Summer Internship: Day 18

I had quite the eventful day today!  We began working in the studio.  I brought in my materials I bought yesterday from S.R. Harris and brainstormed a bit with Christopher on my ideas.  I am going to start with using the paisley print for the body and burgundy color for the sleeve on the first sweater.  It will be very similar to the striped one I made previously; however, I plan on taking in the waistband a couple of inches to give it a new shape.  The cuffs will also be slimmer in the same manner.  This will create a sense of draping but also hug the body with tighter hemlines.  

 Above is the pattern used to make the body portion of the sweater.  Right now the material is displayed being folded because the pattern needs to be placed on the fold of the material so that it has a centerfold area.

 In comparison, this is the sleeve pattern which kind of looks similar to the body shape.  The curvatures are where the armhole meets with the body and from there creates the raglan sleeve look.

I finished cutting all of my pieces and realized that the white thread in my serger was not going to work for the deep tones in my material.  We went and bought black thread but I had never changed out my thread.  Threading it to begin with was practically a nightmare!  I was relieved to find out that changing the thread was much easier!

I began by separating out the four sections of thread with a tweezers.  Then I pulled out some of the white thread, cut it, and tied a knot to the new black thread.  When this was done with all four spools, I could then pull through each thread until only black was showing.  I know this is not the most exciting thing to learn about, but as an aspiring designer, these lessons are a necessity to sewing!

My next challenge was to attempt to construct a pocket for the sweater; not something I did on the last.  I had to go through a sketch around a similar pocket and adjust to my preferences.  I wanted a pocket that was rounded at the bottom but square at the top as shown below.

It is a bit hard to distinguish but once this was ready, I cut out and placed on my material to cut.  The pocket in the picture appears bigger but a portion of that has to get taken into consideration for seam allowance or material that basically gets sewn and tucked under.

I went on and prepared the cuffs, collar, and waistband which were then stitched to await being attached to the body and sleeve pieces.

This was about my stopping point today as Christopher and I had to venture to Shop NBC to do a photography session with the totes he had previously created.  The bags were given volume by getting stuffed with paper and displayed in a way where the handles were standing upright.  Within the small boxed in area where the pictures were being captured, a long bar hung over top with a wire attached.  The wire could then be looped or hooked around the bag straps and within the actual photo, it would be nonexistent thanks to programs such as Photoshop:)  Overall, very successful and eventual day! 

Summer Internship: Day 17

Onto project two!  Except this time, I am on my own!  Today was a day for me to take an independent day in order to find my materials to construct a similar garment to the one finished yesterday.  I ended up going back to S.R. Harris, which is a wholesale fabric company located in Brooklyn Park, MN.  If you have not read my previous post from when I went last week, this place is HUGE!  A quarter million bolts of fabric line up floor to ceiling.

 As you can see above, this is only one aisle out of the many throughout the store!  And the fabric is not always the easiest to pull out either...

 It actually requires some muscles:) Thankfully, I think I won the battle with this bolt of fabric!

I carried on in my search for materials nonetheless.  I was hoping to find warm red and orange tones for the next sweater.  The bolt located above is a textured polar fleece.  It is important to note that when a designer is in search for materials, they have to please the consumer's needs.  In this case, I would be considered the consumer.  I purchase based upon my preferences.  Designers have to research heavily sometimes to find out what end results the consumer is hoping for.  They often times require trend forecasters (and yes, these exist) to determine some of the variants.  In my case, it is easy because I know exactly what I want...most of the time!

At S.R. Harris, the customer is the one to cut their own fabric unless it is bigger than 5 yards.  I bought 1 yard of four different materials and ended up with...

I have a paisley print as well as red-orange and burgundy fleeces.  The white sweater roll above is reversible and has a heather brown on the other side.  For the rest of the evening I am going to gather my inspiration pieces and create some sketches which I will post tomorrow!  By the end of the week I should have at least one more garment complete and ready-to-wear!

Summer Internship: Day 16

I left off Thursday from the studio beginning my sweater project; we did measurements as well as cutting.  Today we immediately got into pinning and sewing.  I laid out the body pieces and connected them to the arm pieces and from there I made the cuffs, collar, and waist band.  This entire project was made from using my serger and in fact, got completed today!  Needless to say, I was not expecting it to be done so quickly!  We are going to do another similar project now that I have a feel for it and can make modifications.  I will document more with that next one so I can share the process from start to finish:)

Let the Weekend Begin!

I have a three day weekend which has worked out to my advantage!  It has been a month since I have been home or seen my family and my mom as well as two sisters have decided to come pay me a much needed visit over the weekend.  Normally while I am at school, I go home every weekend to work so I am used to being able to see them frequently.  This has been a change but definitely a change I think that will be rewarding for me.  As much as I love being home, I know I am capable of spreading my wings a little bit further with new opportunities.

In the past month, as you all know, I have been spending time on my internship as well as working on sketching and sewing in my free time.  I also managed to make three pairs of pajama pants for my mom and sisters which is now ready for their arrival:)

 
For anyone who is beginning sewing, pajamas make a really great project!  And here is why:

1. Cottons are fairly easy to work with
2. You are not dealing with a lot of shape; mainly straight stitching
3. WHO CARES WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING!  If your pajama pants turn out to be a hot mess, no biggie!  You are probably the only one to know about it:)

Summer Internship: Day 15

I officially began my project today after my sketches and fabric were set and ready!  Christopher began by taking me to JoAnn's to pick up a basic pattern for the raglan sleeve shirt.  We then went through and cut out the pieces of the pattern that coordinated to my size.  What is nice about patterns, is there is always room for modification.  After taking my own measurements (arm length, collar to waist, cuff lengths), we were able to make appropriate adjustments to the pattern pieces.  I actually find it quite funny how often math is used with this process; my favorite subject...NOT!  So finally the prerequisites were complete and I could move onto actually cutting my fabric.  Needless to say this is as far as I got with my project today and waiting for Monday to continue is going to be a challenge!  More updates to come:) 

Summer Internship: Day 13 & 14

More bags to work on this week!  I am really loving seeing them all come together and how they will correlate with the overall collection.  Everything is flowing so fluently with how Christopher described the theme to be.  

As exciting as all of this is, I have to say, I am even MORE excited (if that is even possible!) to get started on the project I discussed previously!  So far I have bought materials and created a sketch design to go along with it.  The sweatshirt will be a raglan sleeve style with longer cuffs as well as print on body and solid material on the sleeves.  

The about picture is my sketch along with the according fabric swatches.  Now that the sketching and materials are obtained, our next step is to do measurements and pick out an appropriate pattern.  Bring on the sewing!   

Summer Internship: Day 12

Field trip time!  Today we went out on a venture in search of fabric.  We have done the typical JoAnn, Hancock, and Mill Ends runs but today needed more!  S.R. Harris is a massive fabric warehouse that stores a quarter of a million rolls of materials as well as trims.  From floor to ceiling, the place is jam packed to the brim with fabric...EVERYWHERE!

It is amazing but it definitely takes some digging through to find what you need.  Luckily for both Christopher and myself, we found some great materials!  Previously I posted a couple sketches of what I would be working on here soon with my serger and I ended up finding materials for that today as well!