The Burdastyle Sewing Handbook - Skirt Variation

Well I've been in Savannah for over three weeks now and I'm absolutely in love!  The people here are so friendly and it's incredible to be surrounded by a city of fellow art students.  This summer my time was filled with work projects and preparing to leave. Now that I'm starting to get settled in Savannah I feel like I finally have the time to post the work that I made this past summer.  Here is a skirt that I made, and a photo shoot that I took back in August while still in Indiana.  

I made this skirt over three years ago.  It was when I was asked to be a part of the Burdastyle Sewing Hand Book.  They asked me to make a variation of the pattern that they were first-time releasing in their book.  It was very exciting to be a part of it!  

The skirt pattern is one of the 5 patterns that are in the book.  My variation separated the panels on the skirt instead of sewing the overlay together like in the original.  That way it gave a lot of movement and flow to the skirt.  Also I did some hand sewn bead work detail on the waistband and bottom of skirt panels.

Sketch from three years ago - it's crazy to look back on old work! 

^I'm the 1st on left in the 2nd row.  (Photo snatched from this lovely blogger/seamstress).

This was my first project using an invisible zipper and it definitely shows!  I even remember writing an apology note that I sent along with my skirt to Burdastyle explaining the poor quality of the zipper. I didn't know that an invisible zipper was supposed to be sewn using an invisible zipper foot so I sewed it using a completely normal pressure foot.  I know all of you experienced seamstresses are gasping in horror right now.  Thank goodness for kindness, because the lovely ladies at Burda never said anything about it.

 I'm pointing out that zipper, because it's very encouraging to me to look back at old work and compare it to more current work.  For instance, this zipper compared to the zipper on this swimsuit. It's cool to see the growth that can happen in a couple of years.  It always reassures me that with time and practice I can learn how to properly make a technique that I'm struggling with now.

Have you ever made, or created something that turned out badly but later you learned how it's really supposed to be made?  If so, tell me about it!  What are your tricks or tips?  If you have a picture anywhere include a link in a comment.  I loved checking out all of your bedroom links from my previous post!

I did a lot of collaboration work this past summer, which was so much fun!  About 3 months ago my friends Zac and Jonah asked me if I would be willing to take some photos to go along with the songs for their new band Ariadne.  Their song "Guardian Angel" which hasn't been released yet, was the inspiration behind this photo shoot.  

Music has always been one of a main inspirations behind my photography.  Music has the ability to touch and inspire one in a way that words can't.  It was fun trying to translate what they were saying through their music, into my photography.   

Here's the first song that they posted.  I definitely recommend liking their page to keep up with any upcoming works that they post! 

I'm very excited for the new collaborations that I'm going to have here at SCAD!  Classes are incredible so far, and I can't wait to post some of the photos that I've taken while I've been here in Savannah.  Hopefully I can post those sometime next week.  Until then, I hope your weekend is lovely! 

My Room / Sewing Studio

About a month ago I was going through my room because I was starting to organize the items that I'd need to take/throw out once I'd move to Savannah (I just arrived yesterday!).  Then I thought that it would be fun to show you all what my room looks like, since so much of my time has been spent in this space.  I'm always either sewing, editing photos, or working on some kind of project in here.  

When I was in the 3rd grade I made the decision that my room HAD to be lime green.  If you walk into my house, even though my my bedroom is the last one down a long hallway, you will know it is my room!  It's easily one of the first things your eyes will go to, because the green walls casts this alien glow into the hallway whenever my door is open.  It's a wonderful thing.

                                  ^This is the station where I spent most of my time at.

My room is really more of a work studio than a bedroom.  Yes I slept there, but I even moved my bed into my closet so that I could have more space.  I did this shortly after I first started sewing in the 7th grade.  At first my sewing machine was in my closet.  I had a little desk set up, but even then, I needed more floor space to pattern draft.  That was when I made the best decision I ever made, and moved my mattress into my closet.  The bed frame was too big to fit into that space so my bed is actually my mattress on top of several  plastic storage tubs.   It's not the best for back support, but at least I was able to sew! 

^My closet shelves store most of my fabric.  My bulkier fabrics are tucked away in random corners of my room.

^Where the blogging usually happened

^I used cardboard as a makeshift cork board and nails are holding up my sewing tools.  

Over the years my room became a place where I've loved to create and most of my days were spent in there working.  Right now I'm in Savannah and I've been slowly collecting items for my new room while also waiting for my items from home to come in through the mail.  Those boxes should be arriving in the next few days.  A few of the boxes are my sewing supplies and fabrics, which I can't wait to test out on my new sewing machine (it's a beaut)!  I'm excited for the possibilities of my new room, but I'm also going to miss my old space - including the alien, green glow! 

  

Have you posted any photos anywhere of your room or studio?  If so, comment with a link!  I always love looking at photos of how people decorate their personal space!   

Custom Made: 1920s Inpired Petal Dress

A couple of days before I left for Savannah I was working on finishing this dress.  This is the second, custom made garment that was auctioned off at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art's Fundraiser Gala.  As I met with the 2^nd woman to go over what she wanted, she told me that she was looking for something with a nod to the 1920s/30s.  She's getting married in October and the theme of her wedding is based from that era, and she was hoping on possibly wearing this as a reception dress.  So of course my mind immediately went to the gorgeous petal technique that I saw on the dress that Daisy was wearing in her opening scene of The Great Gatsby.  I fell in love with that technique right away on screen, and I had been wanting try my own spin on it for a while now. 

I drafted the pattern according to the woman's measurements.  The dress is made from chiffon and the lining from satin.  The lining is a completely separate dress from the overlay.  I find that whenever I make a dress from chiffon it's nice to have the option to choose between different colored slips. 

Every seam on the dress is finished off by either using a french seam, or by hand sewing the seams shut.  Chiffon tends to fray easily after a couple of wears and if all the seams are closed the garment will last much longer.  Each petal was hand cut and the edges on all the petals had to be slightly melted using a cigarette lighter to keep them from fraying.  After all the petal edges were sealed I started pinning and hand sewing each petal individually to the dress.  Many hours of hand sewing went into this dress, but it was such a fun dress to work on!  I'd like to play around with embellishing different garments with petals as well.     

All photos take by myself

I just ordered a new sewing machine the other day for my apartment here in Savannah.  It should be arriving tomorrow which I'm extremely excited about.  I'm partnering with a local boutique from Fort Wayne that's going to be selling my garments when I come back home on break.  I'm hoping in my free time to spend as much time as I can sewing between classes.

Also as a side note - I've put new photo prints for sale in my Etsy shop!  I'll be adding new clothes as well within the next week or two.  I have a whole week before classes start so I'm hoping to focus more time into my Etsy shop this week. 

  

I hope your Monday is wonderful and much more to come this week! 

New Beginnings and Feeling Nostalgic

Oh goodness, I've been quiet for so long that I feel like I have a whole other life to write about and I don't even know where to start!  The past few weeks have been a blur of working and preparing for my move to Savannah.  I arrived Thursday evening and I can't believe that I get to live in this beautiful city for the next four years. 

Today I was thinking about Indiana and remembering the dance party that I threw in my backyard last week. I wanted to have a time when I could say goodbye to my friends all at one time and make it special.  I was looking through the images on my computer today and it's making me feel slightly nostalgic for last week.  It was such a magically fun night and I thought that I'd share it with you.  It's so strange to think that just a week ago I was saying goodbye to all of my good friends in Indiana and now I'm in a new state.  

Also, several weeks back I had the lovely pleasure of meeting Erin from Design for Mankind.   I couldn't believe when I found out that Erin lives literally 10 minutes from in my house in Indiana!  She had contacted me about modeling for the promo film for her new website Clementine Daily that launched Wednesday!  Such an exciting new website!   If you've ever met Erin you'll know just how nice and welcoming she is and that's the same feeling that I get when reading Clementine Daily.  If you get the chance stop by Clementine and check out Erin and the incredible team of writers! 

Clementine Daily 001 from Erin on Vimeo.

Right now I'm unpacking and putting together my new room, but I have so many new projects to show you from this past summer.  My first class doesn't start till next week so I'm hoping to post a couple projects before then.  I can't wait to share more with you!

 I hope your summer was lovely!

Custom Made - Hand Printed Dress

Each year in the spring the Fort Wayne Museum of Art hosts an annual fundraiser called the ARTrageous Gala.  This year they asked if I would be willing to be a part of the even by auctioning off my time for a custom made cocktail dress that night in March.  The FWMoA has helped me so much through hosting the regional Scholastic competition throughout the years that of course I said yes!  It was such pleasure and honor that they even thought of me, and I was so glad to be a part of it that night.  

For the custom dress - I first drafted the pattern using the woman's measurements.  After the first pattern was drafted I made a mock up dress to make sure the fit was correct.  I had to make some small adjustments in the shoulders, but other than that the fit was fine.  Once the adjustments were made to the pattern I started the construction on the real dress.   I wanted to keep the design of the actual dress pretty simple, because there's so much work that went into the print.  The pattern on the fabric was all hand drawn using fine point Sharpies.  I lost track of how much time went into the doodling, but I'm sure it was over 15 hours of just doodling.

And to answer the question that I know many of you are probably thinking - yes the dress is for the most part water resistant.  I did a test with water and it was fine as long as there was no aggressive scrubbing (when I did scrub it just faded a little).  Since the dress is made from linen it will have to be dry cleaned anyway, so fading should not be a problem.

The dress is fully lined with an invisible zipper in the back of the dress.  There is a placket of hand covered buttons over the zipper to create a little vintage element - but without actually having up button up the whole dress.   

All photos taken by myself

There was a slight bidding war that night and I was asked in the middle of it if I could make two custom dresses instead of one.  The other dress is incredibly detailed so it's taking more time than I initially thought, but I'm planning on finishing it before I leave for school which is in 3 weeks now.  If I go by the plan, photos of that dress should be up soon!  

In non-sewing news - my sister was home visiting last week and it was so incredible to see her again!  It was a lot of fun and we took a few photo shoots, which I'm hoping to post soon.  In the mean time, here are some of our instagram pictures from the week. 

Ruth's Instagram.  My instagram. 

I hope your August has been nothing but spectacular so far!  I'm hoping to finish a few more posts before I go to Savannah, so more should be up soon!