Tien Chiu

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November 2, 2009 by Tien Chiu

10,000 and counting

That’s right: according to Google Analytics, my website has now served up 10,000 pageviews, just 26 days into its existence.  (And 3,349 visits from just under 2,000 unique visitors!)  I’m very pleased – people are coming!  And liking what they see…the average time on site is about 3 minutes, which is quite awhile in Internet time.  Considering the effort that went into the revamp, I’m glad to see that people are enjoying the site.

Tonight was largely a lost cause, because I spent most of the evening searching fruitlessly for the little sensor magnet for the loom.  I had carefully removed it, set the screw for it in a place where I knew I’d be able to find it again, and…put it, uh, somewhere.  I’m sure it was a very clever place, because it’s taken me two hours to fail to find it.  Fortunately, I’m pretty sure the folks at AVL will ship me a new one.

And I have ordered a book!  Carol (the woman who fitted my sloper) recommended it to me as one of the best books out there on fitting for fashion design, so I ordered a copy from Amazon.  It’s titled Fitting and Pattern Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach to the Art of Style Selection, Fitting, and Alteration and is by multiple authors – just look it up on Amazon (or follow the link) if you want to find out more.  It’s not cheap by any means, but it looked pretty darn good/encyclopedic when I went through it at Carol’s place.  Once it arrives (Wednesday, according to Amazon) I’m going to use it to make all the changes that Carol suggested on the coat pattern.  It will be interesting to see how that goes!

Filed Under: All blog posts Tagged With: couture sewing, website redesign

November 2, 2009 by Tien Chiu

Thinking in fabric

I went to see Sharon (Bell) yesterday, and we went over the muslins.  The coat muslin I am going to entirely redo, but the dress foundation is very nearly perfect.  So I am going to redo it, this time without the boning, and next time we are going to use it to drape the dress pattern.  But the “redo” will likely be the one I actually use in the dress!

We also talked about the construction and the fabrics for the garment, and I learned a LOT.  For example, I had wondered why, if you do a muslin and “perfect the fit”, you still have to fit the garment in the fashion fabric.  Turns out (duh!) it’s because fabrics respond and drape differently, no matter how similar you try to choose the fabric for fitting, so the “perfect pattern” is different for every fabric.  Of course!  I don’t know why that hadn’t occurred to me, but it makes total sense now.

We also discussed the layering of the fabric.  Rather than construct a separate lining, Sharon suggested using the foundation as the lining as well.  To prevent the boning from showing on the outside, she doesn’t just use a layer of thin silk (as most patterns have you do) – she puts in a layer of flannel to “pad” the fabric and smooth out the lines.  Again, obvious (and perfectly logical) in retrospect, but that hadn’t occurred to me either.

Hemming the dress: she recommended using some organza in the hem, to give it just a bit of body and to flare the skirt ever-so-slightly.  She said, “The more couture the garment, the less flat the hem is.”  She also showed me several seam finishes – Hong Kong finish, the stitch-and-pink finish (stitch a straight line and then pink the edges to “blur” the edge so it won’t be visible from the outside), and the Seams Great finishing method – that I could use to finish the seam allowances.

Zippers: We had been planning to put the zipper in a side seam, but that would create problems with the foundation, which fastens differently.  So we agreed to put the zipper in the back.  She recommended strongly against using a “railroad zipper” (the conventional zipper method), but recommended a “lapped zipper” (like blue jeans zippers) instead so we could guarantee that the zipper wouldn’t show.  We might decorate the back of the zipper with a set of faux buttons, haven’t decided yet.  (I don’t want to have loads of “real” buttons on the back, as that would make it impossible for me to get in and out of the dress by myself – which, if I’m trying it on constantly as it’s being constructed, would be a real PITA.)

She also showed me how to set in a sleeve without using the common “pull up the basting threads” method.  You run the fabric through the sewing machine and hold your thumb against the back of the presser foot, so the fabric piles up against the presser foot.  This crimps the fabric and you can then (very carefully, so the crimps don’t come out) match it to the other piece and sew.  I think this will take some practice, but fortunately, I have more muslins to work on!

I think this is going to work out great.  For our next meeting, I  plan to redo the coat muslin and the foundation, which means doing some pattern alteration, too.  Since I’m at the point of threading up the loom, the plan is to work on the coat muslins in the mornings while Mike is still asleep (the noise from running the loom to “treadle the threading” would wake him up, so I can’t thread in the mornings), and thread in the evenings.  Using this approach I think I can get the samples and the muslins completed by the time the Great Chocolate Extravaganza rolls around, which leaves me the first couple weeks in December to weave the fabric.  It will be very tight indeed, but I think I can have the fabric and dress completed by mid-February.  I may have to ask Sharon to help me  with the sewing, though – we’ll see.

I also managed to make it to Santa Cruz to see the Highlands House and Park.  I’m only so-so on it, so I think I’m going to try seeing the next few places on my list to view before making a final decision.  More running around! but I think I’ll somehow be able to get everything done.  I hope!

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, sewing Tagged With: couture sewing, wedding dress

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