No, you don’t need to be a “dummy” to buy this book, or even a beginner sewer…..the simplicity of organization of hardcore info in this sewing handbook is what we all wish for when in a late night sewing pinch! Like me, you have probably perused several of the Dummies books, most of them pretty darn useful and written in a voice that I can understand. Sewing for Dummies is just that, from this easy-to-navigate category of books by Wiley. Written by industry veteran (and a long time friend) Jan Saunders-Maresh, this book is a must have for every level of sewist.

I love books that are an easy read, especially when I am grappling with a subject that is new or seemingly difficult to me.  Just check out the other Dummies books on my shelf…mostly internet and computer related. Jan has a knack for making the step by step instructions for everything from zippers to pockets, and piping to slipcovers as easy as pie, and fun to boot. Some of the included cartoons are so on target, and hit home. A lighter note when you are trying to figure out just how to get that particular technique down.

Sections in the book cover major sewing opportunities, including Fashion sewing (our fav of course!), Home Dec, Alterations, and the “trademark” top ten lists. Sewing for Dummies even has some handy charts included, perforated so you can keep with you as you hit the fabric store. Fabric conversions, sheet sizes and needle specs are included to take on the go.

Sewing for Dummies has become our go-to handbook at DIYStyle for all of our sewing questions, especially used in classes at the DIYStyle Workshop. Add it to your list of must have tools for your sewing room. It’s reassuring to have a good friend like Jan at your side even if it’s only in book form. Now, we just need to talk Wiley into staffing a midnight to 7am Sewing for Dummies call hotline for those of us that are truely sewing dummies (more like zombies) when we’re up sewing all night long! For now, the book will do….and very nicely I might add.

Did I get you with that tag line? Free stuff is always good. And when it’s coordinated with following this new season of Project Runway it’s even better. Last week I posted a new blog contest we are having fun with at DIYStyle…..but only a few of you paid attention! So, I’m giving all another chance to join in the guessing game, to win FREE sewing stuff. Here’s how to join in:

Make your pick: Who is your winning designer of choice?

Post your choice here on THIS blog entry, and each week we’ll see who is still in the running, both on PR and in our little game here. You MUST post to this blog entry with your designer pick before the next episode airs this Thursday night-January 28th. Anyone who guessed correctly and still has their designer in the running at week 7 (there should be about 6 designers left at that point by my calculations!) will receive a free gift from DIYStyle (and courtesy of our great sponsors). We have assorted goodies in our stash including snips, patterns, thread, fasteners and more. Really this guessing game is just for fun………..but it doesn’t hurt to get a little gift for being right……..and bragging rights to boot!

 Now onto the last PR episode….

From Potato Sacks to Butt Cheeks!! Could you believe what actually walked down the runway in this show?! The challenge was innocent enough. Taking a potato sack and turning it into something beautiful (from the age old saying that any beautiful woman could look great even dressed in a potato sack). That was the beginning of some interesting sewing and design decisions, and ended up in a model walking down the runway in a creation that shocked viewers with the “skin display”.

In a way I feel sorry for the winning designer, because I think all the talk was about the poor decision (and design) from Ping. But, several pieces by other designers warrant discussion (besides her odd dress). The group keeps sewing away on the Brother sewing machines in the lab. Full up now….but not for long.

Ping at work and then the awful creation that caused the stir! Yes, you could see the model’s rear (how could Ping let that go down the runway…much less the producers. She should have gotten booted off for this one)

My favorites were Seth, Jonathan and Amy

In the end Pamela was the one that took the loss (still think it should have been Ping–am I getting too vocal here?!). And of course we can’t forget the winner of this challenge……….Jay! I absolutely adore what this guy did with burlap. As Michael Kors said, he thought the trim on the dress floated almost as if it were made of feathers. A far cry from a potato sack! Wonder what Jay will be able to pull out in the remaining challenges with actual fabric!

This year I made a pact to only give handmade (or at least semi-handmade) gifts this holiday season. I thought you might like to see my favorite to sew, and the one that everyone loved! Polar fleece is so soft, warm and in tons of fab colors and prints, and was perfect for this Pull thru Scarf. These are so simple that you can churn out several, even at the eleventh hour. And, they take very little fabric and supplies (only matching thread), so they are easy on the budget too….and we all need a little help there. I made these out of two coordinating colors and prints, but change them up as you like.

If you want directions for the fleece scarf just add your comment to this post, along with your email address. Let us know what you think about DIYStyle and we’ll send the easy instructions right out. If enough of you give the thumbs up, we’ll tape this for an upcoming DIYStyle episode!

Have a creative Happy New Year!

What a whirlwind at St. Louis Fashion Week! DIYStyle was so honored to present one of 6 shows for the fashion and style packed week. Our show was called LAUNCH–showcasing the DIYStyle Collection and the collections of 4 new designers, Connie Bourgeois, Allyce King, Maggie Laskowitz and Courtney Stiles. Each of the designers had not shown their fashion collections on the runway (besides fashion design school), so this was an opportunity of a lifetime for all of us! And it was at a super cool venue, Lumiere Place Hotel, attached to a premiere upscale downtown casino. STL Fashion Week staked out their big theater for all the shows………..we could not have asked for a better place in St. Louis to “Launch” these talented designers.

After months of preparation, designing, fitting, sewing, and organizing it all came down to the day of the show. Since the fashion show was scheduled for 1pm, our call time was SUPER early, at 6am……….not easy since most of us were still sewing away at 2:30am the day of!!! But all the models arrived (50 plus) in all, and all the volunteers (about 40), then the production team (director, lighting, sound) and all the make-up and hair artists. What a huge production, and it was so much fun to see it all come together. Now we completely understand (and appreciate) how much work and dedication goes into a professional runway show like this…….and we could not have done it without all of our teams both from DIYStyle, the volunteers and St. Louis Fashion Week! When the models started walking down the runway the adreneline was pumping, the music was playing and all flowed just beautifully!

Here’s a bunch of the pics from backstage.

We opened the show with a tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness. Each of the designers created these art to wear fashions, and DIYStyle did T-shirt surgery with Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Tees. These definitely had an impact with the audience (with the models walking to Beyonce’s Halo song).

Next up was the DIYStyle Collection, showing styles from the pattern line with McCall’s, our vodcasts.

Then the collections of each of the featured designers were ready to go. First was Conjetta by Connie Bourgeois. Beauty meets the Biker!

Next up was ML by Maggie Laskowitz. Cute, bouncy, yet elegant dresses.

Stiles by Courtney Stiles was next. Beautiful cocktail, evening wear and bridal.

Allyce King Designs by Allyce King closed our LAUNCH show, with Hamptons style resort and swimwear.

For more pics from the show, check out our Facebook page. There are pics of most all of the models, and even more behind the scenes takes. Thanks to all of the STL Fashion Week crew for all the neat photos! And, check out vodcast episode #66…it’s a quick look at the runway show! Now, we’re ready for next season………….what 4 designers will be “Launched” in the Spring show?!

Last week it was Blue, this week it was White. Wedding dresses that is. Wow, taking a divorced woman’s wedding dress and creating something new sounds like a good idea, but somehow cutting up a wedding dress with so many memories (much less hopes and dreams) attached to it feels just wrong. I think Carol Hannah said it best, “It’s like running into a church and screaming profanity!”. Even Gordana sucumbed to her feelings with this one and was quite tearful, taking a lot of this challenge to heart. But, in the end, I think that really paid off for her!

What do you do with a white dress to make it something other than what it is? Dyeing seemed to be the top choice for most of the PR clan, but I definitely thought Shirin’s idea was the most clever. With only a small amount of fabric to work with in the wedding dress she was tasked with, as well as undyeable 100% poly, she did not have much choice but to come up with an alternate process to get her creation noticed. Rows and rows of contrast stitching added interest to the white fabric, as well as a trim design that flattered her model helped her stay in the running. I really thought this was the most unique idea out of the group.

Several of the designs they came up with were pretty clever, and beared little resemblence to a wedding dress. Especially the lace dress that Irinia whipped up, dyed a really pretty elegant taupe color…………but a few of the designers had a real mess on their hands. Three guys just did not get this challenge………Logan, Christopher and Epperson had just horrible direction and results. Epperson did not even listen about incorporating the wedding dress into the design and had started in another direction and had to change halfway through! Do all guys just stop listening when the word “Wedding” comes up in conversation??!! Instead the word “Octoberfest” was tagged to two designs, from Heidi of course.

Gordana ended up with the win this time, and she did a really interesting design with strips of the fabric, dyed, and pieced into a very curve flattering strapless dress. Her divorcee model especially loved it, and it showed on the runway. Just goes to show putting your heart and feelings into a design can make such a difference. Way to go Gordana!

Those Brother sewing machines just keep whipping this stuff out……….next week we’ll have more pics from in the sewing room. So what color will the challenge be next week? My guess is Black………little black dress anyone?

I think Heidi said it best at the judging of this challenge. “Snooze-Fest” is how she described Louise’s finished design for the Movie Genre challenge. Did anyone else find this challenge boring? Maybe it’s just me, but I really thought last week’s challenge with the newspaper’s was much more inspiring than this one! My understanding was that the designers were to “invent” a character in the movie genre they were assigned, and create a costume worthy of a movie setting using that direction. I really did not see that clearly with many of these designer’s, and the looks they pulled out were not new…..worthy more of a halloween costume rather than that of a movie set! OK, maybe I’m being harsh, but I had to watch this episode twice to see if I had just missed anything (I really fell asleep the first time!), and I was not any more impressed the second time around. Maybe next week will be more exciting.

Louise’s dress/costume was fairly plain, considering it was supposed to be movie worthy. I don’t think she pulled this one out, and almost got eliminated because of the mediocre design.

Ra’mon had lizard on the brain when he was creating the green unitard design that was embellished with these scale looking pieces.

There were quite a few pieces to this costume, and really it was one of the few where I understood the character behind it. I did not think his finished costume was as bad as the judges made it out to be, and not reason enough for him to be eliminated. 

Nicolas was right on with his winning Ice Queen costume and defined character. This one was truely stunning. You can certainly tell he has costuming background.

Thanks to our friends at Brother, we keep getting these cool sewing pics from the PR sewing room. Next time I will be sure to post one with the clock…..here’s a question that keeps nagging at me….do you think they are really sewing at the time it shows? Or is that a set-up? Hmmm. 

Curveballs are always thrown out to the designers on PR, and this was a pretty good one. Paper clothing has been designed for years, but this took things a step further to create “art”. Nevertheless, the designers all stepped up to the plate (well almost all of them!) to deliver some spectacular garments. Really…………..I can sew just about anything, but I have not ever been challenged with making something that could be ripped apart in an instant. Just one walk down the catwalk could have ended in disaster for any of these guys.

And, of course we had to go back to the “drama”, this time between Johnny and Nicholas (and I thought women were typically the backstabbers—hmmmmm). After Tim gave him bad reviews on his work in progress, he destroyed the evidence of his bad design, and then complained that the steamer (what steamer?) spat all over the dress and ruined it! Even Tim was baffled in the end as to how he got so off track to start telling lies! And it was Nicholas that felt compelled to rat him out….”drama”…this time between the guys…..hah!

Oh well, with all of that, the other designers hunkered down and really pulled out some pretty cool stuff. The LA Times never looked so good. Gordana produced a pretty look, but was dubbed as “safe” by the judges. I thought it was pretty intricate for a paper dress mind you.

Shirin definitely packed a great punch here with her origami skirt design. I’m not even sure how that model kept the dress from falling off….did you notice how her hands did not come off her waist?! It was pretty unusual, especially compared to the others.

Surprisingly (at least to me) the winner for this challenge was Irina for her coat design with the poodle like collar. While I think this is fun, it certainly did not have some of the artistic feel and panache of some of the others. Oh well, I guess it’s all subjective.

Thank our little birdie for the pics………Brother came thru again………….thanks for the inside scoop!

The Nicole Miller show is definitely one of the main fashion shows I wanted to attend at NY Fashion Week. Between the rain and loads of people, the wait was definitely worth it after all (waiting is the tough part for the shows–you have to get there super early).

If anyone can design timeless fashion it is Nicole Miller. Truely wearable clothes for all ages. Nicole Miller is one of my favorite designers that I hope to meet personally some day soon. Here were some of our favorites from the show on Friday. Notice the biker styling on tops, along with the print in piecework fashion in the dresses. Prints were in the blue/black/grey family, most looking hand dyed. Lots of slimmer pants with detail at the hip. I could wear most all of this collection…………

Exposed zip, biker style. Black everywhere in this collection.

Prints laid in almost piecework style. Flowing style with the print creating a slimming illusion.

Pretty shine with neat design lines to break it up. Lots of sheer too for tops. Love this smoky grey top with the silver blingy skirt.

The tucking and origami shape defines several pieces in this collection. For more pics and the video from the runway show check out Nicole Miller Spring 2010 Collection.

DIYStyle’s first show at NY Fashion Week was Rosa Cha (yes I will always remember THIS show–my first runway show in Bryant Park !!). He designs some of the most amazing swimwear I have seen. For Spring 2010, they showed lots of lattice work, exposed zips on cover-ups & tops, polka dots… grey/blues, black, yellow & orange. The play of stripe with the dots, and the orange and yellow intertwined together in the weave of the lattice work on several of the swimsuits was striking. Rosa Cha certainly brings a fashion edge to beachwear. I love it !!!

Love this back zip in this beach dress. And the contrast stitching design.

So retro, polka dots…….

Stripes with black, sexy “edgy” nautical

 Check out Rosa Cha Spring 2010 collection. Swimwear’s certainly haute here!

Gossip Girl has become the absolute go-to show for the latest fashion tips and trends. So much, that designer Anna Sui has decided to create a line inspired completely by the show to sell at Target stores nationwide. There has been so much speculation whether or not this line is going to be pulled or not. Rumors were swirling that Target execs weren’t keen on the idea of supporting a line which is inspired by characters who are into drugs, sex and partying. BUT, after all of this “gossip,” Anna Sui and Target spokespeople have given official word that it will INDEED be hitting stores on September 13th. No word on whether the garments will actually appear on the characters of the show. I could care less if the collection was featured on the show! The clothes are to die for either way.

I’ve looked through all of the pieces and I can’t pick just one favorite. Whether it’s Blair, Serena, Jenny or Vanessa; I love them ALL! I’m so happy someone thought to do this line, especially at a store like Target! Here’s a little peek…

I also found this flyer on the CW’s website. So if you live in New York, you can be one of the lucky ones to see the collection EARLY!

That’s all for now! XOXO

It’s almost that time of year! School is starting again. And you know what that means…back-to-school SHOPPING! Now, even though I am a 22 year old senior in college, I probably shouldn’t be getting this excited about school shopping. But, I am. For me, school shopping for college is WAY more fun because I can actually shop for clothes! I don’t have to wear a private school uniform anyyyyy longer. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but I really am missing my plaid skirt. But I am in luck! Plaid is BACK and bigger than ever. I have been seeing it absolutely EVERYWHERE. Whether you want to prep it up or grunge it down, either way will work!

Plaid has been popular for the majority of the summer. Paired with a great pair of distressed jeans, it can be a great go-to outfit. Just take a peek through your boyfriend’s closet for some inspiration and maybe borrow a shirt or two! He’ll never know. Whether it’s a boyish fit or a more feminine fit, you’ll definitely look cool and casual. Heritage1981 and Forever 21 have both of these styles in tons of options.

Gossip Girl has always been known for showing the classy, more sophisticated way to wear plaid on the characters of the show; very school-girl chic. The trend will definitely be moving on into the Fall. YAY! The Twilight inspired line from Nordstrom featured on InStyle’s website shows an amazingly hot plaid jacket that is PERFECT for this season. It’s also EXTREMELY affordable! I’m loving it for sure.

Target and Anna Sui are working together to create a Gossip Girl inspired line that will be available in stores and online on September 13th. I don’t know about all you other fashionistas but I’m counting down the days on my calendar! NY Mag has released the look book here. The plaid ensemble below is inspired by Serena’s chic style. How fabulous is it?! Be on the lookout for this line because it is going to fly off the racks.

All of this chit-chat about plaid has really given me the urge to dig out my school uniform! I’m off!

When I first began to design my senior collection almost a year ago today, I never would have dreamed that it would have turned out the way it did. Before I even began to put pencil to the paper I thought about what I like to design. I love designing and sewing swim wear as well as weekend wear outfits. I knew almost immediately that I wanted to design resort wear. I researched trend reports for the next year and envisioned my collection to be very girly and almost whimsical. With general ideas in my head, I headed to New York City’s garment district to find the fabric to match my vision. My fiancé and I had spent two whole days searching for something that would inspire my designs. At this little hole in the wall store, there it was, hanging in the window. This gorgeous piece of dusty pink tulle with embroidery and hand sewn black and copper feathers on it. It came in a five-yard panel and it started as the base of my entire collection. Immediately I pictured it as skirt on a cocktail dress. After that we visited Mood Fabrics and I was lucky enough to find a crock embossed leather skin that was the exact shade of dusty pink and copper finish to match the tulle and feather piece.

That was my jumping off point. That night I started sketching many possibilities that could come from this combo. As part of our class assignment, we were to sketch many many designs for each garment you were to create. The professor then eliminates the sketches til you have just a five for each garment. Then those are fully rendered in a fashion illustration and matching flats. The critic chose this sketch below for me to create. In just a short seven weeks everything was patterned and fitted in muslin.

This garment was one of my last to pattern. I made all of my muslins out of tulle and pleather vinyl. For this garment I had a total of six fittings. I had first patterned this design with bust and waist darts but changed it to princess seams soon after the second fitting. It fit the bust much better this way and eliminated some of the bulk in the leather. My model Katie was great. She came in so many times so that I could fit her and make quick changes on the muslin and pattern.

When it came to sewing the leather, it was definitely a challenge. I had never worked with real leather before and it handles differently then pleather. After making this garment and other pieces with leather I learned what tools, techniques, and finishing worked best. I will talk about these tools and show you the techniques and finishings I used in an upcoming vodcast. This pic above is Katie on the runway at our Stephens College annual student fashion show…….she looked fabulous!

Shopping online has always been one of my guilty pleasures. I’m usually just browsing, but if I find a good sale I won’t pass it up. Browsing different websites is also a great way to find out what the growing trends are for the season.

Forever 21 is one of my favorite stores that tends to knock-off some higher end looks. There is actually a link on their site to a page that gives you the option to shop by trend. Also, don’t forget to check out their fairly new couture line titled Twelve by Twelve. This top below is fabulous with a pair of leggings and it’s only $36.00!

When I’m feeling eclectic and in the mood for something “urban” I’ll stop by UrbanOutfitters.com. They have a great sale selection on the site. The top below is very L.A. I could definitely see Nicole Richie walking down Robertson Blvd. in this tank, paired with some denim cut-offs. And the best part about it, you ask? It’s only $10.00!!! Can’t beat it.

One of my favorite lines of clothing is Free People. The look of their clothing is so care free. It’s simple but they find a way to make everything look very put-together. I love,love, love going on their website and checking out the new looks tab at the top of the page. It gives me great inspiration for looks I can put together with garments that I may already have in my closet.

I hope you enjoy these sites!

Hey Sewers! One more exciting step has taken place in my process to get www.MegsCouture.com up and running-Photo Shoot! I got together with a wonderful photographer (whose stuff can be viewed at www.JonQ.com) and two adorable models and we shot the first season of outfits for MegsCouture. I have never worked with nor made clothes for kids before so I was a little nervous about the fit and about getting the kids to do what we needed to get great results. Fortunately, it went off with out a hitch and the kids were naturals. As far as the fit…

I used some average measurements for kids to help create my slopers. After seeing the garments on the models I feel like the measurements I used were a little outdated or too averaged… i.e. they were a little short and squatty. There are always going to be rather long and lanky people/kids in the world and shorter and more petite people/kids and unless you have a plethora of sizes to accommodate all, you must pick one of these types or something in between to set as a standard for your fit. This choice will narrow your target market a bit to that size person. I think most models are a little taller and skinnier than average for their ages. The garments might not be, so this may have contributed to the fit.

So, I guess I have yet another decision to make (woo-hoo!). What will I do with my patterns? I need to decide who my customer is going to be in conjunction with body type. I am not offering a plethora of sizes to fit all body types (you can’t please everyone) so narrowing it down will help. I am leaning more towards tweaking the patterns to a little skinnier and a bit longer in the upper body. To me, it seems that kids are getting taller and taller each generation (or at least in my family) so it only makes sense to appeal to “growing” kids. Let me know what you think!

Meghan

Another exciting step in MegsCouture.com is in process–Patterning! I have finished all of my sloppers and have been working on grading my designs into all of my different sizes. Sloppers are the basic patterns that you then change into your design, and grading is changing your pattern into the different sizes.

It’s been a few months since I have patterned and I forgot how time consuming it is. I anticipate that this will take me about two weeks in total to make and grade my seven different garments. The nice thing is if I carry any of these designs into another season the patterns will all ready be done. It looks like I am going to have to find a closet to be taken over with pattern storage now! Maybe DIYStyle needs to do a Do-It-Yourself on how to make your home into your office!

So since I have to pattern like crazy I think I will challenge all of you who like to sew to look online or pick up a book and alter your store bought patterns to fit you or who ever the project is for. This makes your project that much better and makes you appreciate the time that you put into it. Plus, what’s better than having an outfit that fits amazing and makes everyone jealous! Remember that ironing after each step of the pattern while you are sewing helps make the outfit look great!! Steam away!

“Market Day at Stephens”

Boy has this been a long semester!! Graduation is finally over (YEAH!!!!), and it’s been so crazy busy I have not had a moment to slow down at all. Just to give you a quick update of my last semester at Stephens College, from January to March I was working on five ensembles of my senior collection. It consisted of 11 garments total! I worked with a lot of fabrics and trims that I had never worked with before, including LOTS of feathers. Senior collection is all about getting the most experience you can out if it, so crazy me choose a ton of different fabrics. All together I worked with swim lycra, bamboo knit, stretch linen, embroidered tulle, leather, stretch charmeuse, silk charmeuse, china silk, and silk chiffon. We worked on fitting a lot of our garments last semester in muslin but it’s not always exactly the same result when you get into the final fabric, so I also worked on fitting these garments so they looked perfect. Our entire senior collection was turned in seven weeks after we started, and immediately after we began our portfolio’s and a computer aided manufacturing class. I have learned quite a bit in computer patternmaking, and hope to be able to continue this after my training here at school. We began to learn this program sophomore year but this was a more intense seven weeks of it.

April 4^th was Jury of Selection, where all of my garments were judged by industry professionals from companies like Abercrombie & Fitch and BCBG. This day decided what got into the Stephens fashion show. Then (finally!) on April 18^th we had our Annual Stephens College Designer Fashion Show “Avant Cirque”. The show had a high fashion circus theme, and opened with a choreographed high wire type act—it really was very cool. I was juried in to show three ensembles from my senior collection (you’ll get to see which ones soon), my wool tailored coat and dress, and my rejectamenta (the poker card dress).

Avant Cirque Opening Act

Rejectamenta “Poker Card Dress” for Breast Cancer Awareness

Tailored Coat and Dress

And……April 18^th will always be the best day ever because not only did I get to display all of a years hard work to 1,200 people but……… my boyfriend PROPOSED to me that morning before the fashion show! I was so surprised, and I did say YES!

Even with all this going on somehow I have managed to keep up with work at McCalls. There are more cool, fun patterns on the way. I look back at this year in awe and do not have a clue how it got all done! In my next post I will show you the garments I had in the show one at a time with my sketches, so keep a look out for them coming soon!

Allyce