Category Archives: designing

folk dance costumes

Oh, what a couple of weeks it’s been. I’ve been hard at work with costumes for the opening night of “Mellom rutene -det første trekket avgjør ofte det siste” (the link is to a news article). I travelled up and spent last weekend there to make sure they were all in order – and to see the performance of course! Following that I went straight into a monster work week, and now I’m home sick. I’m sure they’re related. But! That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the costumes I made!

bd6Photo by Ina Cyrus

I’ve been working for this pretty cool project: This traditional folk dance foundation does a three-year project in a municipality, ending in a final project performance. It’s very much shaped by the folk music and dance material traditional to each municipality, so every project takes on a unique life and progression. I got involved to make costumes for one of these final performances, and it was a really nice experience!

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The setting for the performance was a chess-game, and the concept revolved around what happens if the pieces starts breaking the rules. This show is an expansion of the version they did last year, and part of my job was to expand on the costumes they had used. This meant I was making a lot of pieces that needed to supplement the tunics they already had in place. It also meant that the silhouette was more or less already given, but anything I added also needed to be very dance-friendly.

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The main pieces I worked on were the vests for the kings and the queens. They already had beautiful hand crocheted crowns, but they needed something to make them more visibly different. I gave them vests with exaggerated collars (they queens more so than the kings, as you can see), and to make sure they were dance-friendly, the closures were made up of elastics in the front.

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I also made four skirts for the rooks. I really wanted a straight, column-like shape in the skirts for the stoic rooks, but you can’t dance and roll around on the floor in a pencil skirt! The solution was to use stiffer and heavier fabric for the main portion of the skirt, and to insert cheese-cloth-like thin fabric in between the panels. When the dancer moved and twirled and stuff, the panels opened up to full skirt shape, in line with how the other skirts were moving on stage.

bd3bd5Photo by Ina Cyrus

There were of course more chess-pieces to identify, and we used hats and collars to do so. The pawns had simple tunics and hats, the knights had flat shoulder-collars, and the bishops were given neck ruffles. And, being costumes, lots of velcro as closures!

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A recurrent inspiration was the medieval times, for several reasons: The previous performance was based on the old norse royal game of chess, so the existing tunics were very much medieval in style, and also – with my background in medieval studies I do jump at a chance to draw source material from the era. Several of the patterns were even based on medieval clothing, and I think it does show! In a good way, of course. For instance, the late medieval period saw a lot of collars attached to the bodice in the back with a diagonal seamline. It’s not really done much anymore, but it makes attaching the collar much easier, and I think, also more stable.

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In addition to working with costumes and getting a lot of freedom in picking fun fabric combinations, I got to meet a great group of kids who did a wonderful job on stage. They were a dedicated and fun bunch, and I’m glad to have met them!

SONY DSCPhoto by Ina Cyrus

designing knits, part 2

Picking up where I left off: My yarn arrived, I’ve cast on, and started knitting! The yarn is as soft and delicious as I remember – and yes, it will pill a little since it’s so soft. That’s the nature of the beast for a single ply merino wool, but it’s a trade-off I’ve chosen to deal with to gain the soft feel, the drape, and the pattern effect. Actually, that leads me nicely into what I wanted to share about the process of designing this top: compromises.

That doesn’t really sound like a good thing in designing, but here’s the deal – knitting this lace top the way my original pattern is written would be somewhat convoluted, and probably a little irritating. Let’s go back to how I made the pattern in the first place: I used a soft jersey to drape the top on a dressform to the look that I wanted, then transferred that to a paper pattern. Knowing my gauge from having knit my sample, it was just a matter of marking all the places that had changes in angles (like the waist, or the tip of the shoulder, or the collar line for example), measure the distances, and calculate the amount of rows and stitches that needed to change in between all those points. It was quite a lot of math work, but I think it was a pretty accurate way of coming up with the shaping of the garment.

Now, I followed these numbers accurately. This meant counting rows all the time, and in order to keep track of where I was, I kept having to note on my pattern what row of the 8 row pattern-repeat the next increase or decrease would happen on, so I knew I was on the right row. One decrease might happen on row 5 of the repeat, then I had to count 17 rows and make sure the next decrease in fact was on row 6 of the repeat, and so on.

I don’t think most knitters would find that approach very enjoyable, or logical, or clear. So here is where my compromises come in: in order to make it easier and less frustrating for the knitter, I am choosing to move the decreases and increases to always be at the same point in the pattern repeat. That way, all you have to count is how many of those repeats to go before the next decrease. Yes, the shaping won’t be as optimal as the original, but the tradeoff is a pattern that is better to work with. In the end, I think moving a decrease 3 or 4 rows won’t make too significant of a change to warrant a more knitpicky kind of counting.

Any other pet peeves in knitting from patterns? Mine is knitting in sections and sewing the back and fronts together when it could just be knit in one piece from the start!

designing knits

I’ve already mentioned in a couple of posts that I’m working on another Geithus lace knit top, which is this thing, if you’ll remember:

I’ve decided to tweak it and publish it, and thought it might be interesting to tag along and see the process!

I bought this absolutely gorgeous Manos del Uruguay yarn while in the US last month to make my sample with, but then I knit up a swatch in the honeycomb pattern that is the main part of the lace knit top, and… it’s completely wrong. Wrong for this project at least! Let’s compare the swatches, shall we?

Making the second swatch in a new yarn was quite an interesting experience. After I realized the yarn was wrong for this project, I started thinking about *why* it didn’t work. Going through those things and deciding the reasons they didn’t work with my project was a reminder of the design process itself. It’s full of decisions you make based on the vision you have for your end product!

The green yarn is a smooth 2-ply lace yarn, and I decided I need a yarn with more give for this garment. The slippery, silky Manos also produced a fabric (color aside) that just didn’t feel right. It was less plum, and less dense than the original swatch, which was something that was important to me in designing the top originally. I didn’t want it see through!

The gauge was way off, and while I could have made another swatch with a smaller needle size, I believe a needle size of somewhere around US 0 or 2mm would just be enjoyable for the detail work involved in this! I decided that a single ply yarn that will somewhat stick to itself was the right yarn for the type of fabric and drape and opacity I wanted to achieve. A last thing I realized about the single ply, was that it would offer a clearer stitch definition. In the green sample it’s hard to see that there is a pattern at all!

So with the swatch telling me I had the wrong yarn, I’ve ordered 3 skeins of Malabrigo in a colorway I’m a little anxious and a lot excited to see if the color will make sense. It should be on its way to my mailbox right now! In the meanwhile, I’ve been crunching numbers. I’ve got some changes I want to make from the original pattern, such as proper cap sleeves instead of an extended shoulder; a more defined side rib to tackle the decreases; and a better way of finishing the armholes and the collar. I’ll come back to those later, when the yarn has arrived and hopefully I’ve started knitting the sample!

I hope this peek into the process of designing knits was interesting!

more costumes

Kaspar, by HANNE KRISTIN LIE
Photo by Hanne Kristin Lie/Studvest 

Just a little sneak peak of one of the many projects I’m working on right now! I’m doing the costumes for a student theater show, and as always – lots of work, but fun! I shared the colors in my last post, and here you can see that the shapes are a little… freeform! There is a plan, I promise.

This is the article from the student newspaper. Now, if you will excuse me, I have five days left and a lot of costumes to finish!

making costumes & missing crafting mojo

There has been a lot of life happening lately, and life needs attention (and paperwork apparently!). My crafting interest is nowhere to be found right now, and since I really don’t want crafting – or blogging – to feel like a chore in any way, I’ll just be waiting until it shows up again. I’m thinking some tea, chocolate, and lots of “Downton Abbey” is the normal cure for this, right?

Now – I have been crafting a little. I just haven’t worked on any of the “real” or big projects, like my Minoru jacket, which got half cut out before it got abandoned for now. Single-sitting projects are more like it at the moment; some underwear from old t-shirts (I have a free pattern is you want to make some too!), and a pillow-cover. It’s certainly not a big important project, but I like it all the same.

I pieced together the cover with left-over pieces from this lovely, dense herringbone wool we used for the Amanda show – see all the lines on the right side in the picture above? I stuck a zipper in there since this is for a regular pillow doing duty in the livingroom whenever we don’t have sleepover guests. That was a last minute addition as I realized I would be needing to get the pillow back out of the pillowcase!

This is our little reading nook, with a bed turned-into-sofa by folding the top mattress in half and covering it in fabric, putting up some shelves/backboards, and filling up with pillows. I’m working on the pillows part.

That’s it. I made a pillowcase, and it made me glad.

Also, I’ll be making some costumes for the student theater group here in Bergen! Right now I haven’t actually made any yet, but they are designed, and here are the fabrics. Should be fun!

Free pattern: Elvish Leaves Scarf

I have a pattern to share with you! It’s the Elvish Leaves Scarf I made based on a dishcloth with this same pattern.This scarf with an elegant leaf pattern repeat is a good intermediate lace project. The thin scarf is perfect for slightly chilly days where you just need that extra little warmth and comfort around your neck!

The chart in this pattern is based on one ravelry-user Jadis made, with her knowledge and generous consent.

I made this with some reclaimed yarn in a delicious mohair/angora/other woolly wools blend, making it nice and warm and super soft. I really enjoyed knitting this scarf – and I hope you enjoy the pattern!

Download the Elvish Leaves Scarf pattern!

Ravelry page for the Elvish Leaves Scarf pattern

flats and limbo

It’s the first real snowfall of the season here in Bergen, and I’m taking a break from watching cars having trouble getting up the hill outside my window. It’s fascinating, and a little nerve-wrecking to watch them sliding and trying to not bump into other cars, but also, not a very productive way to spend my day!

Illustration + flats from fashion illustration class

No, it’s far better to be sandwiched between a sheepskin and a wool blanket, having soup simmering on the stove, and sharing some fashion flat sketches, don’t you think? The illustration board above is from the same class as the illustrations in this post. It was in that class that I learned how to make flat sketches, something I still enjoy doing. There is a balance between information and preciseness and personality that I quite enjoy!

contour design board

This designboard is pretty bare bones.. I mean, I haven’t even titled it! But, I really enjoyed making these quick boards for a contour patternmaking project. My inspiration was old corsets, so using Victorian ladies with an overlaid swatch of my final fabric, with drawn on style-lines, was a quick way to communicate both inspiration, fabric, and execution. There is a whole post on this project (and the design – and designboard! – that I ended up choosing) right here.

A totally different style for my latest set of design boards, for my collection “Traces of Thread”. I actually drew the flats on vellum, which is slightly see-through, then cut them out and hand-tacked them on the background paper. The stitching around the illustration has to do with the handwork I incorporated in the collection, and also worked to keep colors consistent across the boards. I wrote about the collection here on the blog, and there are lots more pictures – including more illustrations on my website.

Lately I’ve been trying my hand at making flats in Illustrator – drawing the flats using a computer, as opposed to drawing them by hand. You might have seen my fancy underpant-drawing some weeks ago:

And I’ve also made some flat sketches of clothes I’ve made. Remember the boat-dress?

And this is the “Minde” skirt from my collection. See more pictures of the skirt in this post, and on my portfolio website:

I do like how clean and professional they look, but I still like that they have a certain hand-drawn quality – like the not quite straight lines in this skirt.  I don’t know a ton of Illustrator, so I relied on tutorials I could find online, and I particularly liked these videos.

In other news, I feel quite in limbo at the moment: I’ve been away from my sewing machine since May, and not only is it now in the repair shop after a month of back and forth with the airline and insurance company, but the rest of our belongings are in Germany after a lot of to and fro – definitely much delayed, and I have Christmas-gift-knitting that is missing some yarn! That will be my top priority when our stuff finally gets here. In the meantime, I’ve been finishing a skirt by hand, and will have pictures of that up here soon!

And now, I think I shall have some of that soup and write some letters to friends.