mitsuwa

Today Megan and I explored Mitsuwa, the "largest Japanese-themed mall in the US".  It is essentially a huge food marketplace, with restaurants inside, a book store, a make-up store (Shiseido), and a store for kitchen goods.  It was amazing!

 A cute house around the corner - we love the blue!

 Times Square

 View of the city from Mitsuwa (NJ)

 My lunch!  Beef with udon noodles, "brown bag" nijira, pickled ginger, and a green tea bubble tea.

 

A draping book I bought - comes with patterns and instructions (with tons of pictures to decode them)

 

 

 A pencil that conveniently has both a red and blue side - to use for draping markings!

 "Natural Lunch Time"?  For packing my lunches.

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!

corset project

 The corset is finished! This was a project for my draping class - we will wear these all in the hallway tomorrow and critique them.


Salmon pink cotton canvas
Nude lace overlay
Cream broadcloth lining
12" gold busk
Padded cups
34 bones total

"found objects" draping project

Love Project Runway?  Don't get Lifetime?  Come to our classroom.

Our first little mini-project was a simple two-day assignment to take "found objects" and drape something fun and dimensional and textural with them.  I got a box of 80 latex gloves for $4,00 at the drugstore and thought it would be a little humorous to do something body wear related, since we will be studying that for the quarter.  So I made a creepy household object into a negligee or teddy.

George, my professor, loved it and joked that it would be perfect for a nurse's bachelorette party. 

We were allowed to pin to the form for this project (because it didn't have to be worn).  The skirt part was assembled as just that, twisting the tops to allow the edging to curl, and pinning them to the form.  The bodice utilizes tying the fingers of the gloves together to create textured seams and allowing stress to be put on the latex when stretched.  It is intentionally transparent and exposing.

Our next project?  Design Kate Middleton's dress!  Then she picks one of us as a winner and our prize is that she gets married in it!!!

Just kidding, but that would be cool.  We really are designing her dress though, for fun.  We will drape a wedding gown with an appropriate muslin material, based off of the parameters (more like restrictions - the gown has to be modest, a little conservative, based on where she is getting married, the situation, etcetera) ... think sleeves and high necklines.  The challenge is going to be making that modern.  However, she is getting married on April 29th (big big fashion event, everyone, so watch it on tv!) and we will have a little mini-competition to see whose dress ends up the closest to the actual dress she wears for the big reveal.  She has kept the entire thing on the down-low, and while a few designer sketches are circulating the internet no one knows for sure what it will look like!  Exciting. 

In a different realm, finally getting some ideas for body wear that I'm thinking rather seriously about.  More updates to come!