Project #8 Completed!

This week was not productive at all in the beginning, but with two snow days, I was able to use the rest of my sweater fabric, and create another dress from those drawings.

[Sorry for my girl's lumps.. got some knobs on her..]

It's tamer from the previous, but I think it's classy and cute. It can be used as a shirt paired with jeans, or a short dress with some leggings.

I added the shoulder pieces last minute.. I thought they might be too much, but I think they give it something.. less boring.. And it's a signature of mine.. if not buttons, shoulder pieces! Haa.

I went with shorter sleeves primarily because I didn't have enough fabric, but I like them, and would add a tight long sleeved dark brown shirt under it.

As far as the turtleneck, this one definitely came out more like what I was looking for with the last sweater dress. It's more droopy and thick.

I think the slimming look came out okay.. You see, since the dark fabric sort of shades the hip area, you look similar, and all the focus goes to your.. assets.. Or so I'd like to think, haha.

The materials I used was:

- 2x1 Rib Knit Mushroom Fabric

- 2x1 Rib Knit Espresso Fabric

And guess what? No buttons on this! I was very close to putting some along the bottom, but I don't think it would have worked.

This dress was about $3.00 worth of materials. Luckily, with my snow day, I had enough time to make it yesterday. I spent about.. I'd say 4-5 hours on it. I think I could get away with selling it for $30.. I could live on $6/hr, right?

I made this one the standard way I make everything.. inside out pinning. How I did the outline shapes was to just pin all of the pieces of fabric together and try to get along a similar shape on each side, front and back. It's definitely not perfectly sewn patterns, but it's close. I'm think I may try to create patterns while I'm working, to use for different projects.. It may make things a lot easier since some of this is repetitive.. especially the measurements. For the turtleneck, it's similar to the sleeves.. just on a different spot. I used a lot more fabric for it, because I wanted it to be big.. I still wish it was bigger!

I'm still waiting for my fabric, it should be coming Friday.. And I may not be charged because of their late shipping.. That'd be amazing since it was a $50 value! I'll keep you posted on that.

*Update: Yeah, they charged me. Jinxed!*

NYFW February 2010 Review

Well, this morning I finally got to do a little ranking of the designers at New York Fashion Week last week. I did a little tallying, and came up with my top 10 favorite designers of the week.

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I suggest you look at the collections yourself at: http://www.mbfashionweek.com/newyork/fall2010/designersfashionweek.com/newyork/fall2010/designers

So, here's my list, along with my favorite design in the collection:

10. Monique Lhuillier

9. Vassilios Kostetsos

8. Alexandre Herchcovitch

7. Carlos Miele

6. Adam

5. Diane von Furstenburg (*Uses fur*)

4. Tadashi Shoji

3. Milly by Michelle Smith (*Uses fur*)

2. Cynthia Steffe (*Uses fur*)

1. Carolina Herrera (*Uses fur*)

While I was underwhelmed with most designers, the top 3 surpassed them by far! I loved so much of their designs, so classy and so fun! All of these designers listed had a really good showing.. But after them.. Not much else was for me.

Although I realize all of the pictures I put up are small dresses, haha, but I think my favorite trends that will be coming are fierce turtlenecks, ponchos, capes, and some pretty patterns.

My top 3 WORST designers were:

3. Diesel Black Gold - not a fan of denim other than jeans

2. Richard Chai - don't understand the clothes he paired together, and very plain

1. BCBGMaxAzria - completely ridiculous, basically threw fabric on the models & put them on the runway

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[I do want to say, I hate the use of fur, but there are a few designers in here who do use it, but I'm just going to look strictly at the design, and realize faux fur could be substituted on a good design. *Support these designers* ]

Project #8: Slimming Sweater Dress

Ayy yii yii! Sorry, I do know I'm supposed to announce projects on Sundays but.. It's been a rough week. I got the plague, and I've had exams, and it's been hard to focus. It's one of those head colds that make it hard to think, so.. yeah, I've avoiding doing this.

First off, I'm annoyed because my fabric still hasn't been shipped, although they promise 48 hour shipping.. I've never had problems before, but I ordered on Friday.. It definitely should have been shipped. I better get it this week, so I can start on those projects. I'm really excited about them!

Anyway, I really had no clue what to do this week, so I just looked at what I have a lot of extra of, and I guess I'm going with another sweater dress. This one is slimming, or so I hope it to be. So sorry for the picture, I got lazy (again), and it's good enough:

I finally got batteries for an old digital camera. Though they still aren't the best quality, they are much better than my phone camera. So, I attached another picture of the last project.. I think it's much easier to see it.

Pray class is cancelled tomorrow so I can just complete this all then.. Tomorrow is my long day too, so it'd be amazing! Off to study for the rest of the night.

Project #7 Completed!

Once again, I fell in love with this fabric. I've never been one to appreciate floral pattern fabric, but I'm incredibly in love with this.. It's so pretty! This has been my favorite project, by far. I became obsessed with it, so I finished it earlier this week, but I decided to hold out on posting it.

I'm really annoyed with the pictures.. Definitely need to invest in a real camera, and take the pictures elsewhere. But, I do recommend clicking on them to blow up them up, and see the detail work. Yes, it may look a bit old, but it also think it has a modern taste to it. So, first I'd like to start with, what is a peplum jacket?:

In my quest of learning all types of clothing, and trying to do research, I came across this in a magazine (Lucky), and really thought they were fun and pretty. Though it was different in the past, in modern fashion, it has become a small overskirt that falls from a cinched waist.

Oh, so, I realized, I never said what materials I was going to be using:

- Lavender and Black Brocade Floral Fabric

- 2 Clear Beige Buttons

I love the buttons.. My sister gave me a bag of random buttons, and I used two I found in there.. that happen to have "Gloria Vanderbilt" written on them.. Haa. It's a GV orig, clearly.

Guess how much this jacket cost me to make? A ridiculous amount! I would say, at most: $2.00, and I'm not even sure if it was that much. Once again, it's so hard to figure out how much time I spent on it, because I go back and forth between different things. It did take me quiet a while, but I spent a lot of my days finishing it. I would say it took.. Roughly.. 5-6 hours total? Keep in mind, measuring and pinning and thinking is time consuming.. Actual machine time is probably less than an hour of that. So, we'll.. price it at.. $35 (it is a jacket), that'll give me around $6.50/hr. Haa.. So broke.

I took my own spin on it, with this floral print. First, as usual, I cut out measurements for the top part of the jacket, pinned it inside out, and sewed the seams together. Once that was finished, I went right into sleeve. How I do my sleeves is, while inside out, I lift the bit of excess fabric over the shoulder where the main body of the dress is.. And pin it to the end of the inside out sleeve.. and sew around. [That's so confusing.. I'm terrible at describing.. I'd rather be demonstrating. Ooh, maybe I'll make a video sometime! Ha. That actually might be fun, if I speed up the time.. hm!] Anyway, so when that was done, I left the top completely open and hemmed in. I then measured out the bottom. I made it oversized so I could make the overskirt ruffled in the front, to give it more shape and volume opposing the cinched waist. Then, I thought buttons on the bottom would be a nice touch.. because I obviously loove buttons! And there's a jacket! I'm in love and don't care if no one else is.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE:

So, thinking forward, I'm INCREDIBLY excited for the new fabric I just ordered. It took me 3 days of thinking to get exactly what I wanted, but I'm very, very pumped for what's to come.

The problem is.. I won't be getting this fabric until probably Wednesday, and I don't think that leaves me enough time to complete something for the week.. so I'm going to be digging in my (now large) collection of excess fabric, and trying to think of something for Project #8.

Project #9 is definitely just in time for the season, but I don't want to give anything away. It also is going to be something for me.. And I cannot wait! I haven't bought myself clothes in such a long time, so it's going to be great to get something new, and also wear something that I made.

And I may have to postpone my challenge for Projects #10-15, because of the lack of responses.. AHEM, FRIENDS PLEASE! But also, I have a few things in mind that I want to make that are more pressing. So.. yes.

And don't worry.. I'm going to soon tackle a pant (though, I'm definitely pushing it off for a while).. But I will get the courage eventually! I'm just scared because my mannequin won't work for pants.. and how I create things is really mannequin-oriented.. So.. But.. I'll figure it out!

Anyway, off to thinking about Project #8 and enjoying life. Ooh, and this weekend, I may see my sister, so.. I may have pictures of some of my clothes on a human?

Project #7: Slim Floral Peplum Jacket

The previous fabric I bought isn't the only discount thing I bought. I got another floral print fabric for very cheap.. And didn't know what I wanted to do with it. This jacket is going to be so gaudy and flashy.. And I hope to love it! I have high hopes. So, yeah, I'm putting up the same terrible drawing as before, because I'd like to make that jacket out of this fabric. I may add a puffy shoulder to take it over the top, but I'm not positive how well I can do that, so we'll see.

I'm pretty excited about it, but I think it's going to take a while to make this one. But now that I have a well executed sleeve in my inventory, things should go a little smoother.

Anyway, straight to work today. With a new needle in my machine, I'm ready to go!

PS - PLEASE! give me challenges for Projects 10-15?

Project #6 Completed!

First off, I love this fabric! It was easy to work with, as well as pretty/fun. (..or so I think!)

I decided to photograph this with a simple white tank top, because that was the vision I had when I saw the completed skirt.

So my goal of having a good zipper, ehhh.. well... It was better than my first one.. but there was an issue with cutting, so it's not perfect.

Anyway, I spent so little on this skirt, it's ridiculous. I ordered this fabric just because it was discount, and I thought it could be interesting. Let's just say, the zipper was more expensive than the fabric. Total spent: $2.75. Awesome!

As for time spent on this garment.. Eh, it was hard to clock. I would say.. with pinning, sewing, measuring, and all that went into it.. I'd say roughly 3-4 hours. Hmm.. Maybe I could sell this simple skirt for $20.. That's about $5/hour.. Haha. Nice!

So how did I create this? Well, I always start my measuring out pieces that will cover the front, and cover the back. I pin these pieces on the mannequin backwards.. Then pin then tightly together, and sew up the seams, creating a full general shape. I made these pieces oversized, because I was trying to make a folds in the skirt. That didn't end up exactly as I wanted it.. I suppose it needed to be even more oversized for it to be very noticeable. I then sewed the top to try to keep these folds.. and tried to iron them to help them out. For the top portion (that's darker in color), I took the opposite side of the fabric (because, remember, I didn't know which side I wanted to use.. So I used both!) ..cleaned it up, and sewed it on the top, creating a higher waist. I decided to add a zipper in the back for a good fit, so I had to sew that in.. by cutting a slit down the middle of the back and tucking the excess fabric in and trying to cover the zipper, then sewing them together. Finally, since it is a bubble skirt, I hemmed up the bottom, but it didn't create a puff as much as I wanted.. I have ideas about how I want to do that next.. so a bubble skirt will definitely be coming up again before the year is over!

And.. that's about it. A simple skirt, and Project 6 is over! I realize this is early, but hey.. nothing wrong with early! The next project I'm thinking of may be crazy.. but we'll see what I end up deciding to do!

Project Challenges!

So, I've decided I'd like to do something different for upcoming projects 10-15.

What I'd like to do is have challenges for those projects, and switch up the format for a time.

These "challenges" can be anything.. I mean, I've already done one in the past with the Mario character dress.. Just think Project Runway. The challenges cannot, however, have a ridiculous time limit.. My week limit will still be on. Haha.

It will allow me to be more creative, as well as having people more involved with my "Journey."

So, on this post, please comment with any challenge you think will be fun for me to try, and I will pick the top 5 that I like. You can write as many challenges as you want for me.. the more the merrier.

I will probably get to project 10 in about a month, so be creative, please help me out, and make them good!

Project #6: Flower Print Bubble Skirt

Now, this challenge was to have the fabric in front of me, and design something just by looking at it. The fabric is a little out of control, but I kind of love it. There is one problem though; I'm not sure which side of the fabric is the right side to use. I'm thinking any size could be used.. one is a little more drastic, and I was thinking about going with that as the main part of the skirt, and using the other side for other trimming parts. (Sorry for the horrendous drawing.. It was rough, but I didn't feel like redrawing.)

The materials I'm using for this one is:

- Navy and Periwinkle Brocade Floral Fabric

- A zipper

I'd like to create a nice invisible zipper with this one.

So, I'm trying to change up the way my blog rolls, so:

1) What I plan on doing when I show the completed designs, is to say how much was spent making it. It will be a nice way to track how much I've spent throughout the year creating. It will include everything but the thread, because.. I really don't have to buy that all that often.

I've done this for the past garments as well:

Project 1 - $14.50

Project 2 - $4.75

Project 3 - $4.00

Project 4 - $9.00

Project 5 - $7.75

Yeah.. so maybe I'm going to be spending a lot of money on these projects.. But, hey.. It's worth it. I mean, it's not too much (..besides Project 1 which pains me to see because it was so poorly executed and I feel like a bit of a waste). Maybe if I get good enough, I can sell them? I can dream!

2) I'd like to track the amount of time that goes into creating some of these things. I don't have accurate hours of the past projects, but I'd like the start that with this one, but logging my times. Knowing the amount of hours I've put in will allow me to take in all the amount of work I've put in.

[For a fun side thing, I can give price tags to items, so by knowing both the amount I've spent on fabric and the hours I've put in, it'll be fun.]

3) I'd like to actually talk about how I went about creating the design. I think it will add more of an understanding as well as a helpful element. It can show you what I go through to create things (and how I do it probably isn't the right/easiest way, but I like the idea of basically teaching myself!) And can give people ideas to tackle things themselves (if any readers become interested in trying projects themselves).

Anyway, sewing starts tomorrow!

Project #5 Completed!

This was by far the most time consuming piece I've done yet. I think it's sort of interesting. The turtle neck may have been overkill.. But I did it before I remembered that I was putting buttons on the front. Also, I wish I had made the panels on the bottom a little bit smaller to be even more figure friendly.. But hey.. I do like it though. This was another successful fit too. I think it will fit my sister well, especially because it stretched.. she may have trouble with the neck though.. I'm not sure if her head will be able to fit through the sewn hole.. But I can fix that if not.

Even if nothing else, the best thing ever happened during this dress' creation.. I have a slevelation! Or sleeve revelation.. And my brain finally clicked.. and I finally figured out how to make a nice sleeve, both fit-wise and seam-wise. So happy about it!

So, I'll be taking some advice, and.. announce projects on Sundays and have them finished on Saturdays.. Or so I hope. And if it's not finished on Saturday.. I will show the progress I made.. But still complete it.. You know, to make it more Project Runway, and to add that pressure.

I think it's going to be a challenge to do this, but I also think my schedule allows for me to sew, as long as I keep ahead of my work and work hard. ..We'll see how it goes as I get further into the semester.

Anyway, I honestly have no idea what my next project is going to be.. so that's my goal for the day. I have fabrics, but no real ideas of what I can use them for, as they are kind of couch-y. Anyway, I want to make them work.. So back to the drawing board!