Titanic — Emma C. Frieze

Lifejackets

Foreground: Matt Daniels as Mr. Etches

In total the shop made twienty-six lifejackets for Milwaukee Rep’s post-Covid remount of Titanic. They are made from canvas and a light-weight foam (rather than cork). The top piece of fabric is pleated to form a series of ‘boxes’ and top-stitched to a flat back piece. After stitching horizontal lines over the first series of pleats, we inserted the foam squares, and then enclosed them with vertical lines over the other pleats. We worked in an assembly line with myself and the stitchers handling the pleating, while others rolled over the edges, serged the shoulder seams, and added ties.

Raspberry Skirt

Steve Watts as Edgar and Alex Keiper as Alice

I assisted in the assembly of this wool skirt which is part of a walking suit ensemble worn by Alex Kieper as Alice. I made the mock-up, assembled the skirt, and finished the waistband. The front had to be re-lined by others quickly (due to some changes in movement for the character) but I finished the skirt with closures and decorative buttons.

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Striped Skirt

I assisted in the assembly of another wool skirt for Alex Kiper as Alice, this time as practice with pattern-matching. The panels below the diagonal line were pre-pleated for me by my first-hand. I assembled the skirt as instructed: purposely off-setting the stripes on pleated panels from the stripes on the top of the garment, then matching the stripes at the side seams. The skirt was finished with top-stitching along the diagonal stripes and with a cotton-lined waistband.

Steve Watts as Edgar and Alex Keiper as Alice