Monday, June 27, 2011

Another Post About my Jacket...

Today I realized how much it changes EVERYTHING to see your garment on a real person (as opposed to a mannequin, a hanger, yourself, in pieces, in the sewing machine, under an iron, etc, etc). You get the point. In any case, it was like a breath of fresh air to see it with actual arms inside and to be able to step back and understand what works and what doesn't. Thanks, Odel!

blah blah blahg...

So here's the story of my second outfit...(is it just me or does any one else have an automatic reflex when they hear "so here's the story" to start rapping the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme"?). In any case, after our mid-semester critiques, when we sat with our advisers and chose which outfit we're going to sew, the outfit I most wanted to make was this dress:This particular course, however, other than requiring us to blog our entire process, also requires that we create a complete look...more of an outfit. And my advisers and I agreed that this dress is a little bit too basic. And so...we decided on the outfit I've been working on for the last month and a half (ya know...the many, many sequins)...No, seriously...it's kind of hard to miss. We did, however, agree that if I could manage to get everything done with enough time to spare, I could try to make the dress. So tomorrow is our final fitting (to make sure everything sits right, and to measure hems and finishes) and I managed to make a toille of the dress to fit tomorrow. If everything fits alright, I'll have enough time between the fitting and the presentation to make the dress (and of course, dye it). Here's my progress:Here's me! The idea with this dress is that I really related to my previous post "Because Size Does Matter" and I changed a lot of the proportions of a regular dress. The waistline dropped to the hips, the armhole grew, the shoulder dropped, the neckline widened and somehow the dress (at least on me) still looks wearable.

Under the dress, there is another, thinner dress that is seen in the places where I cut out the shapes from the brocade. The part of the neckline that is seen, I draped many small folds.
Tomorrow I'll see both looks on the models and hopefully everything will work out! I'll definitely be sure to take pictures and post them soon!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

A Post About my Jacket

I mean, the title pretty much says it all so there's not a whole lot more to add. I seam (on-purpose-typo...get it?) to have made quick progress on both my skirts and my top which left me nothing but time to procrastinate working on this scary, scary jacket. All in all (not including the 3 toilles and many, many changes I made to the pattern), from the moment I had the final pattern...It's taken me two and a half weeks to cut, embroider, and sew the jacket (and we're still talking about a jacket without lining)!!!


I must say, I had myself pretty convinced that after I had all these sequins sewn (one at a time), the sewing would be cake! Oh man was I wrong! I basically had to sew a completely tailored jacket from silk chiffon. I'm not gonna lie....I have a few rips and tears (and tears in the other sense) here and there, but I've found that sometimes it's better to just hang up the jacket...stop sewing, stop ironing and either hope no one will notice or if need be, cover up all the problem areas with some extra sequins. : )
So this is wear (another on-purpose-typo...words are fun) we are now! The jacket demands some serious ironing, but that's probably been my biggest struggle in this entire project. For those of you who understand fabrics, you know that synthetic jacquard and silk chiffon iron very differently...so naturally, when ironing them one on top of the other, I had some trouble. For now, I'm leaving it alone and hoping that my technical adviser can...well...advise in this area.
Coming up next on Las Meninas...A Post about my second Outfit! (That's right, it's already in the works...SURPRISE! you know you don't want to miss this!)
Happy weekend to all...

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Mini Fashionistas

A friend of mine just sent me this adorable article after reading my blog....

(הכתבה בעברית לכל השנקריסתים בקהל)

ENJOY! : )

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Raw Edges...

So things are starting (slowly, but surely) to come together.
For now, i have 3 out of 4 pieces sewn...without belts, facings, and finishes, of course.

Yesterday, I managed to perfect the edges of the shirt...which are done with an overlock machine in BRIGHT PINK! I had to mess around with the size of the stitch and practice on a LOT of scraps since every mistake is visible! I love the way it came out....Now I just have to take on the collar...

And last, but most certainly not least....I spent a full day cutting the jacket with the chiffon! The next few days are dedicated to sitting and sewing LOADS of sequins (and perhaps watching some trashy television in the process....what can i say? I'm in a Kardashian phase).


Please note: The Red Bull might as well be sewn into the jacket...End of semester diet for fashion design students at Shenkar: Red Bull and Coffee....It's possibly that we're killing ourselves, but at least we look good doing it.

More to come!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Fit for a princess

The last few weeks, I've been busy sewing multiple "drafts" of all of my garments and fitting them on a model. Here are some pictures of the first fitting (from several weeks ago)...since then, There have been 3 more skirts and 2 more jackets all in raw materials... It takes time to get the right proportions and fit, but as of this week, I'm good to go!

I've already sewn parts here and there of the final pieces (from the real fabrics) and I'll be sure to load pictures in the next few days....
The skirt was kind of a disaster the first time around, which is kind of funny because I always think my patterns are really simple...but now I know that sometimes the most simple garments are the hardest to fit! After fixing the pattern and sewing a few more skirts with the changes, I managed to get a silhouette that I really love and it looked great on her! (I'll post those pics soon)!



So anyways, I know these pictures are a hot mess, but I promise, I've already made great strides in improving the overall look and fit!