November 22, 2011

Fitting and Repurposing

So I never actually took any pictures of the celery dress that I made for my sister, and I only finally have because I've done some adjusting to the dress to make it fit her so much better! My techniques of fit class is invaluable. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at ready to wear the same again. And normally you want to leave about 2 inches of ease in the skirt around the hips, but Katy and I both prefer more closely fitted clothing. So after adjustments I present to you, The Celery Dress!



Ya! very stylish, we worked together to design the dress so it's a collaborative project if anything, but I have no problem sharing credit. Katy has excellent taste in clothing, and frequently we both have a desire for something that will be in style in a year or two.

The other day, one of my classmates came in the room in an adorable skirt! long, loose but still fitted to her, and looked so comfortable! After speaking with her, the teacher heard us talking about it and told us to ask her how she made it, "You'll never guess" She said. Turns out it was an old sweater of her husbands, and all she did was cut off the sleeves, collar, and take it in on the sides a couple inches! she added some fabric where the sleeve holes and necklines were because they created an odd looking hemline, and it's so adorable! I asked if I could post about her, and she said yes! I think this is just a great idea for re-purposing something that you would otherwise be getting rid of. There are so many ways to recycle old clothing or fabric, and while I'm not a fan of those no waste patterns (too many different grain variations in the garment for me. it'd hang so strangely.), I really do love taking old clothing items and redoing them for myself. You guys may remember about five months ago when I showed you the emerald green shirt I made for myself. What a great use of a T shirt that Tony wanted to get rid of! I even have a few more I cannot wait to get at once I have more time!

I'm working right now on more things for my techniques of fit class. We're trying to create a perfectly fitting bodice and skirt pattern for ourselves, and I've got the skirt down! Right now I'm working on the bodice (the hardest of the two) and I cannot tell you how many times I've had to do a "Full Bust Adjustment". Lemme just say, all patterns, no matter what size they are, are designed to accommodate only a B cup. I am so, so far away from a B cup. My teacher even joked yesterday "Is there a bust dart that fits you?" because we just keep trying and adjusting, and trying and adjusting.

Once I get the bodice pattern to fit me (it's got to be before this time next week :\ ) I'll be drafting my lab garment and my final garment for Advanced Flat Pattern! I showed you the design for the final garment last post, and I've recently decided to make my lab garment a slightly altered version of my Peplum dress! It was so successful and flattering that I could not limit it to one dress! So I've got this beautiful double layer fabric that is the perfect chocolate brown with intermittent orange flowers. They're kind of a warm sunset orange. Not too bright. the top layer is attached to the brown under layer creating a quilted look, but instead of just lines of quilting, it's actually hearts! it's so cute, I cannot wait to show it! The plan is to have the lab garment finished in time to wear it to thanksgiving actually.. It'd be perfect! Katy wearing her Celery Dress, me wearing my Autumn Peplum dress! Such a well dressed family. ahahaha.

That heart bustier for draping class came along quite perfectly! it was awesome! Since I've made an official pattern for it, once I get my personal fit sloper worked out I can working out the pieces in my size, and then next semester when I'm in the Bustier Class, I'll be making this for myself! I'm thinking a deep red for the heart, and probably either a black, brown, or ivory color for the rest of it. not sure. Oh well! Either way it's going to look amazing, and I'll have made it myself.. there is going to be so much boning in that thing... But Believe me, once it's all finished and sewn up, you WILL see me in it! I plan on wearing that thing out!

Alright well I've got to get started on all that pattern work so I bid you Adieu!



also please forgive me if the HTML coding gets annoying this blog is basically a live broadcast of me learning HTML. yay for Internets!

November 10, 2011

Been a while!

I have been SO BUSY with school. I've been doing a lot of fun stuff though and definitely a lot of sewing! I made myself a cute sundress for next summer, but I didn't get a good picture of it yet (too cold to wear it!). I took advantage of the pattern work I did on that summer dress though and made myself a wool winter dress!
it's a simple strapless bodice top and flared skirt but there was barely any fabric so I had to make the bodice in pieces instead of one whole front bodice, whole back bodice, and whole skirt front. You can tell in the picture the skirt front is two pieces. It was a good move for conserving fabric and most of the time in person no one seemed to notice it until we were talking about it. That made me pretty happy. :) You'll notice i'm wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath! I haven't lined the dress yet because I haven't got enough lining material to do the dress, my jacket for my Tailoring class, and also it's been damn cold! Since it was cold and I wore the dress to a hockey game I also wore tights (and a nice red coat, not shown).


heeeeeey it's my halloween costume! I was a My Little Pony, but I didn't want to sew the "cutie mark" onto my dress so that I could maybe wear it some other time where a lot of cleavage is ok ahaha. I curled my wig, a LONG arduous process, and made my horn! I bought some "pluffy" molding clay from Michaels, baked it for too long, and then painted it white. It was a little tricky attaching the horn to the wig, but after about 45 minutes of fidgeting i got it to attach and stand upright!

It was a pretty successful costume. One kid didn't even recognize me as a unicorn! ahahahahaha. Made me laugh. We only got three trick or treaters though and it was sad.

I am definitely having fun in my draping class! Its been really easy but also very interesting as it's opened up my creativity for pattern making and design! we had to do a princess seam bodice and this is what I did. very simple, but since everyone else did the traditional middle of the shoulder seam to middle of the waist, I feel pretty good about it.




I'm also doing this! yes that IS a heart bustier, and yes I think it's adorable. I'm gonna sew it up as an outside layer of muslin for class, and then next semester I'm taking an actual class on how to make a Bustier, os since I get that one made, I'm going to ACTUALLY make myself a legit heart bustier!







I've also been working on some illustrations for ideas for more dresses to make! I knew I needed to do something awesome for my lab and my final project for my advanced flat pattern class, so I've been trying really hard to come up with something that I liked, and that would also hopefully be good enough for a wedding I get to attend in january!

I toyed around with the idea of some tea or knee length dresses


But then I decided on something floor length when the invitations came and said Formal!

forgive the melty face illustration, i'm not very good at faces still. i'm imagining it in a jewel tone or a subtle shimmery gold.



I've still got a lot of work ahead of me on the dress, Katy's dress, my tailoring jacket, my tailoring skirt, and my bodice and skirt for techniques of fit.again, I'm feeling pretty dang good, but I know there's still al lot of work ahead of me. Wish me luck!