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