Week 6: Wednesday

 On Wednesday I carried on with my own development but this time in 3D. I started the day by practicing making pleats which is a technique that has featured in several illustrations. I decided to use pleats as most of my garments are quite simple shapes so I wanted to some texture them to create depth. I want to use pleats along the curved edges but I wasn't sure whether I should do this by cutting the fabric in the right shape then pleating or doing the pleats first then cutting the shape out so I tried it both ways. The second way worked best as when I cut the shape out first the pleats changed the shape of the fabric. By doing the pleats first I was able to get the exact shape that I wanted. I found this useful to do as it helped me to figure out how I would be able to make these pleats before I start to make the actual garment in the real fabric. When I bought samples last week I got pack of several different fabrics that I could by so I went through them and decided to use duchess satin to make the pleats. I like this fabric as the shininess makes it look quite luxurious and also it is quite stiff and strong which is good because I don't want the pleats to look flowy and soft.

Next I continued my 3D development by draping fabric on the stand using my illustrations as inspiration. In my drawings the dress were unfitted and loose but when I was draping I found that I preferred the dress when it was more form fitting so I added two darts, one in the back and one in the front. I originally wanted to do a dress that wasn't fitted as I wanted to almost hide the woman's body which can seem unflattering but then expose one of the sexiest parts of the body, the breast. I was surprised that I was able to create a shape that fitted the body but was not too tight that it exposed more of the body than I wanted to show. I also think the length is quite modest but I may make it longer. I had also planned to have a sleeve to cover the wearer even more and to highlight the exposed breast but since it is quite hard to drape a sleeve I left it sleeveless which I quite like as I don't want the garment to be too asymmetrical. 

To progress I'm going to take this dress apart, make a pattern from it and remake it properly so I can see exact what it would look like. Then I will make adjustments depending on how it turns out.