Pattern Magic! (click to buy)

So my coworker received these books from a sister who found them at a Japanese book store in San Francisco. Since then they have made fun pattern chit chat but nothing more. I finally decided to try my hand at one and boy was it fun! There are sooo many cool drafts to choose from, but I eventually settled on the one that you see here. Its a collared bodice with a neck tie cut in one. Awesome, huh? The book utilizes flat patterning techniques to achieve all its whacky designs which i love. as i didn't learn flat patterning in school, im fascinated by those who can use it exclusively to create things that i almost always imagine myself draping. As the book is almost ENTIRELY in japanese, and i am but a silly english speaking american i had to go at it with only my knowledge of patternmaking/draping and my ability to read diagrams. i think the effect was definitely nicely achieved. i used a different collar pattern than the one in the book as it is one that i find to be particularly attractive (from masaki kawashima's funamentals of men's fashion design). also of note, if anyone is interested in purchasing these books (there are two, i used the second one for this pattern), is that the patterns shown in the book do not always include facings or non symmetrical pieces. in this blouse for example, the left front bodice pattern is very different from the right as it does not include the tie, and has to be lengthened toward center front to be hidden beneath the tie. they also do not show the facing piece that is needed for the tie. i discovered these things as i actually went to sew the garment together, not necessarily as i made the pieces. anyway! it was a very fun project, and i think a graduate student may use the pattern to actually make herself this blouse which would be very exciting! below are the pages included in the book, and some photos of my patterns (without facings and asymmetries) and my finished mock up. enjoy!

Free Dress Forms!

So this is a really awesome program/opportunity for educators/schools out there!

PGM is a smaller, less well known dress form company. I bought my dress form from them a few years ago on Ebay actually for way cheap and I have been super satisfied with it ever since. They have since been brought to a lot of folks attention because they are used at LA's Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, home of Project Runway.

They offer this thing called the Education Sponsorship Program, and listen up honies, cause it's not just for Fashion Design Programs! College Conservatory of Music just received these two wonderful, brand new, professional quality, collapsible dress forms for only the cost of shipping and handling! Around $45 dollars a piece. They also offer student discounts, and a free dress form program for outstanding recent graduates. Check it out ya'll!

Sleeve Drafting

So, I have a girlfriend who I keep in touch with and gab about professional patternmaking things, as that is what we both are - professional pattern makers. hehe. I was going through some things to forward to her in an email, and decided that this would be a cool one to include on ye olde blogge. This is a sleeve pattern that I came across this summer at the Santa Fe Opera. Apparantly, its been around and a lot of people know about it, well, a lot of New York patternmakers. But it was news to me. Its a very fitted two piece sleeve with a built in gusset. My draper called it a tah-dah sleeve, cause that's the noise you should make when you're able to lift your arms up over your head. Its got a funky piece that can either be cut in one with the top sleeve, or cut as a third piece. The most I can guess, is that the reason one would cut it in three pieces, is so that with her arms at her side, it would have the same seams as a regular, suit type two piece sleeve. Anyone have any other ideas? Ever seen this/used it? It worked out nicely on a variety of different costumes and sizes. Oh, and sorry that the bottom of the over sleeve got cut off, but, it didnt all fit in my scanner. I figure that if you REALLY want to blow this up (each square equals one inch), you can compare the over arm with the underarm and make it work. ha!

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati!

so coming up in less than a week (4 days to be exact!) will be cincinnati, oh's Oktoberfest celebration. This is actually the largest Oktoberfest in the us, and second in the world ONLY to Munich Germany ya'll! In cas' conversation, it came out that our good girlfriend was lacking a suitable dirndl for the occasion. She has, in the past, worn a costumey thing bought on the cheap, but we were sure that we could whip something up that was a little more fabulous! we began with measurements, and then flat patterned to our hearts content as we lacked the appropriate dress form. to start there is a corset patterned from a turn of the century one found in norah waugh's corsets and crinolines. we then pivoted, transferred, slashed and spread til the wee hours to make a chamise pattern, vesty/bodice, and full circle skirt and petti coat for the off the chain look. here are pics from the fabric fitting:

so obviously, we have quite a bit of work to do in four days yet. the look also gets a stomacher of blue, hand embroidered, dupioni silk and an ass load of trim. haha, trim. the dress was a great practice in patterning for the plus sized figure. as i have written about in earlier blogs, i love the patterning/fitting challenges that come with creating a garment that not only fits, but flatters the wearer, regardless of shape. probably the most satisfying discovery for me was made during this fabric fitting, when i realized that you will literally reach a point on many figures when you have to throw out the fitting techniques that you learned on a size 2 musical theatre major. its kind of freeing. you just make it look hot.

UPDATE!!!: so here are some final pictures! She looked Fabulous!!!

The Long Way Home

Bwah!!!! So sorry, to both myself and you all out there in internet land, for my long lapse in blogging. Life and work caught up with me and i've been all over the place since the last we shared a moment! As my boyfriend would sing "Lets start at the very beginning.."

So at the end of the academic year, both mine and my boyfriends lives were overtaken by the gigantic Falstaff that was to be built by the two of us and a few grad students at CCM. I built 7 looks for the male principle's in a few short weeks. here's one for Master Ford (the role was double cast, and later included a velvet cloak).

and because i am a very proud boyfriend, here are some of the looks built by jonathan waters (all except the red)

after that lovely little number, it was off to magical santa fe new mexico for a summer of building costumes for a magnificent season. we did la traviata with natalie dessay, the elixer of love with the intoxicating jennifer black, a remount of don giovanni, a brand new production called the letter with costume designs by tom ford, and finally a marvelous baroque piece called Alceste - with the title role sung by the toooooo fabulous and lovely soprano to lead all sopranos Christine Brewer. i built mainly ladies wear, with a few fabulous mens coats and alterations. i did the first handing for pat racette - a wonderfully talented diva soprano - wearing some gorgeous 1930s pieces as seen below.

finally at the end of the summer i made a whirl wind trip to san antonio, to visit my beautiful family, then to new orleans for a night of debauchery and fun, to orlando to visit the inlaws and the happiest place on earth, and then finally back to our home! quite a time. will post more soon.

First Cutter's Mutters Fail

I hope to bring you other local fashion/costume related fails in the future. To start this ongoing post we have a lovely business woman i encountered at the bus stop. A lady always knows what cut of clothing flatters her the most. 

Million Dollar Coffee Table Book Idea - Things You Find on Cincinnati Streets

So since I moved here to the wonderful Cincinnati, I have discovered a very exciting trend. Somehow, people lose the most amazing, seemingly unloseable things right on the street. Who knows how it happens - it would seem that unless there was some oncoming natural disaster, a 100 foot tall title wave for example, there are certain things you would notice falling from your person and would stop to recover. 

My favorite street corner keepsake is the all too common full length of Track Hair. The beauty you see to your right is a fine example found against a concrete wall. The almost purposeful arrangement is kind of striking - the artistically placed cigarette butt, the weed growing like a Pheonix from the fallen weave. It's a beautiful thing. 

Now the fun part - how did this unsuspecting piece of 100% Yak hair end up lying forlorn and alone on the street? Was there a drunken brawl between spurned lovers? Perhaps an angry child upset over not getting that Bratz doll she'd been asking about thought she'd teach her momma a lesson. Or perhaps, maybe most amazing an idea of all, some woman, after seeing her reflection in a passing city bus window says, "Oh no, I am looking straight tore up," proceeds to rip out her glued in track, and being the busy gal that she is, has no choice but to leave it to slowly biodegrade on a street corner. 

The next time you pass a pile of seemingly useless trash on the street, stop to wonder where it came from, how it got there, and where its going. Maybe next time i'll post one of the dozen condom photos we've captured. 

already - cuz i can - patterning for the plus size performer

this process of plus size pattern drafting has been rattling around in my brain for QUITE a while. my mother is a big, beautiful lady, and many a performer you come across is also, to quote the original ricky lake tracey turnblad, pleasantly plump or chunky. how do we make these women look there best? 

you cant use the standard flat patterning for fashion design cause the proportion gets all screwy and terrible. you end up with a dart intake of like 5 inches with a length of like 2 inches. hmm... those measurements sounds awfully familiar, but thats for the other blog. and while i think draping is the most tried and true method, what happens when you don't have the time or resources? are there no drafting systems for plus size fashions? i had a brief discussion with a woman presenting pattern drafting software at USITT, hers and her companys name escapes me, but she shared with me that the way her patterns are perfected is by relying not on proportion, but on exact measurements. hmm... i've never really tried drafting from scratch like that before, but i feel that in that exploration lies a great discovery.. hehe. 

this bodice/jacket from CCM's production of Barber of Seville was draped and flat patterned to hell, and fit very well in the end i think. thank goodness for dress forms and women who dont mine a little steel boning ;-) thats what she said. 

numero uno

someone put this little idea into my head a couple of weeks ago, and i've been unable to get rid of it! somehow, im hoping that i can keep this up for a bit. im going to be posting images of things im working on - maybe a few thoughts or questions - and hopefully we can just have a good time. 

an excercise in bias draping - i recently made two bias cut evening gowns for the opera Alcina. thanks to a helpful lesson from fellow draper lara this summer at SFO i had a few tricks up my sleeve. i think it was pretty successful. not quite sure what i would do differently - perhaps try some of the top stitching of seams that can be found in period research. if it aint broke - dont fix it, right? oh, and i'd prolly try to not use the poly - crepe backed satin - yeah.