Zipper pully on cad

I have just completed creating a zipper pully on cad.

I found this really easy to do and as i used a cad book, I also found the instructions very easy and simple to follow. I think its good to have one of these handy as we do a lot of cad drawing of garments and our designs so having this at the ready means we can place on a more noticeable and life like zip.

Cad Poster

As part of our cad brief, we have to create a poster that could be used for the fashion show, here is mine;

I think there are a lot of improvements on my poster that I could do to make it a lot better. I think the writing could stand out a bit more and I could change the text to something more appropriate for a fashion show poster. I also think that the figure could have been a lot more defined.

I do like the way I have made the background to look like spotlights though as I think that definitely relates to a fashion show, I also like the purple shade and think it works well with the silver and black.

Ralph pink bodice block tutorial

I have just completed the ralph pink bodice block tutorial, here is my bodice block in relation to my measurements.

I found doing this tutorial reasonably difficult as there was a lot to do and it was a very fiddly exercise. There were lots of different points and making sure you had all of the measurements and number right was very hard, I found the hardest part of the task was making sure each point was totally separate to all the other lines surrounding it, as when you tried to copy the points and move them onto other areas, a lot of the time lots of other lines ended up coming with it, so this was a very hard part of the task for me.

Also following him was another hard part of the task and you had to focus your full concentration on the tutorial and try your hardest to watch and listen to every little thing he said and did, although it was quite interesting to see how the bodice block started to come together after plotting all the points.

Toile Diary Blazer Jacket

I started off by firstly tracing off a standard jacket body block and standard sleeve block.

I then started to slightly alter my patterns. I left the darts on the back piece but changed the dart on the front pattern and closed it reopening it under the arm. I shortened the length of the front and back patterns slightly as the jacket is going with my trousers that angle out at each side therefore I didn't want the jacket to be too long and cover the trousers.

I adapted the front pattern piece to fit the collar in. I placed in the shape of how I wanted my collar to be.

I then added a 1cm seam allowance onto the front back and sleeve. I also shorted the sleeve slightly by taking off 3cm at each side at the bottom.

I then cut out the patterns out of calico.

I started firstly by sewing in all of the darts on the front pieces and back pieces.

I then sewed the 2 back pieces together to make it just the one back piece, I sewed them together with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then sewed the shoulder seams together with a 1cm seam allowance.

Then I sewed down the side seams so that my front and back pieces were sewn together.

Now I could start on the sleeves. I firstly sewed the sleeves together with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then pinned the sleeve heads into the sleeves holes on my garments and then sewed them both in with a 1cm seam allowance.

Now my basic jacket body was sewn together, I could concentrate on the collar. Firstly I had to pattern for it and I did this using my front pattern.

Here, you can see that I drew on where I wanted the collar to sit and how I wanted it to look on my pattern.

I cut the collar piece out, added a 1cm seam allowance and then cut it out twice on the fold.

Here, I have sewn along the outer line of the collar sewing the 2 collar pieces together with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then snipped around the seam allowance of the collar to add in extra ease and then added a retaining row.

I then attached the collar onto the jacket into place and sewed it on with a 1cm seam allowance. I will need to face my jacket and collar and also add a hem although I will wait to do this on my final garment in fittings week.

I did all of these steps in my final fabric and then once I had completed these steps, I went onto the facing and hemming of the jacket.

I started by cutting out a pattern for my facing by using the patterns for my jacket, I cut out a facing for the neck and collar.

I hemmed the jacket as well and made sure that the hem was exactly 3cm.

Here it a close up of the collar as well, I used the material I used for my small cropped jacket on the collar as I wanted it to stand out and be different,

Toile Diary; Short shoulder dress

I started off creating the pattern for my short dress by firstly tracing off simple shorter dress block. Then I started to adapt the pattern to fit into my design.

I took out the shoulder dart on the front pattern and re opened it just under the underarm seam. I then drew a line where I wanted the sleeve to attach to the front and back pieces.

I have never used this sleeve method before but I found it relatively easy to pattern and I liked the way I could chose where I wanted my sleeve to fit and where I wanted the seam to meet at the front and back of the garment, which was in the middle of the neck.

I then cut down the line I had drawn on the front and back pattern and separated the 2 parts on each pattern.

After tracing out a standard sleeve block and just narrowing the sleeve by taking 3cm off the bottom at each side, I was then able to stick on the top parts of the front and back dress block I had separated, I had to make sure I attached them at the exact correct point though and made sure I had notched the parts properly to make it easier for me when I had to sew in the sleeves.

I could then trace around my front and back dress blocks that now had the top missing where I had added a seam, I added a 1cm seam allowance and traced around my new sleeve with the two pieces added onto the top and again added a 1cm seam allowance.

As the front had 4 inverted darts, I used the same method I used on my long dress and just divided the dart at the front of the front dress block into 4 separate darts, on my long dress I had 5 darts but as there was a seam going down the center front, I decided 2 seams either side would be enough.

Once I had cut out my patterns out of calico, I started off by sewing in the darts.

I then sewed the two front and back pieces together by sewing down the center fronts with a 1cm seam allowance.

Now that the 2 fronts and 2 backs were sewn together, I could put my sleeves in. I pinned them into place making sure I sewed the right parts together and matched up the correct notches.

The sleeves were actually relatively easy to sew on and I really liked this new method and the effect is gave.

I then sewed the shoulders together with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then sewed along the underarm seam and down the side of my dress with a 1cm seam allowance, so now my dress was more or less all put together. I placed the closed end zip in last and decided to use a closed end zip as i fancied the zip as being a feature in the dress and I did quite like the fact it showed up rather than being hidden like a concealed zip.

I am leaving the hem and sleeves and facing until I create my final garment but I am very pleased with the final outcome and I will look at my final garment to decide whether or not I need to put in any shoulder pads or not but I am pleased with the final look.

I had to lengthen the dress slightly as my toile was definitely too short. I added on about 15 cm onto the bottom. I made my dress following all of these steps in my final fabric, now I'm jut waiting to fit my dress to hem it and face it around the collar.