Fashion Show Creations

For my pattern making class our final assignment is to make a sleeveless dress (or long top) from patterns we create for a model (a real person, not a mannequin). My model is my friend Gabrielle, who switched out of the design major into psychology. It's perfect because she is knowledgeable about design and I like hearing her opinion, also she's just really excited about it so it makes me even more excited about it.

My Front (L) pattern and my Back (R) pattern.
These are the final patterns after tweaking.

She's going to be my model for the fashion show as well as my class so I'm making part of my garment for the class and finishing it for the show over winter break. The end result is a long evening gown. It has a high neck and a very low back. There are 6 darts total (though 12 if you include the ones on the lining), it will be completely lined with the same fabric, and the bottom hasn't been officially decide on but as of now will be long ribbons covered in squares of chiffon fabric the same color as the main part of the dress. The ribbons will be shorter in the front and longer in the back so it's easier for her to walk and will create a lot of movement for the dress. I know the bottom will take forever so I am only creating the main part of the dress for my class.

I have already made the 2 main patterns since we have to make it out of muslin first and I didn't need to line or interface the muslin version. I had a fitting on Monday and it looks amazing! The darts are perfect, I only had to lower the armhole about half an inch, and make the hips less curvy. But it looks great!

The muslin dress (front).

I didn't take any pictures of Gabrielle in the dress because I completely spaced about it, but i wish I did. I'll probably end up making her try on the muslin version again just to get some pictures to show how everything went from sketch to working patterns to final patterns to muslin to legit final patterns to the final creation. There is definitely a lot of work that goes into a final piece and I can't wait to see what mine turns out to be. 

Making Progress

So in my pattern making class we had been working on making patterns for our mannequins. We made patterns for the bodice, skirt, and sleeves. Then we put them all together to make a long sleeved sheath dress. 

This is my end result:

NEW SHOES

I bought these lovely boots at Journey's about 2 weekends ago. I wasn't planning on buying shoes. But...this is what happens when you go into a store because your friend is ogling a pair in the display and then a really nice worker comes over and convinces you to try them on and they fit wonderfully and they look so amazing and you rationalize that it's okay to spend $50 because they're boots and you don't own heeled boots and you've been working really hard and deserve a nice pair of shoes to help make all your bad test scores fade away from your memory. Also, they're just really cool shoes.

Spring Semester

First off, I have my schedule for the Spring semester!

I will be taking Apparel Design 2, History of Fashion, Textiles (and Lab), Showcase (the class for the fashion show), French 301 (so French 5), and Introduction to French Literature. It's 17 credit hours and a lot of work, but I think it will be more fun than this semester and a lot less stressful. I can't wait for exams to be over and to start all of these classes. I was going to take Psychology instead of History of Fashion, but our professor wants us to take History of Fashion earlier so we can get a lot out of the class, especially since it's only offered in the spring and a lot of us plan on studying abroad next spring (2015). I am also excited because I get to help with the textiles class since my work study boss runs the lab section. I'll assist her with setting up and taking down the lab, mixing chemicals, dying fabrics, and just help her with anything she needs for the lab. I love the science aspect of it all so I am super pumped to learn more than just what is in the class.

The semester doesn't start till January, but I might end up posting something more if I hear about any of these classes.

Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I just wanted to say that this semester has been a lot harder and more time consuming than I had anticipated, and I am sorry for not posting as much as I said I was going to post. After this next week or so (my last exam is December 11th) I will be able to post a lot more. I have so much to write about and to share!

Stay tuned, I will try and post some things but there won't be a lot until my winter break.

More London Decisions

For a while I was planning on trying to go to London College of Fashion for all of my junior year. I would do the design semester in the fall and then the fashion business semester in the spring. However, after meeting with my adviser, I can really only manage one semester. Let me break it down a little- for the business semester I would earn credit for 5 classes, so 15 credit hours. For the design semester I would only earn the 2 classes  for studying abroad (which I included in the business already). So if I went a whole year I would only earn the 15 credit hours. Which would leave my senior year to be incredibly stressful at 18 and 20 credit hours, a huge no no when it's recommended that you take 12-14 each semester so you have time to focus on your senior collection. So instead of going all year I have to decide on which semester I want to apply for: business or design. Now one reason I even applied to Purdue was because of their connection to London College of Fashion and how excited I was when I found out I could learn how to make shoes. Therefore, I have decided to stick with me dreams and be a little less practical and apply for design. If I do design in the spring 2015, then fall of 2014 will be a little difficult at 18 credit hrs but I'm doing 19 now with 2 jobs so not too bad. And then senior year I'll have 16 and 14 I think. So a little high first semester but I think it'll all be worth it in the end, especially when I can say I can make shoes.