Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2012 - 56

was closest to the design and would act as her main source of
research, although she still referred to the other pattern books
for inspiration and details.
Before the bodice was draped, the width of the skirt had
been established and the underskirt had been completed. The
embroidered underskirt had been cartridge pleated and added
to the already padded and corseted dress form. Squitiere used
the period pattern research in choosing and placing the design
lines (seams, pleats, neckline, and waistline) on the dress form.
Then, using medium-weight muslin, she draped the pattern on
the form. After she transferred the pattern to paper, she cut and
constructed a muslin mock-up of the bodice for the first fitting.
A muslin skirt was next machine basted to the muslin bodice.
Finally, a sleeve pattern in Arnold's book was sized up using the
actress's measurements. The muslin sleeve was then prepared
and basted into the armseye of the mock-up. The first fitting
went well; only minor adjustments were needed on the pattern
before cutting the actual gown fabric.
Because of Squitiere's schedule, patterning and building the
costume had to happen during the following spring semester. The
schedule permitted Squitiere to begin patterning and building the
mock-up in late February. However, Chiment had to buy the fabric
for the gown earlier in the fall semester and at the time was given the estimate of eight yards of forty-five-inch-wide fabric. The
damask Chiment found was 60-inch wide but was limited to six
yards. Chiment bought the six yards, hoping the gown could still
be cut from the 60-inch wide piece. Often a designer must make
such choices quickly when shopping and hopes that the costume
shop can still produce the costume within the yardage limitation.
In many cases this is a viable alternative.
Unfortunately, because of the way the back bodice piece is
cut as one piece with the skirt, the yardage the designer bought
was not sufficient. The shortage of fabric was not discovered until after the first muslin mock-up fitting which was only a couple
of weeks before the first dress. I made a few frantic phone calls
to New York and Mood Fabrics in the hope of finding more
yardage of the same damask. Regrettably, this was months after
the fabric was bought, and the damask was no longer available.
Luckily, Julie Watson, the cutter/draper, went to Philadelphia's
Fabric Row to hunt for a material that resembled the damask.
Although it was a long shot, Watson did find a flocked fabric
that was the same color and had an iridescent weave like the
original fabric. From the wrong side of the flocked fabric, the
difference between the two fabrics could hardly be detected
from several feet away. Although the performance was in a black
box theatre, a relatively intimate space, the audience was still at
least five feet from the actress for most of the performance. Chiment decided to use both fabrics together on the gown and felt
the best place to use the new fabric was on the two side panels
of the skirt. She also chose to use the new fabric on the cuffs to
help blend the two fabrics together. Amazingly, this worked, and
the gown was even more visually interesting.
The final gown was interlined with black silesia on the
skirt and white satin coutil on the bodice. Interlining the skirt

theatre design

& technology

spring

2012

gave the fabric more body and weight. Interlining the bodice
with coutil and boning the seams smoothed out the bodice and
helped extend the wear of the fabric. The gown opened in the
center front of the bodice with hook and bar tape. The neck,
waist, and sleeve edges of the bodice were finished with bias
tape cut from the damask. The skirt sides attached to the center
back panel but were pleated onto a grosgrain ribbon and attached to the inside of the bodice, giving the illusion of a separate piece. After the final fitting, the skirt was hand-sewn to the
bottom of the bodice edge for stability.
During the second fitting, the back neckline was sitting
farther away from the actress's back and needed to fit closer to
her body. A piece of one-inch elastic was slightly stretched and
placed along the back neckline and cross-stitched (or catch
stitched) to the interlining. This allowed the back neckline of
the gown to curve back into the body and eliminated the gap,
not unlike the piping on the corset's neckline. Later the next
year, when the actress lost fifty pounds and the gown had to be
refitted, the same technique was used in the front neckline.
The designer had also researched a closure detail for the
front of the gown. A rectangular strap was placed across the
center-front closure at chest level. One edge of the strap was
sewn to the outside gown on one side of the closure, and the
other edge was snapped to the other side of the closure. Instead
of tucking the ends of the fichu into the neckline, the strap now
secured the fichu to the front of the gown (fig. 8). This gave
the actress another vertical line and also hid the hook and bar
closure. Squitiere inserted a piece of elastic inside the strap to
help hold both the strap and fichu in place. The designer completed the costume with a large cameo brooch placed on the
center front of the strap. The cameo was pinned and sewn into
place and could be easily removed for dry cleaning.
The fichu was made of a white linen fabric dyed to a pale
pink. Traditionally, the fichu would be white, but on stage the
white fichu would reflect too much light and draw focus away
from the actress's face. To cut down on the reflection of the
bright stage lights, costume pieces (such as white shirts, hankies, and mop caps) are often brought down to an ecru or beige
color with tea. For this production, Chiment decided that a pale
pink would help give the actress a younger look while providing more interest to the fichu itself. The edges of the fichu were
machine embroidered with a slightly darker pink thread in a
scallop design (fig. 7). This gave the edge a finished look from

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