Costume Design at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

To be or not to Sewing Bee

You won't be surprised that we teach costume design as part of our production portfolio here at RCS. So it goes without saying that our drama librarians have built up an amazing collection of books to help our wardrobe staff and students. Collection development is a key part of their remit.

We decided it would be a great idea to show you what our drama colleagues have put together over the years, to inspire and inform the people who dress our actors. 

Watch this space! The books are waiting but we haven't got hold of a dummy yet.  Maybe later this week?

We do like our book displays!  Empty, now, and waiting for the new one ....

Costume Making at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

The Whittaker Library supports our costumiers with a great selection of books and other resources.  Here's a link to all our costume books - a very substantial collection!  Don't hesitate to speak to our library staff if you need help sourcing books about costume-making.  Our Drama and Ballet librarian is in charge of this collection.

• Costume books at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Whittaker Library

Because  our music librarian is a keen dressmaker, she also saves useful web-links on sewing clothes, which we share with you HERE.  See if there's anything that interests you.

One for the Wardrobe Department

Now our students are leaving for the summer, presumably those associated with the Royal Conservatoire's Wardrobe department will be turning their attention to their own summer wardrobes.  So we share this, notified to Karen by a sewing friend:-

Free Sewing Patterns - So Sew Easy

Might be useful!

19th Century Costume Design Website

Historical Sewing

Costume designers at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland might like to explore this website, offering instruction in designing and making 19th century costumes:-

http://historicalsewing.com/tutorials

Costume Inspiration

Whittaker's friends at Nottingham-based firm Sewing Online have suggested a Pinterest site that might interest our costume designers. 

Here it is - Costume Inspiration, in all its multicoloured glory.  Enjoy!

(Do follow @Sewing_Online on Twitter if you're a textile enthusiast!)

Source: ebay.com via The World on Pinterest

Costume-Making

For costume designers

Sometimes 'Whittaker' feels guilty that he doesn't find enough useful content for our technical students, so it's nice to be able to share this costume-making website.

The Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild is based in San Francisco Bay, but there are useful links on their website that might be of interest to our Scottish students of costumery.  Why not take a look?

http://www.gbacg.org/

My thanks to Nottingham-based Sewing Online for this suggestion.  (Tweet them @Sewing_Online - they're very helpful.)

Costume Design Blog

Thanks to social media - and my own stitching fingers - I've encountered @Sewing_Online on Twitter.  I asked for costume design links, and the first they suggested was Costume Design Blog.

Why not take a look?

http://www.costumedesignblog.com/

They also suggested Deirdre Kavanagh's Pinterest site, Costume Design Inspiration, and did a search for me on Top 20 Sites for costume design.

Jacket in progress

This, on the other hand, is my own current project.  Better get on with it tonight!