VIER: Week 6

 

This week I traveled to Los Cabos, Mexico. This was a well needed vacation for me. As a student and a creative person, I found much needed relaxation and inspiration on this trip.

 

Exploring and experiencing different cultures and atmospheres was refreshing and allowed me to both take a break from what I was working on and help me see things through a new lens. Although I technically didn’t work on anything physically for my collection, I had a lot of time to mentally reflect on my work and gather new inspirations.

VIER: Week 5

 

The day we visited Tandy Leather as a class, I went in early and rented out their skiving machine to trim down the thickness on the edges of my applique pieces. This was actually a fun machine to work on and I’m glad I have some experience on it. 

At first, when sewing the applique pieces on the jacket, I was folding as I sewed, but that was not working out very well. I then switched to using leather glue and gluing the edges down beforehand, which worked out very well and I will continue to do in the future. 

Here’s the finished applique dogfaces on the fronts of the top.

Here is my finished ensemble. I’m very proud of this and that I got it done in such a short amount of time. This was my first time working with leather so please be kind.

week 6

 Week 6 

This week I was able to pull off the impossible! I made this dress over a weekend. With the delay of getting my models measurements I was given a very short amount of time. But in the end, this gave me (what I believe to be) a real work experience of what the industry can be like. Not every customer, boss, co-worker, ect will be on your time and do what you need to be done in the time you need/want. 

Here are a couple pictures of me grading my pattern pieces to the size of my model.  

Cutting out my pattern with the lovely help of my cat Missy. PS, floral stones make great pattern weights.  

Since I did not have time to do a mock up of my newly graded pattern, I had to take in the sides. 

But, thankfully that was a very easy fix. Here are pictures of the sides sewn with the extra fabric still attached. 

Here I showed how I sewed the side seams of my front and lining together.

And here is me sewing my skirt to the bodice. 

Week 6 Adding Details!!

 My final fur jacket came out amazing, as I wanted a structured collar. What I did was add interfacing and covered that with another piece of fabric, hiding that facing bit, also giving the collar a nice, curved, stiffened silhouette.

As I tried to figure out what else was missing with my garment, I realized that I needed to add fur throughout my garment, so I decided to do a fur lapelle, that way making the fur flow throughout the garment!

To give it a more boujee and luxurious look, to it i decided to also add leather straps and buckles to this jacket, being its closer. still leaving that gap, giving it that sexy, scandalous touch.

As I felt adding a sustainable fabric like this would really give that nature spiritual feel to not just the garment, but throughout the collection! 

In the next blog, I will be working on my jewelry pieces. Stay tuned!!

Red Pink: Week 6

 This was a busy week of bringing the first ensemble to life in the final fabrics. Pattern pieces needed to be drafted for the neckline and armhole all-in-one facing as well as the inside snap placket. The back part of the facing was as simple as tracing the existing seam lines at the top of the dress side back pattern piece, but drafting the the front part of the facing was a bit more complicated. I needed to omit the pleats. And I wasn't quite sure what that would do to the shape and angle of the facing armhole. I tried a couple of different ways of flat patterning to accurately replicate the curve over the bust. 

I traced the neckline, shoulder, armhole, and a short section of the side front pattern piece.

Then I taped the pleats shut, and used a pattern wheel to trace the resulting curve.

Here it is drawn in pencil.

When I finished that, I realized changes might need to be made to the armhole and neckline shape and/or angle. I drafted another front facing with the pleats drawn in, slashed them, and closed them, but that opened up space in the armhole that didn't seem right either. After thoroughly confusing myself, I decided to cut the facing pieces from the first draft of the front facing and put it on the form with the side front piece of the dress. The neckline placement was spot on, but the armhole and side seam needed to be revised.

With the pleats of the dress machine basted in place, I pinned the shoulder and neckline of the dress and facing together, flat on the table, and traced the dress armhole onto the facing using tailor's chalk. I could then cut the excess material away.

I used the trimmed facing piece to alter my pattern.

And used the altered pattern to recut the other front facing piece.

And here is the resulting all-in-one facing. I used a matching cotton rose print from by quilting fabric stash as a sew in interfacing. The interfacing I purchased specifically for this project was marked incorrectly at the store as 100% cotton. I pre-washed my fabrics for this project, so when the interfacing came out of the dryer extremely staticky, I discovered it was actually polyester, or a cotton poly mix. Since I am using all 100% cotton fabrics in this collection, I drew from what I had, and I actually really love the little matching roses. If anyone looks closely at the underside of the facings, it will be a nice little surprise. And if I have enough left, I will also use it to bias bind the side seam allowances.

Since this dress is intended to be a high end piece with quality construction, a lot of time was spent on seam finishing. Denim piping with 2mm cotton cord was inserted between the dress front and matching lining. The corduroy sides of the dress are also sandwiched between the plaid outer fabric and lining so all the raw edges of the curved front and back seams are completely covered. This made for a lot of bulk that needed to be trimmed away before pressing. 

Here is the dress and lining fabric, pillow-cased around the corduroy side pieces. Below are images of the trimmed and notched seams.

All the excess bulk trimmed away resulted in a beautifully pressed seam with no underlying ripples.

Some areas needed hand basting to lay right while sewing and avoid puckers and folds in the seams. The  back side of the corduroy snap placket was also hand basted to keep it aligned with the placket seam, and then hand sewn to cover the raw seam allowance. 

Inserting the snaps was a bit nerve racking, since it can't be undone, but it went really well. I made myself a small sample first as a test and practice piece.

And here are photos of inserting all nineteen snaps along the front curve. I made a separate pattern piece as a snap placement template for the front of the dress.

Once the holes were punched in the front of the dress, I aligned the proper placement of the neckline, and pinned the curve along the seam of the snap placket. 

I used chalk pencil to mark each punched hole onto the inner snap placket, made small adjustments to a few of the markings, and then punched those holes as well. 

I then used a table press to apply the snaps, which was a really fun and therapeutic process. I absolutely love using my press.

And here is the finished dress! I'm absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. The 100% cotton corduroy and plaid poplin were really wonderful to work with. I have a final fitting with the model tomorrow. Enjoy!