Seamstress Sophie

CSM: The End

Sophie — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:16:06 +0000

All good things come to an end. And so has my class at Central St Martins. They say Hindsight is 20/20. I say that I would’ve had to know everything they taught us in the class that I knew by the end at the start, in order to successfully complete the project. As it stands, I feel like I’ve learnt a lot around the concept of a “collection” and that I need to seriously work on it quite extensively.

Sketchbooks are useful, and working on a single project per sketchbook is a good thing. Collages, general research, fashion research, textiles, patterns, textures, colours, details… concepts which were not alien to me before have now taken the correct place (or an academic place) in the framework that is fashion design.

What I learnt? That you learn from mistakes. That you cannot achieve perfection in one shot, and should not try. And that independent designers flourish in London because there is no market to absorb them and highlight their skills. Apparently, here, we specialise in the High Street.

A few last sketches before I move on to doing random projects again and go back to making dresses. I still have one to finish from Xmas.

Exercices de style

Sophie — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:32:17 +0000

So I’m taking this class… For personal improvement? Meditation? Transport-inflicted voluntary torture? Education? Broadening horizons? Possibly everything and nothing of the above. In short, I’ve been designing and making clothes (for dolls, for me, for friends) since I was able allowed to wield a needle or sit up at the sewing machine (a hand-cranked antique Singer, of course!). And I’ve been wanting to learn more about it for as long as I can remember. So, with various life changes happening, I checked the short course calendar of Central Saint Martins, and lo and behold, the Introduction to Fashion Design course was being given on the best day of the week!! Tuesday!! It’s the best because: a) It’s not eating up on your weekend b) It doesn’t conflict with Orange Wednesdays c) It’s not on a Thursday-is-the-new-Friday and d) It’s not on is-it-Monday-already? So, Tuesday. Perfect. I signed up.

Having become £380 poorer (that’s £38 per session), I am now religiously attending lectures. I have to admit that the first three seemed like a near-complete waste of time for me. We spent most of it either making stuff up about random postcards, or doing research in the library. Research involved finding heavy tomes to lug to the photocopier, and then fail to copy. I took pictures with my iPhone. At least I had something!!

Lecture 4, however, started to become interesting. We actually DID something. We took our primary research (architectural for me, mostly) and applied it to the body. In short: we sketched stuff. The 4 aspects of design being Shape, Texture, Colour and Detail, it was interesting to transpose ideas to the body while focusing on that holy … quadrant. And then taking those ideas and filling in silhouettes. That was the most fun, as the same blank inner space of a shape was filled in with different garments by each person! For me, drawing is my meditation, so the 2.5hrs of the class passed by in a blissful blur. And I wanted to share the results, because I rather like them

Sunshine sewing

Sophie — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:42:32 +0000

Setting up in the sun by the window with mom’s machine which can do a bunch of funky stitches. Technology of 2k+ vs. 1919. Progress, they say!!
“i don’t need electricity to run mine”, i reply!

Christmas wrappings

Sophie — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:56:40 +0000

Did a bit of xmas wrapping.

For one gift, decided to use a box. Hope recipient likes what’s inside it too!!

Stripy backless dress

Sophie — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:07:46 +0000

Am finally cutting into some fabric again. Ex (who has yet to move out) is playing a racing game on the xbox/tv. So i’m cutting my fabric to the headache-inducing roaring of engines topped with poppy-technoy music. I think it’ll be bedtime soon thereafter.

Some photos of tonight’s endeavours, and one of the pattern i’m using. Not sure about how this will turn out, as pattern is for cocktail glamour and my fabric is decidedly casual. Am hoping for a quirky urban clash that’ll look cool as opposed to unwearable. Not that i’ll don this on new year’s eve, but it would be nice to know i can wear it and go out for drinks.

“carpet” dress….

Sophie — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:20:25 +0000

For some reason, despite a very forgetful rocky start to the day, i cheered up and even found some energy to do a bit of crafting (and more tidying up) in the evening. What did i do, you ask? Ah. I worked on “the carpet dress”, as it is not-so-affectionately called by a certain someone.

remove the fabric wrapping experiment from the doll.
do a good chunk of hand sewing around the neckline to ensure the fabric lies flat.
do more hand sewing, but very loose stuff in contrasting thread, to mark the fold of the back seam of the dress. Once it’s hung for a couple of days, i can take out the sewing machine, remove the stitching, pin the fabric, and run it through.

And this is the dress back on the doll.

The idea is to wear it with a shirt underneath. It is definitely meant for colder weather, and given what is coming up in the distant future, necessary.
Happily, this week is promising me (ok, you too) lots of delightful sunshine. Which is brilliant, as it means i can wear one of my more summery dresses… Say thursday, with the great weather report hurrah for sunshine!

Playing around with draping

Sophie — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:46:44 +0000

Not quite what I intended, but i’m not willing to cut the fabric. I’m only playing around with it.

Emerald dress is done!

Sophie — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:11:24 +0000

It’s done!!

The emerald green dress is done. It has a very large and deep collar, a small waist, and a very very large skirt. Oh. And pockets. Dresses with room in them should always have pockets. Modern dressmakers always forget that.

I wore it on Saturday when my boyfriend took me out on a date night. And I felt like a princess! It was lovely.

Also, I discovered that a belt I had bought at london fashion weekend matched it flawlessly. And that a pair of huge chandelier earrings I grabbed on impulse before Xmas from H&M also match it beautifully. I’m one very happy seamstress right now.

And yes, I am already plotting the next dress. Of course.

Strange post holiday energy

Sophie — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:45:27 +0000

Somehow I managed to come back from my holidays with a good amount of energy. Must be the sun and probably the vitamin B supplements i’m taking in any case, I finally managed to do some sewing again!!

I’ve basted in the zipper in the back. Now just need to stitch it in by hand with invisible stitches.

Yo can see double sided invisible stitches on the collar…

Or, you know…. Not see them

Emerald green-teal dress

Sophie — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:47:36 +0000

I haven’t written in ages… But I did work on something back in April.

It will be a dress based on the same pattern as my geometric dress, but without sleeves and a heavily modified collar.

I’m in the stages of doing some very sneaky double-sided invisible seams around the collar. Pending are the zipper and the hem. Hoping to advance it a little this weekend, or I won’t have it to wear over the holidays.

When it’s completed, it’ll look something like this…