Final Evaluation

                                                                     Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this ballet unit and feel I have learnt a lot of new and useful techniques that will help me in future projects. Even though I have enjoyed this unit I feel that I have struggled with different areas.  

Time keeping was defiantly one of my weak points I never seemed to get what needed to be done on time. Making mistakes also slowed me down which means that I am really unhappy with some of my work due to not having time to correct it. Working on time management will be something I will have to work on for future projects.

Having the screenings each week and a discussion after was one of the most enjoyable parts of this project. The sessions allowed me to watch productions that I have never seen before and discussing the performance made me think about the elements I did and didn’t like about each production. This has given me the ability to be more critical about mine and other peoples work. Having a lecture on the history of ballet at the beginning of the unit put into context where ballet came from and how it became the style of dance that we see today. Whilst going to see other live performances outside of university broadened my knowledge on different styles of ballet.

Creating the bodice has been the most challenging part of this project and I feel very disappointed in the way has turned out due to making silly mistakes. I found the slipper satin rather hard to work with due to it slipping around when cutting but I feel that this has helped me for when working with other difficult fabrics. Constructing the bodice seemed to go ok but I came unstuck when sewing the piping I didn’t cut back the seam allowance beforehand making the back of the bodice bulky and untidy. I also ran into trouble with the fit of the bodice and found that it was just too small for the  manikin which meant it had to altered and from accidently cutting off too much seam allowance from the side seams earlier I just has enough to let my bodice out. Doing this caused a lot of damage to the delicate fabric making the bodice look messy and unprofessional.

Creating the romantic tutu didn’t go as badly as the bodice but I did make a few mistakes such as cutting off too much fabric on the centre back of the Basque meaning that I was able to create a placket for the hooks and bars. Sewing the panels of net together was quite tricky and I feel that some of the seams could have been smaller.  Gathering the net to the Basque was time consuming but I didn’t have too many problems with it apart from catching unwanted net at times.  Levelling the tutu apart from time consuming went well. Over all I am pleased with the tutu and the techniques I have learnt could be transferred to making other skirts in the future.

Having the decoration work shop and experimenting with different braids and laces broadened my knowledge of ballet decoration and how it is created. The workshop was also development my understanding of character portrayal by taking into consideration colours, symmetry and the amount of detail. These being a few of the elements that need to be thought about when trying to communicate a certain type of character and is a skill that I have started to work on and will continue to expand on this in the future. Sewing on the decoration is very time consuming like other parts of creating a ballet costume. The need for accuracy and tiny stitching was quite a challenge but I found through practice became easier and suited my way of working. All the skills and techniques from the decoration work shop are invaluable and will defiantly be transferred when creating other decoration.

Being given the task of creating a ballet sleeve was quite daunting having some knowledge of creating sleeves did seem to help but the pattern has to be adapted to allow for the dancer to move at easy. I haven’t constructed my sleeve yet due to a later hand in but I already feel this is a challenge where problem solving will be needed and the whole process might take longer than anticipated.

  

Through all the different areas I have discussed I feel this unit has developed my skill as maker and has pushed me to a new standard which at times I couldn’t reach. The knowledge I have gained will be a valuable recourse and has defiantly sparked a passion for ballet.

Bodice construction

Creating my bodice has not gone well due to all the mistakes I have made. I am really unhappy with the quality of my bodice and feel like I could have done so much better if it wasn’t for my silly mistakes. On the positive note I have defiantly learnt from them and won’t be making them again.

                                          Bodice whilst still being constructed

Things I have learnt whilst making my ballet bodice

·    The lines from the carbon paper were too thick so need to be more delicate with the tracing wheel

·    Was tricky to line some of the design lines up seem to have got lost when transferring the pattern so need to check that all the lines are transferred in the future

·    The fabric was quite slippery and a bit difficult to work with so need to use more pins to keep it in place and take this into consideration for time management

·    Bodice took longer than expected so need to take that into consideration when creating a ballet bodice again.

·    Some seams need to be left longer than others when over locking for alteration

·    When piping cut seams behind design line so back of piping lays flat

·    Leave extra piping for alterations.

petal painting

Creating the decoration for my ballet costume is rather time consuming but rather relaxing. I have to paint 64 petals with 5 layers with each layer getting more near the edge. My first attempt at this didn’t go so well with the net soaking up more paint in some areas rather than others. I think this was due to paining them on weird plastic.

                                      not a very clear picture but can slightly see the darker areas
 I wasn’t happy with them so decided to redo the whole 64 petals slightly mad but hopefully it will be worth it.  So I have learnt the hard was new paper is better than plastic.

tutu levelling

Tutu levelling is another thing that is very time consuming and that is with only 5 layers. I found levelling the tutu quite easy apart from when the pins used as a guide line fall out.

First layer of tutu being levelled                                   Me levelling the second layer

What I have learnt:

.Take into consideration how long it takes and allocate a couple of days

.The front of the tutu has to higher at the front and lower at the back so it looks correct on stage

. Try to cut smoothly so the net isn’t jagged

tutu construction

Creating the Basque for the skirt was harder than I thought the pattern drafting was pretty simple but when it came to creating the Basque everything seemed to go wrong.  I accidently cut off too much of the seam allowance on one side for the placket so was unable to turn the fabric in on its self to create it. At least I will know not to do it next time!

Gathering the net on the skirt was slow at first but once I got into the swing of things it seemed to be quite easy the only thing slowing me down was sometimes catching some of the skirt whilst sewing my net onto my Basque.

Before                                                                                 After

This is a before and after shot of my romantic tutu now it just needs to be levelled.

decoration work shop

During our decoration workshop I got to experiment with different braids, beads, laces and fabrics to try and portray different characters. I found that creating ballet decoration quite time consuming and at the beginning hard to put materials together to portray my chosen character.  Some materials I found were easier to work with than others such as the white braiding on the Aurora bodice was rather hard as it didn’t go into the shape I wanted easily.

This ballet bodice front could be used for the character Aurora from the ballet The Sleeping Beauty. Even though the braid was hard to work with I think it works well to create a very pretty design. The ribbon on the other hand was really easy to work with and the ruching gives the piece a bit more texture adds to the pretty girly theme.

This bodice design has a Spanish feel to it so could be used in the flamenco section in Swan Lake. After creating our designs we were shown how to attach different materials with different stitching. The main thing when creating ballet decoration is that the stitch has to be nearly invisible meaning tiny stitch which is why applying decoration is so time consuming.

sleeves

Fig 56 is the sleeve that i'm going to create as part of hand in.