How I Created the 1st Look From My Capsule Collection
If you’ve followed my journey since graduating FIDM, you’ve seen my style go through many changes. I did the whole hippie thing, fast fashion thing, & 90’s thing. However, None of them were actually my…thing. I’ve always liked simple things, with a little flare (print, design detail, etc). I suppose I always did what i thought would sell the most, Bc you know, just graduating from college, you need your coins.
Now that I’m an established adult, lol, and have been financially comfortable for about 3 years, I can actually sit and design the way that I’d like to. Which is simple and chic!
On my previous blog post: Women Who Farm, I got into what inspired this collection, posted mood board pics, and kinda broke down design details.
Since then, I’ve been juggling my 5 month old, house duties, & Designing.
Here’s the first look of the collection , and the process I went through !
Denim Wrap Skirt (Style #001)
I draped this skirt back in January, before baby boy arrived. It started out as a plain pencil skirt with a few ruffles in the front.
Actually, there were a lot of ruffles in the front lol. It definitely didn’t match my original sketch, and Bc it was gonna be denim, I had to make it simpler.
Once I figured out the ruffles on the front, I literally left it alone until June lol. I had a baby and had to adjust to being La’EL’s mom.
When I picked up where I left off with the skirt, it was time to drape the back. I hadn’t intended on having the extra flap piece of fabric on the side. It was originally supposed to be a pencil skirt with the ruffle in the front.
I go to cut my muslin, I get to draping, and once I fitted the back and pinned the side seam, I had the extra fabric draped over the side. Usually I cut it, but I stared at it for a while and fell in love. So, I kept it.
Muslin Sample
Too much leg ….
At first it showed too much leg so I went back and revised the pattern. I added more inches so that it would cover my legs entirely.
then I made it in denim.
Final Cut in 100% cotton denim.
Multi color Silk Shirt (Style #002)
So for the shirt, I went through a very tedious process. Like, super tedious !
first I draped the shirt on my dress form. Then made a Muslin sample.
Then, Before dyeing the white silk shirt it must go through a process called washing and biting. Once that’s done it has to be boiled in alum and then the cochineal can be added.
After the initial dyeing process the shirt turns into a pink-ish color as its base. I talked about it in my blog post on dyeing with cochineal.
Once the base color is done, you layout your dyes in the pattern you want.
here I used cochineal without the mordant, which produces a nice red color. Turmeric for the yellow. Logwood for the rust. And indigo for the blue.
After I’ve laid out The pattern for the print, I roll up each pattern piece and steam it.
The first sample came out with so many holes that I couldn’t salvage it.
I found out later, after referencing my notes about indigo, that you cannot boil it.
So I had to do the entire process over again.
After wasting about $80 in fabric + time spent. I took a 3 day break to figure out the exact formula.
I then redid the entire process, but applied the info about the indigo, and used less of it, to avoid burning through the fabric once more.
I also wet the fabric before I laid out the dyes, this go round, versus laying it out on dry fabric! This made a huge difference.
The shirt has draw strings in the front and back princess seams that allows you to turn it into a cropped look, or a regular length shirt that stops at your hips.
The process of creating this shirt is very tedious so I’ve been debating on selling this or not. However, it was the most fun I’ve had with dyeing clothing in a while, and I would love to share that time, energy, and care, with my buyers.
I’m currently working on Look #2 which will be a slip dress and a duster, dyed similar to this.