Collection Update

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and new year, I know I did. It was not as productive for myself as I had hoped, but at the same time I didn't completely expect it to be either. I think it is time to let you all know what I have managed to get done since the last post and where I am at with the line currently. 

I have managed to figure out what fabrics are going to be in which looks and I am working on the final, full color and detailed illustrations of them. This was one of the last steps that I needed to complete before I could start figuring out fabric amounts and actually cutting the fabric. I realized that I needed to get some additional yardage of the stretch legging fabric and luckily I found not only the black I needed, but a brown as well that works perfectly with my color scheme and will help to add a little more variation and depth between all the looks in the collection.

Additional Fabric for the Leggings

I have also started (or at least tried to start) draping the bodice pattern slopers out of muslin. These slopers will be used to create all of the other final pattern pieces for each garment. Using the sloper as a starting template will allow each garment and look to fit perfectly, as well as identically on a model without having to start from scratch on every single piece. Here is where the "or at least tried to start" comes in. I was using an old dress form that my mother has had for years to drape the blouse sloper this morning and everything went well, until I took the draped pieces off the form to true them. When I laid the patterns flat on the table I quickly realized that the dress form shape was slightly off, which is often the case with older dress forms that were made with different body standards and ideal shapes. In the case of my mother's dress form, the back and shoulders slope forward slightly, which isn't a huge problem when you are just fitting a garment on it, but is a big pain when trying to create slopers off of it. The back of the sloper I made ended up being about 2 inches longer than the front. After seeing this, I decided to go and buy a new dress form to create the collection off of so all my seams, patterns and garments will fit properly. When you look at the old form next to my new one, you can definitely see the difference in shape.

 This purchase was definitely a good one. I got a pretty good deal at JoAnn Fabrics on it, and with a coupon my mom had it was drastically discounted. I know that it will definitely be put to use and will be well worth the money. This small sized form is my second dress form, I have a medium sized adjustable one in Cincinnati as well, and having the two different sizes will allow me to work with models of different sizes which is always a plus. The new dress form is also adjustable which is perfect for me because this will allow me to shape the form to be the exact measurements of my model's body. With this form I can now go back and re-drape the blouse sloper for hopefully the final time. I also am planning on finishing up the pant and skirt slopers within the next day. From there I will alter these slopers for each look and cut the fabric to begin sewing. 

Everything can not go completely smooth or else people would get bored so I was expecting some delays, but I definitely did not expect it this soon haha! Well, moving forward within the next week I am hoping to have the first garments of my collection COMPLETED! I am pretty excited about this and will definitely post pictures of not only the completed garments, but of all of the completed slopers as well! Lots of new posts and progress to come, so make sure you check back!

xoxo Hillary C.