Archive for August, 2009

Thoughts on the second episode of Project Runway from last night – I love that they gave them a pregnancy garment challenge! Even though I have never been pregnant, my problem with maternity wear is that it always looks too babydoll-ish. Just because a woman is pregnant does not mean that she does not want to look or feel sexy. I feel that a lot of maternity wear out there takes the sex appeal away from a woman. That being said, while the winning design was beautifully designed and made by Shirin, it was too girlish in my opinion:

The design that I would prefer to wear is the jersey gown designed by Althea. She did a great job of highlighting the pregnant form while also making the body appear slimmer. The fabric color was beautiful and I also LOVED the way she accentuated the lower back (very slimming). My only recommendation was that she ad a bit more fabric to the bust. While most women want to show off the breasts they never had during their pregnancy, there is a such thing as too much.  What did you guys think about the designs?

On another note, I took a day off from working on the pencil skirt because of the zipper dilemma. I’m pretty sure that because of the thickness of the folds in the fabric, a machine stitch is pretty much out of the question. My fear is that it will appear sloppy and that just won’t work on a tailored skirt. I am going to try a blind hand-stitch and see how it goes. I like the idea of not being able to see the zipper seam on the outside of the garment. Details to follow…

I finally get to place the decorative waistband, which is something I have been looking forward to very much. There isn’t a how-to guide for something like this; it just takes some strategic placing and a lot of creativity. To do this, I placed the skirt onto the dress form inside out so the band could be properly pinned to the garment.

After making a few adjustments to the waistband and then trying the garment on, I stay-stitched the band into place. I don’t believe that this was an absolutely necessary step but I didn’t want it to slip out of place (better safe than sorry!).

Normally, I would opt for a machine stitch but the fabric overlapped a few times in the ruffle, which made it extremely thick. My fear was that I would break the machine needle. So, I decided on a simple hand stitch. I am very pleased with how it turned out:

Once the band was stitched into place and the pins were removed, I started to work on finishing the inside of the band. The fabric (as you can see) frays terribly. So, I wanted to use a finishing stitch on the machine to prevent further fraying. Big mistake! My initial fear about using a machine stitch was correct. I broke the needle. Stupidity or a right of passage? I’ll go with a right of passage. I decided to give it a rest for the night after the needle deal breaker…

Tonight, episode 2 of the new season of Project Runway. Can’t wait!!

It’s been quite the productive day. I went ahead with the dart placement on the pencil skirt. The darts, in my opinion, were falling too low. So, I decided to take in the side seams a bit to lessen the fabric in the midsections. I’m much much happier with where the darts fall now. Time to sew!

After sewing the side seams and darts into place, I went ahead and cut away some of the excess fabric and did a finishing stitch on the side seams. The fabric that I am using is linen and it frays terribly! Usually, I would wait until the garment was complete to finish the seams but I felt this was necessary step so the fabric wouldn’t fray too much.

At this point, I tried the skirt on. The fit is spectacular! You’ll never have a better fitting garment than one that is tailor made to your measurements. The only thing that I would like to change is the darts. They need to come down just a few more stitches for a smoother look.

I was able to get started on the waistbands today as well (hence the productivity ☺). After attaching the standard waistband pieces together, I pinned them to the skirt only to find that the seams on the band did not match up with the seams on the skirt. I reattached the band pieces together taking them in enough to match the skirt seams. After stay-stitching it in place, I attached the decorative waistband pieces. I’m really excited about this part because, up until now, this has been a simple skirt making process. Now, I get to add an extra dose of creativity!

On another note, I did some serious sketching last night. After the season premiere of Project Runway topped off with a dose of the Rachael Zoe Project, I was feeling inspired. I’m obsessed (like most of you are) with the red carpet. Gowns are my favorite things in the world to design. My dream would be to see my dresses on Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and especially Anne Hathaway – the old Hollywood glamor girls of today. Once I start to work on these dresses, I will post the sketches.

I made my monthly pilgrimage today to the Garment District in search of fabric for the skirt I am currently working on. Believe it or not, I found the exact fabric that I was looking for at Paron Fabric’s. Paron is one of my faves because they have a good selection and the people there are helpful. I purchased 1.5 yds (extra for mistakes) of ivory-colored linen with a little stretch.

I opted against interfacing for both waistbands since the fabric is thicker than what I originally had in mind. They should maintain stiffness on their own. After folding and ironing the fabric, I pinned the pattern and cut the pieces out. The skirt panels are pinned at the seams on the dress form and are ready for dart placement tomorrow.

On another note, I found this amazing rust-colored fabric at the store. A few months ago when I conceptualized the Venice line, I designed a rust-colored gown with a built in corset. Needless to say, I am in LOVE with this fabric. It has a wet-shine look to it in certain light and an interesting texture. I spent some time draping the dress form with the fabric for new inspiration and ideas. I’m working on a design based on this concept:

I finished attaching the waistbands and am pleased with the overall look. There are a few adjustments needed so I decided to make the following changes for the original pattern draft:

- add 1” length to the hem

- fix the seam allowance for the lower back panels

- add a 5/8 seam allowance on the edges that connect the front decorative waistband to the back decorative waistband

- add a little width to decorative waistband (to create a higher waistband)

After making all of these changes, the pattern is finished and ready for the final fabric. I tried the skirt on and it fits like a glove. Very excited to wear it! My next stop will be the fabric store which is one of my favorite parts of the design process. I’m looking for an ivory-colored fabric with a little bit of stretch and a medium thickness (in between tweed and a stretchy cotton). Most likely I will change my mind about the fabric color or texture once I am at the store. We shall see!

After tweaking the darts a bit, I finally got them into place. Continuing on from yesterday, I stay-stitched the skirt panels and darts into place and removed the pins so I could try it on (pins = OUCH). LOVE the fit. Working with an adjustable dress form definitely helps when tailoring a garment to your own measurements.

Next task – drafting the waistband. After some consideration, I decided on a thin standard-looking waistband below the decorative ruffle waistband, which steps away from the original design a little but helps to streamline the look and add functionality.

Drafting the waistbands was fairly easy since both required a rectangular shape. I took the waist measurement and added a 5/8 seam allowance with enough width to fold for the standard waistband. The decorative waistband required more length in order to create the “ruffle”. It also needed a greater width for a more dramatic effect.

After cutting the patterns from Muslin, I started to stay-stitch the bands into place. Small folds were added to the fabric at certain points on the decorative band to create the ruffles. Once the bands are attached, I will be able to determine if any alterations needed to be made to the patterns.

Today, I started to draft the pattern for a skirt designed based upon my inspirational trip to Venice, Italy. I have designed an entire line around this recent trip so, you will see that most of my current projects will contain details representative of Venice and it’s culture, architecture and rich lavish colors. The original design for the skirt (mainly the waistband) was based upon ruffle details seen mostly in Carnival costumes. Walking through Venice, you pass many a shop with decorative masks and costumes designed specifically for the annual Carnevale di Venezia.

I found a basic skirt pattern tutorial in one of my recently purchased books, How to Make Sewing Patterns by Donald H. McCunn. I followed the instructions for the basic straight skirt pattern. However, my design calls for a pencil skirt and a decorative waistband, so some tweaks were made to the initial pattern draft.

After taking my measurements and adjusting my dress form (amazing bday gift!), I created the first pattern draft for the skirt panels.  The only adjustment I made to this first pattern draft, is the cut of the skirt. My design calls for a more pencil skirt look rather than a straight skirt look. So, I used a hip curve ruler to round out the fit. It looks good minus a mistake on the seam allowance on the lower back skirt panels. Not only am I impressed with this book; but I am also impressed with my ability to get this down on paper and make necessary tweaks as I go along. I transferred the pattern draft to Muslin (cheap fabric) and will attempt to stay-stich the pieces together. This will help determine where the darts will be placed and if any changes need to be made to the first pattern draft.

After pinning the garment pieces (inside out) around the dress form and locate the darts, I was thoroughly impressed with the overall look and fit of the main skirt panels. My only concerns are the length of the skirt and the dart placement. The design calls for a “right below the knee” fit. The pattern is falling mid-knee and this is before hemming. So, I decided to add another inch to the length of the pattern draft. I also want to play around with the dart placement a bit.

I started sketching early at the age of 12. Many years and many drawings later, I’ve decided to bring my paper designs to life. I have not attended school nor do I have a background in design. I’m just a gal living in NYC with a dream, some talent and a lot of drive plus ambition. A few months ago, I researched and purchased several books that teach pattern drafting, sewing and fashion marketing (which will be mentioned throughout this blog). I hit the books hard for a few months then started to put what I learned into practice. This blog will be dedicated to chronicling my journey into fashion design. A career journal if you will. Welcome to my journey and thanks for reading!