Amy Ballew
Cutter/Draper
The Crucible
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Draper
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Designer: Michelle Hunt Souza
First hand: Marissa Miller
Stitcher: Morgan Bedillion
Kent State University
Fall 2024
As lead draper, I had two builds for this production – John Proctor’s leather coat and Tituba’s patchwork coat
Designer Renderings
The Proctor coat was my first time working with leather but my previous work with vinyl material prepared me to work with this more expensive material. For the mock up I used a cheap pleather material that sat more stiffly on the body than the final garment but it still allowed me to learn what I needed from that first fitting. After the final patterns were complete, I added seam allowance to the paper patterns for ease of cutting and construction. Overall, the coat used a little more than four lamb hides. For the final fabric fitting, I temporarily binder clipped the center back, collar, sleeves, and sleeve caps to ensure proper fit before stitching since each seam needed to be sewn without any errors. I personally cut and stitched this garment in its entirety while my team constructed the Tituba coat. After all the seams were sewn, I finished each by hammering them flat and gluing them down with leather glue. Decorative toggle closures from the leather scraps were added and the whole coat was distressed with leather shoe spray paint to give it a long-worn look.
Mock Up Fitting
Final Fitting - Front
Final Fitting - Back
Before Distressing
After Distressing - Front
After Distressing - Back
For Tituba’s coat I opted to drape it instead of flat patterning so I could better control the shape in relation to the performer’s measurements. To ensure I had enough ease for the coat I padded the dress form to be a little larger than the performer’s measurements. This approach was successful enough to only need minor fit adjustments in the mock up. I did however need to redraft the sleeve and for the final fabric fitting we basted a muslin sleeve to ensure fit before cutting from the final fabric. When cutting from the fabric the designer requested we try to pattern match but emphasized a preference for avoiding a section of the pattern that had a lot of brown tones. After the main body was cut it was realized that the requested amount of fabric had not been purchased which led to piecing the sleeve and cuffs out of a fabric from the shop stock. This garment was completely cut and sewn together by my team as I was occupied with Proctor’s leather coat.
Ready for fitting
Mock Up Fitting
Final Fitting with muslin sleeves
