knitwear : final project

At the moment this is just me wearing it, but I plan to do a real photo shoot this summer with my favorite model Elyse! These beautiful photos are courtesy of Mallory and her amazing photography skills!

The tank, using the threadlace technique, is made of nude thread and periwinkle blue baby mohair/silk. The sweater is a merino wool/silk yarn.

knitwear : patterns

Ever wonder what a machine knitting pattern looks like? Here are the two I designed and used for my knitwear final.

 

Intarsia pattern for the honeycomb graphic

 

Tuck pattern for the honeycomb texture

These are knitting machine punch cards. The machine (though not truly a "machine" as it does not run on electricity, it is all manual) reads the holes on the cards to determine where the needles will be placed on the bed. While we have learned how it works, it still seems like magic to me. 

tailoring : waistband FINISHED!

2 movies, 5 Grey's Anatomy episodes, 2 health documentaries, and 1 New Girl episode later, it is finished.

Or on a more relevant note, 9 packs mixed 6/0 seed beads, 1 pack cream 6/0 beads, 1 pack pink 6/0 beads, and ... 864 Swarovski crystals later, it is finished!

The finished waistband dimensions are 27.25" by 2".  This will be attached to the coat in the next few days, updates coming soon!  I need a manicure, a back rub, and a new pair of eyes for tomorrow.

Excited!!

CFDA class project

For those of you still wondering if I exist ... I do!  The thing that has been robbing me of my free time lately has been our new design class, in which we design a well-considered collection complete with swatches, full illustrations, and an essay and submit it to the CFDA for a scholarship at the end of the quarter.  As you can see, a lot of work must go in to this project!

Here are some shots of the process work, and a couple explanations along the way:

 

My mess as it is currently consuming my bed, and my working color palette, inspired by the colors on a scan of a brain during a migraine.

Preliminary sketching

Wool jersey and alpaca yarn; inspirational palette of lilac-beige-grays

My knitting pattern charted out and in progress; a swatch of a variegated yarn that happened to match my palette

More color inspiration; watercolor print design based off of the brain scan

Sweater to be done in a kid lace, shown at right

My concept evolved around the migraine - tension, twisting, tightness, a wrapped up feeling.  Since knitwear is my passion, the collection will be of knits - I also found this fitting due to the way each loop is interlocked and interacting and when stretched, tension forms between each stitch - entrelac and cables will be featured in the designs as well, to further propel this idea of twisting, intertwining, knots and tension. 

Stay tuned for illustrations!

watch the DAAP fashion show live!

Hey everyone!  Tonight is the big night - the 60th annual DAAP fashion show starts at 8:00 and you can stream it live here if you are interested!  Watch for my body wear on the runway!  There will be lots of pictures tomorrow, of course.

urban farmer collection

 We had to pick a shoe to draw and use as inspiration for several looks in the collection.

The full line-up of looks, 27 in total.  I greatly enjoyed the whole process we went through in class to finish these!

urban farmer updates

 

Just need to do a few more then I'll do a post with them in a line-up, in the correct order for the collection.

geometric draping project

I loved this assignment - use fabric starting as a geometric shape (I chose a pentagon) and drape a garment using three seams or less.  The fabric may be cut into in any way, as long as it is not a seam (hems, neck holes and armscyes, etcetera do not count as seams - however pleats and pintucks would).

I used three seams total - the center back seam, the seam attaching the halter neck back to the top of the center back, and the inch-long center front area at the base of the deep v-neck.  Does this color remind you of scrubs?  I have a minty green jersey at home that I might try to make this out of - it would drape so nicely.  The material I used here is a woven crepe-back satin. 

In a perfect world, that center front crease would be pressed out. 

Anyone in the mood for a little humor? 

No, those aren't tan lines - that is my chest being squished unnaturally upwards.

Overall the critique went great - George had some suggestions for better cups next time (tighter directly under the bust, a slightly looser cup so it doesn't "squish" as tightly, padding in the outside corners of the cups rather than the bottoms).  It was really fun to see everyone in theirs - the styles were of such a variety and everyone looked so (uncomfortably) killer when George tightened the laces of our waists even more!

If I could change anything about my corset, it would be that I took out more width in the waist area rather than all over - I did not take anything out of my corset.  George advised us to take out 2" as that is the standard minimum measurement subtraction for corsetry but mentioned those of us "built without flesh" wouldn't experience much of a change with it and that we could leave our patterns as-is if we preferred.  I figured it would just get too uncomfortable with that many inches taken out so I left it.  But, I could have achieved more of an hourglass figure with an inch or so taken out of the waistline.  But I am so glad I know how to make a corset now!

Sewing up some of the body wear pieces tonight!