part four

12:00PM-2:30PM: altering patterns

03:30PM-05:00PM: altering patterns
TOTAL HOURS: 2:30+1:30= approx. 4 hours

I finally finished altering the pattern pieces, and I’m hoping that it’ll work out.

Because I don’t thoroughly understand how theses pieces will transform itself into a dress, I couldn’t alter the patterns with as much precision as I would have liked to which meant I couldn’t be as economical with my fabric as much as I would have liked. I wasn’t sure if I had purchased enough fabric because I had actually bought the fabric before I bought the pattern... oops.

I laid both the patterns and fabric on the floor and saw that my newly enlarged pattern was about 2 inches too wide to fit on the width of the folded fabric, but then I realized I could cut the front center hem straight down (lobbing off a the flared edge) because I wanted the front hem to fall straight to the ground. I’m hoping this will work. That piece now fits onto the fabric but the other one still does not, which means I’ll have to unfold the fabric and cut out two pieces separately as inefficient and time consuming as that may be.

I exaggerated the v-neck of the front, and I also tried to turn the back into a low back v-neck as well. We’ll see how that works out.

I also steamed half of the lining fabric so that the pattern falls flatter on it. I steamed it and left the cutting for Monday so my hands could have a little rest.

tree

11:00AM-12:30PM: altering patterns

01:30PM-03:00PM: altering patterns, working on sketchbook

TOTAL HOURS: 1:30+1:30= approx. 3 hours

I had a large sheet of paper left over because I’m using one of the simpler variations of the pattern. I cut the left over sheet in half and then pressed them flat. The hem of the dress would normally fall just below the knee, but I want it to be floor-length so I lengthened the dress pattern. I pinned the half sheets to the bottom of both front and back patterns. I stared at the paper for a while trying to picture what would happen to the dress if I cut the edge of the pattern this way or that, but I decided that I wouldn’t try to get too fancy at this point because I’d only confuse myself. So I simply extended the line from the original pattern to keep the general shape of the dress but have it more elongated and exaggerated towards the bottom. I left the bottom edge of the pattern alone so that I could figure out what to do with it another time, and I cut along the new line that I had just drawn.

I wanted to take a break from the pattern so I took the opportunity to start working on my sketchbook. I also knew that if I didn’t force myself to work on it now I wouldn’t do it for a while. I had a bunch of different ideas floating around in my head that I needed to get down onto paper because it was actually keeping me up at night. I decided that I would begin by putting down the different elements I might want the final dress to have, and once I’m done hopefully all of the different ideas will come together rather easily.

part deux

11:00AM-01:45PM: cutting patterns

03:00PM-04:30PM: cutting, pressing patterns

TOTAL HOURS: 2:45+1:30= approx. 4 hours 15 minutes

I took one sewing class before, and trying to understand a pattern without the help of a seasoned professional is more confusing than I had expected- especially because I am not accustomed to sewing symbols and terminology. I spent the majority of my day doing a lot of mental configuration- so once again my progress has yet to dramatically reveal itself in physical form. 

Slowly, but surely, I began to understand how the pieces would fit together to construct a dress, so I tried to envision the most efficient way I could alter the patterns to achieve the look that I wanted. In between my long, blank, pondering stares I cut out the pieces of the pattern that I needed. I was extra careful with the scissors because this pattern paper was much thinner and tissue-y than previous ones I've used before.

After I cut the pieces, I pressed them and, of course, did some more mental puzzling.
I began to confuse myself as my thought processes became circular, and then I decided that I would stop over-thinking things.


 I decided to just do something... but tomorrow.

¡DAY NUMERO UNO!

10:30AM-01:45PM: trying to borrow a dress form from school, Blick's in Evanston, some lunch, Joann Fabrics in Niles
02:45PM-04:30PM: Hancock Fabrics in Northbrook, friend's house (to pick up sewing machine)
TOTAL HOURS: 3:15+1:45= approx. 5 hours


So, today was an overall tiring but interesting day. The whole crazy awesome-ness of Senior Project has yet to sink in since I spent most of my day driving around gathering supplies. I also felt pretty anxious the entire time because I felt like I had homework that I was supposed to be doing and/or scrambling to finish... humph.

Anyways, I spent a lot of time in the car driving from place to place- I went to Blick's, Hancock Fabrics, Joann Fabrics, and I also picked up a sewing machine from my friend's house because her mother was kind enough to let me borrow hers for the next few weeks, and I've yet to buy one for myself.  D:


I'm trying to figure out if I can borrow a dress form from school, but if that doesn't work out, my lovely - but anonymous - friend complacently agreed to act as my mannequin. I'm not entirely sure if she knows how much standing will be involved, so if you're reading this: thanks! and no takesy-backsies.

Aquí están algunas fotos de mi día:
(please excuse the stupid photo effects- I've recently discovered the filter function on my camera phone, and I'm far too easily entertained)

it was a red light

This may be a bit backwards, but I'm planning to attempt drawing sketches of my dress tomorrow. I have a general idea of which direction I want to take this dress, but only in my head. Taking into account my anal retentiveness, I'm assuming that it'll take me a while to draw something that I'll be somewhat satisfied with... the sketches will probably be embarrassingly bad so I probably won't upload pictures of them. But I don't know yet.

After math class (the reason for the hole in my schedule), I was thinking about how I could deconstruct the garment and how I'd attempt to begin this whole dress-making process. Basically don't know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna pretend like I do, and since my knowledge of sewing is very minimal, I decided that I would make the lining of my dress with the help of a pattern! So I pulled a U-turn and headed towards Hancock Fabrics in Northbrook, and I bought a cheap, simple pattern: New Look #6804 to be exact.

My entire day was spend hoarding and money spending, so I felt plenty fatigued, but I didn't feel all-too-productive. Hopefully I'll have something going by tomorrow, even if it's simply sketchbook work, and my progress will be more concrete and tangible.

Good night cyberworld.