Design
Draping
My draping projects were meant to challenge us to create designs we never would have thought of if asked to draw it.
1. For our first challenge we had to take a 36" square piece of muslin, a 36" circle piece of muslin and two 36" triangle pieces of muslin and drape a dress. We had to use all of the fabric and could cut into it, but not cut any pieces off. Our final design had to hold itself up, it could not have any pieces pinned to the dress form.
2. For our second challenge we had to drape a cowl neck on the front, back or side of the dress form. Once we had our cowl then we had to create the rest of the dress around it. This dress also had to hold itself up and could not have any pieces pinned to the dress form.
Empire Dress
Tree Skirt
For our tree skirts we were tasked to create a skirt for a tree we were given at Maymont in Richmond. After installation it was supposed to stay up for a week. My tree had a 90" circumference and was just about a yard long. My initial inspiration for my skirt was rose petals. I cut out petal shapes in different sizes and stitched them strategically to my base skirt around the top of the petals. After a second visit to my tree halfway through the week it had sprouted branches on the trunk and to avoid harming the tree my skirt became a sarong rather than a closed skirt.
Design Challenges
Throughout the year we were given design challenges to challenge the basic skills we had learned. Above are my original designs challenging the basic construction skills I learned throughout the year:
1. Skirt design challenge - we had to create an original design using our basic skirt slopers. I decided to shorten mine, add an asymmetrical bottom and attach hanging straps that cross as a design detail.
2. Dress design challenge - we had to create an original dress by attaching a skirt and bodice together. I used the 2-dart bodice and moved the darts on the front and exaggerated the darts in the back. For the skirt I attached different length straight and pleated panels to a basic skirt and then attached to the bodice.
3. Sleeve design challenge - we had to create original sleeve designs for our dartless bodice sloper. I was inspired by Virago sleeves popular in the early 17th century. To modernize the look I only put one puff on each sleeve and balanced them asymmetrically.
4. Dress Design Challenge #2 - we had to create a dress with original sleeve and collar designs inspired by Givenchy, which is where I got the idea for the full skirt and my color choice from. The top half of my dress was inspired by Leanne Marshall designs. This project was meant to test the culmination of the skills we learned in our first year of design.