Costume College Part 1 - Classes

Man, I've really been slacking on updating the blog, sorry about that. Not that I haven't been sewing mind you... 

Anyway, I just got back from Costume College and have lots to say about it so I'll do multiple posts. In this one I'll focus on the classes I took.

Actually I took hardly any classes this year!   Most of the ones I wanted to take were at exactly the same time as my limited classes - so frustrating!  That said my limited classes were really great, I loved all of them.  I took a leather mask making class, a foam armor class and J.P. Ryan's 18th C riding habit fitting class.

The leather mask making class was sort of a revelation, who knew masks were that simple!  We had leather mask templates the teachers had prepared that were soaked in warm (120 F degree) water with a dollop of white glue.  Once the mask was totally soaked it was wrung out and then shaped on a plaster face cast we were given.  We just used our hands and whatever tools we had to shape them.  I made a very simple "highwayman" type mask for my husband.  Then we used a hairdryer to dry them and leather dye to color them and voila - mask!





I'm afraid I didn't take many photos in the other two classes.  Malaki Keller's foam class was a little bit on construction and the rest was more about trying to imagine 3D shapes as 2D ones.  He spent a lot of time talking about how the 2D shapes needed to make something aren't always what we think they'll be.  It was fascinating and enlightening.  This photo is from when he was talking about the shapes you might need to make a kangaroo tail.



I'm sorry to say I didn't take any photos in J.P. Ryan's class. It was a mad scramble to get as much finished on my muslin as possible so we'd have time to get ready for the Gala - which started only a little more than an hour after the class!  :O  We made mock ups of both the waistcoat and the coat for the riding habit.  It was SOO useful to have the actual maker of the pattern there to help fit us.  I came away with mock ups that are nearly perfectly fitted and will be a great help in helping me finish my Fox riding habit.

The only non-limited class I dropped in on was American Duchess' Creating a Miss Fisher Wardrobe class.  Unfortunately the listing for the class was off in terms of how long it was so I really came in at the very end.  Lauren looked very dapper and had some suggestions of places to shop for Miss Fisher type clothes and has put up a link to her class here.

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