CHALSIE WILLIAMSON: making of final dress

For our final dress it came to the conclusion that our dress would need the subtraction cutting technique to manufacture it.

Since the dress was now going to be made at full scale we took into consideration the amount of material we would need. We came to a total of 4 metres split into 3 different types of material; Two metres of heavy dark grey cotton, one metre light grey chiffon and one metre light blue polyester chiffon.

In terms of making the pillowcase shape, this is where we altered the first steps shown from our previous attempt at subtraction cutting, from using two fabrics laid flat on top of each other to form a pillow case to using three. Our plan was to lay the two metres of grey heavy cotton following the action of sewing both chiffon fabrics either side.

We were not accurate in terms of our measurements however we were determined to use as much fabric we bought as possible. So it was estimated that the width of each fabric was of 2 meters and length was of 1.5 meters.

After sewing all three rectangular fabrics together each side, we were left with what looked like a wide tunnel. We then lay it flat and positioned exactly where we wanted the seams connecting each type of fabric to lie. It was decided that the seam of which the grey and blue chiffon were sewed together was to be placed right in the middle of the pillow case. This was considered to provide an equal amount of different colour either side of the dress.

Whilst one member of our group sewed up one end, over-locked all edges, turned it inside out and ironed it flat the other started on drawing the pattern of our bodice design. Our aim was to create a brazier styled bodice therefore we had to alter the design of the standard bodice block. We closed the dart from underneath the arm hole to open up and then close the dart on the upper chest bit of the brazier. Clearly studying the features of our final design we had to extend the length of the waist by a few more inches to give a more flattering look to the dress when worn. And for the back bodice we drew a simple low neck line.

When it came to placing the bodices, it was decided we’d place front bodice slightly near the sewed up edge, and the back bodice slightly out of line from the front. Both patterns were joined together using a spontaneously drawn curve connecting from the bottom of the waist. After this the negative space within the two patterns face each other was cut out.

When sewing together each side where our curves that connected each front and back waist, we needed to use a zip for the fastening. We used an invisible zip and sewn it down the side seam. Whilst one member of group did the zip the other started on the lining.

For the lining, we used the same bodice patterns we used for the outer bodice, only this time we had cut straight across the waist rather than fully extending the length to create another inside dress. The darts were sewn up, bottom edge of waist over locked and side seams sewn together. This was prepared inside out.

Once zip was finished, we started to place the circles, however before actually cutting out any circles we experimented on draping the skirts fabric to roughly determine where we should place and cut out the circles instead. We looked at placing the first circle quite close to the front bodice as we understood that a lovely drape and structure would form once fabric from quite below was pulled up to be attached to the top circle.

We then placed and cut our circles...