Robin of Sherwood

'Robin of Sherwood' was a semi professional production at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, involving the 'Royal Company', an amateur group based at the theatre, and students, like myself, from Nottingham Trent University.

Myself and about 7 other students made and designed the costumes, with the help and advice of designer Lyndsey Bradford, who worked with the Royal Company.

The making process included breaking the costumes down using cheese graters, vaseline and spray paint amongst other things.

'Threads' Production

'Threads' was a production at The Christian Centre church in Nottingham. It was a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph, and I volunteered to design and make the costumes, aided by a couple of other volunteers. The concept of the show was that it was set in a kind of heavenly textile factory, where the workers helped God to weave stories in the world. For the costumes I decided to take influence from historical and modern factory unifroms, but with a difference. Because it was set in a textile factory, I wanted to use a range of fabrics and textures, while maintaining a uniformity of colour. I also felt it was important that the characters looked individual, and the costumes looked customised and worn.

Satin Dress

Blue Jacket

Yellow Corset

This corset is made of luminous satin. I have always been attracted to bright colours, and felt inspired to create something in this material when flourescent colours were abundantly present in highstreet shops in 2009. I chose to make a corset in order to practise techniques I learned in the 'Corsetry ans Structures' module at university.

Red Cotton Coat

This coat is made of cotton. It was originally a dusky pink colour, but I chose to dye it before constructing the garment. For this i used dylon dye.

The design was influenced a couple of historical periods; primarily the fashions of around 1800-1815, displayed most famously in screen adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. The trailing sleeves of the coat, and it's being worn here with a medieval style wool dress, were inspired by the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Turquoise Corduroy Coat

These pictures show a coat a made in 2008. My desire to create such an item came from having found that coats of this style were not easy to come by, and certainly not on a low budget and long enough for tall people (of which I am one). It is made of turquoise corduroy, which I managed to source for a

bargainous £2 a metre from B & M fabrics in Leeds Market. I had originally hoped to use velvet, but couldn't find it in the striking colour that I found in the corduroy. The colour (and price!) of the corduroy over-ruled any original plans of velvet, for I was very pleased with the multi-tonal effect of the fabric. The pattern was developed from the basic block I made to my measurements at University in first year.