Now, let the dress making begin.

So now that all the design ideas are done, it's time to make it happen.

I start with drafting the patterns.

When I was at school, a million years ago, I hated pattern drafting. We had teacher who was the chair of the fashion department and by the end of the first year none of us knew how to make a basic pattern. So they brought a new teacher who was a terror, but we did learn. I still stayed with basic pattern making until I got my first job where I designed and made the first draft of the design. It took me a while to figure out how the whole thing works and gained confidence. The basic idea for pattern drafting is taking a 3d design and turning it to a 2d design. Knowing how to put the garment together is extremely important, other wise to get to a design that is almost impossible to make. It looks great on paper, but making it to a finished garment is almost impossible.

So in time I became proficient in drafting patterns and now at times I forgo sketching the outfit and just work with the pattern to design a new outfit.

At night just before I fall asleep I think about my new design and how to put it together and figure it all out. Last night I figured that i screwed up the pattern for the new dress, and that the front actually will need to come to a V shape like the top. Other wise the two will meet in a strange way so this morning I fixed it and had to re cut the front and top piece. It good I caught in at that stage and not after trying to sew the pieces together.

I cut a muslin from white silk dupioni, I try to use a similar fabric as the final fabric I use for muslin, this way I get a true feeling as to what the final garment will look like. It is very important especially when working on such a small scale.

I make the necessary corrections to the patterns based on the muslin, and than cut the outfit in the final fabrics.

Of course I cut the skirt with the old version of the pattern, I only realized my mistake just before falling asleep last night. So this morning after fixing the patterns I cut the skirt again and hopefully this one is a good fit.

Now the sewing begins.

But that will be in the next segment which will be titled 'I can't see shit with this black on black fabric, what the hell was I thinking'.

Till later

Ayal