Final Dresses

Now all my dresses are finished! I was originally going to have 4 dresses but then I designed a 5th dress, but I prefered that one to my original so it made the lineup instead. I think I would have made 5 dresses if I had the chance, but I’m happy with my 4 dresses and I think they make a strong collection. I also didn’t like the idea that I might make 4 dresses, then make a 5th one after the fashion show because then I wouldn’t have any photos of that one. I made them all with a week before the fashion show so I am really happy and I don’t have to stress too much before the show.

Outit 4 – Stripes

This is my 4th and final dress design. This dress I designed and made within a week when some of my friends thought that I should have a 5th dress design, however I prefered this design to my original design so I decided to make this one instead.

This is the technical drawings and the colour combination of outfit 4.

I started with the bodice. I decided to make the halterneck bodice, also from the 1950s pattern book that the off-the-shoulder top was from. I made a toile first because  wanted to make sure the top was a nice fit, and hopefully won’t turn out like the toile of the off-the-shoulder top that I made. Surprisingly, it went well! Although I did ajust a few things, I lowered the neckline and took in the back because it was quite big. I also wanted to see what length the bow at the back should be.

I then made it up in the proper fabric. I wanted the fringing to be in all the seams so I had to buy some more and dye it. I also thought of the idea of dipdying the end of my straps so that it ties in the yellow. I did mess up the dipdying as I accidentally got dye on the white end, but i gave it a thorough wash when it had dried to hopefully get it out, and it pretty much did. The fringing in the seams were pretty tricky, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t too bad.

For the skirt I made yellow and white stripes. I sewed the front and back panels together so that it would be easier to sew the fringing in one section and to match up the side seams. I like the stripes of the skirt because it reminds me of a beach dress.

This is the final outcome of my final dress. I love this one and it is my new favourite. This one doesn’t have any grey in it like the other dresses but I think it makes a nice accompliment to the collection.

 

Outfit 3 – Pinafore

This is my 3rd dress. The inspiration for this one has come from the rug maker in the memory box, however it does have a pinafore feel about it.

This is the technical drawing and the colour combination of outfit 3.

I started with the bodice of this outfit. I was told to use the lingerie block because it already gave me the shape that I wanted, the only problem was that it wasn’t fitted enough. I made quite a few samples and adapted them to try and get the shape I want, it’s also strapless so I didn’t want it to fall down. Val then said that I should turn the darts into panels instead and this made it much easier to adapt it, it also meant that I could have the yellow panels on the outside like in my original idea.

This is the top without the lining, and with the topstitched chevron straps.

This is the finished top, with the lining and the fringing. I had an issue with the zip in the back, I needed a 6 inch open ended zip so the top could be taken on and off, but as I later found out they do not exist. I found one on a obscure ebay shop and the only colour it came in was black so it had to do, even if black isn’t in my colour palette. Once I out it in I really liked it though.

The skirt was easy to make. It was made of 6 panels, 2 quilted and the rest left plain. There are also 2 yellow panels at the waist and hem to frame the skirt. I wanted the skirt to be fitted on the hips, like a pencil skirt, so I had to adjust the skirt and take it in a little more after it was all sewn together.

This is the final outcome. I am really happy with this outfit and is probably one of my favourites. It was the first one that I designed so I have a strong love for it.

Outfit 2 – Star Dress

This is my second outfit finished. I thought this would be my secong longest one to make so I decided to make this one second.

This is the  technical drawing of the dress, and the colour layout.

I jumped right into make the dress this time rather than making a toile first.

The top of this dress has 3 darts instead of 1. I didn’t know how to do this so I asked Val for some help. It was easier to do than I originally thought so that was good. Val also suggested that I do some topstitching along the darts and I really liked the idea because I thought it would tie in with all the topstitching used in my dresses. This dress also has a zigzag neckline with facing on the inside that I made to measure out when do the pattern to make it even.

I then had to do the topstitching on the straps. The takey forever to do but I think they look really nice. The idea was that I was going to but the straps between the front and the facing, except that didn’t really work because I couldn’t turn it out in the end because of the way it was sewed. So in the end I had to pin them to the inside and topstitch along the zipzags to keep them in place. It doesn’t look the best but it does the job.

I then moved onto the skirt. This is my first bit of quilting so I was quite excited to try it out and so how it would end up. I started by make a stencil of the stars so that they would all look even and the same throughout the dress. I places pins at all the points rather than drawing it on so that it wouldn’t leave a mark. I wanted the side seams to continue onto the back panels so I used up the side seams then traced the stars so that they continued perfectly. I am really happy with how they turned out.

I then quilted the rest of the skirt and sewed up the back seam so that I could see if it looked good and would be able to see what it would look like on someone. My mum modelled it because she the models we use are the same size as her. The only problem is she is a lot shorted so it is harder to work out the length.

The bottom of the dress was meant to have a pleated panel, but I changed it when I realised that I didn’t have enough fabric for the pleating, and I had enough trouble with the pleating on the last dress. I then thought it would be a good idea to change it into just panel, but then Val suggested I used the fringing and I thought it was a good idea.

I then went back to star at the back. The originally idea was a cutout, but I then changed it to a yellow star. But then I found it really difficult to sew it in. I tried both machine sewing and hand sewing. I finally got fed up with it so I reverted back to the cutout idea because I though it would be easier. I cut out a new facing for the inside and sewing and turned out the stars.

After sewing all the section together I then got my mum to try it on again. Again, it didn’t really fit as she is too small but I could work out any bits that didn’t look right. I realised they the star at the back looks really bad so I know that I had to sort that out.

Once at uni I could put it on a mannequin and check out the fit properly. I also sorted out the stars at the back so that they were more even.

 

 

Outfit 1 – Fringed Dress

This is my first dress, and the one that is going to used in the photoshoot. I went for the one that I thought looked like the most effort.

This is the technical drawing of the dress, and the colour outcome of it.

I started my making a toile of the dress, because as I found out later on, the dress is a weird size because the pattern is from on old 1950s pattern book. In the book you have to get rid of the darts and move them into a off-the-shoulder style, and have tucks at the bust instead of darts. I found this really tricky because they wouldn’t lay properly and when I tried it on someone it was so small that no one to wear it.

Back at the drawing board, I adapted the patten so that someone could wear it and moved the darts and shoulders so that it fitted better.

This is the outcome of the finished bodice.I looks a lot better than the toile and fits better. I wanted to originally have tassels in the shoulder seam, however the place I was buying them from could get them until april so I had to adapt and think of something else. I found this tassle trim from the same place, dyes it yellow, and I think I prefer it to the original tassles. They were tricky to sew in though, the darts were hard enough but when I had to sew them with a thick tassle trim it made it even harder.

Next came the making of the skirt. The pattern for this was pretty simple because it was a simple a-line skirt. I paneled it off for the pleating and fringing. I started by dying all the finging and the pleating, however I had a few problems. Once the pleating was dyed, it had shrunk and was shorter and it was meant to be, and when I was sewing the fringing I had realised that I hadn’t dyed enough of the grey and I had to shorten it even more because I didn’t have enough time so buy and dye more fringing. However, once it was all sewn together, you wouldn’t even realise all the problems I had with the skirt.

The only thing I had left to do was the waist and the zip. The waist seam was fine, the problems came when I did the zip. I didn’t have a centre back seam so I had to cut one in, and I cut it a little too much and the zip wasn’t long enough. I had to adapt it and make the zip slightly shorted with a dart at the bottom to close it up.

This is the finished dress.

 

 

FMP Proposal

For my final major project, I would like to design a collection of dresses with vintage elements. The inspiration for these dresses will be the 1950’s. As I am looking at the 1950s, I don’t want the collection to look too vintage and would like to modernise it for the women now, but still having some vintage elements to it. I have always admired vintage fashion, with the 1950s being my favourite, and has been a strong interest of mine in both the construction and the style. Because this theme is one of my interests, I thought it would keep me interested and on track without getting too lost or losing the point of interest.

My intention is to look at appliances, interiors and daily life in the 1950s and use it to inspire fashion construction ideas. As there are a wide range of items in the memory box, I will look at the each of the items and take plenty of photos for inspiration. Drawings will also be taken to get ideas for construction and to help develop ideas further.

After some research, I found out that Colchester Castle has memory boxes from different times and collections of different objects that can be hired out for a week to look at. They are for educational purposes, but anyone is allowed to look at them. One of the boxes is 1950/1960 so I will book this out and look at the objects in it for inspiration. This box has items ranging from irons, magazines and clothes and accessories. I will look at each individual object and analyse them for different elements to be used in pattern, fabric and colour. I have bought some books about life in the 1950s so this will give me a first-hand view of what the 50s were like.

For the design process, I am going to draw elements, shapes and colours from each individual items and collate an annotated sketchbook page for each. From there, I am going to lay the ideas over mannequins to get some rough ideas of fashion elements. These will then be adapted and refined to look like wearable garments. Some of the elements that I would like in my collection are full skirts and fitted bodices.

As I am a fashion student rather than a textile student, I want that to come out in my collection. To show this, I am going to design an all white collection. However, plain is not my style. My colour palette will be kept very simple with 3 different colours, the white as the main colour, and the yellow and grey being accessory colours. I want to use lots of trims and elements that will bring the colour into it. Fringing and tassels are going to be a big design feature throughout my collection. As I want these to be the same yellow throughout all my collection, I am going to buy cotton fringing and tassels and dye them myself. This will be my small dip into textiles for this collection. I will use Dylon dyes to dye them all. I would also like to use some pleating in my collection. I want to do this by hand rather than send it away to be pleated so that every part of my collection is made by my hands and I have learnt some new skills. Quilting is another skill that I haven’t really tried and will be a big design feature throughout my collection.

For my fabric, I want to keep it simple. I will buy the same fabric for all my dresses. I want to use drill cotton because I like the weave that it has. It is also heavyweight so it will hold up when sewing, especially for the quilting and topstitching. I am going to be using tassels and fringing throughout my collection, these will be bought from Macculloch and Wallis because they have a large range of cotton fringing that I can sample and buy to dye yellow.            

I have researched into contemporary designers to bring more of a modern factor into my collection. This will help because the inspiration for my collection is vintage and I don’t want the collection to be too old fashioned. I looked at Delpozo SS17 because they use a lot of different construction elements in their designs. They are seen as over the top and extravagant, but still keeping a pretty, girly element to it. This is something that I would like to bring out in my own collection. Nearly all of their collection is made up of dresses, something that my own will have, and they have large, structural skirts. Another collection I looked at was Moschino SS16. Some of the dresses in this collection were inspired by the 1950s and Cadillac are. I thought the idea of a dress being inspired by and object was interesting because this is what I am doing in my collection with the memory box. Also, the idea of it being the 1950s gave my research more of a historical element but with a modern factor.

The designs are going to have a vintage but modern feel so would sell best in a independent store or a vintage inspired store. Vintage inspired clothing is popular now with any online and high street stores. Modcloth is a very popular online vintage-inspired shop. The idea of it came from the owners love of vintage clothing. The website has a wide range of different clothing, and even a section of for quirkier styles. I could see my dresses being sold to this customer as they are the kind of people that would buy my modern but still vintage collection.

For my final collection, I have set up a professional instagram profile. I have a personal profile but thought it would be more professional to set up one just for my fashion collection. On it I will be documenting the making process of my collection. People can follow my work and keep up with my collection and how it is growing throughout my final year. Instagram is a popular way of displaying photos and is popular for designers to showcase their work. This makes it easier to see what is happening in the fashion world and what is up and coming. At the start of year 1, I set up a blog to document the whole 3 years that I have been here. It was required to make one but I wanted to keep mine up to date with everything I have done and what I have learnt throughout. This is another way that people can look through my work in more detail. It also a place that can be looked through and see what I have learnt.

A dream of mine has always been to sell my own products. I started by opening my own etsy store and I made my own jewellery and accessories to sell. It was only on a small scale but it was a start and it helped me get a little bit of experience within the field. This course has helped me to learn more sewing skills and get them to a more professional level. I have had very little experience in making clothes for myself and other people but I feel I could have a chance at doing it now. A clothing brand that inspires me is Mod Dolly. The company was started by the owner, all by herself, sewing all the clothing herself. Since then they have opened up their own shop and have a studio where all their clothes are handmade. They have a unique style to all the collections which a signature style. This inspires me because I would like to design and make my own dress collections that people can buy and wear.

Memory Box

My collection is all completely inspired by a memory box that I borrowed from Colchester Castle. I know I wanted to base it on the 1950s so I was looking for places I could get inspiration, and I found that Colchester Castle has memory boxes from different times with different objects. When I first found it I didn’t really that it would be such a big help for me and become the basis for my entire collection. 

This is iron that was in the box. I really liked the dial on the top of it.

This is a clothes Brush. I found this really inspirational, and have taken many elements of it to inspire my collection. The colour of the box is being used. The barrel is taken as inspiration of the pleats in my collection. The bristles are where my idea for fringing and tassles has come from. 

This is a little pocket binoculars. I tired to take different shapes from it and so how they could be incorporated into my collection.

This is a little bag that was in the box. I was originally going to use this a colour inspiration but decided that were too many colours so narrowed it down to my colour palette of yellow, white and grey.

I was really inspired by the piping set. I like to do lots of baking myself so I found it quite personal. I like the shaped of the nozzels, especially the star shape ones, and want to incorporated them into my collection.

There were a few accesories and fashion items in the box. This were helpful to see the fashion then but I didn’t was to rely on them too much. I liked the topstitching on this hat and want to use topstitching within my own collection.

This was the strangest item of them all. It’s a rug maker. I didn’t originally know what it did so I just started to take pictures of it. I really liked the shapes that I drew from it and they ended up being my inspiration for my panels. The rope was really interesting too and the weave design on it is going to come out in topstitching.

This is a dress that was in the box. I really liked it and it looked like something that I would probably wear myself. I thought it would be interesting to see the construction of it.

This is a magazine that was in the box, and probably my favourite item. It looked like something that I would probably read myself.

This was my favourite page. I loved the illustrations and the colour and this was colour inspiration for my collection and where the yellow came from.

I like to see the pages with dress patterns because I am really inspired by the 1950 shape of dresses.

I liked the little illustrations that were present throughout the magazine.

And the adverts for different objects, this adverts showing a iron that looked very similar to the one I got in the box.

It was interesting to see the different styles too. This one showing the ‘fringed look’ that is in, a style that is very prominent in my collection.