My mother-in-law is a very nice woman, but we’ve always had trouble finding things to bond over. As far as I can tell, she doesn’t have any hobbies. She cooks, cleans and watches TV. I’ve never seen her do anything else. A couple weeks ago she had to stay with us for two weeks for varicose vein surgery. Even recovering, she couldn’t stop herself from cooking, cleaning, and critiquing me doing the same. Because the things she’s good at I’m not, there’s not a lot of meeting ground there.

But a miracle occurred. While I was waiting with her for a follow-up appointment, I was sketching ideas for Elena’s wedding jacket, so I explained what I was doing and why. After I finished the first model she was astonished that I had made the model up from a picture I had created. Since she seemed interested, and was generally opposed to my plan to give up my pension-safe job to become a designer, I had her leaf through my sketchbook.

Suddenly I was receiving orders. I am now committed to making a skirt and a dress for her. I took her to the fabric market and let her pick out the fabrics. and measured her up. Now she’s all excited to have me making clothes up for her.

After taking the order, I was in my closet looking for what to wear to work and saw the blouse I had made for my pattern-making class last semester. I wasn’t really happy with it when I was done because we had to do a princess-cut, which is NOT flattering for me. It was also six weeks between taking the measurements and making the blouse, so it was also a bit large for me since I’d lost weight in the process.

But it’s a nice, heavy, soft silk and I love the cattail pattern, so I didn’t want to give it up. I pulled it out, though, and wouldn’t you know, it fits my mother-in-law perfectly. That’s the blouse she’s wearing in the pic above.

It looks slightly odd in the pic because she’s sitting and she’s got a red winter undershirt underneath, but she was so in love with it! After she took it off she petted it for a while and showed it off to her son.

So we’ve finally found something I could do that she respected (other than giving birth to her grandchildren). I’ll be sure to post pics as I make up her items.

Sorry I left you hanging there for so long. I was moved to a new office at work, and have had a series of health problems due to the fact that the building is still under construction and all the teachers have been breathing in concrete dust, paint fumes and other noxious things. Today I spent maybe five minutes there so I’m feeling much better now. Avoidance is the best policy.

Now let’s see, where was I…. Ah, yes. Elena had liked the Antoinette-inspired long jacket to go with her dress, but she also wanted to look at some bolero tops. She didn’t like the ones she had tried on before, but she liked the idea of them, so what could I come up with?

 So back to the drawing board, which I was happy to go back to. The type I figured was best with her figure were the ones that cut away from the bust, so I sketched up some ideas:

  

I liked the first two here, and lo and behold those are the ones she picked (honest, there was no prompting from me)! Next was making up the models:

    

Last post on Project Jennifer, we saw the design for the wedding jacket Elena liked. This post, you’ll get a look at how she figures out how to take a drawing and make something real out of it!

Thank you, Heidi.

Well, with the drawing intriguing my client, I asked myself how I was going to make the darn thing. I pulled out my handy-dandy muslin and started pondering. Muslin, in case you didn’t know, is a woven, unbleached cotton that’s really cheap and thus used for the purpose of figuring out patterns and fit problems just like this. Being raised by my father (who greatly resembled Ebenezer Scrooge on the thrift end of things), I wouldn’t want to waste yards of even this cheap cloth on experimenting when I haven’t a clue what I’m doing. Luckily, I’d bought Donna a miniature mannequin for her to drape fabric scraps on. The body’s about a foot high, so I decided to use that as my model.

There are two methods in making a garment — one is making a pattern through measurements and calculations, the other is to “drape” the garment onto a dress form or model and then make the pattern or cut directly out of the final fabric. Since the dress form’s measurements are cock-eyed in this case, I decided to drape.

  I used the red tape to mark where the major lines of the outfit are, then put the muslin up against it and start cutting. Here, I decided to make the front side pieces one piece each with a dart instead of panels like the original, because the curvier the bust, the less good it looks with seams running through it, generally. Each piece is laid out, cut, and then pinned into place.

I then mark where I need to put darts, gathers, etc., or any changes I want to make to the shape of it.

 

If you read the previous post, you know I’ve been given the challenge of designing a wedding jacket to go with a purchased dress and make up a muslin sample for a dressmaker.

 I’d think I’d be exhausted just thinking about it, but it’s actually exhilerating — which tells me I’m on the right track dream-wise.

 So here’s how I started:

First, Elena sent me photos of her dress:

   

And a link to a type of jacket she admired — very Marie Antoinette:

 

And thus, the process begins. First, comparing the Marie Antoinette version with the dress, I can see some changes will be needed because first, a full-length coat is going to completely cover the train and most of the embroidery and beading of her dress. Next, I have to take into account Elena’s figure, which incidentally is about identical to mine. We’re both just a few inches over five feet, and we’re short-waisted with hips and a decent chest (which is also our Big Asset — you highlight it, you don’t hide it).

Keeping all this in mind, I started sketching, and came up with one sketch I thought combined all these elements. I shared it with Elena and we both thought it had possibilities:

   You can see here that we’ve kept the basic elements of the jacket. It still has the longer, pointed-front waist that will elongate her torso, the long, tight sleeves and collar/lapel. The point where the lapels meet in front will be slightly lower than shown in the picture, to show more of the dress’ decolletage. The upper collar will leave her collarbones bare for more drama. The jacket “skirt” (I must look up what that’s called) will fall smooth over the hips so as not to add inches where she wouldn’t want it and fall to the point in the back where the train meets the gown.

So, now that the customer is intrigued with the concept, the next step is devising the pattern, since I have never just “made up” a pattern for a jacket before, and am certainly no expert on patterns in general.

Tune in next time to see my step-by-step process in making a pattern for this design.

Okay, I’m going to use the word “job” loosely, since I’m not getting paid, but it’s real design work and I’m going to get invaluable practice from this. So I’m excited anyway!

My colleague, Elena, is getting married next January. She bought a wedding dress in Albuquerque this summer, since that’d be her last trip back to the States before the nuptials. Summer in Albuquerque is not, however, the ideal place to try to purchase a dress for a winter wedding. She ended up with a beautiful strapless dress, but needs something that will cover her arms and shoulders.

She was unable to find something she liked before leaving, and the chance of her finding something in Korea is astronomical. (Check out one of my previous posts called Size Matters on just why that is, if you don’t already know!) Thus, my challenge was born. Design a jacket to complement her wedding dress.

 Now, I’m not crazy enough to try to make the whole thing myself. This is the woman’s wedding! I’m not nearly skilled enough to trust myself with that. What I DO need to do is consult with her, decide on a design, experiment until I’ve made up a pattern, then make up a muslin sample. I know at least one seamstress good enough to take the sample and make up the jacket from it (she’s done it for me before with a real jacket that I’d worn out but loved the shape).

So Elena is having the dress sent here, so that once we decide on the design we can buy the fabrics and trims from the fabric market, then deliver them and the sample to the seamstress.

This is so exciting! It’s a great challenge, great practice, and I’m really helping out an overwhelmed friend at the same time.

It’s also going to make great blog fodder, in my opinion. I’m going to outline each step we take — with pics! — so you can see the entire process. Your own little Project Runway since Season 4 is over, with episodes and everything!

Stay tuned!

The black dress, the pink one and the teal (Lily, Opal and Jade). The purple one (Iris) was the runner up. Although the three don’t all belong to the same line I’d planned, they all use an irridescent chiffon as the accent, so that is still a unifying theme.

 Thanks everyone for voting (and if you haven’t, check out the blog post before this one!). My final version is due at the end of April, so we’ll probably get the result in late Spring/early Summer. I don’t have much of a chance, since they prefer to give the scholarship to someone without life experience, but I hope to show them what I can do!

Calling all 15-20 yr-old young women!

What would be your dream prom dress? What dress would you buy to make you feel like the queen of the prom?

That’s the question I need answered. I’m entering a competition where the objective is to design a line of 3 dresses for the 2008 prom season. I’ve designed two lines of three dresses, and I’m now researching which would be the most popular with the girls who would actually wear them.  Please look at the pictures and read the descriptions, then click on ‘comments’ below to tell me which line gets your vote. You might also add which single design was your favorite out of the group.

The more people who vote the better, so pass this on to all your friends. Thank you, and I hope you like them!

The Floral Line:                                       The Rhinestone Line:

  

Florals are all over the runways this spring, so I’ve incorporated them here in sheer chiffons. You can’t see it on the scan, but the first two chiffons are composed of two colors, depending on how the light hits them. They are all very shiny, irridescent. They are Dahlia, Iris and Lily, in that order.

Rhinestones brighten up an outfit, giving it a little ‘bling’. Each of these is made of a nice, shiny silk, with a very shiny chiffon. (I just emphasize the ’shiny’ since it doesn’t scan in that well.) Each of them uses some bling on the straps. They are Pearl, Iris and Jade, in that order.

So, which line do you like better? Floral or Rhinestone? And which is your favorite dress overall?

Click on ‘comments’ to give me your vote.