Draped silk blouse

I'm about halfway through my last semester at WVC and I am loving my draping class!  I've taken two flat pattern drafting courses, which were amazing too, but draping to create garment designs is just a whole different skill.   So much fun!

Since I work on a dress form that has a similar bust size as me, I can use certain class drapes as designs for myself.  Here's the original drape from our exercise in class (photographed on my personal form at home, though I did the actual draping on on the good Wolf forms at school).  

This is my first go at using a drape to make a garment out of fashion fabric and I'm so excited at the result (and the prospects for future garment designing!).    I didn't even bother copying it onto paper--I just used my muslin as the pattern.

Obviously, the huge benefit of draping directly on a form is that the result should fit perfectly. The dress forms at school are not exactly shaped like my body (or ANY body, for that matter), so that only works in theory (or for standard sizes).  My own form at home, however, has been padded and altered to be a better representation of the my shape, so I look forward to doing more designing on that.

The original draping exercise in class didn't offer a suggestion for closing the neckline.  I opted to go for a big ol' side bow as my closure, with long ties hanging down in the front and back.  I am in LOVE with this feature!

The fabric is some leftover silk crepe de chine (from this dress) from the 2nd floor (sale items!) of Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley.  It's perfect for this design!

We're starting our mid-term project next week and I've chosen something that I hope can be translated into a garment for myself (naturally!).  I suspect there is going to be lots of draping in my future!

  

Leini, the birthday dress

This past week marked the beginning of my last year as a thirty-something.  Eek!  There were several celebratory events (dinners here, here, and here--clearly I enjoy eating!), and for the latter two, I wore this lovely silk dress.

The pattern is from Named, the Leini Dress.  I chose it for the simple design (to blend in better in San Francisco) and elastic waist (see above comment about loving to eat).  

The fabric came from Stonemountain and Daughter at a recent trek to Berkeley.  It was in the 50% off rack, so I snapped up about 3.5 yards of the silk for about $12/ yard.  Such a steal!  The fabric is a bit sheer, so it might be a chiffon.  It was fairly easy to work with, and I hemmed it (successfully!) with a rolled hem foot on my machine.

For this pattern, I went with a straight size 36 based on the measurements.  This was definitely the correct size, however, I did make a few pattern alterations after making a partial muslin and reading other reviews/ seeing photos.  First, I lengthened the bodice by about 2".  As a short person, I have never done this! However, I wanted the waistline to sit a little lower (at the top of my hips), and the elastic on most other versions seemed to be hitting at high waist.   I also chopped off many inches from the length (maybe 5-6"?) to make it a bit more youthful looking (see comment about being 39 this year).   The last alteration to the pattern was to line the skirt; since the fabric was fairly sheer and light, another layer made it a bit more modest (and swishy!).

  

The bodice pleating is a subtle design feature (at least when paired with this fairly wild print).

Overall, a great pattern and dress--perfect for date night at fancy (and not-so-fancy) places and very comfy, too!  I'd definitely like to make another in a solid navy or berry colored silk crepe.

Adelaide in chambray

I didn't even know it was "Pattern of the month" when I selected the Adelaide pattern with my Seamwork credits. Nice!  And this is only the first of two I've made...

I really wanted another chambray shirt dress after I chopped off this one to make a top (scroll down the page a bit), so I bought a bunch of chambray fabric at Stonemountain and Daughter.  I still haven't found the perfect shirt dress pattern, so when I saw Adelaide, I thought it was a good stop-gap for the summer.

As a student in Apparel Production, I looked at the printed pattern and immediately recognized some issues.  The back arm scythe was shaped a little weird (see above, the original line is the solid blue line and dotted white line) so I redrew it to have a more shallow curve.

Additionally, the seam at the shoulder strap was angled the wrong way, at least for the smaller sizes (see pattern section, above). I really can't fathom why the shoulder seam would angle up for the smaller sizes and angle down for the larger sizes.  In any case, it should angle down, so I redrew that, too.   Final alteration was to reduce the bust dart intake, for a quick-and-dirty small bust adjustment.

After the minor adjustments, I sewed up the pattern as written and it fits beautifully!  For sizing, I went with size 0, grading to 2 at the hips.  In the end, I don't think I needed to grade up, but having a row of snaps down the front made me want to allow for a bit more wiggle room.  No one at the boys' school or the grocery store wants to see a peep show, so best to be a little conservative.  

Speaking of snaps...I've always used the standard blue pound-it-with-a-hammer snap tool.  I hate that thing for so many reasons.  So I splurged (with my 40% off coupon at Joann's) to buy the next level up in snap tools (kudos to Shams for going all the way!).  Holy crap, kids, how did I live without this?  It makes applying snaps FUN.  And QUIET.  Seriously, guys; fun AND quiet.  I planned another Adelaide so I could apply more snaps (and bought specialty colored ones to match my garment!).  Then, I applied snaps to the cuffs of the top chopped from my former shirtdress. I {heart} snap pliers.  

Initially, I thought the dress did a good job of hiding my bra straps, but then I saw this photo (above), so I'll modify that to say that it does an OK job at hiding bra straps.  Certainly better than most tank-style dresses, so that's cool.  

Overall, I'm really happy with this garment.  It's a work-horse type of dress for me.  Something I can wear to the park, class, strawberry picking (like I did on Mother's Day, in this dress, in the mud), woodworking (like I did today in my son's Kinder class, in this dress, a mere three days after I wore it last), cycling (well, maybe next week) or cleaning toilets, and feel comfy the whole time. Multifunctional, I tell you!  Final words: by the snap pliers, and, I'd definitely recommend this dress, with the caveat that I had to make some drafting changes to the pattern.  Once my navy blue snaps arrive (tomorrow!), I'll be done with version 2!