it was too hard is that there is not a formula for tapering the new seam into the crotch part of the seam, which remains the same. There was no way for me to show them exactly how to do it, without just drawing the line myself.

I also originally wanted to show them some online videos of the alteration, but they all seem to assume that the pants will be pinned perfectly, and that you aren't taking them in a great deal or trying to make them fit a different body shape (men's pants on women for example).

In our theatre, because of the lack of time for fittings, and the fact that many times the designer pins the alteration, the pins are not exactly centered on the seam. But of course, you want the seam to be centered on the butt.

So basically you have to measure the entire amount pinned out, divide by two, and re-mark the amount centered. It is a little tedious, and because of my experience I do not always do this exactly, I just sort of guess at the curve. And I will be correct, because I have done it a million times. So have the women who have made the video, plus they have the advantage of pinning themselves in a non-hurried manner. The designer and I are often fitting people in 15-30 minute increments for 12-14 hours straight.

My students, though, they need a method. and the method can't be eyeballing, which is what I do.

In retrospect, I think I should have taught this to the advanced students only, and then have them mark the alterations for the others to sew. Then, after you have sewed a couple dozen pants like this, you will being to know the curve.

I don't know- still frustrated.

The Slough of Despond

I am a little discouraged.

First, I have been sick for a week.

Second, it actually take me longer than the lab to plan the lab sometimes, and I have very limited time.

Third, I do not know how to teach "sewing" effectively or interestingly.

I can teach pattern making, even though I am still learning, because it is fresh in my mind-- I have learned it as an adult. I am really good, I have discovered, at teaching the "understanding the design" aspects because I learned them in college, and have spent time thinking about them since

The thing is, I have never learned to sew. I am almost completely self taught. Well, my mother taught me before I went to Kindergarten, but just the basics. The rest I learned from old sewing books and magazines and trial and error. I did not take costume construction in college. I have never worked in a shop where we all worked together-- we always took things home and brough them back.

So- I have no models on how to teach this, and I also have a fear that I am not teaching it the right way. Plus, sewing is very hard to talk about verbally and it is hard for people to see a demonstration.

Additionally, the students are easily frustrated. They want to have success at something right away. The only way to get good and fast at, say, operating the sewing machine is to operate it a lot. For hours and hours and hours until it is in your physical memory. I am no where near perfect, but they cannot expect to be as good as I am in a one hour lesson, when I have been using a sewing machine for 33 years.

The biggest problem with my teaching is that I learned so young that I have no memory of not knowing how to do really basic things. Like threading and knotting a needle, or making sure the threads are always behind the needle on the sewing machine, and many other things I can't even think of. I can't think of words to explain them. I just want to grab their hands and make them do it!

So... this is a little frustrating.

Blackboard

I met with all four of my students tonight for an hour, and then we went to the "meet and greet" that is held before the readthrough so that all the technical staff can meet all the actors and stage management. We were going to work more after, but I spoke with the designer today and she is not planning on making much of anything, so even though it will be big and a lot of work, it is not the same kind of work and it is easier to do with students because I am much more confident of my alterations/pulling/shopping work than my patternmaking.

The reason this post is called "Blackboard" is that I have decided to use our student online learning system for the students. They have created an "organization" which will live over the semesters where I can put information and tutorials. I originally thought I could do 2 per week, but that was overly ambitious, even for 15-20 minute tutorials. For some of them I am going to have to take and upload pictures as well, and even though I know blackboard well, it is a technically frustrating program from the instructor point of view.

I was able to prepare half a tutorial for today. It was on different types of sketches we get from designers which range from fully painted renderings, to uncolored sketches with notes and swatches, to collages, to what amounts to basically a pile of research. I was able to give examples of all of this in pictures, as well as pictures of the finished costumes.

One of my theories about doing costumes is that being a good costume shop manager/assistant is about a lot more than technical skill. In fact, I think people sometimes don't mind my lack of technical skill because I try to deeply understand the vision of the designer and how the designer works so I can try and balance their skills and emotions. So I work differently with different designers.

The first clue I usually get about how designers work are the sketches. Most of the time beautifully painted renderings mean that the designer is very sure of their vision, and wants my input on how to build it. A pile of research usually means that the designer is process oriented, and will need me to help them both build the vision, but also make sure that we make decisions in a timely manner. Sometimes, this is also dependent on the director as well, and there are certainly people who paint renderings who don't set them in stone, but in our level of theatre (usually just before people either make it or quit) but more times than not painted renderings mean that the costumes will not change much over the process.

I shared my insights in the tutorial as well. I think it is very important for students to be able to read who wants their input and suggestions and who does not. It is very uncomfortable when someone who is very sure of their vision and product oriented gets a suggestion of a completely different vision from student. On the other hand, designers who are process oriented really enjoy student perspectives on things, even if they ultimately do not choose to use their thoughts

Tonight we went through the tutorial together. I wanted feedback on how they liked it and if they would like more. I also wanted to observe them. They said they liked it, but I am not sure they should be doing it completely on their own time. Because of technical difficulties, they were 2 to a computer, and were able to have discussions on what they read. I think I will have them do their future tutorials together in the costume shop, just during the day without me there. Then they can ask me any questions in lab, but they can also discuss with each other what they don't understand. I also think it really helped that it took about 15 minutes. Any more would be annoying

The opinion was, however, that I should go ahead and make some more. So I will be putting my famous "what is a costume" lecture on-line. Hopefully by the end of the year I will have some good tutorials, and next year all I have to do is deploy them. I am also considering perhaps having each student do a simple tutorial on something they are learning as part of the learning process.

Measurements

Although I have not posted my last 2 labs, I am so excited about this I just HAVE to share!

We did measurements today and it was absolutely the best measurements sessions I have had in my life.

This is a combination of many things

1. I redid the measurement sheet to be in an easy to measure order (I left one measurement off, but it is sort of obscure)

2. I worked with my advanced students on patterning a bodice from each other's measurements, so they could see first hand what each one meant

3. I did a session with my beginner students on how to be a scribe for measurements, and since they were interested, went over each measurement, and had the advanced students measure them.

4. Since we had done the tutorials, I was able to let one of my advanced students measure, so we could measure 2 at a time. Next semester, I think the other one will be ready as well, so we can do three at a time if we have enough scribes

5. We did measurements at callbacks, so stage management handled the actors filling out their measurement sheets and making sure we saw everyone, so we did not have to worry about calling late actors or keeping people moving along.

Usually measurements is three to four nights of absolute torture- it is after my day job, with untrained students, at the same time as rehearsal. I tend to get tired and start taking ridiculous measurements.

One question for anyone out there about men's pants measurements- I can totally tell by looking at someone what size pants to buy him, but usually both the natural waist (high waist) measurement and the measurement where they wear their pants is too big. The lower measurement usually by about 2". I would think this was just about the "baggy pants" trend, but I experienced someone today who was clearly a 30, and was wearing size 30 levis, who measured 31 at the natural waist, and 32 where he wears his pants. I usually solve this for designers by writing down my guess, but if they go by my waist measurement they consistently buy the wrong size! Help!

First Lesson- bodice drafting

Part of my review of the calendar lead me to the conclusion that I have been teaching backwards. I was starting with hand sewing, moving on o machine sewing, and then, possibly to pattern-making and measuring. And this seems forward. It is how I learned. It is how most everyone learns. However, I have been sewing since I was 4 years old, so that would be 33 years. I am still not an expert. What I have to do is take students who will be with me at most 4 years and at least one semester and not only teach them something, but teach them something that will be useful to me/the costume shop.

So, in the costume shop, we start by measuring, then making patterns, the machine sewing mock-ups, then fitting, then revising patterns, the machine sewing real fabric, then fitting again, and the hand-sewing. Also, to be frank, I am so fast and good and hand sewing that I can basically complete something in 15 minutes that will take my students hours. Seriously, I am a hemming machine. Also, students seem to HATE hand sewing. And the only way to get really good at it is by doing it a lot. Way more than we have time for.

Now, a hand-sewing anecdote: How I became good at hand-sewing.

It is about 1/2 experience and 1/2 patience. The patience came with age. Seriously, I turned 28, and all of the sudden hand-sewing didn't make me crazy. It was relaxing and zen, and I could do it easily while doing other things. The experience also, sort of, came with age. I have done a lot of it. But it mostly came from working wardrobe. When I worked wardrobe, they would call us in toward the end of the construction process to help get things ready. And they didn't give us "hard" jobs. It was all hemming, and tacking facings, and sewing on snaps, and lingerie hooks, and skirts hooks, and other hooks, etc etc. I have probably sewn on thousands of fasteners and done hundreds of hems. And before I was 28, I hated it. In addition, working wardrobe, those were the things that needed to be repaired many times over. So then I learned to do them REALLY well so I didn't have to repair them!

Although I still want to expose my students to hand sewing, I have come to the conclusion that harping on it only "annoys me and frustrates the pig".

Therefore, my first lesson is to two of my returning students, who are fairly proficient already on the machine, and in hand sewing, and have designed student shows.

I planned on teaching them how to measure for and draft a bodice block. I used this tutorial from Burda Patterns which uses fewer measurements than I am used to, but has the added bonus of a sleeve draft that seems to relate to the bodice draft. The sleeve pattern fitting in the armhole is my nemesis. Seriously, I have never yet been successful.

I also created, using my awesome administrative assistant skills, an excel spreadsheet which would convert the measurements to centimeters, and do all the calculations for the pattern in both imperial (converted to sixteenths) and metric (to the hundredths place). I hate doing math and I love spreadsheets.

So I met with L and B on Sunday and we worked through the bodice together. They measured each other, and each created a pattern for the other. We did the measurements as they went along, rather than all in the beginning.

This was a qualified success- we ended up with bodice patterns!

Things I would keep:

1. Measuring as we went along really helped them identify how what they were measuring matched parts of the bodice.

2. Me talking them through it rather than students following the tutorials themselves. The tutorial is pretty wordy

3. The timing-- before measurements

4. The tutorial itself is good so far

5. Only teaching 2 people. Three I would not be able to handle.

6. Using the tutorial to explain why we have ease, the difference between movement ease and design ease, and also why we do not end the dart directly on the bust point.

Things to change

1. Students need own computer. Me trying to keep track of 2 spreadsheets on one computer and read the measurements out to them was super annoying. Also detracted from them doing it on their own which will help them on the next bodice.

2. Possibly the above would solve this problem, but it was too long. We went over by 45 minutes, and I was getting tired and irritated and so were they. I tend to lose my verbal explanation skills, and resort to manipulating their hands on the rulers!. Consider splitting into 2 one and 1/2 hour sessions.

3. I think I may need to write out a tutorial if this method works, as the dude who writes this is super-wordy.

4. Need more L-squares- we had to share one (these are on order)

5. Consider changing lesson to centimeters.

Planning

I have spent more time prepping for this year than ever before-- in fact I think this may be the first time I have had the energy to do a lot of pre-planning. I was able to work with a friend who recently completed work on her Masters degree in Education, and even though she was in elementary education it was very helpful. Although I had originally intended on being a teacher, I have little formal education in the art of teaching. My background is in being a student, a higher education program assistant, and in costume design and wardrobe. However, for almost 10 years I have been "teaching" a costume lab and running a costume shop at a University. This is rather odd given that my background includes neither teaching nor working in costume construction. Over the years, I have increased my knowledge in costume construction a great deal and now I want to begin a more organized method of sharing this with my students both those who are taking a class and those who are paid assistants.

There are several obstacles to this goal. First, it has been made clear over the years by our department head and artistic director that our main objective is the show, not the students. he feels that they will learn things by being along for the ride, so to speak. Because all of our designers are NOT in residence, and in fact have only three visits to our facilities, the ride sometimes happens without them! But I cannot reduce the quality of the work in any way, so I am in the position that if something a student creates in unsatisfactory, I will need to redo it.

Second, I am "part-time" contract employee who gets paid, frankly, a pittance. One year I calculated my hourly rate, and it comes out to about $1.87 per hour. I hold a fairly challenging full-time job during the day and in order to survive monetarily I need to make sure that my day job has priority. I do not have one more minute in the day I can add to working in the costume shop.

Third, I am by my nature a disorganized person. I always complete things on time, but the path to that is sometimes fraught with procrastination. I do not feel it is fair to make other people work in a frenzy due to my procrastination, so I am often completing things alone I also spend my day job organizing other people, so often my organizational skills are completely spent before I arrive at the shop.

Fourth, I receive little to no support from the full time production staff, which includes a full time production manager, technical director, carpenter/painter and stage assistant/props master. I am, in fact, expected to seek out any information I miss from production meetings, staff meeting, and other talk during the day, either by asking or by sending a student to the meetings in my stead. I used to be angry about this, but now I just sort of laugh. There is a systemic devaluing of costumes which I feel is related to clothes/sewing/crafting being "feminine", but I can no longer fight that fight.

Finally, the outside designers are not educators. They are not doing this to educate people. Because of the part of their career path they are on, they are looking for really good portfolio pieces. Most of them are uninterested in working with unskilled students themselves, and frustrated both the part-time nature of my position and the fact that there is no separate time for students to learn skills-- they have to learn them while working on the show costumes.

The only parameter I can change is my personal disorganization. The other obstacles just need to be worked around. I am hoping by taking the time for some early prep, revising when I teach certain things to match the trajectory of the show, and by empowering students upfront I will be able to increase student learning and satisfaction while not adding significantly, and perhaps subtracting from, the time I spend at this job.

So, with this said, this year my goals are:

1. To empower the students to help themselves on projects, research, and skills building

2. To help each student improve their concrete costume constructions skills to the next level

3. To teach students in such a way that it relieves the pressure for me to complete all the costumes

4. To imbue students with a love of theatre, theatre costumes, and an understanding of WHY we do things

5. To increase students' independence and leadership skills with their peers

6. To keep the shop organized and easy to use