siorai

an online journal documenting my journey from concept development to finished garment.

Monday, June 7, 2010


unfortunately my camera ran out of battery today :( so i couldn't take any photos.
i'll give you the downlow on all that happe
ned today..
I arrived at uni at 10am with my swimsuit in hand.. ready to get four simple jobs done
1. bind all edges
2. attatch QUT logo
3. unpick blue and red stitches (staystitching which is was still visible)
4. hand sew where stitching has come undone

10 hours later and i had
1.bound all edges
2.forgotten to attatch the qut logo
3.unpicked all visible staystitches
4. not yet done the handsewing..

i have spent a ridiculous amount of time sewing this swimsuit

last night i had elasticated all edges using regular overlocking but once bound you could see some of the elastic overlocking stitches coming out from under the binding.
i re-elasticated all edges with a 3 thread overlocker and then trim
med excess elastic away before binding.

I spent ages trying to get binding right as i spent so long on the fabric manipulaton and i thought it would be a pity to let it down with horrible binding!
the swimsuit is nearly finished apart from the qut logo
being attached and the hand stitching.
I'm really happy with how it has turned out
the lovely kate mackenzie wearing toile number 4

Sunday, June 6, 2010


you cant see it too clearly here but some of the shirring stitches are coming undone :(
this final swimsuit seems alot more delicate than the toile, i'm not sure if this is because of the different fabric or possibly that the final has been over handled.. due to all my problems with this one there has been Alot of unpicking going on.
i have tried to stop the unravelling as much as i could, on areas where it has already happened i am going to try some small handstitches which will hopefully look similar and Not crack as soon as someone tries it on!!


Above photo shows the swimsuit after elasticating - it worked!! and the swimsuit is now pretty much the shape its meant to be. I would like the arm holes to be a little larger but i am reluctant to mess around with it as the stitching is starting to come undone where i have been sewing and unpicking and i'm worried about it causing more problems than its worth.

This is a photo of the underarm - I did cut about 2.5 cm away from the underarm but once i elasticated it it became quite small again. it is fine its not like it will cut into the models arm, it is just differing from my initial design.

Some photos of the final with the neck, arms and legs all elasticated - its lovely to see it in its right shape!
These mannequins have such narrow hips , it disturbs me.. and it doesn't really compliment my swimsuit! As you can see in the photos of the lovely kate - the swimsuit does look great on certain figures.


Above are some photos showing how stretched out of shape my swimsuit became. I had tried to bind and elasticate it a the same time but it doesn't work at all. my new plan is to elasticate first with the tension on high so as to gather it in and hold it in shape and then to bind (without elastic) afterwards.. i hope it works!
The night before the swimsuit was due and everything was still going completely wrong. i ended up twinneedling the legs just so that they would be finished enough to present.
Above photo shows the out of shape neckline

Wednesday, June 2, 2010


As you can see in this photo, my final swimsuit came out much larger than my toile. Wendy had the great suggestion to mould it straight onto a mannequin to get a smaller shape rather than recutting it. this worked well and it was also more fun then pattern making.


I chalked around the edges of the patterns and then used pins to indicate difficult corners or curves. After this, a stay stitch is sewn about .8
I had to sew bits and pieces of the fabric together to make the right amount for the swimsuit.

Design development






Some different ideas that i was having for design development. for final designs i have used a contrast of heavily manipulated fabrics with simple garments and clean lines.

Sunday, May 30, 2010


Some photos of my final fabric and pattern pieces.
I ended up making full front and back pattern pieces instead of having them on the fold because as you can imagine the fabric is so thick that a fold will lead to excess fabric.
I am trying to figure out the best way to cut my pattern pieces without wasting fabric and i'm going to have to cut out the shoulder 'straps' separately as they wont fit, but i guess this is ok as it minimises fabric wastage.
I noticed today, when looking at my initial fabric sample how much more ruched i have made my fabric..
I think because the shape of the swimsuit is so simple it is really important that the fabric manipulation is dramatic!
Will post final designs and illustrations over the next few days.
x

ragetrade photoshoot


I thought i would upload some photos from my ragtrade photo shoot. as you can see it went really well :)
I used my toile as I am still not finished my final swimsuit ... eek!
When designing my swimsuits one thing I was trying to achieve was emphasis on the hips and waist and I think the model shown here really compliments the swimsuit as she is a more 'curvaceous' shape than the model at sample review.


Monday, May 24, 2010

Toile no 4.



Heres some photos of toile number 4. I had made some adjustments to the pattern and wanted to check them out. I have since made some more adjustments and am tossing up whether to make up another one??
changes I have made...
added 2 cm in length to the body, hopefully this is enough to ensure that the shirred baubles (I dont know what to call them) dont stretch and distort out of shape as they did on my sample.

smoothed out the side seams at the waist slightly

taken 1cm off the neckline, armholes and leglines because I am using binding now instead of the twin needle.

made the bum slightly more 'cheeky'..

Procedure



I thought I would get some photos to document the procedure but it really is so simple - it took me less than an hour to sew this toile up. Its alot more time consuming though with my shirred fabric as I'm sure you can imagine!
X

Saturday, May 22, 2010



I didn't get the swimsuit finished on Wednesday like I was hoping and I can't believe its already Saturday eek time is getting away from me!!!
I did get all of the fabric finished though and it looks really beautiful.
The below image shows an ingenious idea I had late on wednesday night which turned out to be really stupid and wrong and meant I spent an hour and a half unpicking!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Todays the day... I am going to almost finish if not actually finish my swimsuit!!! It will happen! I will definatley not get overwhelmed by the giant mass of work i have to do, instead i will focus on my swimsuit and get it done! yay i'm already feeling productive!
x

Monday, May 17, 2010

TEXTURE

This first image shows the bodice part of my sample swimsuit - which had the shirring that i most liked! (other parts lacked the handmade look that this has)
With such a simple design the design feature really is the texture and its important for it to look as luxurious and handmade as possible.
This photo shows how the shirring looks in the wool (for the final swimsuit) I love it! but it uses alot of fabric and means I need to get more! below are some photos off the process - I shirred along lines drawn in chalk 4 cm apart!
The most interesting texture is created when you fold the fabrc in different diretions as your sewing it, rather than just letting it gather.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

I need more fabric!!!

soo yesterday I intended to start and finish my swimsuit.. as always I underestimated how long it takes to do! after five hours of shirring my fabric I discovered there is now not enough to make the swimsuit!!! ... and I have already recieved an extra metre of fabric. i would probably need at least another metre and a half of fabric or I could unpick it all again (as I did on thursday - the first time this happened)
what to do!?!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sample Review!!

Photos from sample review. I was happy with how the sample looked but there are a few changes i need to make if i want to be really happy withe the final swimsuit! the back looks good, i like the curve of the back, but i want to change the way it sits on the bum - i want it more 'cheeky' but lower at the side of the leg.

I'm changing the neckline curve to be a little wider - less U like and more circular. also in this photo you can see a definatle difference between the top and bottom half of the swimsuit to combat this i am losing the waist seam - it is adding unnecessary bulk and can hardly be seen through all of the fabric texture. I am going to sew a piece of elastic to the inside at the waist to make sure it really hugs at the waist! I much prefer the more organic looking texture on the top half of swimsuit and will recreate this for the final.


Some photos of the sewing of my toile. it has stretched alot and is quite misshapen which i'm pretty sure is all down to the shirring. for the toile i only lined the front but i will line front and back on the final swimsuit.


Just some photos of things which took my fancy recently.

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