Satin nightie

I finished making this satin nightie last night. I used some fabric that my mum is no longer using. I designed it myself and I tailored it to fit me. So I basically measured myself and then used those measurements to cut the fabric to size and to put the darts in the correct place. I didn't use a pattern or a mannequin, so I think I've done really well! I am so pleased with how it has turned out!

Pillowcase Dress

I have recently been making a dress out of two pillowcases for Dress a Girl Around the World (dressagirlaroundtheworld.com). It is a project to make dresses for vulnerable children in Africa. I made this dress for a 10-12 year old. I made the pockets and sewed them on. I ruched the top and sewed the straps on. I finished it with a hem. I am really pleased with how it has turned out and I hope there is a little girl out there who would love to wear it!

Industrial inspired Photo Shoot

Last week, our class was split into groups. We were given a word to be inspired by to carry out a photo shoot. In my group, we had the word "Industrial" and we began to be inspired by the Industrial Revolution, Les Miserables and Miley Cyrus music video "Wrecking Ball". We thought the background in the video looked very industrial. I really enjoyed helping with the make-up and overseeing the preparation for the shoot and the shoot itself. This is how our photo shoot turned out:

Photography: Annie

Styling: Katie, Annie and me

Model: John

Hair & make-up: Katie, Annie & me 

Location: Industrial setting outside

Editing: Annie

Supervising & transport: me

French Seam

This week, I learned how to sew an Open Seam, a Closed Seam, a French Seam, a Machine Stitched Hem and a Hand Stitched Hem. Here, I am going to go through the step by step process of making a French seam. I found this particular seam very difficult to do. French seams are usually used on sheer or transparent fabrics and is most often associated with the high end Haute Couture and Ready to Wear markets as it is a more expensive and time-consuming seam to make.

Step 1: Get 2 pieces of fabric, right sides together and sew a straight line 0.5cm from the edge. Steam iron the seam open as shown below:

Step 2: Fold the fabric so that the seam is on the inside and iron flat. Sew a straight line 1cm from the edge.

Step 3: Iron the seam flat on one side of the fabric as shown below.

 

 

My completed French seam.

Pattern Cutting

Recently, I have learned about pattern cutting and I made a dress block. I found it quite confusing and made some mistakes along the way, but with a little help, I got there in the end. It was all about following instructions from a book and calculating math sums to create lines, angles and curves. Here is my finished result:

High Street Illustration Board

As well as the couture illustration boards, we had to make high street illustration boards. Here is the one I made. I used watercolours and fine liner.

Couture Illustration Board

Here is my Couture illustration board. I drew the dress using a picture from my historical research. I used watercolours and fine liner to create this illustration. I used A2 board as this will go in to my portfolio.