Friday, 2 March 2012

I started off using a basic dress block which I traced around, seams together on dot and cross paper. 


As my design is a maxi dress - I measured the length of a person which I then added onto the dress block.

The back of my dress is going to have a drape therefore it would be best to cut the fabric on the bias to get a nicer shape. 
To achieve the overall pattern piece of my drape I decided to find a piece of fabric which would allow draping and simply pinned the fabric onto a mannequin.



Using a piece of chalk I then marked where the fabric draped.
I then took off the piece of fabric and laid it onto my original dress block and altered the pattern slightly shown in the photograph below:




I then added in the the princess seam line by simply drawing a line on the original block.  


add image of seam line 


Continuing with the CB I also added in the shape of the open back onto the dress block as well as marking where the fastenings were going to be. The fastenings I am going to use are shank buttons representing the shape of a jellyfish. 


pic of jellyfish head? 


My design displays a lot of fabric both in the front and back of the dress therefore to create this fullness I am going to slash and spread both the front and back of the dress. 
Overall I added an extra 25cm to the original block. 
CF slash and spread!
I am going to just create the basic dress design for my toile for example I do have a fabric manipulation on the shoulder which I will create for my final dress. 
As it is very difficult to create a pattern piece for this manipulation as the pattern piece would change I am going to create this manipulation on the fabric then lay the pattern piece down which I then will cut out.


It was time to start cutting out my pattern pieces so I could start my toile.
The photograph below shows the back of my dress as I am cutting it on the bias therefore the grain line is diagonal to the grain line.
Cutting on the bias will allowed greater stretch allowing the fabric to create curves and drape softly. 

After cutting out the pattern pieces I then sewed this pieces together - notch to notch. 
It was then time to add my toile onto a mannequin to see how the dress design looked.


As you can see in the image above, the princess seam line is lost - this is because during pattern cutting I made the mistake of adding the fullness onto the side of the back of the dress. To correct this mistake I am going to re-alter the back of the skirt by cutting off the fullness which I added and slashing and spreading like I did with the front of the dress.
Cutting off the fullness at the side of the back of the dress

Slashing and spreading!!!

The final pattern piece!!! Hopefully this will correct the problem!
After correcting the back of the dress - I then unpicked the back of the dress and added in the new re-cut pattern piece. 
Front
Side 

Back 
I am not 100% happy with the back of the dress for instance the shape of the cut out. 


I also don't like how there is a gap between the bottom of the cut out shape and the drape on the back of the skirt shown on the picture above. 
Therefore I am going to re-alter the pattern to change this.





After altering the pattern I then re-cut the piece and added it onto my toile, I am much happier with the shape of the back especially how there is now a gradual close at the side seam shown in the photograph below:


As you can see from the image above I started to fit the dress so it would look more flattering on a body. I started to take out fabric from the back therefore I had to change my pattern pieces again shown below:
Adding the darts onto my pattern piece which I then folded out. 

Lengthening the bottom of the pattern piece so it would support the back of the dress more. 


I then re-cut the piece again and added onto my toile shown below:

I am now really happy with the shape of the back of the dress and can't wait to start making it out of the fabric which I have chosen. 


A few more alterations however I am going to look at doing before I start making my final dress include:

  • Re-shaping the neckline slightly making it look more feminine 
  • Swooping the armhole out slightly once again making the dress appear more feminine and flattering 
6th March 2012
Today it was time to start making more alterations!! This is due to slight distortion over the bust area shown below.




I believe this slight distortion was caused by fitting the back of the dress more tightly therefore I am going to correct this by adding fullness back into the back piece.
Adding fullness into the back!

Re-shaping the armhole for a nice, feminine swoop!



I then re-cut the back piece ready to sew onto my toile to check whether this corrected the problem...

Hard at work!


I also decided to alter the front of the dress by adding a small dart near the bust area to take more fabric out as it looked a little full.
I have added this dart onto my pattern piece as well as my final toile displayed below:


After re-sewing my toile - I was really happy with the overall shape and silhouette of the dress.
Side



I then tried my toile on a person and the dress fits really well, I only need to check the notches on the skirt as it seemed a little high. 
Therefore to check this and make sure I get it correct on my final dress, I am going to re-do my notches and check my pattern pieces.


12th & 13th March 2012 
After checking my pattern pieces and redoing the notches it was time to start practicing my embellishment which is going to appear on the dress. 
The embellishment is called 'ball gathering', I decided to incorporate this into my garment as it really reminded me of sea urchins. 
Sea Urchins - google!

I still wanted to practice altering the size of the ball gathering technique shown in samples below:







After completing a few more samples, I have now decided that I prefer the smaller ball gathering technique simply because it looks more feminine and delicate. 

It was time to lay out my pattern piece to start my ball gathering technique. As it embellishment is likely to distort the shape of the original pattern piece I have to create the embellishment first then cut the pattern piece out. 


The image above displays me laying my pattern piece under the ball gathering technique checking where I need to add more of the technique.

After the pinning the pattern piece over the top of the embellished area, it was time to start cutting out my final fabric!! 

It was extremely difficult cutting around the ball gathering area, simply as the technique had created so many folds and gathers. Therefore when I started to cut around the area it started to go 'zig-zag'. I decide to stop and pin the gathers to try and control them more. 


19th & 20th March 2012 
I am going to tack the areas which I have pinned so cutting out will be much easier and more accurate.



I then started to cut the fabric according to the pattern piece, I am going to sew in the folds with the rest of the fabric pieces creating a gorgeous embellishment feature. 





After sewing all of my fabric pieces together it was time to start overlocking the seams together. I decided to use the 'baby' overlocker simply because it would create a smaller much neater finish to the seams. 
The only problem I came across when doing this was the notches were still visible therefore I have to overlock the seams even more but it still did create the desired effect that I wanted. 


26th & 27th March 2012 
Today I started off by cutting my back pieces as I had got more fabric over the weekend to do so as I had ran out of fabric. 
As my back pieces are cut on the bias - I folded the fabric diagonal. The fabric is very difficult to work with as it just slips when cutting so I had to be really careful. 





After cutting two back pieces on the bias - one for the lining and one for the back of the actual garment I then started to pin the pieces together making sure that they all lined up. 
Due to the difficult fabric I am using - I found that where the embellishment was situated it had more gathers therefore more fabric to ease into the other seam. 


After pinning all seams together I decided to try it on a mannequin. 




I am really pleased with the fact that all ends meet up and therefore are accurate. I also think the georgette fabric compliments the stunning cowl effect at the back of the dress - it makes it look really elegant and feminine. 
The dress also appears very slimming - a plus point for any design! 


It was then time to overlock my seams together - using the small overlocker as it would give a softer appearance to the dress instead of large seams. 


I needed to add some strength to my back piece where the dress will fasten together with shank buttons. So I measured a width of 3cm of interfacing and overlocked the pieces onto the wrong side of my garment. 




It was then time to start attaching my lining onto the main garment. So I edge stitched right along the neckline matching up notches making sure it was all fitting perfect. 
I then overlocked the neckline - because of the weight of the embellishment it slightly brings the seam of the neckline forward so to solve this I am going to edge stitch this very carefully. 


Once I had edge stitched the neckline - I turned over the fabric and realised it hadn't sewn properly due to the sewing machine not being threaded up properly - something I am always going to check in the future from now on. I have displayed the mistake below:
 I wasn't 100% sure now on edge stitching the neckline as it was really difficult due to the overlocking making the seam so small. 
So in the mean time I have pressed the seam line to see if it will hold and will revisit this problem nearer the end of the make up of my garment.




It was time to get back onto the small overlocker - a machine I am becoming more and more confident with. 
I started off by overlocking my two back pieces together so they would have a nice finished edge shown in the picture below:


The one issue I did notice after pressing the seams out was that the shape of the back was slightly distorted - Lynn the sewing technician suggested the problem was caused by me pressing the shape more straight than in a curve. So to correct this issue I pressed the pieces again adding more shape back in which seemed to work. 


I then started on the armholes of my dress - overlocking the pieces together once again creating a gorgeous finished outside seam. I am really happy with my stitching here!



Easter Holidays!
2nd April 2012
Our class is now off for two weeks for the Easter holidays however I decided to go in today to try get ahead with the make up of my garment. This is so I'm not stressing about getting it done on time and end up rushing it. 


I started today by attaching the inside lining to the actual dress. 
I sewed down the princess seam line and back of the dress attaching both pieces. 
Before I sewed them together I pinned them shown below - this is because since the skirt is cut on the bias - there is more stretch therefore is slightly longer than the princess seam line. 


By pinning the fabric first - It allowed me to sew an accurate seam with no ease in the fabric therefore won't cause any puckering at the side seam. 


I then started to attach all the pieces together - I found this difficult and was thankful of the help from the sewing technicians. 
I then overlocked the attached pieces which had been edge stitched - my garment was then ready to put on a mannequin to see whether it hangs right. 




I am very happy with the make up of the garment so far. It looks really professional and sellable something I wanted to achieve as I have not really made anything commercial so far. 
I feel happy with the progress I made today and to finish off the dress I only need to add the hem, fastenings and press. 


17th April 2012
Today I went into college with the aim of finishing off my hem and fastenings. 
I started off by trying my garment on a person to see an actual length, I shortened the length by 4inches which fits a size 10/12 who is about 5ft 3. 
Using the ruler I measured around the whole hemline taking up by 4inches and cutting this excess fabric off. 



Since I have baby overlocked most of my garment I decided to finish off my hem in the same way. 


After finishing the hem and pressing it was then time to start making my covered buttons which are going to be the fastenings.  


I started off by ironing on interfacing onto my fabric to add some strength and also coverage as the fabric is quite see through. 


I was then introduced to the technique of making the covered buttons something I was thrilled to learn. 
I started off by using a machine to cut out circles which were going to be main body of the button. 



The end result was perfect circles which I have displayed below:


I then added the circle onto another device which I then also added the top half of the button which was going to give the overall result its shape and structure. 



 Using the wooden stick I then pushed the fabric and top half of the button down shown in the image above. 


I then added the top half of the button and added both of them into the machine which I had used previously and jammed them together shown below:


I was so pleased with my end result - they looked really professional and I was also chuffed that I had actually made them myself! 


23rd & 24th April 2012 
This week I am going to finish off my dress by adding buttonholes ready to sew on my shank buttons. 
I measured where the buttons were going to be sewn onto the dress and pinned the back ready for lynn to create my button holes. 




As Lynn was quite busy today I decided to photograph my dress as it is nearly finished - after pressing it was time to add some photographs!







After taking some photographs I decided to start taking out the tacking which I had added to the ball gathering area to try and manipulate the fabric when sewing.
I then noticed once taking the taking the tacking out that there was a small section on the armhole which hadn't been overlocked - this is something I will have to hand sew. 

Monday 30th April 2012
After waiting a couple of weeks for Lynn to do my buttonholes on my dress as she had been very busy in the sewing room it was time for me to then sew on my shank buttons.


After sewing on three shank buttons I then tried to sort the problem where the fabric hadn't been caught in the overlocker so I added a couple of tacks just to keep the fabric from fraying. 
I am so pleased that my dress is finished - I haven't been as stressed as I normally am which I think is due to my critical path and following it everyday. 
I have even completed my dress earlier than expected therefore I am going to try and sort out a photo shoot before hand in which is next tuesday. I decided to take a couple of photographs of my final FMP dress against a black background so you could see the outline and detail of the dress more clearly. 




I also managed to complete a styled photoshoot of my garment based on the theme 'Under the Sea' as well as the grecian element present in my research during this project. 



SWOT Analysis 
Strengths
So far I believe my strengths include pattern cutting - I spent a lot of time making sure the fit of  the dress was perfect altering my original toile about 3 times. 
I also love how the design of my dress is very commercial - something I don't usually create shown in my past garment designs! 

Weaknesses 
Weaknesses include sourcing fabric - I originally thought of using silk to make the garment extremely luxurious however it was really expensive and I would of needed a lot as my dress is cut on the bias. 

Opportunities
I have improved my pattern cutting skills tremendously focusing on the fit which is beneficial to me as in the future I am going to complete a Contour Fashion course at De Montfort. 

Threats 
Threats include experimentation - I really like my final garment however I just hope it is not too simple for my FMP.