My plan for my final project is based on one of my figure drawings for my swatch book. It’s a mid length dress with long, loose sleeves reminiscent of monastic robes, and a high collar with cutouts. I haven’t decided on the fabric yet, but I am torn between a light blue fabric with a brown design, and a pumpkin colored fabric with brown swirls.
First, I need to figure out how I want my collar to look exactly, and how to create it. I changed my idea a bit, and experimented with it by making a collar with cut outs, and tracing the collar with any changes I made onto a new piece of muslin. I eventually ended up with a collar that looks promising, and perfect for putting a snap or button on to get it off easily.
My collar initially looked like this:
And evolved into this by the end of class:
As the week progressed I began trying my collar on myself and realized it needed to be changed, or it would have ergonomic issues. After a few different prototypes, I ended up with this:
It’s shorter, and the cut outs are less pronounced, but it fits better around the neck so that it’s flat, and doesn’t have folds everywhere.
Initially I had two fabrics I was interested in using for my final piece:
This week I went to Trumart fabrics for another class and stumbled upon this fabric:
It’s perfect for the idea I had in my head of this dress- it’s sort of calming and reminiscent of nature and falling water. I just stumbled upon this fabric, but it helped me get a clearer concept of the look I’m going for.
My concept for my dress is becoming more clear; I’d like to think about movement as it related to Buddhism. One of the Four Noble Truths of buddhism is the existence of suffering. Many things cause this suffering like illness, old age, and death, but attachment to impermanent things is also a cause. Buddhists believe one must accept the fact that change is inevitable, and only this will open the pathway to peace and happiness. I’m maintaining the baggy sleeves of a monk’s robe, but I’m making a short skirt and updating the style of the dress to fit modern times. This reflects the acceptance of change in itself. Beautiful clothes do not have much significance in Buddhism, because it focuses on enriching the self, rather than the material world. This inspired me to keep my dress simple, and the high collar is reminiscent of ancient Chinese style.
My fabric reminds me of change because of it’s flowing look. Each color seems to bleed into the next, and almost looks like it’s moving.
I developed a torso piece during the second week. Using a size 8 figure, I made a simple blouse and calculated 4 inch long and 1 inch wide darts to fit this exact size. The neck is lower cut, and my straps are not as wide as originally planned. The back is much easier to make, all I had to do is copy the points where the shoulder seam will be. However, for the back I need to cut it into two pieces and add seam allowance, to be able to put in a zipper later. All that is left is to unpin the darts, copy everything onto my fabric, and cut it out.
I patterned a skater skirt I had already. I’m hoping I will be able to attach the skirt and top to make a dress that doesn’t need elastic. I will need to install a zipper on the back since the fabric is not stretchy at all. All I did was trace the skirt, making sure the waist was the same size on the skirt and top, and add seam allowance. I did this, and cut out two pieces. I did this, and hemmed each piece (I like to do this before the side seams).
Installing a zipper took a lot less time then I had thought it would. I have done ths before, but not in a long time, but it worked out pretty well. Once the back a front pieces were done (zipper installed and darts sewn), I attached the top and skirt for both the front and back pieces; I decided to do this before making the side seams. I put the dress on the figure and pinned it many times before finally sewing the side seams. I originally had a friend of mine to model the dress, however, she got sick and I did not want to make her help me when she wasn’t feeling good. This affected my project because I’m a little too big for this dress, so I had to use less seam allowance, and even with the extra seam allowance, putting the dress on and off is difficult, and I tore it a few times while working on it. This added extra time to the overall process, but I had to just go with it because I couldn’t find another model available at the same time as my original model.
I am working on my collar right now as the project is close to being finished. I simply cut two pieces with my original muslin prototype as reference. I turned these two pieces inside out and sewed them together with a half inch seam allowance, adding notches to let the fabric bend more, and trimming the excess seam allowance. I was planning on using buttons to be able to wear the collar, but I found snaps at Utrecht and decided this would be better because they would be hidden. I’ve never used snaps before, and it came out a little messy, but they work well.
