Project Selvedge Challenge 4

Challenge 4!

ASSIGNMENT

Basically for this one, we were paired with a dancer and told to choose a song which will inspire a dance from them and a design from us. We had $25 to spend anywhere and could also use leftover fabric from past challenges. Also, we had 2 weeks.

It turned out my dancer; Dana, and I already new each other from mutual acquaintances and being on the same floor in the Dorms Freshman year. So it was great; there was no need for introductions or small "get to know you" talk!

When we first met to brainstorm we were both finding ourselves drawn to Florence and the Machine as an artist choice. Florence is a great inspiration for me because she does the elegant lady-like flowy style but always with an unusual edge. I've got the pretty flowy look down, but need that edge in my work so decided this was perfect. Her music is also very artistic, and always tells a story and evokes a lot of feeling, and has a lot of power in it. Perfect for dancing!

CHOOSING A SONG/VISION

So I was debating for a good few days between Dog Days are Over; a peppy, upbeat, pop song which would probably be a crowd pleaser and easy to recognize

and Hurricane Drunk; a song I was really pulled to initially, but then looked up the lyrics and found it to be very depressing and dark(it's about a break-up and going out and seeing your ex and then drinking yourself to death)

In the end I decided I felt like taking the challenge of something that actually required some creativity to make it work. Hurricane Drunk does have this painful, moody, stormy side(visually giving me ideas of wind-blown, disheveled, unraveled etc). But I started to form this idea in my mind where this character is facing this storm, and it's pushing her down, but she keeps getting back up, she has a boldness and strength, and is a fighter. She's being tossed around by life, but stands there saying "what more could you do to me?". If that makes sense......

INSPIRATION

MATERIALS

I decided to use my purple jersey from the first assignment to make a unitard; I'd dyed it with the dye I used on the linen so it was a muddy purple color, perfect for this.

Then I went and got some "ghoul" fabric which was a gauzy mesh, a few fabric bundles from a thrift store, and some metal chains and black feathers at Joans

I originally was trying to figure out how to do a bodice bustier with the rope-like yarn I found at the thrift store, but it just wasn't really doing much for me

Then I decided I liked the gauze on the bodice and went from the above styling, to the idea on the left which allowed this flowy look and was flattering on Dana, and allowed the chains to be on her shoulders which was where we really liked them best

Oh and below is a picture of the AWESOME dance studio lent to the dancers to practice in for this challenge

 I decided to use the rope as fringe on the back, and ended up figuring out a really basic Macrame design for it, shown best in the photos below

above you can kind of see the gold painted string i had wrapped around the straps, just another touch of that strong, boldness which I was trying to evoke. I also made this one sided wing-like fabric drape beneath her arm, I felt like the asymmetrical placement and style was a little shout out to Florence and would also be great for dancing. And I didn't mention it before but that metal circle in the center of her chest is actually a bike part, so that's a shout out to Found.Foraged.Formed :)

HAIR AND MAKEUP

Carly from Boom Swagger Salon did this incredible hair-do for Dana! I asked for it to be back-combed like crazy with a braid across the fore-head, and it ended up exactly how I imagined. I then had a bunch of dried twigs, leaves, and flowers which I'd collected, to add to her hair with the help of my Aunt Judy who's great with this sort of thing. 

LE FIN

Initially when I heard what this challenge was, I kind of panicked. Dance? Interpreting music? WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MY SEWING SKILLS?

But then I started brainstorming and started to have so much fun. In fact this was by far the most enjoyable, fun, creative, and stress-free challenge for me thus far which was pretty nice. I think that it helped to be pushed to have a really clear vision and be able to communicate it well. Because of course working with someone else to complete a vision, you HAVE to communicate your ideas. 

In the end, I really loved what I did. Both me and Dana worked really thoughtfully with the concept of disorientation, vulnerability, weather beaten vs. strength, boldness, hardness, overcoming and power. These elements were included wonderfully in the dance she choreographed, and I think they came across in what I designed with the tattered soft organic qualities mixed with the gold accents, metal chains, and macrame(soft armor)

and also Dana is beautiful :)

Project Selvedge Challenge 3

                        

AYIYIY!! Ok so this post is a little late, mostly because it took a few solid days to recover from this challenge, and also because the coming challenge(yes, I am still in the competition!) we have an extra week for which allowed me to push this out of my mind for a little longer.

 THIS WAS SO SO HARD!

I worked my butt off like never before, losing sleep, losing sanity, and WISHING I could lose feeling in my fingers which by friday night were red and raw from pinning this dang garment so many times.

Reflecting on this challenge, and the ones before, I come to the conclusion that I have no problem imagining a great design in my mind, but making it is another story. I always come up with great ideas, but my lack of sewing experience causes me to have no clue how to asses the difficulty of the design, especially given time, money, and help constraints.

Assignment

ANYWAYS 

the challenge was this; each designer is assigned a color, and a decade. They must be inspired by something from the decade, and use the color given them predominantly. Budget is $35.

I was given 80s and Orange

Inspiration/Sketches

So below is my sketch(bringing back the chevron idea) and my inspirations;

strong shouldered suit, shoulder pads, peplums, bright colors, prints, etc

                          

Fabric

so I went and got fabric to create a rainbow of orange; adding yellow and pink into the palette

and then I tried to use this beautiful pattern that my mom helped me with. HOWEVER(and this was the first of many unfortunate setbacks that made me want to tear my hair out) we were inaccurate in the striped chevron idea. I laid out most of my rainbow fabric for the chevrons and cut them into strips, all on the same angle, and sewed them together, and cut them down the center so each side could be a part of the V......and then they only went one direction(as seen below) unless I flipped half of them inside out.

        

fortunately I was able to scrap some scraps together to make the other half of the chevron panel, seen below, getting stitched together, and pinned on the dress

oh, and those chevrons took 6 hours to get only as far as that upper left photo.

Below is another setback; the shoulder pads were looking horrendous and I could not find any way to avoid making Janyssa look like a football player:( 

ugh it was just awful

To just give a glimpse into the frantic chaos of that week, My wednesday was supposed to be for the bulk of my work, and that was when the difficulty of what I was doing set in; when I ended up spending the ENTIRE day piecing together chevrons. Thursday I worked, and then got home at 4 to sew. I ended up being up until 1am, in a state of panic because the shoulder pads weren't looking good, i had to start a new top with the few pieces of fabric i had left, and Janyssa wouldn't be home until 4 the next day(i wanted to be done by 5 to give myself prep time for the show that day). So I woke up at 7:30, skipped breakfast and went straight to sewing, stopped at 10am to meet Janyssa on campus and fit something to her, in a 30 minute window she had between classes, went to the fabric store to pick up part of the sewing machine they lent me, got home and managed to scarf down a leftover pastry and coffee, and literally sewed until 5:30pm. 

I BARELY managed to make it in time to iron the outfit at the sewing store, and then I put Janyssa in her dress and the zipper comes apart. After desperately trying to get help from the other designers to put the invisible zipper back together, I finally got help from someone who worked there to sew her into the dress. 

This challenge literally almost killed me. I am utterly amazed that it ended up being finished and in one piece because there were a few moments on friday when so stressed out, and shaking, and emotional about the state of my design, that I didn't even want to present it. 

So glad it looked as good as it did!

and here's a video that gives a little insight to project selvedge;

and oooh! here is another blog documentation of the competition(done by my competitor Lauren who is very talented and charming) check it out! http://lifebythethreads.com/2013/03/design-contest/

(top middle photo was taken by Susman Media)

Project Selvedge Challenge 2

The End Result

The Process;

assignment: Today your challenge is about the leisurely life.  Here in Montana we have a number of luxury resorts (that most of us can’t afford to visit).  Resort wear should be elegant and effortless – ready for duck hunt or cocktails and gourmet dinners.  For this challenge you will be dressing a client on his/her way to a stay in the lap of luxury, however, in light of current events,  you will be making luxurious resort wear on a sequestered budget.  You each can choose 2 fabrics from the Selvedge  stash – and you will have a mere $15 in the shop to complete your garment. 

FABRIC

I first chose a pale pastel colored pink heavy weave fabric, because I liked the color, and then a creamy white jersey type of fabric. 

I had a lot of initial ideas, but many were effected by my choices in fabric, so I had to commit to tweaking my ideas to fit my material. Initially i wanted to do a pant with the pink, and a drapy boat neck top with the cream, and possibly incorporate a chevron patchwork of the fabrics. I was really inspired by 1920s loose fitting draped clothing with drop waists etc. 

but playing around with my fabric led to me working with the pretty draping grecian nature of it, which resulted in the silhouette below, a 1930s inspired shape with a Greek or Roman look.

DRAPING

SKETCH # 1

I new I wanted this as a base so this was where I started. 

(also if you want to check out my pinterest board with all my digital imagery inspiration, click here)

and then I found this 1920s dress that I loved so much and really wanted to borrow from

which led to the following sketch

SKETCH # 2

The above was the first time I fit the dress to Janyssa, and started trying to tack on the chevrons. But the first issue was that there seemed to be bad proportions of fabric. With so much skirt, I decided to bring the neckline down. Also the chevrons weren't looking the way i'd hoped.

Then I put Janyssa in some western boots and a chunky leather belt to style her up. I played around with the look and ultimately decided the pink chevrons weren't working.

FITTING AND CHANGES

 

That was on wednesday night. On thursday I went to work, and got out at 3:00, and felt pressure to go get something from Selvedge since it would likely be my last chance. It was just so hard because I didn't know what to look for and buy. I had been mulling over it the night before(DREAMING about it) and at work, and had been wearing a blouse that resulted in me to get inspired by lace and buttons and a western bohemian look. I left the bead shop(where I work) that thursday, and made a beeline towards Bernice's Bakery where I plopped myself down and slowly drew out of myself the ideas for this design

SKETCH # 3

I liked this direction because it fit the idea of a western Montana resort. It's whimsical and a little country, but with a bohemian delicate touch which is very much my style. 

I did have a concern that the draping back wouldn't match the front of the dress, but I ended up liking it. It was as if I'd combined a grecian dress with a bohemian/western/vintage slip.

So I promptly went to explore the fabric store. I found some gorgeous vintage lace, and bought all the teeny brown buttons I could afford, bolted home, and wound up doing this;

FINISHING DETAILS

I kind of loved it. I tied for third, which felt great after seeing my tough competition for this week; challenge 2 winner

photo cred: Susman media

side note; I did have to spend the half hour leading up to the runway show frantically re-stitching the buttons. They were continually falling off, i think due to the thread i'd used to sew them on(the knots would just slip right out!). Just ask Janyssa, I was near to tears and panicking. I ended up losing 2 or three of them, but fortunately was able to conceal it, and with many fingers crossed, none popped off during the show. 

And now, to work I go on challenge 3; something inspired by the 80s, in the prominent color orange!

.yikes.