Finishing Touches
By now I’ve actually finished the jacket, so I’m blogging the process in retrospect! I can’t wait to show you how it turned out, but I must be patient and fill you in on how it got there first. I’ll try to leave out the boring construction parts (boring to read about, that is!) and […]
Gussets and Beads
When sewing a beaded garment by machine, it is usually necessary to remove the beads that will be in the seam and the seam allowance so that the machine and iron can accept the fabric. You can always sew the beads back on after the seams are finished, but you don’t want to put in […]
Balancing Act
By now in the process, I am in the couture dressmaking phase. I have marked all of my stitch lines, prepped and cut out all of the pieces for the lighter colored base fabric of the jacket. Now is the time for a crucial and somewhat tedious task: The layout of the beaded net. A […]
Happy Accidents
I love happy accidents. There’s no avoiding it: things never go exactly as planned. With something with as many variables as a totally custom dress, at least one of those variables is liable to throw you for a loop. But, in my experience, this dilemma has always turned into a springboard for something even better; […]
Pattern Corrections
Pattern correction always creates an interesting conflict of interests for me. The fewer corrections you have to make, the closer that the dress is to being perfect, but one of my favorite tasks of dressmaking is pattern corrections. I really enjoy taking the garment from the fitting, with all of its pins, cuts and marks, […]
First (and only!) Fitting
A custom dress always requires multiple fittings. I first make the hand-drafted pattern into a sample garment that we try on first. We can fix any kind of fit problems and make design choices using this garment, without any risks to the actual dress. We can cut and pin and draw all over it. I […]
Butterfly Bouquet
I’m not just a dressmaker. When people ask me “what do you do?” Sometimes I list my professions, but most of the time I just say “I make things”. Pretty much, if you can think of it, I can make it. One of the ‘add-ons’ that I offer my brides is creating custom accessories. Jill […]
Mocked-Up
I’ve taken my paper patterns and made two sample jackets, or mock-ups, for Jill to try on when I see her for her fitting over the Christmas break. For the mock-ups I used an inexpensive fabric that had a similar weight to that of the real fabric we will be using. The mock-up fabric that […]
I love flat patterning.
For custom garments, there are two methods to create a pattern: draping and flat patterning. Basically, draping is when the patternmaker pads a dressform to the measurements of the wearer and uses a inexpensive fabric to “sculpt” the design directly onto the form, pinning, cutting and drawing as needed. This fabric “pattern” can then be […]