What Does A First Hand Do?

The real question is what doesn't a first hand do?
So far with my experience at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis I've learned a tremendous amount and I think I now know what the role of a first hand is in the shop setting. It's a little bit of everything. I do some small patterning (for example cape hoods), a lot of cutting out fabric, I do hand sewing, sew garments together, do alterations, help in fittings, keep everything organized and make sure it's all labeled, and there's a lot more. It's hard to narrow it all down but it really is a little bit of everything- whatever the team needs done.
I'm enjoying my time here with OTSL. It's very fast paced, you're always working, and the people are fun. I'm still leaning towards becoming a costume designer (ideal goal is costume design for movies or TV) but working on operas is pretty wonderful.

Going on Week 3

I'll keep it short this time, but it's been amazing working for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. I'm insanely grateful to my professors who have allowed me to pursue this wonderful opportunity. I am loving working here and I enjoy seeing all of the progress. I've been very busy between work and the extra classes, finishing up my regular classes at Purdue, and then the regular adult life stuff such as grocery shopping, working out, and making sure the apartment is tidy. I'm hoping to post a lot of progress stuff this coming weekend. It's rough to stay up to date with having only 1 day a week off but I shall do it and write some neat posts. 

Opera Theatre of St. Louis: Being a First Hand

I've finished my second day as a first hand for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. It's been pretty great and very busy! For my first day we had orientation and then I spent the next few hours working with my draper at collecting fabrics and getting information on different pieces. I patterned a cloak piece and then cut out 3 of them! Two of the cloaks needed extra pieces so I cut those as well. I did manage to get a hood cut out as well using an already constructed hood as a pattern. For today I managed to get the other cloaks' hood cut out and even the 4th cloak's hood cut out after we washed and dried the fabric (it had majorly shrunk).

Working on Macbeth.

I also pressed and rolled a lot of fabric today since my draper didn't have more patterned. I did mark and cut out a tunic for Macbeth. I also helped cut some other fabric to get ready for our last cloak. We had meetings after lunch so I didn't have a full day's work. I did hand sew some tags in one of the cloaks that have an unattached hood. It was how I spent my last 10ish minutes at work. 

Overall I'm really enjoying working as a First Hand. I don't think I would enjoy being a costume technician as a full time career, but this is pretty exciting and I like working on multiple productions at once. It's fun and keeps things going. I'm excited to participate in the apprenticeship program here as well. It'll be a very busy 2 months and I'm really glad I have this opportunity in my life. It's just a great experience!

Spring

Spring by brimalotke

New Website

One of my classes this semester is Portfolio. For our final project we have to make some type of portfolio combination that illustrates our work and such. I've chosen to take it all digitally and create a new website now that I have some pictures of my senior collection. I'm pretty happy with it so far, but am still making some changes. I don't have all the pictures from the fashion show so I'll be adding a lot more once I have them.

Interested? 

Check it out here: Malotke Designs

Gabby in Action

Gabby wearing my finale piece: 

The look consisted of a black and white plaid dress with a red visible zipper down the back and black rib knit around the armholes and collar. The bottom of the dress is black chiffon that was tied up around her waist until a certain part of the song when she would then untie it to reveal that it's a floor length dress with a front slit. 

The corset has a black visible zipper down the front and a soft grey cotton trim along the top of it. The panels are made from the different plaids from the rest of the collection with black cotton for the front and the black and white plaid from her dress for the back panels. The inside of the corset has black, white, and red ribbon for the taping of the bones. 

I made the headpiece in London at the London College of fashion for my final piece for my Millinery course. It's a black wool piece that I covered by hand sewing black fabric (that has a shine and a ripple texture). I hand glued all of the red swarovski crystals to the veiling and then sewed the veiling on to the piece. I dyed the ostrich feathers red, curled them, and glued & sewed them to the side. For the final touch I added a white and black butterfly I bought at the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the V&A to the side on top of the red feathers.

Picture courtesy of Brian Powell "Fashion Show Freebies."