Shirt toile progression

So today i was working on my shirt as I'm fed up with my trousers!!

After the fitting adjustments I made on the mannequin last week I tried the shirt on myself and apparently the mannequin was freakishly small which means I've had to redo the alterations.

My shirt still needs a collar but I drafter that today so fingers crossed it will work. The shirt was really baggy around the waist even when i tried it on so i've taken a considerable amount out here and under the bust which you can see above.

The plan is to only take the darts up to the bust point and not all the way to the armhole. I think this will just be a little bit neater.

I've had to take some fabric out at the small of the back so it sits closer to the body. I've also taken a little out of the waist as i did on the front.

I need to work out what I'm doing with this horrible hemline!

Like last week the sleeve still needs slimming so the pleats don't come so far round the front of the sleeve distorting the way it hangs.

3rd trouser toile

These trousers are proving to be the bane of my existence! Is it me or did they look better before? (Please excuse the cheesy mirror photos!)

I think I preferred the pleats going the other way, and the waistline needs to be much higher - perhaps even bring back the waistband? Maybe they need it after all? I hate making decisions... I'm going to leave them as is for the time being just so i can get some other people opinions before I mess them up even more!

Toile alterations

Over the week I've sewn together another trouser toile and a shirt toile, which you can see below:

Trouser pleats are usually sewn towards the side seams and not CF, so I'm not sure if they look wrong? Although this was part of the design. I might sew them the other way in my next toile just to see what they look like. I've inserted pockets into the seam with the pleat which i think is a nice feature. And I'm considering zip fastenings instead of buttons to secure the turn down.

I'm not sure the proportions of the waistband are working so I've been playing around with different widths:

I'm not sure any of these work. The top one is the best if any - just slightly larger than the current waistband. I'm rethinking the idea of a waistband all together - do I even need one?

The shirt is quite large so I've done a lot of fitting to it, especially around the waist. Also, the pleats in the sleeve are coming round the front which i don't think should be happening as they're distorting the hang of the sleeve - which you can see by the twisting.

Shop interior concept board

The decor of my shop is going to be a garden party theme. I'm imagining washing lines with clothes hanging off of them, astro turf flooring, flower pots, topiary etc etc. Here's my concept board for my shop interior which i hope makes my ideas a bit clearer.

More shirt ideas

Continuing with the idea of origami, I've sort of been playing around with more shapes. I still really like the idea of using fabric to fold, even if it is proving to be possible. I'm determined to make it work though! I think I want to use these roses in graduating sizes all over the shoulder panels; getting smaller the closer to the neckline and the lower down the shirt. This could be over ambitious but we'll see how it goes.

First shirt toile

It's about time i got going with my shirt toile as I'm starting to feel the pressure. I'm pretty much doing it the same way as I started my trousers (making the basic shape and then drawing the design lines on). I need to incorporate some of my fabric manipulation which I've been working on over the past few weeks. Here's a couple of ideas I'm thinking about using:

Fabric origami

I've been trying to do some fabric origami like i mentioned before - to no avail! The fabric is far too floppy when just ironing the folds in. I've tried to stiffen the fabric by coating it in PVA mixed with water but that sort of crumbles off when i fold it.

I've done a bit of research into it and I think I either need to use fabric stiffener or starch. Hopefully these will be more successful.

First toile

So I spent most of the morning flat pattern cutting my trousers, but Sian suggested it would be much easier to mock up the basic trouser and draw the design lines on. So after about 3 hours i finally got somewhere!

On the front I'm going to have a turn down which will square off to the hip where there will be pleats. I could potentially turn this into a pocket, but I want to get the basic shape right before i start faffing around with fiddly bits like that.

I draped the waistband to get a nice shape and to achieve the correct proportions. I'm not completely convinced the proportions worked but this is the best I can get for now.

More draping of the waistband, trying to get the shaping right.

My worst nightmare...tracing off patterns!

Shop locations

I went to Deptford to do a focus group, so I thought while I was there I'd take another look at some possible shop locations. There are loads of empty retail spaces in the area but I'm looking for ones around the station area on the High Street. There are a couple of empty shops which I'm going to look into:

Origami

When I was eating lunch in the Deptford project cafe during the summer I noticed they were selling origami roses which i really liked.

For some reason I decided to rekindle my childhood love for paper folding, not really with any relation to my project at first.

Anyhow, I found a couple of good tutorials online here if you want to have a look.

Theirs look slightly better than mine but I don't think it's bad for my first try!

I'm hoping I can some how turn this into a surface texture. Possibly try out some folding fabric, although I imagine that will be almost impossible.

Deptford X

Deptford X is an art festival held in Deptford (obviously). We went on the art map tour so were shown around all the hidden gems in Deptford. Again I've put together a slideshow of all the photos. But I've put a few images of the things I found most interesting.

Concept board

After our 'show and tell'-esque lesson, I've decided I need to focus my ideas a lot more. The main theme is 'what makes us British', which will be mixed with historical English clothing. I need to find an era of clothing which I will get my inspiration for style lines from. I also need to focus my theme of what is British, but I think this will come naturally with time.

Tata-Naka at London Fashion Week

Yesterday i got to go to London fashion week with work. We managed to sneak into the Tata-Naka presentation which was pretty cool. If you click on the picture above it should take you to the full collection.

The room was set up as a sort of garden tea party which fits in pretty well with my theme. I loved the cake stands with multi coloured moulded jelly. Anyway, have a look at the photos below.

Deepest Deptford

So today we really explored Deptford. I have to admit it's growing on me! We walked further up the New Cross road to New Cross, stopping off at a lovely cafe (the London Particular) for the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever experienced. We explored Goldsmiths college and the area around their halls. Then off we trundled to Creekside where all the art happens.

All the photos i took are in the slideshow below.

So I guess I've been convinced that Deptford's not so bad.

Exploring Deptford

So i thought I'd better give Deptford another chance. Not out of choice I might add. I need to find the 'cool' here. So it's a Tuesday morning, not a market day, so it's pretty dead. It gives us chance to get a good look of the High Street anyway. There's quite a strong stench of fish which is lovely, and a crowd of people getting drunk on the street, even more lovely. There are no High Street shops apart from Peacocks, and the only decent shop seems to be Rag N Bone, a vintage store.

Delightful Deptford

So first impressions of Deptford - Hate it!!

Why would we want to open a shop there?

However, we did find a nice pub to have a drink.

I have a feeling there will be a lot of these over the next few months