As few of our garments are off the peg, most of what we do follows the same rough cycle of Design and Construction. These few pages should help you understand the processes we go through to ensure that your finished costume is exactly what you want and that the fit is perfectly tailored to you.

Inspiration and Design

Everything starts with a little inspiration. For us that can be a picture from a film, magazine, book or one of your own drawings. It can be a historical reference, a rough character concept or a very specific request. We are more than happy; in fact we really enjoy getting involved at the very start of the design process. We can help with inspiration from our collection of historical and film reference books, we can show you fabric and embroidery pattern samples to inspire you and we can even produce a full range of designs for you to choose from if you so wish. Once the concept is agreed, we will work with you to produce a design we are both happy with. For us that means we know it can be made to the time and budget requirements you have and for you that means that you know exactly what you are getting it and when you can expect it.

The Final Design

Once we have agreed on a final design, we will provide you with a firm quote and we will agree on the materials, colours, timescales and all the final details. At this point it is important that you are happy, because we will start buying fabrics and trimmings. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make tweaks to your design after this point, but it does mean that any significant changes to the design might impact the cost, the delivery date or both, depending on how major they are.

The Toile

Once we’ve agreed a design, we will need to measure you up. We prefer to do this in person when we finalise the design to make sure that we get exactly the measurements we need. With a set of measurements, we will get to work constructing a custom pattern for your garment, tailored exactly to you. The next stage is to construct a Toile, a calico or cotton mock up of your garment. Cut directly from your custom pattern, the Toile is a replica of your final garment in fit and construction, minus all the trimmings and posh fabrics. This helps us with the first fitting. At this point we will need to meet with you to size up the Toile. While you try it on, we can make any subtle changes and modifications to the pattern necessary to make the garment a perfect fit. For more simple garments we may not make a Toile, but for all our Frock Coats, Doublets, Corsets and any dresses we make this is all part of our service to make sure you get the perfect costume.

Making the Garment

With the final pattern adjustments made, we will get on with the job of taking scissors and needles to the final fabric to construct your actual garment. Depending on the complexity of your costume, this can take anywhere from a week to a couple of months, though we will give you realistic dates during the design stages.

The Final Fitting

Once your garment is complete, we prefer to fit you into it personally, just in case any last minute adjustments are required, and to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your costume. If picking your costume up in person is a problem, we can always have it delivered to you, or you could arrange to pick it up fom one of the many festivals and fairs we attend throughout the year.