Shadow Duchess
Well-Known Member
I know a number of folks realize how much work goes into the production of a costume but, as someone who does this full time I sometimes feel obligated to make people realize how much is really involved in a bigger scale production of trying to produce many costumes at a time.
One thing is a constant in this and any other industry mistakes happen and often they aren't due to 'you'.
Let me give you some basics.
Doing what we do entails custom pattern drafting, which changes radically from person to person so, one template is almost never going to work for more than one costume so, many hours of drafting go into creating the foundation from which a costume is based upon.
Purchasing fabrics, many people don't have the room or resources to stock all fabrics necessary and there is the fact that you can quickly run out. Here's where many people don't understand a lot of what happens. Joann and Hancock's the majority of the time do not have the fabrics that are needed for very specific pieces. Most costumers as you well know want the penultimate costume so people like ourselves devote a great deal of time, energy, and money into finding the proper suppliers for the correct fabrics and most of them are by the internet. So, you end up being at the mercy of fabric samples or sometimes none at all only to find that you were a. shipped a fabric that doesn't resemble the description given b. eat the cost and continue on or try to dye it the proper shade if possible and c. wait on their mercy to have them ship it which may not be right away no matter what you tell them. Often we've run across suppliers that are out of the fabric or appropriate color and need to reorder it from the mill it originally came from and that takes even longer, or we need to move on and find an alternate.
How many hours are in a day again?
Most of us work hard to make your requests turn out the way you desire and it takes time, as many of the wonderful people here already know.
So, when you finally have all the items you need, pattern, fabric ahhh wait. The details. Buttons, latches, specific pins, or sometimes ones that have to be crafted and often sculpted by the costumer themselves which takes a lot of time, and more money for crafting, and molding materials and don't forget that sometimes the mold can end up being a problem so it has to be redone again. These are important as well, again very specific costumes need important details to make them recognizable so more work goes into ensuring it's right.
Add to this the amount of research that needs to go into this work, I'm sure most of you know how long it takes to get the right images either from surfing the net, purchasing books or magazines, or sitting in front of the computer getting the right screen caps to grab the images.
Machines. Machines are very necessary for this work, computers for a great deal of it, sewing machines which can break down in the middle of projects (been there and lost the fabric due to malfunctions), saws, files, air brushes, leather working tools, special sewing machine feet, lathes, and incredible amounts of hand tools all that have the potential to fail at any given time. Like many folks most of us don't have a vast disposable income to look after the regular every day things like car problems, home problems, to drop everything to purchase a whole new machine or part this is a normal part of life but we try to do everything to get it right.
I love what we do but most times there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want and be able to 'live' or go to conventions or see my friends on a regular basis as we are busy trying to satisfy everyone and try to keep everything on track which brings us down to things that happen to everyone like getting sick.
It's hard to work a job that requires your dedicated attention and a very steady hand when you're incapable of sitting up or stop hacking long enough to see what in fact you're doing. A straight line can end up being a wonderful Rorshach type blotch, not to mention that we personally do a great deal of hand sewing to finish a costume properly which most people don't realize.
Email and communication, a very important thing for customers as we well know but I don't sit at my computer 24/7 to ensure every mail is answered right away however, I try to be on the ball but when you are trying to get the work done, you need to concentrate on one thing at a time. Many companies will not email you regularly or give you personal touches that many people tend to want but, we always try to do everything we can to communicate when a customer has questions or concerns I can say it's hard to take long periods out of the day to write to everyone personally and tell them status reports on exactly where you are. One email sure, but when you have many customers that is a very large chunk of time.
I read on the board today where one very talented costumer was saying that he was working on his costume and it's been a year now, multiply that by a very large volume of customers.
It's a difficult business and it really takes a lot out of you but it's rewarding as well.
What I'm trying to convey to everyone here and I'm sure most of you know this but, I wanted to write this out as it's been fermenting in my mind is that the people that make your costumes, whether they are professional's, friends, or family put a great deal into what they do and they are only a small part of the bigger picture that makes up the work.
Sometimes we screw up, sometimes suppliers screw up or take their time, sometimes delivery services screw up and on rare occassions things flow but quite often the common mantra of 'we're only human' has to be remembered and sometimes we need to be reminded that these are flesh and blood people that are working hard to make you happy creating a costume.
Hopefully I'm not stepping on any toes here putting this here but it is about costumes
One thing is a constant in this and any other industry mistakes happen and often they aren't due to 'you'.
Let me give you some basics.
Doing what we do entails custom pattern drafting, which changes radically from person to person so, one template is almost never going to work for more than one costume so, many hours of drafting go into creating the foundation from which a costume is based upon.
Purchasing fabrics, many people don't have the room or resources to stock all fabrics necessary and there is the fact that you can quickly run out. Here's where many people don't understand a lot of what happens. Joann and Hancock's the majority of the time do not have the fabrics that are needed for very specific pieces. Most costumers as you well know want the penultimate costume so people like ourselves devote a great deal of time, energy, and money into finding the proper suppliers for the correct fabrics and most of them are by the internet. So, you end up being at the mercy of fabric samples or sometimes none at all only to find that you were a. shipped a fabric that doesn't resemble the description given b. eat the cost and continue on or try to dye it the proper shade if possible and c. wait on their mercy to have them ship it which may not be right away no matter what you tell them. Often we've run across suppliers that are out of the fabric or appropriate color and need to reorder it from the mill it originally came from and that takes even longer, or we need to move on and find an alternate.
How many hours are in a day again?
Most of us work hard to make your requests turn out the way you desire and it takes time, as many of the wonderful people here already know.
So, when you finally have all the items you need, pattern, fabric ahhh wait. The details. Buttons, latches, specific pins, or sometimes ones that have to be crafted and often sculpted by the costumer themselves which takes a lot of time, and more money for crafting, and molding materials and don't forget that sometimes the mold can end up being a problem so it has to be redone again. These are important as well, again very specific costumes need important details to make them recognizable so more work goes into ensuring it's right.
Add to this the amount of research that needs to go into this work, I'm sure most of you know how long it takes to get the right images either from surfing the net, purchasing books or magazines, or sitting in front of the computer getting the right screen caps to grab the images.
Machines. Machines are very necessary for this work, computers for a great deal of it, sewing machines which can break down in the middle of projects (been there and lost the fabric due to malfunctions), saws, files, air brushes, leather working tools, special sewing machine feet, lathes, and incredible amounts of hand tools all that have the potential to fail at any given time. Like many folks most of us don't have a vast disposable income to look after the regular every day things like car problems, home problems, to drop everything to purchase a whole new machine or part this is a normal part of life but we try to do everything to get it right.
I love what we do but most times there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want and be able to 'live' or go to conventions or see my friends on a regular basis as we are busy trying to satisfy everyone and try to keep everything on track which brings us down to things that happen to everyone like getting sick.
It's hard to work a job that requires your dedicated attention and a very steady hand when you're incapable of sitting up or stop hacking long enough to see what in fact you're doing. A straight line can end up being a wonderful Rorshach type blotch, not to mention that we personally do a great deal of hand sewing to finish a costume properly which most people don't realize.
Email and communication, a very important thing for customers as we well know but I don't sit at my computer 24/7 to ensure every mail is answered right away however, I try to be on the ball but when you are trying to get the work done, you need to concentrate on one thing at a time. Many companies will not email you regularly or give you personal touches that many people tend to want but, we always try to do everything we can to communicate when a customer has questions or concerns I can say it's hard to take long periods out of the day to write to everyone personally and tell them status reports on exactly where you are. One email sure, but when you have many customers that is a very large chunk of time.
I read on the board today where one very talented costumer was saying that he was working on his costume and it's been a year now, multiply that by a very large volume of customers.
It's a difficult business and it really takes a lot out of you but it's rewarding as well.
What I'm trying to convey to everyone here and I'm sure most of you know this but, I wanted to write this out as it's been fermenting in my mind is that the people that make your costumes, whether they are professional's, friends, or family put a great deal into what they do and they are only a small part of the bigger picture that makes up the work.
Sometimes we screw up, sometimes suppliers screw up or take their time, sometimes delivery services screw up and on rare occassions things flow but quite often the common mantra of 'we're only human' has to be remembered and sometimes we need to be reminded that these are flesh and blood people that are working hard to make you happy creating a costume.
Hopefully I'm not stepping on any toes here putting this here but it is about costumes
