TOILING MY MOTIONLESS JUMPSUIT (BODICE)...

I have begun to toile my Motionless Jumpsuit starting with the bodice and focusing on getting the fit perfect for the final garment. I have found that I have had to slice off some of the excess in the fit of panel 1 and 4 to make it lie right at the bust point. I have practised different ways to approach sewing the panels together as they meet at a right angled point. I have discovered that it is better to start with bigger piece of fabric at the top and keep the needle in to the snip into the fabric to allow it to twist around. I have felt that the back of the toile has come out perfect whereas, the front is slightly big at the shoulder and armholes but I will create the trousers before amending them imperfections. I feel I have learnt a new skill today and feel more confident with the final garment and sewing it all together.

CHARITY SHOP WINDOW DISPLAY...

Today we helped set up a window display in CANCER RESEARCH, Northwich, where we dressed the mannequins in the clothes that we used to recreate painting in a styling photo shoot. I bought a shirt and skirt for under £10 which made up the majority of the outfit seen in the masters' painting. This window display will be in the shop for a week so if you see yourselves passing by, go and have a rummage through the rails in Cancer Research.

PROBLEM SOLVING THE DESERTING DRESS...

As I have completed the toile for my deserting dress I have realised that all my design lines don't match which means all of my patterns are incorrect. To problem solve this I had to amend all my patterns to become equal measurements on the front and back both sides of the patterns. I also had to change the neck line so it wasn't as high and take in the bust points to fit the body exactly. This caused a new problem of having higher armholes created by the excess bulk from the bust area. This meant I had to slice off a new shape of armhole and make it a lot larger and then had to replicate it on the opposing pattern. It fits down the side seams and all of the problems caused by that mistake have been corrected so fingers crossed it should go well for the final garment. All I have to do is sample Bias Binding on one of the shoulders to see if it will work for the finishing for my final dress.

TOILING MY DESERTING DRESS...

I have completed two toiles now and onto the third. I have started to pattern and toile my Deserting Dress which is next on my list of garments I have to make for my final collection. I started off my adapting the dress block pattern by creating two panels as the patterns didn't lie flat when I wanted to add extra flare. Then I traced off the new patterns for front and back and made up the basic shape. I then adjusted where the fabric gaped and amended the original patterns to make it fit the mannequin. The next step was to then draw on the design lines and used notches to show where the next piece fitted. I then sewed all the pieces of the front together and should attempt the back tomorrow.

TRYING TO CONVEY MY CONCEPT - STYLING PHOTO SHOOT...

For my brief the final task is to convey my chosen concept to my target audience. I chose to do a styling photo shoot, where a photographer called " Janet Lodziewska" captured my forms on camera. I got inspired by "Robbie Spencer" a stylist that has a lot to with "Dazed & Confused", where he wraps the human form in a mixture of different materials. This inspire me to manipulate shapes on the body and create these interesting shapes. For the make up I was influenced by one of "Fred Butler's" posts about "Paris Fashion Week" and got the idea of using skeletal features as it went with the illustrative style I was using in my sketchpad. I tried a lot of different things with the mannequins and then the models on their own and I am happy to say that I feel I get my concept across very well and am very pleased with the final outcome. What are your thoughts?

FINISHING MY COAT TOILE...

Recently I have been having problems with my coat toile as the neck shape didn't match and the lining was to small for the outer shell. So I have spent a couple of days trying to problem solve this by amending the patterns and trying to figure out where I went wrong.I have been able to fit the neck shape by unpicking some of the panels and making the match the correct way. This has enabled me to move onto the next step of inserting the lining by hemming it, attaching the outer shell to the lining, stitching the sleeve openings together and then finishing the bottom hem line. I then finished off this toile by pressing all the seams again and then attaching the elbow patches onto the underarm of the sleeve. Overall, I now know how to solve these problems and I am very pleased with how it has turned out.

CREATING THE CIRCLES FOR THE SHIFT DRESS...

To complete my toile of my shift dress I had to attach the neck and arm facings and the sewn up circles. I positioned these in the same way the spec drawing was done having a total of about 17 circles spiralling down. I constructed these by sewing a circle inside a circle inside another circle. This way I could get a layering effect, over locking the edges to make it appear neater. I used similar fabrics with the calico to see how the machine would take the woven fabric, as flat weave is quite thick and difficult to move. After pinning these in the way I wanted them hand stitched the inner circles to the base of the dress block. I quite like the difference of clean lines from the base and then textile detail that makes the garment more 3 dimensional.