This semester has been quite the challenge. Anyone who has done hand tailoring knows that hair canvas, silk organza, and twill tape is tons of fun (LOL) to sew with, especially in a coat. This semester we had seven weeks to hand tailor a wool coat and coordinating dress to create a full ensemble. Last semester we designed our coats and dresses and presented them to a critic. After the critic chose which one we would make, we draped and patterned our garments and had all of our fittings.

It seemed to take forever to find the right fabrics for the garments. The wool coating was the real challenge. I found an awesome chocolate brown wool coating from the East Coast online for $50/ yard. I thought that was a little bit pricy for my budget, so I waited and decided to look in NYC’s fashion district. I ended up finding my wool coating for $6/ yard in a “hole in the wall” in the garment district and……..BONUS….the fabric was on sale because the store was going out of business. I was so excited to nab this find! I originally wanted to make my dress out of a solid color but the critic wanted a stripe or print with chocolate brown and blue in it to match the wool coating. It was really difficult to find a silk charmeuse print with these specific colors. After lots of poking around the internet, I finally found a great print through Thai Silks.

So, after a lot of hand sewing and countless late nights I got it done! My boyfriend (patiently) watched me needle punch all the wool roving in the seam allowances, hand sew hair canvas in, and press (more like beat to death) my coat with lots of steam and my wooden tailor’s clapper. It definitely wasn’t the easiest project that I’ve worked on, but I’m especially pleased with the dress, it turned out even better than I pictured. And, in order to tie in all the colors, I decided to color blocked the inside lining of the coat. I think the colors will really help this outfit pop on the runway.

Now I’m working up all the designs and production patterns for my Senior Collection. I’ll check in with more on that later.

Allyce

The winner of last Friday’s TGIF Gifts contest, and the Anna Maria Horner book “Seams to Me” is………Tah Dah……..Rebecca!! Congrats Rebecca, your book will soon be on it’s way.

Here’s the next sewing “present” in the DIYStyle TGIF Gifts contest! We believe you can never have enough thread, especially when it’s the fantastic Dual Duty XP variety. Coats and Clark sent us this nifty zip pack full of their most popular colors, 18 spools in all!

Post your comments to this blog entry to win the thread pack (even if you commented last week, you’ll need to do so again this week to win)……..keep those suggestions coming! You just might “gift yourself”!

Remember, we post a new TGIF Gift each Friday until Christmas (and pull the lucky winner that following Thursday night, when that week’s contest closes). And, we might even throw in a few extra prizes as the weeks go on to “sweeten the deal”. If you have any question on how this contest works, check out our original blog post on November 21st. 

Good luck, and keep watching the blog…………there are more great TGIF Gifts coming!!!

Cindy

We’ve been getting in lots of great crafty/sewing loot around the DIYStyle digs, and now seems like a good time to start giving it away! It’s our “TGIF Gifts” contest. So, give a sewing gift to yourself this season–you know you deserve it!

Here’s how it works:

> Every Friday we’ll post a new blog entry, announcing that week’s TGIF Gift.

> To enter, leave us a comment on that blog post, telling us a project, garment, or technique you’d like to see demonstrated on DIYStyle. We’d love to get a peek at your wish list!

> The following Thursday, a winner will be randomly chosen from the entries. We’ll post the winner’s name in a post that night (and drop the winner an email, too).

A new blog post with a new gift will go up each Friday until Christmas. That’s 5 chances to win.

Note: One blog comment per TGIF Gifts post, please.

Here’s today’s TGIF Gift goodie:

A copy of the BRAND NEW
Anna Maria Horner book “Seams to Me”!

Anna did a wonderful interview with DIYStyle, be sure to catch the vodcast if you haven’t yet. This is a really cool book, chock full of great projects and full-size printed patterns.

OK, get those entries (comments) coming…and good luck!

Cindy

Oh my gosh, this Apparel Construction class is crazy. Since my mom and many people I know are great sewers you would think I would be a pro. Not exactly! I thought I would share some funny stories from my class.

Before we started making our first project (boxers), we were learning the basics about the sewing machine. My teacher was showing us how to thread the machine. She was about to thread the needle by hand until I showed her that the machine had an automatic threader. Really, my SEWING teacher didn’t know our machine had an automatic threader. It was too funny. Another thing I had to teach my teacher, and then the class, was the blanket stitch by hand. I taught myself how to do the stitch first and then showed my teacher. It was an interesting day.

Now my teacher is not the only one who makes funny mistakes. So far I have had some mishaps of my own. On my first pair of boxers I sewed the fronts together and the backs, so the boxers looked like they had cowboy legs. On my first pair of boxers I also didn’t check the hems to be sure they were the same length before I turned them in, Oops! One leg was ¼ of an inch longer than the other.

I am on my skirt now, so I hope things go better! More on that later.

Sarah

Hello all! My name is Meghan Petty and I am very excited to be one of the new Creative Chicks on DIYStyle. Just to give you a little bit of background about myself, I grew up in the small town of Pleasant Hope in the very Midwestern state of Missouri…I have always been very musically and artistically inclined through out my life…I proceeded to go to college at the University of Missouri-Columbia for Psychology changing my major officially and un-officially to Graphic Design, Business, Web-Design, and then to Textile and Apparel Management all in four years….hit a wall and knew I needed a more creative type of lifestyle…transferred schools to Stephens College for fashion design…completed a summer internship with SKIF International…graduated in a very full two years of catch up from Stephens College…moved to New York and I am now looking for a job and sorting out all of the possibilities that could be my future!

Along that very busy journey I have been published in Crochet! Magazine for a crochet cocktail dress I hand produced and patterned.  I have also been recognized with many awards for my designs through competitions at Stephens College.  I even had the pleasure of starting an annual fashion show at the University of Kansas with a good friend.  And on top of all of that, I have been keeping up with my own alterations and original designs business on the side.

So what is this small town girl doing in the great metropolis of New York?  This has been a question on my mind for the past three months.  My initial intent was to get a job as an assistant designer with some company but a lot of my being in New York has been turned into a great adventure of finding myself and all the possibilities I have laid out in front of me.  After interviewing with many companies big and small I have not found one that is willing to hire me with only a summers experience in the industry.  Many companies wish for an entry level design employee to have 3 yrs experience coming out of school.  You know how booming the fashion industry is in Missouri!  So, not only is my career choice in a creative field but trying to find a job in it has become a creative task as well. 

Three months and no permanent job…what does one do?  First and foremost, everything happens for a reason and our paths in life are laid out before us in mysterious but very obvious ways.  The first major thing I realized while being the city is you never know who is going to connect you to your next project in life.  I was introduced through a classmate to a new brand called Arcana that wishes to produce high end Men’s Suits.  They needed someone to help design, make patterns, do fittings, and produce the sample garments to be sent to buyers and manufacturers.  This would be great experience and potentially could make me a good chunk of money but all of my hard work to be put in would not reap the benefits until profit is made on the line.  So I now have a job that doesn’t technically pay me!  I then was trying to think of ways to work from home so that I can keep up with the demands of the Men’s line but also make money to pay my rent.  Through random circumstances I was messing around on the internet and found a website that is specifically for selling and buying hand made goods.  Awesome!  So I came up with a business plan for myself to see if I could really make this work and listed some of the garments that I have made just to see how selling could go.  You can now purchase several of my designs on ETSY.  I plan on selling my current designs and then in January starting my FIRST Spring line (to be sold on ETSY)!  This will be an investment of my time as well until I establish some inventory.  So great start for the future but not a great solver of the high cost of living in New York City!

This leaves me at my current state of still trying to find at least part time work in the midst of a falling economy and a tough fashion world.  I have lots of skills in many directions in terms of design so how do I prove that to others in the industry?  Do I just drop all thoughts of working for someone else and try to push through owning my own online business?  My next step is yet to come!!!  

To check out more about me and my designs please visit my website!

 Meghan