Dress Journey: Rainbow Chevrons

A couple of weeks ago we were commissioned to make this amazing rainbow chevron dress, here is its dress journey...

This was the toile/mock-up of the design of the dress, a simple t-shirt shaped top and a gathered waist skirt. Please excuse the one sleeve! I was using up scrap fabric and to save on time I only needed to show one sleeve...

So from this our customer asked for some of the fullness in the skirt to be taken out as it was a tad too much, but other than that it was just right.

This was the fabric, I'd searched everywhere to find a suitable rainbow chevron fabric, which isn't easy to come by! This was a cotton poplin fabric and was lovely to work with, even if it did send my eyes funny at time!

Cutting out the patterns were a tad difficult to match the pattern but I soon found out the pattern would not match across the side seams. But as long as it matched the same colour rows going across, it was the only thing I could do. It did take me 2 hours to cut it all out but I knew it had to be right.

Here is the top sewn together and as you can see, the side seam pattern didn't match perfectly but the colour rows did, which was all I could do. I made sure that there was a perfect chevron line running straight down the centre front and centre back though to keep the balance of the garment.

The skirt had to be a large rectangle shape, it couldn't have been done in triangles to make the skirt swing out as the pattern would have just sloped off towards the side seams. So it was a rectangle and then the top was gathered in to create a bit of fullness and ripple.

This point was the top and skirt joined together, I was so eager to see what it was like! It still had the neck and hem to finish however.

The concealed zip and neck facing was next in, finishing off with my label put on and then hemming on the skirt was the last step!

It's finished! I think its such an impact statement dress! Plus any accessories can be matched to it as it has all the colours.

As a little extra, out of the scraps I made one of our cute rounded shirt collars to team up with any outfit because the fabric is just too cool!

And here is our lovely customer in her dress! Amazing! <3

S/S 14 Design Evolution: Rosie Dress

The second in our series of showing our design evolution is featuring our Rosie dress, a fit & flare vintage inspired dress with short sleeves and finishes at the knee.

In the original sketch it had full length sleeves but decided to make them sweeter by shortening the length to just above the elbow.

This toile (crazy cheap fabric was used) was when the main dress was together before adding sleeves and collar. Was already loving the subtle silhouette and couldn't wait to see it complete.

The completed toile/mock-up looked so sweet and vintage-esque, especially with the pointed collar.

The first properly made dress in the design was a printed jersey fabric and we really liked how the darts created these lovely falls through the skirt.

And the second dress made in the design was a Paris crepe fabric and vintage fabric collar. This fabric was more stiffer and held the shape more better throughout the skirt.

S/S 14 Design Evolution: Francis Dress

We are starting a little series of the evolution of our designs. Starting from sketch drawing to finished articles. Our Spring/Summer '14 collection is still basking in the pastel loveliness but with more collars and sleeves, following both current trends and looking at vintage styles to make a beautiful modern mix.

Our first design we'll be looking at is the Francis dress, featuring a shirt collar, elasticated waist, box pleats and gathers and decorative buttons or braiding decor.

From this drawing, we decided to put in a short zip in the back so that the shirt collar could be opened for access but the rest of the dress would simply pull over. The skirt has a series of small box pleats as well as it being gathered into the elasticated waist, this creates a wonderful full skirt.

This first dress was the toile/mock-up of the design, checking all the patterns I'd drafted were correct. It all worked out right and for the photo we pinned on some pink buttons to see the effect. This shirt-style dress had instant interest over on our Facebook.

Because we loved the pink toile we made, we decided the first dress had to be a pink beauty. We also had these flowers that were originally in a braid together but we cut them up and put them down the front of the dress. We thought it looked so cute and girly!

The second dress in this style was a more sophisticated take, in grey and lilac with mismatched buttons. We loved this one too and shows the opposite side of the design.

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