About me- Iris

Bursting with cinema and TV studios, musical theatres and dance schools, London awakended my passion for costume and made me pursue it as my future career. My self-learning started when I've got my first sewing machine a few years ago and started to practice with small projects, customizing and making alterations on my clothes. In 2015, I joined a Summer Sewing skills course, making my first two projects from patterns, with very poor results: a bolero jacket and a jacket with peplum.

I learned that to apply to university for Fashion design (the only existing option in Spain), I needed to gather 8-10 projects, either drawn or made which led me to search for garment construction courses. Luckily, I found (at Hotcourses.com, now findcourses.co.uk ) a Costume For Performance course at Morley College that would help me to build a portfolio costumes: * 1st Winter term: (1/2 scale) crinoline, petticoat, an early Victorian outfit I learned to construct a panelled skirt and day and evening bodices. * 2nd Spring term: late Victorian costume (2nd bustle fashion, 1/2 scale)) with horsehair and bone bustle, petticoat, skirt, over-skirt, and jacket. * 3rd Summer term: Edwardian period (full-scale outfit) with a tailored jacket, waist-shirt, and hobble skirt that I finished that June.

This course enabled me to find out about other courses, like Period corsetry, tailoring, pattern cutting and fashion drawing, in which I registered.

While doing these courses I learned different techniques for making garments like draping (my favourite so far), pattern cutting, use of the different type of fabrics, pleats, trimmings, materials, toiles, etc. In 2016, I decided to apply for university studies in costume construction and in 2017 I started to study it at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

In 2018, I joined the courses in 'Professional sewing techniques' (collars, zips and fastenings), 'Draping on the stand', and 'Fabric manipulation: Rhythm and repetition'.