Garment make up- Day 15

I began my day by finishing the arm holes as I mentioned. Dorothy noticed the machine wasn’t stitching right and when we looked at what I had done so far it looked like the tension was off. I un-picked and re-sewed the top stitching to make sure everything looked just right. After this it was just the hem to sew, I thought about binding the bottom with black to match the collar and false pocket but I stuck with my original design and simply turned it under. I then marked where I wanted the button holes on the shirt and the back of the skirt. Lynn put them in and I hand sewed the buttons on to finish my collection completely. Before bagging the garments I made sure they were clean and used a lint roller to get any threads and fluff off them which had built up in the production process. Nearer the deadline for the garments I will give them another final press.

My shirt! 

I talked with Jill about hats today as she is offering a workshop for any of us who want to add to our collections with head pieces. I showed her some of my final illustrations which I have drawn with large turban like pieces on their heads.  She said it would be possible to construct something with hat wire so I might give it a go as I have a lot of time left and would like to do something interesting in my college hours.

Garment make up- Day 14

My aim for today was to get my shirt finished. I began by sewing on the false welt pocket to the left side of the shirt. In comparison with my toile, the piece that I had cut for the pocket ended up being a little too short once I had over locked it. I re cut it and asked Dorothy to check whether I was going about this stage in the right way. She suggested a different way to how I had made it on the toile but it turned out to be neater and more professional looking. I then added all of the fusing to the placket pieces and stitched the parts that were grown on. The printed placket piece was to be laid on top of the others but when I came to it the printed piece started to twist. I had to unpick it and re-sew while pulling and easing the layers. The next step was to do the shoulder and side seams which I then pressed. I usually have trouble with attaching collars but this one went on fine. I needed a little help reducing the bulk at the ends before folding the collar over to finish.  We discussed how the arm holes would be finished and came up with the solution to bind them in white cotton. Once I had done this I thought about folding the binding over and top stitching to make a better finish.

My little recycling project

Some pendants I have been working on, hopefully I'll be selling them soon!

All made with recycled belts and buckles, even my packaging will be made from recycled materials.

Angel of the North Shoot

My photographer from the last shoot wanted to use my dress in another location for his portfolio. I went along for the day to play photographers assistant for the day. It was a bit windy so holding the reflector was a difficult, but I had so much fun. Here's some photos I took on my phone while I wasn't needed.

My good friend Lilly was the model and did a lovely job. She also has a blog you should check out!

Garment make up- Day 13

I wanted to get my dress finished today so I went ahead with getting the zip in this morning. Normally this is the part Dorothy does but she let me have a go today and kept telling me the different steps and which foot to use etc. Having a lining makes the process a little more difficult and when attaching the lining to the zip I must have pulled too much on one side as there ended up with excess fabric near the bottom. I noticed this error myself and asked Dorothy how I should correct it. This set me back some time as I had to unpick quite a bit of that stitching and re-do it again. Once this was in I had to bag out the armholes which was the most tricky part, there is a lot of twisting and pulling involved and it seemed at times that the dress was becoming one large knot. The last part to do was the hem and Janice suggested hand sewing it to give a more professional finish, this also means I don’t have to keep switching threads on a machine. I pressed the hem of the lining in place and Dorothy bagged out the split up the back. 

Garment make up- Day 12

Day 12

I showed some of my suede applique to Lynn this morning to see if she thought it needed to be done again to neaten up. She decided to just trim a few millimeters off the edges of the suede so that it looked better. I cut one piece again and sewed it on more accurately, and then I was ready to attach the panels. I had to make sure that the suede would meet up on the corresponding seams which it did but I was worried that to get it right the seam allowance was a little over 1cm. To match the style of the skirt I topstitched down the seams that had suede. I also over locked and stitched up the lining for the dress today. I think I’m getting better at pressing the seams which are curved as I found these difficult to begin with. The trick is to lay the dress right over the round edge of the ironing board as it will not lie flat across it. 

Pic from last week but it shows how the design will look when I've finished it:

Garment make up- Day 11

As I now have the waistband fabric I could finish my skirt today. I also had an invisible zip with me so Dorothy helped me put that in first. I then attached the waistband myself, leaving a button wrap. As the fabric of the skirt is denser than the waistband the zip would probably stick at the seam so I have changed the design to a zip and button.

Doing the hem was more difficult as I had to keep changing between black and white threads. Once I was finished Dorothy noticed the machine wasn’t stitching right and you could tell from looking at the hem there was something wrong. I had to unpick it all and start again from scratch, but once this was done the skirt was just about finished. I’ve had some lovely comments about it and a few people have told me how well the colours work together so I am pleased with this garment.

In the afternoon I began appliqueing the suede to the dress panels. It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped because the pieces were longer than the one I did as a sample piece. Some of my edge stitching was a little off so I think I might revisit some areas and do it again to neaten up.