The Creation of 6 Giants, Part 2

Obviously we couldn’t just leave the giants as bright blue body suits, so we covered the bodies in large vests of flesh tone lyrca. I can’t say it is one of my favourite fabrics to work with, but however awkward it makes the sewing, we definitely needed the stretch to cover the bodies properly.

And with a little pinning and tucking, it is vastly improved. Everything was covered in labels right from the beginning, with 6 giants that were similar but not identical, it was important we could easily see what went with what.

Then we added arms (sewing the arms in was my main job for about a week), which took ages because I had to do it after the lycra was on the foam body, which made it pretty tricky to get under the sewing machine.

These are the prototypes for the arms and head, made of plastazote.

After all the sewing we added loin cloths and they were all airbrushed. I am always surprised by the amazing difference that airbrushing makes, everything suddenly becomes more 3D than it was before.

The Creation of 6 Giants, Part 1

  
In December I worked as an assistant at Promotional Props and Costumes. We worked on the job of creating 6 giant costumes for a production of the BFG at Derby Theatre.
To start with we made a foam body shell, then we padded it out on the shoulders, moobs and bum with more layers. The pictures below shows shoulder blades before and after carving with a scalpel.
  
Of course when your surrounded by blue foam body suits, the obvious activity is to wear them with silly wigs.

Connected to the World Again

Well it took 3 months, but my internet connection is finally back up. I can’t believe how long it took to get everything sorted, far longer than it should have anyway.

But back to the sewing, I made these for a ladies husband a few months ago for costume ball. I took the pattern from his Morris-Dancing breeches, but these had to be in white satin. I lined them in cotton though, the satin was a bit see through.

The originals I took the pattern from had an adjustable waistband, so I added that in. It was less effort than expected, and works really well. I might start using it more.

Breeches involve a lot more buttons than the average pair of trousers, I got to make full use of the button hole function on my machine. There is something I find daunting about button holes, the number of items I’ve made for myself which are perfectly finished apart from the safety pin holding them together. But they really aren’t that hard at all when I get round to them.