The professors for my line development and intro to apparel design classes recently sent me lists of supplies I will need this semester.  Both classes require fashion magazines.  I read Vogue and a few other magazines in the library, but for the classes I will need to cut out pages so I had to purchase subscriptions.  I now subscribe to Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, W, and InStyle.  Last night I went to Walmart and purchased the September issues of Vogue and Elle.  With a combined total of 1,500 pages those two should keep me occupied until my new magazines start arriving. 

Both classes also require a lot of apparel catalogs.  I ordered catalogs from J. Crew, Land’s End, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, and International Male.  The first four sell clothing I like but can rarely afford.  I will never buy anything from the fifth, but I think it might be a fun one to use in class.  I will start collecting Kmart, Target, and Walmart sales flyers from the Sunday newspapers.  I suspect we will be looking at a lot of expensive clothing in class, and I think it might be useful to have some examples of the clothing college students can actually afford.

I need a lot of art supplies for line development.  I bought a large pack of colored pencils yesterday, and I still have all the supplies from my fashion sketching class.  The list of required art supplies left me feeling quite nervous about the class.  I was not sure what this class would be, but I was not expecting this.  I will learn more next week once class starts.  

Tags: Fashion magazines | Vogue | InStyle | catalogs | Kmart

My sister recently took up juggling, and she asked me to make her a set of juggling balls.  It seemed like a reasonable request.  She suggested I stuff them with split peas, but I decided to use pinto beans instead.  I was more likely to eat the pinto beans than the peas, but I thought the peas might split further under the stress of juggling.  I will pick up some more pinto beans tomorrow, and today I will eat garbanzo beans.

I had never made juggling balls or any other sort of balls, and I did not have a pattern for balls, but how difficult could they be?  Armed with a ruler and a piece of chalk I sketched out a quick design.  My plan was to learn what was wrong by sewing it, but to my great surprise it worked out well.  I completed the set, although on the third ball I had to augment the pinto beans with some great northern beans.

I used a piece of fleece I found in my fabric collection to make the balls.  I have owned that fleece for at least six months.  I do not remember what I originally had planned for it, but it works quite well for juggling balls.  Does this justify my habit of buying lots of fabric I do not need?  This was the first project made entirely on my serger; it was used only for seam finishes before.

My pattern worked, but I think I can make better ones.  I will experiment with a few other designs.  All future balls will be made with matching color thread.  I did not have cones of red thread; I will buy some tomorrow.

 

Tags: pinto beans | serger | fleece | juggling balls

What is the collective noun for shirts?  Herd of shirts?  Gaggle?  Flock?  Bunch?  Oh well, it really does not matter, three shirts are not enough to deserve a collective noun.  I will figure it out after I make a few more.

Anyway, during finals week last semester I made a shirt for my presentation in my fashion industry class.  I made another two in the next few weeks.  My plan was to make at least three more before posting pictures here, but then classes and work got in the way.  I had time to make one shirt for work, but I will not be showing you a picture of that one yet.  You will have to wait until I make a few more work shirts, and then I will post pictures of all of them.  In the mean time you will have to content yourselves with these belated pictures of the three shirts I made in June.

I wore this shirt for my fashion industry class presentation.  I started it using an industrial machine at school, but the lab closed after classes ended, so I had to finish it at home.  I began work on this shirt after finishing the one for my sewing class.  This one is a little nicer, which reinforces the point I keep making about the importance of experience.  The shirt is heavyweight unbleached muslin.  I like this fabric a lot; I will dye some blue to use for shirts for work.

This was my fifth long sleeve tailored shirt, although only the third one to be completed.  My technique still needs a lot of improvement, but I do now know how this pattern works.  I wanted to add something to this shirt, so I made box pleat pockets with pocket flaps.  I think these pockets add a nice bit of character to a shirt.  I may add epaulets to the next shirt I make with this fabric.

The moment I saw this print I knew I needed to use it for a shirt.  This is the shirt that got me insulted at Jo Ann Fabrics.  I am still annoyed about the implication that men do not sew, but I now enjoy this shirt even more.  By wearing this shirt I feel I am shouting out, “fuck you” to everyone who says only women sew.  On a more technical note, I should point out that that the left placket could have been better.  It is well made, but the print does not line up.  I prefer attached plackets to folded in ones, but with this type of print a folded in placket would have been more appropriate.  Mistakes are how we learn.

The next shirt was well made, but I am not sure if it is aesthetically pleasing.  I bought two spools of multicolor thread because they were on sale, but I did not know what I would do with them.  I thought maybe a black shirt with green, yellow, orange, and red topstitching would look good.  Now I do not know.  Is it fetching or hideous?   I will have to wear it and see what sort of comments I get. 

I think multicolor topstitching is more appropriate for women’s wear and that it would work better with denim.  If my sister ever sends me her measurements I will make such a shirt for her.

Tags: shirts | pocket | multicolor thread | muslin | balloons

Hi.  Sorry it’s been so long since my last post.  I’ve been too busy with work and class to sew anything or write about all the stuff I’m not sewing.  But now that classes are finally over I can take some time to update my blog.

I took three online classes this summer.  The two business classes are required for apparel design students, and the gym class is required for all students at Stout.  I plan to take most of my out-of-major requirements during summer sessions so I can concentrate on apparel design during the school year.  I took weight training, basic merchandising (which ought to have been called retail management), and intro to international business (which was aptly named).  All three were online classes.  On online gym class seemed odd, but I took it anyway.  I had to keep a journal documenting my workouts, take a short quiz, and write two short papers.  Going to the gym was fun, and I intend to continue working out now that the class is over.  The two business classes were interesting, but they required a huge investment of time.  Perhaps the professors give more assignments in online classes, but the big problem was that each class compressed an entire semester’s workload into just four weeks.  The classes did not run concurrently, so at least I did not have to deal with both at the same time.  For the past eight weeks I have spent more time each day doing homework for one class than I spent last semester when I took five.  I enjoyed the classes, but I think I would have learned a lot more had they gone slower.  Two concurrent eight week classes would have been better than two consecutive four week ones.  Oh well, maybe next summer.  I got an A in all my summer classes so I can’t complain too much.

I did a little sewing at the start of summer, but I haven’t touched my sewing machine in eight weeks.  My mother gave me a serger in June, but so far I have only used it for seam finishes.  My goal for this week is to learn how to make polo shirts.

Again, I apologize for making you wait so long for a new post.  I will try to never again go so long between posts.  I will have some photos for you in a day or two, and I promise to post at least once per week for the remainder of summer and more often than that once the semester starts.

Tags: Summer | marketing | retail management | international business | weight training | polo shirt

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You may notice things are a bit quiet around here....well that's because it's summer and school is out for most of us.

Stay tuned in fall for more student blogs and in the meantime check out our articles and read back through all the great entries from the 2009/2010 school year!

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A few weeks ago I made a hat.  I used two different fabrics, a bottom weight twill and a medium weight plain weave.  Interfacing needed to be attached to some of the pieces of each fabric.  After carefully cutting out all my pattern pieces I fused the interfacing to the appropriate ones.

Everything was going well until I needed to attach an interfaced plain weave piece to a piece of twill that had no interfacing.  All the pieces were the right size when I cut them out, but suddenly they no longer fit together.  I preshrunk the interfacing and both types of fabric, but fusing the interfacing to the fabric caused it to shrink some more.  The twill retained its size, but the plain weave pieces were suddenly far too small.  I was able to salvage the project by trimming the pieces that did not shrink.

My instructor at MCTC taught me to fuse interfacing to fabric before cutting out pattern pieces, but both my instructor at Stout and the guide sheets in commercial patterns advise fusing the interfacing after the pieces are cut.  I think my instructor at MCTC had the right idea.  For everything I made since that hat I fused before cutting, and I have had no more shrinkage problems.  This method requires a little more interfacing, but the stuff is cheap.

Tags: Fusible interfacing | shrinkage | twill weave | plain weave

This morning I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  The woman cutting my fabric recognized my shirt’s print.  I bought the fabric for the shirt at Wal-Mart, but apparently Jo-Ann also sells that print.  She asked, “Did someone make that shirt for you?”  I am a man, so clearly I could not be the one who made the shirt.

I cannot boycott Jo-Ann Fabrics, but I will not return to that particular location.

Tags: Jo-Ann Fabric | shirt | print | men who sew

Textiles was my favorite class and also the one I found most difficult.  After watching students at Minneapolis Community and Technical College struggle through their textiles class I knew it would not be easy, but I was still surprised at how much I had to learn.  I thought the class would consist of memorizing many different types of fabrics.  I certainly had to do that, but there was so much more.  It is not enough to know what fibers a particular piece of fabric is made of, I need to know everything about those fibers.

Each week there were two lectures and one lab.  I found the lectures fascinating, but unfortunately a lot of my classmates did not agree with me.  I meticulously took detailed notes while others connected with their friends or tended their farms on Facebook.  I studied, did all my homework, and got an A in the class.  I suspect the farmers did not do quite so well.

The class covered five broad topics:  serviceability concepts, fibers, yarns, structures, and finishes.  Serviceability concepts use the properties of a fiber, yarn, fabric, or finish to describe a textile product’s suitability for a particular use.  I need to be familiar with these concepts and be able to apply them to specific products in order to choose the correct textile for whatever I am making.

We spent nearly half the semester learning about fibers.  I learned the properties of many natural, regenerated, and synthetic fibers.  With the aid of a microscope and a book of matches I had to be able to determine if a fiber was natural, regenerated, or synthetic.  If it was natural I had to be able to identify it, and if it was regenerated I had to be able to tell if it was cellulosic or protein (azlon).  As I studied fibers I often thought that the class belonged in the chemistry department rather than apparel design.

Yarns was the shortest, and I thought easiest, part of the class.  Yarns are filament or spun, plain or fancy.  Identifying fancy yarns was the hardest part of this section, but it was not too difficult.

Fabrics may be one of three structures: weave, knit, or non-woven.  I had the most fun learning about weaves.  I can visualize how a loom works, and I had no trouble identifying specific weaves.  I found knits quite confusing.  I learned enough to identify different knits, but I cannot visualize how a knitting machine turns yarns into fabrics.  I suspect that if I spent some time with a knitting machine it would make a lot more sense, but looking at diagrams, pictures, and videos of the machines did not help me.  I thought non-wovens were boring, but it might have been that we were nearing the end of the semester and I was very busy with projects for other classes.  I was mortified to learn that the doll outfits I thought I made out of felt were really made with needle punched fake felt.  I have nothing against the fabric itself, I just do not like things that are not labeled truthfully.

Learning about finishes was interesting, but I thought the lab could have been more exciting.  Rather than just looking at fabrics to identify the finish I would have liked to have applied a finish or two myself.   Studying coloring techniques inspired me to tie-dye the shirt I made for my apparel construction class.  Despite numerous warnings that I would be foolish to try it, I am sorely tempted to try combining muslin and lye to make mercerized cotton.

After learning about fibers, yarns, structures, and finishes I had to apply my knowledge to identify fabric samples and use the serviceability concepts to explain how the fabric should be used.  Identifying samples was the hardest part of the class for me.  I can look at a piece of fabric and tell you its fiber content, yarn type, structure, and finish, but I have a lot of trouble remembering fabric names.

The content of the class will be very useful for me, but it was the professor who made the class so much fun.  My classmates at MCTC often complained about their textiles instructor, and they hated their class.  I am glad I waited until I got to Stout to take the class.  Textiles can be a painfully dull topic, but Dr. Rhee made it fun and exciting.  I am looking forward to taking more of her classes.

Tags: textiles | servicibility concepts | fiber | yarn | weave | knit | non-woven

Before the start of the semester I was excitedly looking forward to my fashion industry class.  I know I want to become a designer, but I do not know exactly what it is I want to do as a designer.  I know very little about the fashion industry, so I am not sure who I want to work for or what sort of job I want.  I hoped this class would teach me what I needed to figure out what I want to do.  It didn’t.

I wanted to learn about fashion companies and how the industry functions.  The class was about how to run a company.  I do not feel at all prepared to run a company.  The class was taught by an instructor from the apparel design department, not one from the business department.  I will be taking two business classes this summer and more in the coming semesters.  Perhaps those classes will prepare me to run a company, but I do not want to be the boss.  I just want to work for someone else, collect a regular paycheck, and be told what to do.

The apparel design department’s intro class is not required for transfer students, but I will be taking it next semester.  The intro class covers a lot of the stuff I hoped to learn in the fashion industry class.  Fashion industry was a required class, so I’ll just think of it as three credits closer to graduation.

Although I feel I did not benefit much from this class, I did have a lot of fun with the final project.  It was a group project.  We had to design a product and create a company to market it.  I wanted to make national costume doll outfits to coincide with the World Cup, but the other members of my group did not like playing with dolls.  One of the women in the group once saw an article about using fabric with piezoelectric nanowires to generate electricity, and she thought clothing that could be used to recharge cell phones would be a good idea.  The technology does not work, but our instructor loved the idea.

For the project we needed in a binder describing our product and company, and we had to make a three minute presentation advertising the product.  I was not happy about having to design a marketing scheme for a product that I know could not work, but I had a lot of fun with my sales pitch.  Unfortunately the other members of the group edited out some of my best bits.    I set a price for our product, then used the following explanation to justify that price:


I felt honesty is good, but I was overruled.  My teacher did not see my price explanation.  Perhaps that was best.  My final grade for this class was an A.

Tags: Fashion industry

The semester is finally over, and it is time for me to share with you what I learned.  Two of the five classes I took this semester had nothing to do with apparel design, but were still required for my major.  I will begin my review with my thoughts about those two classes.

SOC 110 – Introductory Sociology I expected this class to be inane and painfully dull.  If it was not required I would not have even considered taking a social science class.  My plan was to get it out of the way early so that as my apparel classes become more difficult over the upcoming semesters I will not have to spend time with other subjects.  I was pleased to discover that my expectations were unfounded.  The class was both interesting and fun, and the professor did a great job presenting the information to us.  I always looked forward to the lectures.  The class was not easy.  I needed to spend a lot of time studying, and the paper and two essays I wrote took a lot of work.  I am pleased to say the effort I devoted to this class paid off; I got an A. 

None of the topics covered in the class related directly to apparel or fashion, but I was able to write my paper about the fashion industry.  Early in the semester the professor gave me an article about fashion from a sociology journal.  It was not for my paper; it was just something he thought I would find interesting.  He was right.  The article, “Fashion” by Georg Simmel, is about the driving forces in fashion.  I agreed with what Simmel had to say, and what I found most fascinating about the article was when it was written.  The language seemed a little archaic, but at first I thought that was just how sociologists wrote.  I was more than two pages into the article before I realized how old it is.  What Simmel wrote about fashion in 1904 is true today.  Simmel suggested that the driving force in fashion is the desire of rich people to distinguish themselves from the rest of us.  New fashion is expensive, so only rich people can afford it.  Soon poor folk will be wearing cheap knock-offs, so the rich people need something new to wear.

Although I enjoyed this class a lot, I have no plans to take any more sociology or other social science classes.  I will only take classes required for my major and minor.

PKG 100 – Packaging and Society I would not have taken this class had it not been required.  Unlike sociology I expected this class would be both interesting and relevant to my major, but as was the case with sociology, my expectations were wrong.  Part of marketing apparel is how it is packaged, and although this class is required for all apparel design students the packaging of apparel was never mentioned.  The instructor spent the entire semester talking about how food and medicines are packaged.  I got an A in the class, yet I feel I did not learn anything.  Well, I did learn that the period following the fall of the Roman Empire was called the Dark Ages because the sky was dark for 800 years, but I suspect that may not be entirely accurate.  The class is over, I got a good grade, and one more requirement has been taken care of, so I will not drone on about it any more

Tags: sociology | packaging | Georg Simmel

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to make a quick post about a few different topics! I haven't written about my knitwear class in a long time. Mostly because we have been simply making swatches of different techniques and preparing our final project. The final is due on May 27th, so it is really crunch time over here. My inspiration this quarter is elephant skin - I love the textural qualities, and it's been really cool to translate that into knitwear. I need to photograph my sketch, mood board, and progress so far to share it with you! I will do that tomorrow and post it here by Saturday.

As far as footwear goes, we have critiqued our designs to death (4 times now!) and we're ready to focus on the final presentation. For Thursday, we will have some thumbnail sketches drawn out of how we want to present the final design concept. We'll have several pages explaining the concept, the trend it follows, our target market, and of course a few pages to communicate the design itself. Footwear is kind of on the backburner right now since knitwear is due long before it.

Finally, internships! I interviewed all April, and I don't remember if I announced it here or not, but at the beginning of May I was offered an internship position at Fossil. I'll be moving to Texas in mid-June to work in the women's leather accessories department. I'm very excited, I've always wanted to go to Texas, and I already have my housing lined up with some other girls from my school. I can't believe how quickly this quarter has gone! This summer I want to work on majorly overhauling my design portfolio, and I want to blog about that process here to help everyone else put together a beautiful exhibit of their work. I'll also be working on my 2nd wedding dress order this summer (the 1st is in progress right now!) so I have a feeling I'll be quite busy!

Anyway, that's all for now, just thought I'd stop in and let you all know what's coming up!
Love, Elizabeth

Tags: portfolio | presentation | footwear | elephants | inspiration | knitting | knitwear | summer internships | fashion

Apparel design students at UW-Stout must select one of three concentrations within the program.  I have not yet picked mine.  I do not need to declare a concentration now, but I should decide on one as soon as possible.  Most of the apparel design classes are required for all three concentrations, but there are other classes that are required by only one or two of them.  Any extra information I learn will be useful, but I want to graduate as soon as possible, so I need to spend as little time as possible in non-required classes.

The three concentrations are apparel design, apparel development, and apparel product management.  I am leaning toward design, but my advisor seems to think product management would be better for me.  The design concentration prepares students to become designers, while product management is more about running apparel companies.  All three concentrations require a few business classes, but if I pick product management I will be only two classes away from a business minor.

I am taking the introductory apparel design class next semester.  As a transfer student I am not required to take it, but I think it will be quite useful to me.  I will learn a lot about the industry, and I expect the class will help me decide which concentration is right for me.

I have already fulfilled most of my general education requirements, so I may have time for two concentrations.  Or I may choose a minor.  I am considering Spanish, technical writing, and business administration.  Learning another language can be quite useful.  I will take a Spanish class next semester, and even if I choose to not minor in it I will take a few more.  Quiero aprendar a hablar español.  I would rather learn a Chinese dialect, but Stout does not offer any Chinese classes.  The other two minors would be nice resume builders too.  I will choose a concentration and possibly a minor before registering for spring, 2011 classes.  The apparel design and business classes I chose for summer and fall are required for all three concentrations.

Tags: apparel design | apparel product development | business administration | UW-Stout | Spanish

Here are my footwear final 3 designs. We presented them with an introductory page to our persona, trend, etc. I also made a mood board because my shoe is being designed for a very specific market that a lot of my classmates and teachers don't know about. So far we have presented our designs 4 times, to our teachers, classmates, and 2 industry professionals. I presented my ideas with a rough mock up that I made of design 3 by purchasing thrift store shoes and cutting/pasting the design together. I've been thinking a lot about branding and the way my shoe company would be run, and I also mocked up a shoe box that would be made from recycled record sleeves. The design that I mocked up, number 3, has gotten the biggest response and will be the design I develop further for my final.

Tags: footwear | design | designs | ideations | sketching | illustrations | adobe illustrator | critique | fashion | straight edge | hardcore | punk | shoe | shoe design | mood board

The third garment I made for my apparel construction class this semester was a shirt.  My instructor felt that the shirt was the most difficult project of the semester.  I had a little experience making shirts and none making pants, so I had more difficulty with the pants.  I think the hardest part of making a shirt isn’t the actual sewing, it is understanding what to do.  I already knew how to make a shirt, so as my classmates struggled to figure out how to make plackets, collars, cuffs, and all the other odd bits I was able to concentrate on getting everything made well.

I think I did a very good job with this shirt.  It is far from perfect, but I see consistent improvement with every shirt I make.  I had a lot of trouble with sleeve plackets and cuffs on previous shirts, but now those two seem easy.  My collar stands are getting better, but they still need a lot of work.

Unlike the previous two projects for my class, this one did not require a fit muslin.  We did a tissue fit instead.

The torso fit well, and my pattern had neck sizes marked in inches, so those two areas presented no problems.  I thought I would have to lengthen the sleeves, but after pinning my pattern to me my instructor said the sleeve length was good.  I should have lengthened them.  The sleeves on my first shirt were too short and I did not have enough fabric to make new ones.  I was ahead of schedule, so instead of making giant cuffs I made a new shirt.

I need an unbleached muslin shirt for my fashion industry class.  My plan was to make that shirt after I finished the broadcloth one for apparel construction, but after I gave up on the broadcloth shirt I decided to use the same shirt for both classes.  I used a heavyweight muslin that looks quite nice for apparel. 

I am not sure where the idea came from, but at some point I found myself thinking that as much as I liked my natural color shirt I would like it even more tie-dyed.  Once an idea gets lodged in my head I cannot shake it.  The local stores did not have a great selection of dyes, but I think the colors I chose work well together.  I am almost done with an undyed shirt for fashion industry.

 

Every year the apparel design instructors at my school meet with industry representatives to evaluate the program.  The most recent feedback they received was that Stout graduates are skilled in the technical areas of apparel design but have difficulty with presentation, communication, and technical writing.  The department will try to work on those areas.  Most classes will now require students to make some form of presentation.  Instead of a final exam for apparel construction, we had to make portfolio pages and present them to the class.

I never made a portfolio page before, I do not know how to use the software usually used for portfolio pages, and there was only one brief lesson in class about how to make a portfolio.  My pages for this class did not have to be up to professional standards; the purpose of this assignment was to introduce us to portfolios and presentations.  I included photos of the shirt, samples of fabric and notions, and flat drawings of the shirt and some of its more difficult parts.  I think my instructor was pleased with my portfolio.  Tomorrow I get it back and find out what I did wrong.

Tags: shirt | tie-dye | portfolio | muslin | cuffs | collar

I finished my sociology paper about gender disparity is fashion design schools a few weeks ago.  I would have written about it here sooner, but I wanted to wait to until I got it back with a grade and comments from my professor.  I got 44 out of 50 points.  It is not a very good grade, but I do not think it was a good paper so I can’t complain.  I knew what points I wanted to make, and I had a lot of good data, but I had a lot of trouble using sociological concepts to support my arguments.  My professor thought I had some good ideas, but he felt I failed to draw strong links between cause and effect.

I can sew a shirt, but I cannot form a proper sociological argument.  That’s OK.  I want to be a designer, not a sociologist.  I enjoyed the class, but if it was not required I would not have taken it.  I will not bore you with the full text of my paper; I will just sum up the main points.

Only a small percentage of fashion design students are men.  Fewer than 4% of bachelor’s degrees awarded to apparel design students at UW-Stout go to men, and other schools have similar percentages.  The fashion industry is generally perceived to be one for women and gay men.  Most straight men wish to avoid the stigma of working in such an industry.

While the majority of fashion design students are female, the majority of big name fashion designers are gay men.  The fashion industry is one in which success is determined by customer perception.  So long as customers believe that gay men are better designers they will have a far greater chance of success than do women and straight men.

Tags: gender in fashion | gender disparity | gay men in fashion

Last week was midterm week, and it was absolutely bonkers! I barely had time to finish all my homework. We had 3 critiques, 2 of which were for footwear. As promised (albeit a while ago), here is my design persona (target market) for my footwear designs this quarter.

Tomorrow we are having a final midterm critique for footwear, which we have to do because one of my teachers couldn't make it last week. Stay posted for knitwear updates and more footwear!

Love, Elizabeth

Tags: footwear | target market | design | fashion design | persona | brief | designing | critique | midterms

I had two projects to do for my textiles class this semester.  The first project was about labeling laws.  I got an A, and I learned a lot about labeling, but I would not say that I had a lot of fun writing about labels.  The second project was a lot more enjoyable, but as I applied what I learned from the first project to the second one I became quite angry.  Everyone in class was assigned four fabrics for the second project.  I got plissé, serge, georgette, and bengaline.  I knew nothing about my four fabrics, so I had a lot of work to do.

I had to provide a detailed description and a photo of each fabric.  I also needed ads for a products made with each fabric.  Fabric swatches were not required, but I thought it would be nice to add them.  I could only find plissé and georgette, but that was two more than most people in class included in their projects, so I thought it would be good.  It wasn’t.

I had no problems with the photos and descriptions or with ads for serge, georgette, and bengaline products.  Most of the “plissé” items I found online did not actually contain plissé.  Plissé is made by treating cotton with caustic soda.  Most of the “plissé” items I found were actually seersucker or embossed fabric.

My two swatches were from Hancock Fabrics.  The fabric sold as plissé was actually embossed.  Georgette is a lightweight sheer balanced plain weave with filament crepe yarns.  My swatch is a lightweight sheer balanced plain weave with low twist filament yarns.  I did not lose any points, but it was still damn embarrassing.

My mistake was thinking that fabrics would be labeled correctly.  The labels I wrote about for my first project listed fiber content and care requirements.  The FTC has extensive regulations for content and care labels, but there seems to be nothing regulating fabric names.  The only thing preventing you from calling seersucker plissé is the potential negative reaction of your customers, and I do not think there are too many people who know the difference.

Tags: plissé | georgette | seersucker | embossed cotton | fabric names | product labels

Tags: fashion illustrations

My apparel construction class began work on our shirt this week.  I have made shirts before, so I expected to have no problems with this project.  As my classmates were still working on collars and front plackets all I had left was cuffs, buttonholes, and hem.  My plan was to have the shirt finished by now so I could spend the weekend and the last week of class studying and working on other projects.  My optimism was foolish, but at least I have time to make another shirt.

I ran into two problems.  My fabric is a polyester/cotton blend, and my iron was too hot.  The heat setting was fine for pressing the fabric flat and pressing open seam allowances, but my front plackets became horribly distorted.  If the crinkled plackets were the only problem I might have been able to turn in this shirt, but I ran into a bigger problem with the sleeves.  Instead of making a muslin for the shirt we just did a tissue fit.  I thought my sleeves were long enough.  They weren’t.  This problem could be fixed with huge cuffs, but then the shirt would look silly.

I need a greige goods shirt to wear for my final project presentation in my fashion industry class, but I did not plan to have that shirt finished by the time my apparel construction shirt is due.  Now I will have to use the same shirt for both classes.  So the shirt I made with fashion fabric is my muslin, and the shirt I will make with muslin is my finished product.  At least I am getting a lot of experience making shirts.

Tags: tailored shirt | shirt placket | pressing | sleeves | polyester | muslin