Yes, this week is the elusive “spring Break”.  In a fashion design students world, that really means nothing, but extra time to work on your projects.  This break I was called away by family to my home land.  OH NO!!!  That is like taking a week and two weekends out of the alloted time for this senior thesis.  Time being as precious as it is, my garments have come with me in small travel size pieces.  There is pialletting and hand sewing galore going on among the beautiful rocky mountains.

Before the departure to the wilderness,  I managed to get a great deal done on dress# 3 skirt.  The affectionate “mop”!  This process is similar to the texture on dress#2.  However it is made by layers of organza and tulle pleated into 6″ long pieces.  Attached to a light layer of tulle and stabilized on paper via pin.  Then stitched down, paper torn away and voile instant skirt.

Iron organza strips

Organza after pleating

Strips of organza ready to be pleated

Filling in the gaps, trying to make the layers blend and be more organic

Okay well I made that sound a lot easier then it really was.  There are 4 yards of each color of organza and tulle in the skirt.  Taking a step back at the product I decided that more tulle needs to be added to give the skirt a more “airy” lighter look. Lesson #4, panic has set in and if staying to work was possible, utilize the time.

The clock is ticking and we are late for a very important date!

Front View

Back View

The whole idea behind the Alice in Wonderland theme, was to use materialization, adding a textural element to my garments.  For dress #2, I chose to use 100% cotton (for the cotton competition); this being said, manipulating the fabric to add an 3d element was critical to my design.  The base is made out of 100% cotton sateen in an eggplant color and the textural elements are 100% cotton voile.  A very light weight almost “see through” cotton.

The bodice is constructed by fluting.  Not the music instrument but the overlapping of 1″ bias strips (Bias: the 45% angle of the grain line of the fabric).  The strips are all sew on by hand and the seams are all hidden.  Here is a pic of them just pinned on.  They still need to be sewn.

Fluted Bodice

The skirt of dress #2 is going to be mostly covered in a pleated materialization. I started with a 2# wide x 54″ long strip of cotton, ironed it and started pinning the fabric to paper for stability.  Pleating and pinning as I go along.  The end result is only 17″ long.  Then I take it to the sewing machine and stitch down the middle of the pleats.  Trim the edges with pinking sheers to prevent fraying.  Tear off the paper from the back and the piece is ready to be hand sew on to the base of the skirt.  Not that this whole process for 1 yd of fabric took about 7 hrs.

This week has been just about been……well lets say full of hiccups.  We are approaching spring break quicker then expected and I, over ambitiously of course, have planned on having all 3 dresses, 90% done by Thursday the 25th.  The judging is not till the April 12th but if there is one thing always plan for the unexpected, ie: midterms, migraines, illness, fabric shortage, snow storms, coffee spills and the occasional melt down.

Last weekend I managed to drape, cutout and sew together the bodies of dress 2 and 3.  I try to work fast and efficiently, so that big dents are made. When I was planning my dress for the cotton competition I purchased 5 yards of white cotton, thinking I would dye it eggplant.  When noted that was not as easy as predicted, I moved onto lets dye it black.  Apparently me and dying dark colors, not working out so well, even though I have had success in the past with light colors.  That being said, now I need more fabric.

In my state of exhaustion, I counted out the yards and relized I was short to begin with by 15 YARDS.  Sort of forgot a few things. Yes that is right, I was not in need of 20 yards of cotton.  $260 later I managed to get my goods.  Lesson #2, take the amount of fabric that you think you will need and double that.  Oh but double check that you counted all the pieces you need it for.

Also, on monday the critic looked and dress 3, suggested that the entire fabric manipulation that I am going do on the skirt was to “moppy” and I should just use feathers.  Well this is perplexing.  What to do?  The point of the design was to make something that was interesting and cost effective.  After my cotton debacle, the best thing for me is to proceed.  Hope for the best and stand true to my design!  Lesson#3, take comments, criticism, and your own standards in making design decisions.  Everything is with a grain of salt.

Enter weekend, two workdays of 8am-2am, to see if I can finish my  GAME PLAN!

For my senior thesis, the theme is loosely based off the idea of Alice in wonderland and the transformation of her character.  Similar to the metamorphosis of myself over the past 5 1/2 years at school.  For special occasion, our assignment was to put together a cohesive collection of three eveningwear ensembles (2 that are to be judged for the show). There is our critic (Sergio Guadarrama) and our professor who offer their opinion and guidance through the process.  We all came to the first day of class with 12 sketches, fabric swatches and narrowed the ideas all down to 3.  Then the rat race called “you have less then 30 days a dress to produce these pieces” started.  The process is as roughly as follows: sketch, source fabric/trims, drape the garment in muslin, fit, make pattern pieces, cut into fabric, baste all the pieces together, sew, fit, embellish, and fit again.  Don’t forget there are understructures to think about so the dress will stay on, there are finishing’s, like linings and hems to consider, oh and to make sure that the end product fits beautifully and is effortless looking.  This is the start of my senior collection.

At this point we are already 41 day in and 29 more days left till the critics judging.  Dress 1 for me is 90% done.  I need to add more petals and make the piallettes more organic, coming under the belt on to the petals. Not sure if I should add the fur either.  I have moved on to Dress 2 this week, but that is for a later post.  The process for Dress 1 went fairly smoothly, sans the fact that I tried dyeing to get the exact color of eggplant I wanted. I epically failed at achieving the color and wound up buying new fabric.  Lesson one, there are more shades to a color then what they give you in the 96 box of Crayola.

Check out the pictures. I am welcome to comments and suggestions.  Design is all about the eye of the beholder.