Final Garment - 22/4/12 -Explore materials ft1503

So this week we get to create our own piece in our own fabrics, made up from taking the most interesting / successful parts of past garments and developing them further into a well put together final garment.

I knew straight away i wanted to develop my plastic skirt as i loved how the print looked and felt that if i could work out how to sew as opposed to stapling it, it could be a very exciting outcome.

I looked back through my past work for ideas, i think the idea of splitting the trousers into 3 worked really well, as it gave me the chance to experiment and come up with new shapes, i followed this through and split my skirt pattern into 3 for my final garment.

Final skirt pattern for dress

The feedback from trouser 3 was i should have interfaced the denim to hold the shape better, i loved how the shape looked and with the plastic being thicker i think the idea may develop and hold better.

Measuring for cowl back

Finally, although my jersey dress was a nightmare, the cowl neck was a success on its own so i may put that into my final piece.

Below right is the first attempt at my dress,  I have learned a cowl neck only drapes well with soft flowing fabrics as when i have measured and cut in the same way as the jersey dress it doesnt hang properly, although i do think the way it holds it shape in leatherette is quite interesting i dont feel its appropriate for what im trying to achieve here. Instea i have decides to keep it simple but well done so i have cut it out in the bodice.

The above left picture shows the flowing side panels i had, i decided these wernt working as i have learnt from skirt 3 that the plastic is useful at holding its shape so i im going to rework the sides with this in mind.

Zip put in using zip foot

I managed to overcome one of the major problems from skirt 3 of not being able to sew the plastic, i changed the needle using a fine 70 needle as well as the teflon foot, im very pleased as this is the reason i chose to reuse the plastic.

I tried overlocking the inside seams where plastic meets leather to gain a cleaner finish but you could see the overlocking stitches from the outside making it look messy to overcome this problem i bound all the inside seams which in my opinion works a 100 tines better giving a much cleaner finish.

Inseam pocket sewn on, inside view

A strength of the plastic is its see through with this i used abother skill i have gained through the module and did another inseam pocket to fit the bodice,i thought this was an unusual design feature as most pockets are found in the bottom part of a dress i also bound the edges of the pocket to make it more visible from the outside.

Finally to finish off the garment nicely, i used the art of manipulating fabric book for inspiration, i attempted a flounce in my garment detail file, and thought it would fit well with this garment, following the instructions i have put a flounce around the neck

Improvements;

I am frustrated as just as im putting the finishing bits onto the dress the front darts on the front bodic have began to rip, although i feel i have massively developed this idea from the original dress 3 taking it from being stapled to fully sewn, i still feel theres room for improvement on the sewing aspect.

Also, although know i no how to insert a zip correctly, i still need to carry on practising this on different fabrics, as the leatherette has bubbled up again around the zip.

How well did it work as a garment?

My aim for this final garment is to introduce the printed plastic into a more wearable garment which i feel i have achieved well. I teamed the plastic with the leatherette as i wanted to use fabrics that work well together .
I had already decided to work to the plastics strengths, one being that the edges dont fray so i decided to leave the edges raw so you can see the cutting lines, this is also why i put it with the leatherette as it works in the same way.

Is it fashion?

Yes, i am suprised at how 'normal' the dress has turned out, when using an unusual material i expect the end result to always look unusual, but i feel this garment has turned out looking very wearable like i wanted it too.

What was the fabric?

Plastic

Leatherette

How much did you use

1 metre of leatherette

3 metres of plastic

How much did it cost?

leatherette £4pm

Plastic £2 pm

where was it sourced?

Fabric world, Shepherds Bush

FINISHED GARMENT

FRONT VIEW

BACK VIEW

BOTTOM BACK VIEW

FRONT FLOUNCE/COLLAR

BACK FLOUNCE/ COLLAR VIEW

BOUND INSIDE

INSIDE VIEW

INSIDE VEW - INSEAM POCKET

Trouser 3 - 20/4/12

This week i again bought the fabric, i was instructed to obtain the cheapest fabric as people had little money, i went over to walthamstow where i found this tweed at 1.65 pm so bought 2 metres for everyone.

Making

As i had concentrated mainly on experimentation with the fabric upto now, i felt for the last trousers i would concentrate firstly, mainly on the cut and secondly on making the most technically well presented piece to date.

I wanted to use fabric that would hold its shape well, as i felt this tweed wouldnt do that i teamed it with denim.

One of the most successful ideas ive had through this module is splitting the trouser block into 3 from trouser 1 and changing the idea each week, so i again followed this theme.

I had the idea of taking the straight leg block and adding a curve in, from this initial idea i began researching, and getting a feel for whats around. Looking at Ralph Laurens AW12 collection i found a  similar, subtler version of my idea

Ralph Lauren AW12

I also looked at John Galliano who has produced pieces i found inspirational

I used the pattern pieces for previous weeks, but combined the top panel with the centre panel, to gain the curved i measured the pattern pieces, found the middle i then measured out 20cm's  and used my varyform curve to get a nice even line.  Then i cut the bottom leg pieces in tweed.

I then pattern cut the waistband and began overlocking my trousers, this is the first time ive ever used an overlocker, it took a while to get used to but i think it gives a much more professional finish.

This week i also challeneged myself to produce a fly front zipper, i tried reading how to do it but struggled to get my head around it so instead to guide myself i looked and followed a fly front ive cut out a pair of jeans for my garment file. After hours of staring at it! I went through it step by step, i found it really useful and i am really pleased with my finished zip, although i found it a real challenge!

Finishing off fly front zip

After looking at garments with fly front most of them were finished off with a button on the waistband, i decided this would be a good time to try and do a buttonhole. I had put off doing this as i felt it was quite challenging but after focusing on it, it was quite simple to do, i used the buttonhole foot on my machine, measured the width of my button and the machine did the rest, simple!

Improvements

To be honest, i am very pleased with my garment,  to improve i could source the same colour overlocking thread to bring my garment together more.

Also im not sure how it happened but when i had sewn the majority of my waistband on i realised it was a little too short, and i had to add a piece on, in future i should pin the whole piece on to make sure it fits.

Other Findings;

How well did it work as a garment?

I feel this all round is my biggest achievement to date, the combination of the shape, different fabrics and the technical level i have achieved, makes it work well as a garment.The two criticisms i have are, i did consider interfacing the denim as i thought it would hold the shape better but iwas afraid i would ruin what i had achieved so far, in heinsight i wish i had. Also, because of the shape ive added i lost some of the fit.

Is it fashion?

From my research i feel it is fashion as similar things are being produced, i also feel its quite innovative making it fashionable.

What was the fabric?

Cotton Denim

Tweed - Wool mix

 

How much did you use

Half a metre of tweed

1 metre of denim

 

How much did it cost?

 

Tweed - 1.65pm

Denim - 5.99pm

where was it sourced?

Textile centre - Walthamstow

Fabric world, Shepherds Bush

FINISHED GARMENT

Week 27 - Dress 3

The idea of white jersey was decided by zanelle but as she couldnt buy for everyone i sourced my own

Making

I was looking forward to making dress 3 as i had wanted to work with jersey for a while, mainly because i knew it draped well. As i had bleached the colour out of trouser 1 i thought it would be nice to do the opposite and add colour onto the white.

I used my method that had been working throughout the module and began by researching, i found 2 gorgeous dyed dresses that were the inspiration for mine.

Both the Rodarte dress and the alexander mcqueen dress has been dip dyed so i chose to attempt dip dying mine, as pastel colours are a big trend for SS 12 i chose i light pink.

I began by taking out the darts of the front bodice

I wanted to keep the front simple as i had already decided to try and attempt a cowl back,

for the cowl back i measured on the mannequin from the shoulder down to where i wanted the cowl to drop to, in this case it was 42 down to the bottom of the back and the same back up.

I cut down my pattern for the back placed it on the jersey opened it open and cut it on the bias to give a more fluid drape.

Below is the finished cowl and i think it has worked really well, im really happy with the outcome

For the rest of the dress i was going to drape, i tried a few different ideas...

 My favourite idea is the dress above to the right, i liked the idea of it being tight at one side and gathered at the other

It was when i started to try and sew it all together i started to hve problems, as i sewed it the jersey got bigger and bigger and lost its shape.

As i tried to sew the edges they all bubbled up as the photo below shows, i tried to get around the problem by binding the edges but this didnt work either, as the binding curved and pulled the jersey as the left picture shows below the arms have gone twice as big as they were.

In previous weeks if anything has gone wrong i have found a solution but this week i really struggled to correct my problems, it seemed everything i did to make it better brought up another problem.

I had to recut the bottom part numerous times as i struggled to sew the drapes together, i also made the mistake of sewing the top together making it more difficult to attach the skirt.

In the end i cut the normal bodice but i cut them in different lengths, i struggled with this also as the first length was too short i only realised when i had sewn it together.

One thing that was successful was the dip dyeing, below shows the steps i took to do it.

I never want to work with jersey again!!!! It was the most unsuccessful week so far, i felt frustrated as i feel i have built on my skills every week to date but i feel as that this should be dress 1 rather than 3, i am very dissapointed in the outcome and feel as though i have gone 10 steps backwards.

 Improvements:

I feel everything other than the cowl neck and dying could be improved with this dress, i feel i was too ambitious in my ideas and should have kept it simple and stylish

I need to consider my design before i start for future.

I also need to think about fit as i didnt realise it wouldnt just pull on until the end, resulting in me having to put a really bad zip in at the last minute. I love the zip design but its put in, in the incorrect place and put in really badly

Other Findings;

How well did it work as a garment?

TERRIBLY! i hated making it, it came out too short, i thought it was a complete disaster and although it is awful it didnt look as bad when on a body than on a mannequin

Is it fashion?

Elements are, the cowl back is a nice feature and the dip dyeing everything else no.

What was the fabric?

jersey

How much did you use

3 metres

How much did it cost?

£5pm

where was it sourced?

Fabric world, Shepherds Bush

FINISHED GARMENT