One of our last sewing projects of the semester was our menswear designs. This is an exciting blog post (for me at least) because you get to see the initial design, the cut pieces of fabric, the actual production process and how the design looks step by step, and the final piece!
This is a production face card. It shows a technical drawing of the garment (called a flat) front and back, which I designed using adobe illustrator. A face card also lists the style number, season, size of garment, the pattern and body measurements, and how many pieces you need to cut from each pattern piece (self, contrast, and fusing).
Layout is the worst process. This is when you take your finalized pattern, and start cutting all of your fabric pieces. Placing your pattern pieces on fabric is like a puzzle. Everything must fit with the grain running in the proper direction, and then all the pattern pieces have to be traced and cut out before you can start to sew.
This is where it gets good! Getting to finally sew your piece is very exciting because this is when you see the transformation of your 2D design become a 3D piece! And with every step...sewing the pocket, doing the topstitching, attaching the placket... the design becomes very easy to visualize! And lucky for me, it was a beautiful sunny day, and my sewing machine is right beside the window! So I got to enjoy some lovely vitamin D!
After getting most if it sewn in one day, I took the shirt home and got my brother to try it on. I had to warn him that without the collar, it sort of looks like a sushi chef's shirt... so he had to look past that. I knew I wanted to make some fit changes so this shirt would fit him like a glove, so he came into my school to have a fitting with myself and my teacher. My brother is very particular about the fit of his shirts, and I am very particular on making sure everything I make fits the wearer well. With that being said, I took the sleeves apart (after they were already flat felled........ dont even get me started on that....) and tailored the length and width of them (even after I attached the cuffs... I tell ya, the things I do for my brother). I also made some armhole and neckline adjustments.
After a slightly brutal second day of sewing, and an intense collar malfunction (I dont want to talk about it), I finished a beautiful menswear piece that I am incredibly proud of!
After a slightly brutal second day of sewing, and an intense collar malfunction (I dont want to talk about it), I finished a beautiful menswear piece that I am incredibly proud of!
My brother knew this shirt was for him, after all, he did choose the fabric!! So I decided to give it to him for his 21st birthday! I snuck it home from school, and hid it from him, which was tough because I was very excited to see his reaction and to have him try the completely finished piece on! (I had nightmares about it not fitting properly). To gift it, I folded it very nicely, displaying a Kachi tag that I had sewn in (you know, to make it official and all), and bought him a matching tie, that I learned how to tie so I could pair the 2 gifts together (like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a killer tie picker outer!) On his birthday, he was so surprised to receive it, and I was relieved that it fits him perfectly!