EXPERIMENTATION
I wanted to see how my design for the prototype would look in 3D form so used strips of ribbon attached to a simple bodice piece and strips of pattern paper to replicate the straps on the dress. I like how the straps look but as the design requires them to be thin straps, they would be very delicate so therefore is only a design requirement and will not function as straps to actually hold the dress up on the body. I like the random sizing of the panels of the ribbons but I don’t like the affect the ribbons give. I want the panels to be more structured and firm and not as free flowing.
EXPERIMENTATION
As the design is an asymmetric with an extra wrap over half a skirt, with panels on the bodice with thin delicate straps, the dress needs to be able to hold itself on the body. The best way to do this is by creating as bodice that’s tight on the top. It will have to be strapless and fastened with a zip. In this image I was trying to work out where how high I would want the bodice and how long I would want the skirt.
EXPERIMENTATION
I made a basic skirt block into an A-line skirt and extended it in order to give it a bit of an exaggerated A-line shape. From this draft I created the wrap over half skirt part by making it longer and extended it outwards slightly so it would sit well on the under skirt and no push it in. I placed my bodice draft on top to get a general view. The bodice needs a lot more altering and fixing. I am just using it as a guide.
EXPERIMENTATION
I didn’t like the effect the strips of ribbon gave so tried another technique of creating an almost fan like piece with pattern paper. I prefer his affect t the previous but it still isn't right. It goes away from the body too much. I will need to toile this in calico to see how it reacts with fabric. I will again create pleats and sew them at the bottom as well as the top to hold them down.
EXPERIMENTATION
As guideline I am very happy with the outcome. But this is only a guide. It looks very much like my design but I will now need to toile too find the best ways and techniques to create the final piece.
EXPERIMENTATION
I need the body to be strapless and extremely fitted to the body to hold the dress up. I pivoted the waist dart and shoulder dart into the side and took off the top part of the bodice. But it is completely wrong. It’s not tight on the body. And will not hold the dress up.
TOILE
This is my first toile with the pattern pieces I created in earlier pages. I am happy with the bodice length and where it sits on the body. However it may be to fitted and be uncomfortable on the body. I will alter the pattern block do it doesn’t dip in at the waist too much. I am happy with the skirt part of the dress measurements. The wrap skirt is way too long so I will need to shorten that. Also I will need to widen it as it doesn’t wrap over enough in accordance to my design.
SECOND TOILE PATTERNS Here are the patterns I used to create my second toile. The images contain information on how I manipulated the blocks to create these new pattern pieces.
In this image is the front bodice block. I marked a straight line at a 90 degree angle from the CF. This is I where I want the new top edge to be. I had previously pivoted the shoulder dart into the side seam dart.
This is the back bodice block. I pivoted the shoulder dart into the armhole and then pivoted it into the side seam. I drew a straight line at a 90 degree angle from the CF marking where I want the new top edge to be.
This is the front block. I traced the under skirt and then marked a line on the under skirt to show where I wanted the edge of the wrap skirt to sit. I then took the wrap skirt block and aligned the outer side of the waist on the under and wrap skirt and traced around the wrap skirt block. I then extended it out to where I had drawn the new outer sideline. I will do this for the back skirt blocks too.
This is the back block. I traced the under skirt and then marked a line on the under skirt to show where I wanted the edge of the wrap skirt to sit. I then took the wrap skirt block and aligned the outer side of the waist on the under and wrap skirt and traced around the wrap skirt block. I then extended it out to where I had drawn the new outer sideline. I sued the same technique as I did with the front block.
SECOND TOILE
In the following images, I will be presenting my second toile and annotating what went wrong and how I plan to fix these problems.
The front bodice needs to be adjusted by adding darts to make it tighter on the body. The blue markings also indicate where the new top edge of the bodice will be. It is too high up and wont sit properly on the body. The image on the right gives a guide on how it should look once this is done.
The blue markings show the new top edge of the back bodice. At the moment it is way too high and will not fit properly. The blue markings on the CB also indicate where the zip will be.
This is the side seam of the dress where the wrap skirt is open. It doesn’t fit on the mannequin, which is the same size as my patterns (12). I had to open the seams stitching in order to get it on the mannequin. I have clearly made a mistake on the pattern that needs to be fixed. I like the shape of the under skirt, its just to small. In the left image, I made a practice piece to see what the panels would look like once the dress is together. I made pleats on pattern paper to create panels and taped them down. Though I got a rough idea, I need to toile it to see how it would hang on the dress and body.
I made a rough toile to show what the panel will look like and how they will sit on the body. I sewed these panels in a straight line with 0.5cm allowances as well as a straight top edge. Shown in the images, a straight top edge will not work, as it doesn’t fit on the body shape properly. I will need to maybe add some flare at the top of the panels. I will also try another technique by marking where I want the panels to sit on my next toile and tracing these pieces off. From there I will start to draft a pattern piece. I will also experiment with whether I want the stitching going all the way to the end of the panels a or whether I will stop at random lengths.
AMMENDMENT S MADE TO
PATTERN FOR THRID TOILE The following images showcase the alterations I made to my second toiles patterns in order to get a better outcome. From the second toile I knew I had to - Make the under skirt larger to properly fit a size 12. - Bring down the bodice top at the front and back to front comfortably underarm and on the body and back. - Make the bodice more fitted by creating darts on the top part of bodice and pivoting them into the side darts. - Make back darts disappear by folding them away. - Bring the armhole up by 1.5cm. - Join the front and back armhole with a smooth line that meets correctly. - Add interfacing to the hem and outer sides of the wrap skirt. - Create a lining for the wrap skirt. HOW I MADE THESE CHANGES
This image shows the previous pattern. To create a new better draft, I raised the armhole up by 1.5cm. I then dropped the bodice top so that it fitted properly on the body. I also created a small dart in the bodice top and pivoted it into the side seam dart.
This shows the previous back bodice. I dropped the back bodice top in order for it fit well. I then raised the armhole by 1.5cm. So that it meets the front armhole. To get rid of the side dart I extended it so that it wet through the top of the bodice. I did this so I could fold it away. Since the side darts is so close to the top edge, I was able to di this without the bodice not fitting properly.
In this image, I took the new patterns that I drafted and closed the darts. I then pinned them to the mannequin to help me see what changes should be made to the pattern in order form the back and front bodice to meet at the side seam. I marked this down and made more alterations to the patterns according to these new markings.
This is the wrap skirt pattern. I was happy with the length and size of this, judging from the second toile. However I wasn’t happy with the way the skirt held its self. It didn’t reflect my design. I will experiment with adding interfusing at the hem and sides. I made the interfusing a measurement of 10cm wide. Hopefully this will be enough. I will also use this pattern to cut out a lining piece.
THIRD TOILE
This is my third toile after making the changes needed proven by my second toile. Judging from this toile I am getting closer to starting my prototype. I am very happy with the outcome however there are some slight issues that need to be corrected before starting the prototype. From this toile, I will start to work out how the panel on the top part of the dress will be placed and work out what technique is best to do this.
AMMENDMENTS MADE These are the amendments I needed to make for this toile. This information was drawn up after evaluating my second toile. - Make the under skirt larger to properly fit a size 12. - Bring down the bodice top at the front and back to front comfortably underarm and on the body and back. - Make the bodice more fitted by creating darts on the top part of bodice and pivoting them into the side darts. - Make back darts disappear by folding them away. - Bring the armhole up by 1.5cm. - Join the front and back armhole with a smooth line that meets correctly. - Add interfacing to the hem and outer sides of the wrap skirt. - Create a lining for the wrap skirt. COMPLETED TOILE
The image on the left shows the back of the bodice. As evident in this picture it doesn’t fit tightly on the body. Although I don’t want the dress to uncomfortably tight, it needs to be tight enough so it olds itself on the body. Though there are straps on the design, these are purely for design reasons and don’t not help holding the dress up. The image on the right shows how I will solve this problem. I have created to darts that make the dress more fitted. They both equal 1.5 cm. I will create these darts on the pattern block and fold away. However, I will use a measurement slightly small so it is not too tight; 2cm rather than 3cm.
The front bodice still isn’t tight enough and only needs an extra 1cm measurement to the side seam dart. Also I didn’t sew the darts accurately enough as they do not meet at the same point. I will mark this properly on fabric to stop this from happening again.
Though I had tried to amend this problem on the pattern piece, I clearly didn’t do this correctly. I need to work out how I am going to make sure this is done properly. The front and back bodice should meet in a smooth line and look as straight as possible according to the design. I will do this by taking the pattern pieces, aligning them properly and adding a part to fill in the gap so that they meet correctly.
I am very happy with the skirt area of the dress and the wrap skirt. Adding the facing and lining definitely made it look more like my design. However, an error has been made on =e of the side seams. This is due to my sewing. Looking at my seam allowance I can see that I came off the 1cm allowance and made it bigger in this part of the seam. I will need to be a lot more accurate next time, also with my cutting of the pattern pieces to help this.
FOURTH TOILE PATTERNS
For the next toile I have to make the bodice tighter on the chest area. I measured how much tighter I wanted it ad it came to 2.8 cm. Using the cut and slash method I pivoted into the side seam dart so to minimize darts. I then made the front and back side seam the same length to correct the error in the last toile.
I took the front and back bodice and aligned the top edge as if they were soon together and traced along this line. This is so I could start to draft the bodice over layer panels. I knew that the top edge of the panels would stay the same but the bottom had to be slightly larger so it flowed nicely on the body. I enlarged them bottom edge by 5 cm using the technique to add flare.
I drafted panel lines of how I wanted them to look. I tried to make them look as straight as possible but had to slant them slightly to meet the new bottom measurement.
Cut out the pattern piece in calico to sit if it fitted well and how the fabric hanged. It didn’t look quite right as I could tell it was a little bit too tight still. The fabric was also pulling in odd ways as if I it was too constricted. I slashed into the panel design lines to see what the fabric would do naturally and that is where I will draft my new pattern for the panels. The below three images shows how slashing has shown me the way I which the fabric should go. I used masking tape to hold it in place so I would know the measurements to expand it b y.
This is the new outcome with the new corrected pattern piece. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and I believe it fits my design accurately. From the pattern piece I drafted new pattern for each panel with a 0.5 cm seam allowance all around. This is because each panel will be sewn together to create a more obvious panelled looking rather than just sewing in design lines. I made each panel have different variations in length. I did this randomly.
FINAL TOILE
This is my final toile outcome. I am very happy with the finish and it matches my design quite accurately. The fit is correct it hangs off the body well and the there is no problems with the dress holding itself up and the seams match. I am no ready to move on to my final garment.
This is the invisible zip. I used an extra long zip to work out the exact measurement that I will need the zip to be. I will sew the zip down up until this point but leave an extra 3cm loose. I was unable to find a zip at the perfect size so I will make my sized zip. I will cut it 1cm away from the 3cm extension I will then use a piece of the spare stringer zip to form my own bottom stop by sewing this down.
This is the finished panel piece. I am happy with the result and will use this method when completing my final garment. To neaten the inside side seam I will over lock the panel first, sew them together and then press open. To give it a neater finish I will then hand stitch the bottom corners down of the panel.