Costume dramas

THE tailor's dummy wears a half-finished midnight blue Victorian dress. There are stays, corsets, petticoats and chemises draped over various chairs. There is a Regency-style muslin gown hung up on one door and one that an Elizabethan lady would have worn over the other. Four pairs of dainty, button- up leather boots and dancing slippers are lined up along the wall and the rest of the space is taken up a gleaming white Brother sewing machine and stackable boxes full of pearl buttons, satin ribbons and bits of delicate lace.

This is Jeni Bland's domain and she has adapted it in a way that makes it easy for her to pursue her passion for historical costume making.

Jeni, a petite 32-year-old blonde, caught the sewing bug early in life. "I've always made things for myself," she remembers, "and I've always been very interested in the beautiful gowns they used to wear in olden times. In school we did home economics and one day the teacher brought in a book which showed you how to make corsets and I remember thinking that I would like to be able to make that one day."

However, nothing happened for a long time until Jeni was much older and working for Textile World, which sold old fabric by the metre. A staff discount prompted her to buy the material for her first period costume - a Victorian dress, but the project didn't run as smoothly as she would have wished - it was a steep learning curve - and it took her years to finish it. "I hadn't done much dressmaking before and there was no internet on which to research how to make it,"

she says. "Nowadays, there are thousands of websites on historical costumes."

COMPLETING that first dress, however, sparked in her a determination to get it right and when she saw that the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle was advertising a course on how to make a Victorian corset, she jumped at the chance.

"I went on that course and it was like a different world. I was fascinated by the examples the tutor brought in. I learned for the first time how to take measurements for myself, how to make a toile, which is a mock-up, a cheaper version, to ensure that the real thing fits properly.

So I made a corset for that Victorian dress I made years earlier and from then on I was hooked."

That was four years ago and since then her house has become an Aladdin's cave full of period dresses from many different eras.

Jeni's knowledge about the techniques, fabrics and patterns people would have used in different periods is wide-ranging. It's clear that it is not just the physical side of making a costume she enjoys, but also the research into it.

Jeni owns dozens of books on period dressmaking and the internet has provided her with a wealth of knowledge.

"Some of my books have actual patterns for dresses in them, others just have close-ups of the garments in them.

But from those three things I can usually piece together enough clues of how to make a garment as historically accurate as possible," she says.

Through her extensive research she realised very early on how important the right undergarment is to achieve the proper period look. This is where things we all know like hoops or corsets come in, but also other, more unusual items, such as bum rolls or bustles (to accentuate the curve of the lower back as the Victorians favoured), chest pads, tie-on pockets or dickeys (a short under petticoat).

"The right kind of undergarment is vitally important because without it a garment just doesn't hang or move right,"

says Jeni. "Even wearing a corset from a different era under a dress makes a huge difference. That's why I always make my corsets first before I even think of making the proper gown. There is no point making your final piece if you haven't got anything to support it.

"Through all the periods in history the garments had some lovely shapes, but they've been lost to us now, which is a shame because corsets are so comfortable.

It just keeps everything in place and supported the back in a better way.

I think people had fewer back problems in those days."

It's clear that it's important to Jeni to get things just right. In the past she has even resorted to make her own trims and borders when they were not available in modern haberdashery shops. She shows off one of her garments, which has an intricate trim around the hem in a lovely sage green, which she says she achieved by winding thin wire around a length of cord and dyeing it herself. It's fun, she admits, to experiment with materials not normally associated with dressmaking and making them look like an expensive length of hand-made lace.

Having enjoyed making costumes in the privacy of her own home for so long, she's now fulfilled her dream of using her skills to earn a living in the world of theatre and the silver screen. To that end she enrolled in a two-year foundation course at Cleveland College of Art and Design in Hartlepool, on period costume construction for stage and film.

"It's going to be financially difficult to be a student again, I know, but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to it because on the course we're going to be able to make real-life commissions for theatre companies and that's going to be really exciting."

And judging by Jeni's passion for her craft, there might well be a few awards in the stars for her - and who knows, it might even be an Oscar for best costume design for Pirates of the Caribbean Part 8.