#prejudging

Hello there!

I don’t enter a lot of contests, so take what I say with a grain of salt, since I’m lacking in some of the experience, though the only time I made a progress report and swatchbook was the time I won an award, so maybe there’s something to this.

For layouts, keep it simple. I used a grid format, with each grid space containing a different fabric swatch or part of the process. I would say that exact format doesn’t matter as long as you keep it fairly consistent within your pages -- that is, if you do a list format on one page, do a list format on the next page.

There’s a few ways I can think to organize it. I ended up organizing by information type, which would be materials used (with swatches), then answers to common judging questions, then a page explaining my process for each item. You can also organize by process type, that is, all of your sewing is together, all of your propmaking is together, all of your embroidery is together, etc. 

Organizing by garment or item in the costume is one of the most logical ways to do it if you want to incorporate process, progress photos, and swatches together, though it may be difficult if you have, for example, two items that go together or where there’s a lot of overlap, or a costume where you used mostly the same techniques and materials across multiple items. This would be organized with a page for each part of the costume -- a page explaining how you made the helmet, a page explaining how you styled the wig, a page explaining how you sewed the dress, etc., including material swatches and progress photos as needed. If I were to do another swatchbook, I’d probably use this organization method.

As for what to include, I would say anything you can think of that would help the judges to know how you made your costume. Reference photos, progress photos, how you made each item, which techniques you used, which materials you used (and swatches if possible), and even things like what new techniques you learned, if you dyed your fabrics, how you finished your seams (especially if relevant, such as French seaming a sheer garment), if you patterned your own garments, if you did anything really special and out there (like custom-designed and hand embroidered an entire pattern all over a ballgown) or added any special touches (like a special patterned lining that’s in-character or a small in-character touch), etc. Also be sure that you can explain /why/ you made any of the choices you did, since that really shows that you know what you are doing.

Don’t include mistakes, unless there’s a compelling reason to. Judges don’t need to know about that 99% of the time. I would say the few exceptions are things like a recovery from a major mistake that turned out for the better, but if you do this spin it into a positive about how you learned such and such technique, or if an accident happened on the way to con, like someone spilled their coffee on you or you got into a fight and they ripped your wig off your head or something, which...hopefully won’t happen. Don’t apologize for anything, either. Present your costume as it is, and like in a job interview, play up your strengths, and spin any weaknesses into a strength.

I know that I usually forget to mention something to the judges, so having a checklist of things you want to run by them is best, especially if you only have a short amount of time with the judges. Be sure to prioritize the most important things that you want them to know.

This is what my swatchbook/progress report for Harle looked like, for reference. I had reference images and progress photos on my computer, though I would recommend printing out at least your reference image, if you can, and including it (the only time they saw the reference was when I was in the costume in front of them). I listed what each material was, if I did any sort of treatments to them (dyeing, painting, etc.), where each material was used in the costume, included a swatch of each material, and the last page lists every technique I used, by item (so all the leotard techniques, hood techniques, glove techniques, etc.). Typing all this would likely be more legible, so I’d recommend that.