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

Need a dress in a hurry? A new DIYStyle pattern is fresh out from McCall’s! M5881 is a super easy sundress, with several views to create your own design-it-yourself style. Stitch one up in a fun cotton summer print for a picnic or barbecue, or choose a solid silk or stretch sateen for that special dinner, wedding or evening event. This is one of those patterns you will be sure to use over and over again…..each time you make it up you will have a completely different look……and it’s SO easy to sew!

When you’re done with your creation, send us your pics of your completed dress at info@diystyle.net and we’ll post them here on DIYStyle! The first 5 Creative Chicks to send in pics of their M5881 DIYStyle dress will recieve a free DIYStyle pattern of their choice! What are you waiting for…….that cute new dress is right around the corner!!! 

It’s Spring! Woo-Hoo! Spring for me means new beginnings. And for those like myself that are finding the economic hardships are affecting their opportunities in their chosen field a new beginning sounds pretty good right now! Currently I am dealing with still looking for a full time position as an assistant designer. I’m getting really burnt out on writing cover letters and attaching my resume but only good things can come from it. For my readers that are having this same situation-hang in there!!!

So what are some things that I have been doing in the mean time. I have been selling clothes online and doing custom orders for people which helps keep me a float. All anyone can do is just find a job no matter what it is. For me, I am to the point of searching for work in retail. With my degree I’m sure I could get a management position and still be in my industry. 

I also mentioned in a previous post that I was looking at starting my own online business. I am not 100% sure that the timing would be very good to try to run a small business. Though, through the research that I did an online business would probably be the best kind to start up. If you sew orders as they come in then you don’t have a ton of overhead. Plus the sheer fact that you are not paying rent for a store front. There are still a lot of things like taxes and copywriting and web maintenance that have to be contributed into the money that you make. With sales way down for most major department stores I’m not sure I could make my sales to break even. So for now it is part time jobs and MegsCouture.ETSY.com to keep me a float until sales increase and I can pursue my own business dreams or until one lucky company calls me and hires me on.

On a side note if you’re looking for a new distraction (that doesn’t involve working out!) think about taking up a hobby with DIYStyle. This site posts tons of activities that are easy and great to do that can be used in your everyday life. Check out the DIYStyle Projects section. If you have a specific project in mind that you don’t know how to do or you think would be great for the rest of the DIYStyle readers to hear about post it below. Personally, I love hearing new ideas!

It seems like only yesterday that Allyce went to her Senior Prom. She designed and sewed her own dress, and entered it into a Prom contest and was chosen as one of the winners that year. That was probably her first extensive sewing experience, and helped to cement her career choice and course of study for college. It was made entirely from silk charmuese, with three different colors/layer for the skirt portion (incidently Allyce used charmuese for LOTS of her design projects at Stephens!).

Coincidently, we just found out about a Prom Contest that is bring run by Jo-Anns Fabrics and Crafts. This is actually the same contest that Allyce had entered! Here’s the scoop:

The Sew Jo-Ann Prom Contest is open to high school students who create and sew their own prom gowns. After you have worn your unique creation to Prom, submit two photos of you in your gown, along with the entry form and Jo-Ann register receipt that shows the purchase of your fabric. Entries must be postmarked by June 30, 2009.

You can win some fab prizes, including CASH!, a new sewing machine, dress form, or serger. Judging is based on workmanship, originality and level of detail. And, if you need some help getting started, check out your local Jo-Anns store for a Prom Workshop near you. For more info on the contest go to www.joann.com/prom.

Allyce has some great memories from her senior prom………go “Design It Yourself” and make yours a prom to remember!

It seems that there have been some questions on what type of research I did to start planning for my own online business. Thank you for those of you who responded! The first thing that you must understand about the steps to starting a business is that if you do it the right way it takes a lot of time. Research is only one step of getting your small business started. I was asked specifically about an online business so those are the steps I will give. If you plan on starting a brick and mortar business (in a shop) then there are a few more things you need to consider.

To start out, the research process is to prepare you for success in selling your products.  Your research can be from anything.  The point of it is to saturate yourself with as much information as you can about your desired items to sell.  The more you know the better decisions you can make.  For example, before starting my research I had a simple concept of starting an online women’s wear website.  Then Google key words to find information from every aspect, including the consumers view, of the women’s wear industry.  I also made sure to Google for information on starting a small business.  And last, I for sure researched about the economy seeing that it is a big thing that will influence my future business.  Other important things to look into would be technology if you are going to deal with it and manufacturers.  All of this information gives you the advantage to have ideas in your head about possible future conflicts along with also helping you mold your product to one that will fully appeal to the consumer and industry environment. 

From my finds I further developed my product by changing my simple concept of a women’s wear line to maternity because it was a very specific niche market that is always needed to affordable children’s wear that can grow with your kid.  My thoughts for this came because to start I don’t have a ton of funding to get my business started and the amount of money to go into fabric inventory will be less since the clothes are smaller, two because this is a smaller less concentrated market, and three because if everything goes as planned I can expand this into many other labels such as maternity wear or women’s wear. 

The next step in my process is to get a business plan done so that I can think through the first year of my business to see what I need to tweak so that it will thrive and be the best that it can be.  There are many free downloads for free business plans.  I will do a generic outline of what I did in my next post. 

Leave your comments and let me know if this helped or if you have any further questions.  Good Luck!

Hey Creative Chicks!

Who’s into sewing costumes? Whether it’s for a party or a production of some kind, being able to style your own character is loads of fun. Recently I made a money pouch to go with a Shakespearean costume for my brother-in-law (who was off to a murder mystery dinner). I also sewed my own costume for our church Christmas musical. So why do you make costumes? Are you a murder mystery type? A Halloween fanatic? Do you strut your stuff across the theater stage? Here are some photos of a few of my costumes over the years. Enjoy! Can’t wait to hear about yours!

I’m finally taking a breather, catching up with DIYStyle. Thought you would all like to know that I made it through my construction class……….it went great!! I even got an A!! I started out being skeptical about the class and how well I would do, but in the end everything turned out just fine. I really gained a lot of sewing knowledge and know many of the terms that my mom talks about now. I wouldn’t call myself a sewing genius yet, but hey I’m trying.

By the end of the class I completed two pairs of boxers, a pajama shirt, two construction notebooks, a pillow, and a skirt. Here’s a pic. (Okay, they don’t match, but I’m NOT wearing them together!)

This spring semester I am taking a textile science class and a class on the history of costumes. So far I am excited about both. I can’t wait to look back and see all the outfits people wore and then compare them to what we wear now.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Until then it’s lots of studying ahead for me, and wishing for warmer weather soon (so I can wear my new skirt!).

Hope that everyone had a great holiday season! I recently got to celebrate my December 30^th birthday with the New Years and had a ton of fun. I’m the big 25!!! This marks my first birthday and New Years in New York. Though I didn’t trek out to Times Square (because that is just crazy) I did hang with some great friends that I have met up here. What I really wanted to share with you all is my cake! My boyfriend had a thread spool cake made for me through one of his friends who is a wonderfully talented pastry chef. I thought you all would get a kick out of it. You can check out more creations of hers at Sweet Element. Hope you all a great New Year!

Do you ever find yourself questioning your designs, whether it be color choice, pattern or style??? Wow, I do all the time! You know just looking at something straight on never seems to give me the “true” look of the project. So, what I use to do was stand in front of the bathroom mirror, hold the design up and try to decide if I thought it was worthy. That helped…somehow it gave me a view that seemed removed from the project. But it didn’t always give me the help I needed…especially if no one is around for a second opinion.

Now, what I have found, is that I “audition” my designs with pictures. I use my digital camera and shoot photos of the project. Like last night, I was working on a quilt and needed to decide the borders and whether to use rick rack or not. So, I photograph the quilt with a green border only, a green border and black rick rack and a green border, rick rack and a second black border. Then I sat at the computer and auditioned the photos. There is something about seeing the project on the screen that makes a huge difference. I selected the green/rickrack/black borders. Not, what I thought when first just looking at the project. And guess what, I am extremely pleased with the outcome!!!

You know I wish I had some great explanation as to why this works…it just does. And, it works every time! So, try it out next time your not too sure about some aspect of your project…see what a difference the camera can make.

And, hey it is January, no big holiday celebrations taking place, so get sewing and enjoy!!

While I was working on completing my tailored coat and dress, I was also designing my senior collection, sourcing fabrics, writing my brand business plan, creating my mood board, and customer board. In addition to actually designing the collection we work on the business angle too. We had to completely map out our new fashion design company & brand. This included writing a 50 page business plan detailing market research, designing our brand logos and hang tags, as well as our plans for the company. We also had establish a theme for our collection and do a lot of trend research. My company name is “A King Designs” (a play on my name) and the theme for my collection is ”Country Lust”. Here’s the introduction to my collection: For Spring 2009 season “A King Designs” is presenting a collection of Country Lust garments that is inspired by elements of nature including feathers, butterflies, natural wooden buttons, and leather accents. The collection will include several knit garments as well as woven garments including silks and sheers. Country Lust color palette consists of rose pinks, vivid violets, copper, gold, baby blue, chocolate browns, and white. “A King Designs” will be producing garments that are free flowing and comfortable. These garments are fit for a vacation free from constraints.

I found a lot of my fabrics for my senior collection in NYC when I was there visiting McCalls, so I was lucky enough to be able to focus on my sketches and boards in this initial process. When I started designing I had to focus on what market I was designing for. “A King Designs” is a young designer, resort wear company. We design for a woman 20-30 years old who has upper class income. Our products are designed for the customer who is looking for trendy clothing to wear in resort destinations such as the Hamptons and Nantucket. Our customer is a woman who wants to be noticed and her style to shine through her clothing. “A King Designs” clothing is rich in texture as well as constructed from quality fabrics, for the customer who is concerned with detail.

For my senior collection I decided that I wanted to make two swimsuits with cover ups, two dresses, and two weekend wear outfits. We created our portfolio of designs and an amazing critic came in and choose what we were going to make for our collection sketches. Now I’m in full swing, completing all the patterns for the designs, and next semester all of these will come to life (after TONS of sewing!). Stay tuned for my next blog to see what my designs are!

Our TGIF Gifts contest has come to an end, and so has 2008. It has been an incredible year for the Creative Chicks of DIYStyle (and our resident male, Matt our video producer). We want to wish all of our DIYStyle followers Happy Holidays and especially a creative and style filled Happy New Year.

And it’s time to announce our final winner in the TGIF Gifts contest. The lucky winner is……..Helen! Thanks for your comment about how you started sewing……..sounds like many of us learned to sew making doll and Barbie clothes. Your Sulky package will be sent soon. A big thank you to all who entered. We loved reading your posts, and will definitely use your ideas in planning our shows for 2009.

We have some new things to reveal in 2009 at DIYStyle, and to keep on top of our latest antics, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds for both the vodcasts and blogs. And……..there are several new DIYStyle patterns from McCall’s coming in the New Year too………we’ll give you the scoop on that very soon (a new design goes on sale in January……whoo hoo)!

Cindy

Hi All!

So, who won the Clover Gift basket???? The goodies go to Angie. Congrats Thanks for your nice comments about DIYStyle, and the tip about using leftover wrapping paper to make pattern alterations–great idea!

And the winner of the “DIYStyle Tips” and the felting tools set goes to…….Cheryl. Your tip about making gathers easier (who hasn’t had the dreaded broken gathering threads to contend with?!), by stitching over a heavier thread or yarn like crochet cotton. Cheryl we love your tip!! Watch for Cheryl’s tip to be a segment on our next season of DIYStyle!!

And now, our final gift in the TGIF Gifts contest is from one of our very favorite sponsors, Sulky. Actually Sulky was the very FIRST sponsor we had at DIYStyle……they believed in our idea from the start (Thank you so much Jason and Fred!). So be sure to thank them for helping make DIYStyle possible (and for making such great products too!).

Here’s the gift(s):

We start off with a Sulky Stabilizer assortment starter pack. You know how we’re always talking about using stabilizers on DIYStyle, now here’s your chance to try out each and every one that Sulky makes……..

Then, they add their book “Sulky Secrets to Successful Stabilizing” to show you how to use several of their original and popular stabilizers, as well as some neat projects to boot.

And, added to the gifted loot, Sulky added their latest supplement book (this has info about their brand new stabilizers in it too) “Supplement to Sulky’s Secrets to Successful Stabilizing”. So together, with the book above, you’ll be armed with all the info you need to know about how to keep stitches from puckering, decorative stitches made perfect, embroidery, embellishment tricks, and SEW much more!

And as if that was not enough, they threw in a can of their super popular spray adhesive, KK2000. This stuff is fantastic for temporarily holding anything in place while you stitch, hooping towels and loose items for embroidery, and it does not make your fabric stiff (it disappears in 24-36 hours!) like some other temporary spray adhesives.

So, the winner of this week’s bag-o-xmas sewing goods will have quite the loot to get stitching on some new stuff in the new year. With that, we decided that we’d still love to hear your comments about what you would like to see on DIYStyle (give us your sewing how-to wish list!), and in addition (this should be fun!) we’d really like to know how you learned to sew in the first place. Just kind of short and sweet, something nice for all of us to read—each of us has a story to tell and this would be a perfect time to share and reminisce!

Happy Holidays everyone. All of us at DIYStyle are truely thankful for having such a great group of sewing friends and followers this past year. Keep up with DIYStyle………there is lots more to come………..and please pass the word to all of your sewing and sewing wannabe friends about joining the DIYStyle community. The more the merrier!!

Cindy

In trying to plan out what I am going to do for my long term career I have been doing some research into owning an online clothing business. There are many obvious things an entrepreneur must know before starting this endeavor such as Tax information, Copyrights, Logo’s, Loan’s or money to be used as start up, etc. There are also the things that one has to take into consideration so that your business can stay profitable and afloat. Right now my major concern for a potential businesses future is what products will make me most profitable and what obstacles am I probably going to face in the future. Knowing these two things helps an entrepreneur decide if it is worth starting now or at all or can help to problem solve for obstacles in the future. I have found that on obvious issue is the current state of our economy. I have to predict how a big event like this is going to affect my sales as a small business in the future. The only way to do this is to research. I have read U.S. publications as well as international ones to see how the Fashion Industry has been affected and what can be done to keep on top of the water with this (what feels like a) sinking ship.

At the beginning of this year some big name companies all ready started major layoffs. Behind consumers eyes departmental layoffs have occurred within some of our biggest clothing stores such as Wal-Mart, Eddie Bauer, Macy’s, Anne Taylor, J.C. Penney, Talbots, and Lane Bryant. Nordstrom is even concerned with their sales. To try to skirt around this crisis and market to the public they are taking on smaller designers to get fresh stuff in their stores. This way, customers might be provoked to come and see the new lines. And this is just the start of some big fashion industry changes! After New York Fashion Week, garment sales have stalled. It’s being attributed to one of the major trends that we saw in this year’s Fashion Week—very translucent clothing and the recurrence of 80’s silhouettes (pic above) and coloring. This may have been a “fashion suicide” for designers to try to pull off at this point and time.

Consumers are buying less and when they DO buy it’s something that will carry through many outfits and last a few seasons. A trend like “see thru” is most likely not on the top of the consumers fashion list right now.

I am in the process of designing my own spring collection for MegsCouture.ETSY.com. One of the major steps of the design process is to research like crazy. In my research process I have found that as stated above, fashion sales are not doing very well for a couple of reasons. Now how can industry (and I) move forward in these hard times? Keep it practical & simple this next season! It will be interesting to see how this crisis will affect the innovative and gutsy designs that we usually see on the catwalk….we will see!

Here are some styles from the Spring 2009 collections that were a bit more realistic for our economical crisis.  We will see how these designers pan out from the rest in terms of success!

(Pics in this blog are from www.style.com)

So who won all the loot from our 3rd TGIF Gifts post (in case you forgot it was a copy of My Style, My Place and a set of the DIYStyle patterns)? We had some great posts, but only one gets away with the gifts…………..Pamela you are our lucky winner! You’ll get a note from us soon asking where to send all of your lovely goodies. Congrats!

And, I’m sure you are wondering what is up next?! Let’s see, behind door (or should I say gift box) #4 is a basket chock full of wonderful tools and notions from Clover! This basket includes Clover’s neat felting tools & supplies PLUS some Pom-Pom makers to try out too. This gift basket of Clover Notions goodies is worth over $200!!

So, we’re ramping up the “entry” stakes a bit too! We still want you to post your comments to this blog post, about what you would like to see on DIYStyle, AND we’re also asking you to leave us your favorite quick sewing tip as well. We’ll still randomly pick the winner (so if you are a sewing newbie and tipless, that’s OK–you still get a chance to win the gift basket), but, we’ll also vote on which tip submitted is the best of the bunch, and feature it in an upcoming episode of DIYStyle. And we’ll even mention the Creative Chickie who submitted the winning tip on the show! The tip winner also gets a prize too, a set of Clover felting tools.

Get your comments (and tips) in……….somebody’s gonna get lucky!

Cindy

It’s time for us to reveal our TGIF Gifts lucky winner of the Dual Duty XP thread pack. Congrats to Kati, your present will be on it’s way to you pronto! And thanks for leaving us that nice comment about DIYStyle

Our next TGIF Gift is not one…………but two gifts!! Allyce is gifting a copy of her very own My Style, My Place book. It’s full of super easy fashion and home dec projects (kinda like we do on DIYStyle!!), just in time for your to create your own gifts for the holidays. AND…….we’re adding a full set of DIYStyle patterns (Lingerie, Coats, Dress and Tops) as the bonus gift! Yes, 4 patterns and the book. What a treat for one lucky Creative Chick.

PLUS!!!

Be sure to leave us your thoughts about what you want to see on DIYStyle on this blog as your contest entry. We love hearing what sewing techniques you need to learn, and what kinds of projects you would like to see on our vodcasts. So, get writing……..you could be our next winner!

 Cindy