dress up!

 In our first term at Coventry University one of the projects was to take pattern cutting lessons and learn how to adapt a basic dress block. By that I mean take the basic dress shape and decide upon the length of your dress, whether it would have long sleeves or short sleeves and what shape it would have. In our pattern cutting lessons we also went into detail on darts and different panels you can create by cutting into these but or the purpose of the dresses we made we only had to adapt our dresses to the specifications I firstly mentioned. In initial sewing machine classes we made a half toile, which basically means a practise piece to learn the seams and how to sew in interfacing etc so that any problems you do encounter you'll be able to resolve them for when you begin your final dress. I think this is a really good idea and is standard practise for most dressmakers as although we were only making these dresses out of calico and for all intents and purposes toiles ive made before have been out of calico, the cost ratio of mistakes when doing a final garment in for example silk isnt an issue for this particular dress but if i had been making it out of material that cost hundreds of pounds doing it in a same weight fabric that costs a pittance compared to the final one would of been cost effective. It also means that for example if your making something out of a material like jersey you would have to toile in jersey as such a stretchy fabric isnt to a block standard size and in calico would be different measurements.
When it came to making our final dresses we first had to cut out our pattern pieces on calico, the material which was being supplied by the university which was really good as by this point in the term (and like always with me) I was fast running out of money ! We worked in pairs and I worked with steph lying all pattern pieces as close together to save fabric and ensure they all fitted on, we also had to make sure they ran straight of grain, so that that the fabric would hang right whilst on the body. For example the underneath panels of the collar had to sit at a 45 degree angle to provide more stretch to them, which is why its important to label all of this information on your pattern pieces to avoid mistakes and confusion when it comes to this stage.
Once we had cut all our pieces out (and this was such a long process) we then had classes every week where we worked through different stages of the dress with the plan being that on the week we had to hand them in everyone would be finished. Ofcourse this didnt go to plan and we all fell behind, stumbling over certain seams/zips/facing/overlocking and there not being enough machines and so on the last week it was a mad dash to finish on time and neatly press our garments and hand in ! We also had jeans to do that week (blog post to follow) and a head and hat to hand in so our hand in for first term were pretty manic! Also second and third years also needed the teachers help and the sewing machines at the same time as our group did so using the facilities in that week i really wouldnt ever recommend it was crazy !! I was quite pleased with how my dress turned out, I think if i had planned my time alot more efficiently and really pushed myself in the first couple of weeks to stay on track in all the lessons and perhaps refer back to my half toile alot more than I wouldnt of fallen behind as much and then the standard of quality of the garment handed in at the end would of been much higher! Im proud that i completed it and learn't how to make a dress, but i feel if i was to try and make the exact dress again i wouldnt be able to as in the last few weeks of teaching it got a bit too crazy and everything was rushed being told at you (which is completely understandable!) which is another reason why i wish i had stayed more up to date so i could of properly absorbed the information! But for a first attempt its not too bad !!! After all this year is a learning curve!!