prototype

I had a critique last monday in draping for our dresses. Can you guess which one is mine?
If you guessed the one on the far right, you are correct! There are some things I need to tweak, but I'm overall satisfied with the end result. I haven't worn lolita in a really long time. Not since I moved coasts last year, because I didn't have enough luggage space to bring any dresses over. I keep thinking how I want to buy another one, but there hasn't been one that's come up that I really wanted. I thought about how much I wanted a dress all last weekend that I ended up making one for my critique.

This one is just my muslin sample, but it fits pretty alright so I might end up dying it to be worn. I don't know what color, though. For the final fabric, I'm hopefully going to find something with a nice print. Otherwise, I'll be revisiting the pattern and doing something more interesting on the front.
I got a little white to work on my final. Hopefully it'll come out nicely.

Love,
Kaia

fluffy and puffy

Sewed a skirt for my patternmaking final. I would have liked to add more ruffles and details, but I should have started on it earlier. It'd due Thursday. My patternmaking final is to make one skirt and one dress, both with pockets. The dress has more requirements. I'm currently working on it. I bought this fabric at a discount store. It was only $2 per yard, and they were really, really long yards. Upholstry fabric, I think. Really good deal. I bought five yards, which is like 10 regular yards. A little worried for this crit. Gee, I hope it goes alright. Got to get back and work on that dress. Love, Kaia

bearing the work.

For my assignment in patternmaking, we were told to make a sleeve sewn on to a bodice.It's supposed to be half a bodice and just one sleeve but I don't like to make unfinished projects, especially with fabric because it seems like a waste to make something with all the time and effort and not to be able to wear it. So! I made my sleeve on a full bodice as a sweater so it could be worn. Critiques were today. Critiques are always really intimidating, especially in patternmaking because sewing details are examined very closely and I am not good at sewing.
I did elbow patches out of some pink corduroy fabric that I had, and then attached bear claws to the elastic hem sleeves. The claws are sewn with white jersey knit and stuffed, sewn closed, and are attached to the sleeves with snap buttons so that they could be easily removed.
Back is a centered zipper for getting in and out of. Bottom has a lace trim hem, as I lace trim everything I make. I was nervous, but the critique went pretty well. My professor didn't go too harsh on criticism; she told me that I could have done better on the zipper, and that the elbow patches could have been...rounder. "Hey, I have to find something to critique on."

Probably the biggest downside to this sweater is that I got the fabric from our fabric supply room so it's not the best in the world. Wearing it for a little bit is ok, but it gets really itchy when I'm in it too long. Not the most comfortable.

Making clothes is rewarding, though. I'm really terrible at making dresses but for one of my finals I have to construct a dress. Hopefully that will go ok...

Love, Kaia

i really want to make something right now.

A couple days ago I went buy fabric in Brooklyn. I like going to the garment district to get inspiration and look at all the fabrics, but once I set my eye on something and then see the price tag, it's a bit of a downer (and when I say a little I mean a lot). So it makes me really excited when I go buy discount fabrics at prices that I can actually afford.
In total, I bought 7 yards of mint tulle ($1 per yd!), 24 yards of white tulle ($1 per yd!), 5 yards of green plaid ($1 per yd!), 3 yards of light green cotton ($3 per yd!), and 3 yards of ash pink IDK synthetic something ($1 per yd!).
I had only meant to buy 10 yards of white tulle, but Emily said that I should just get the whole bolt and I was like why not because I thought it would be easier to just get the whole thing instead of having it all rolled out. But in the end the cutter still ended up rolling the whole thing out...
A few days ago I was just going to make my circle skirt pattern for my patternmaking class, but then I got really into it and ended up sewing the whole thing.The lace was only $1 for 2 yards, so total the skirt only took about $3 to make! Pretty happy with the outcome. I've been wearing it all day.

I've been wanting to sew all day! I want to make dresses and skirts. But I should really be doing other homework instead.

Love, Kaia

nothing makes me happier than really nice people.

Today was my critique for my patternmaking class. I'm always really nervous for it because I'm not very good at sewing or understanding directions, and patternmaking is a very much sewing based class. I am always afraid of doing something wrong because I don't completely understand it, and when I sew things it's always finished badly and the zipper is off somehow and something doesn't line up and something is caught on something. Always. So critique days are usually the days I dread most. My teacher is very critical about small details.
For our critique today, we presented our dirndl skirts. Before, we would make all of our designs in muslin but starting last week our teacher gave us the option of making our skirts out of fabric, and we had to design it too. Mine is the blue one with the bear face. I was really excited to see everyone's skirts because I think they all came out really nicely. Everyone's gathers were really even and the yokes were all really good. I think everyone had a shaped yoke except for me.

I'm pretty happy with how the skirt came out, and it seems that the work paid off because I had the nicest comments today.
When we do critiques, we all put our garments on a dressform, and after we all examine each other's garments, we pull out the ones we think are the best. Generally only a couple are chosen and we're really nitpicky about everything. Mine usually sits in the back in shame, but this week my skirt was picked out first, by several people. It was really touching.
The inside of the yoke has a floral facing. And inside both of the side seam pockets.
lace trimmed with mint topstitch. I went and bought ten yards of this lace. It was $1 for two yards which is really awesome!
And then there's the bear shaped double patch pocket made out of felt. This pocket makes me happy.

I hope that I will be able to get a decent grade on my skirt. My teacher has never once said anything nice about the garments I've turned in before, but she said today that she loved my skirt and she is really proud of everyone's sewing.
Here's me trying it on before adding on the trims. Everything we make has to be industry standard size 8 (which is the size of all the mannequins we have at school which fits more like a size 4), and I'm really glad that it's not far from my size so I can fit in almost all the things we make in class.

So many things for me to blog about!!!!!! The weather was different from the morning to afternoon so I have two outfits that I could post too.

Love, Kaia

saturday swatching.

Yesterday I went swatching at Elegant fabrics (my new favorite store) for some things I need for class. I wore this outfit plus leggings and a jacket. It was so windy that as I was walking, I kept walking sideways because the wind was pushing that hard.

ruffle collar shirt, top dress, and shoes from Taiwan. white dress from H&M, pettiskirt from flea market, cardigan from thrift
When I got back, it was sunny, but there were flecks falling from the sky. There were a couple girls behind me who were arguing. One said "it's snowing!" Which was what I was thinking. The other girl said "no that's just ---- falling from the trees." And when I took a closer look, there were seeds on the falling whatevers. So for a while I thought the second girl was right. But as I was walking back to my dorm, it started to really snow, and I got really excited because it was snowing and sunny at the same time!

I was really exited about a certain package I received on Friday. When the mail guy took out the box, I let out a pretty loud "OH MY GOD." SO EXCITE. Though, I'll be doing mostly homework on it.
This cute little guy. I'll admit, it was a bit of an impulse buy, but one of my happiest buys yet. I used the money I saved up from the money I earned to buy it. It wasn't too bad because it was second hand. This one was in the two digits.

I'm planning on sewing a dress when I have time! There's still a discrepancy between things I can design and things I can sew. I can make the pattern for it, but I don't know if it will work without trial and error, and dresses will take up a lot of muslin.

Soon after I got the machine set up, I sewed a peter pan collar using the materials I bought a couple months ago. I'd meant to make one a while back but never got around to it.

I hope I'll be able to make some nice things on this! I need more time to practice.

Love, Kaia

cascade my heart.

This was the final project for one of my classes. I wanted to put it in yesterday's post, but I thought it'd be a better idea to have them separate since this one was a bigger assignment.


I don't really have much sewing ability at all, so making it was a little difficult. The feather bust is detachable and ties on like a bikini. The rest of the dress is built off of a nightgown that I bought at Goodwill. I draped it off from a mannequin and sewed on fifteen yards of fabric onto the nightgown.

Because of the weight of the fabric, the nightgown couldn't hold up the dress so I added in pearl straps and a waistband.

Love, Kaia

the almost end of first semester.

On Monday, I will have my last final and my last class for the year. High school, I'd thought, was pretty tough. But looking back on it now, I can see how much free time I had. I always had homework, but there was always enough time to take breaks in between and have fun and do nothing after school, and update my blog whenever.

You guys have probably noticed that i haven't had the luxury to update nearly as often as I would have liked. I've missed this blog!

So, to make it up, here is a compilation of my favorite works that I did this semester.
To start off, this is my final for patternmaking. This semester, we learned how to make bodices with darts and princess seams,and draw patterns for collars and sleeves. So for our final, we needed to design a shirt and make it.
I'm really happy with how it came out. I haven't gotten a grade back, but I don't think it will be pretty considering my sewing is pretty terrible. There aren't any buttonholes on it since I'm not sure how to get those on yet.

Sketching homework; sketching was one of my favorite classes this semester because I like to draw so the homework assignments were pretty fun for me. I felt like I was improving in my ability to draw poses and develop more of a style in this class.


This is a development sketch that I did at a subway station while waiting for my train (which never arrived, even after waiting for 45 minutes! The M train is a bitch)

These two aren't my own design. We needed to find garments and then draw them on a figure. Then, draw them as flats. I drew clothes that I wanted from Taiwanese websites.

Perfume ad for my perfume design project. You might (or might not) remember this picture if you've been following me long enough.

Menswear project. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Sketchbook picture from my light color design class.

There've been a lot of assignments this semester so just narrowing down is kind of difficult. Hopefully there'll be lots of nice things for me to post next semester. I'm sure there will be. I just need to find time to post them.

Love, Kaia

stripe this way.

This was supposed to be last month's post. I'm very behind on posting.
I made these pants last month. They came out better than expected, but some parts didn't line up correctly and that reflected in my grade. I didn't score very well at all harharhar.

I knew I wasn't going to fit in the pants because the pattern fits more like a size 0-2, so I didn't bother getting nice fabric. My fabric was $1.50 for 2 yards from the discount pile, because there was a big waterstain on it. It washed out a little bit so it's not as bad.

Back to my essay maybe.

Love, Kaia