Thursday, August 9, 2012

Design

I'm going to backtrack once again and showcase my design portfolio from my senior year of college. There were 5 pieces altogether, 3 of which were Halloween costumes that I made for friends.

The fabric I used for the Fox pictured here is a thick, fuzzy polyester material. I used only my regular sewing machine as I didn't have an overlock machine at the time. I had to clear lint from the bobbin often to keep the machine running smoothly.


I included photographs of the patterns I created. Newspaper is a free and recyclable material to use for pattern making but there are much better materials available if you are willing to pay a few dollars per yard.  I had limited sources available when I was working on these and newspaper worked just fine. 

A lot of these shapes I was able to draw freehand and others I traced from garments and altered with a styling ruler. 

This costume was based off of an action figure of mine, dubbed El Salvador:








I was very pleased with the results! I used most of the same pattern for the Fox but made a different tail and a few other details.





The last two pieces were not designed as costumes, though the first one shown here was used as a Cindy-Lou-Who costume a few years later.



My idea was to create Spring-inspired cuts that were warm enough to wear during a Vermont Winter. I used heavy red denim and attached a layered petticoat underneath the skirt that was very warm.




The back of the suspenders had a zipper near the bottom to allow some adjustment. This way a thicker sweater or a thinner shirt could be worn underneath comfortably.  


This is probably my favorite piece. The red and brown plaids I used were from 2 pairs of vintage, woolen, Pendleton trousers. 



The pattern was a simple and flattering design that I was very happy with. The only disappointment was that I had such a limited amount of the fabric that I was unable to line up the skirt panels on a bias.

In fact I couldn't really make the lines remain straight up and down either, I had to cut the pieces however they would fit. I carefully deconstructed the pants, pressing everything as I went to make sure I was saving as much of the fabric as possible. Then I sewed pieces together to make the largest panels I could, matching the plaid meticulously so that you couldn't notice a break in the pattern. Then I traced the newspaper patterns as best I could.



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