Year-End and One Year Blog-iverrsary

I came up with this sort of collage-thing after not finding anything I liked online and took to Photoshop like I always do.

Though this blog wasn't technically started a year ago (a little more, actually) it is a whole year from when I decided to make it a regular thing - a New Year's Resolution of sorts to make more things than I had before.

I highly recommend this to any designer who is stuck in a rut. For me, I would make things and then have no way to share, get feedback, or overall display it besides Deviant Art but DA isn't really known for people finding fun fashion-related things. This was a much easier route. It's easy to post to Facebook, easy to make a FB page for, and I can direct people here to see work.

My personal life this year was full of ups and downs: From losing my cat Arthur to cancer, to getting new cats Percy and Beatrix, to re-finding my current boyfriend Max, to breaking up from a 3-year relationship, and taking on more financial responsibilities... it's been a year of real learning.

Beginning this year, I had said to myself that I had wanted to re-teach myself knitting. I didn't even remember how to cast on! And then I made pieces (on the 2nd try) for my knit/fabric combo coat then also designed and made a knit hood! I really had no idea how to increase/decrease at the beginning of the year and was even scared to.

I can safely say that now, I have the basics of knitting down, really. There are still many more things to know, but I do know how to get places.

I also made a total of 8 original garments/accessories this year - a record, I'm sure of any year I have been out of college! Those garments include the knit coat mentioned above, the knit hood, the Mix n Match Dress with stripe pockets, Mix n Match dress with peter pan collar, the Space Dress, the hand-printed Cloud Dress, Stripe Dress, and the Rainbow wallet.

I have decided that 2013 will be the year of refining my draping skills as I refined knitting skills this year. I also want to play with much more complicated patternmaking (maybe like the Pattern Magic books?)

I also have a few things in conceptual stages: a retro latch-hook area rug which would continue all throughout 2013 as well as finishing a 3 knitwear design boards by February 1st, and currently concepting a dress with this amazing psychedelic fabric that Max's mom gave me for Christmas! I think I'll use the yellow buttons she gave me too on it.

Happy New Year, Everyone and above all... Happy Creating!

Comments

Latch Hook Rug Update

A little under a month ago I received all of my supplies to take on one of the biggest long-term projects I have ever taken on - a self-designed latch hook rug. I don't know why, but I am clearly nuts. So beginning today I am posting photos each month, (preferably on the 1st of each month) progress of this gigantic shag rug. See how I started it here (scroll down past posting of my $10 dress). This is a photo of it today: Yes, I used the candelabra for scale. Haha. This rug is really soft and is fun to run your fingers through. It doesn't look like much was accomplished, but though the number of packages we have gone through of pre-cut latch hook rug yarn already I have calculated that we've used over 2500 strands for this ie.) 8 packages. I also just ordered 10 more packages of lime green since that's what I ran out of first and 6 more packages of straw yellow. There is still quite a bit to go, but you see the blue row square...

DIY Trapeze Dress

I'm a pretty big fan of tent dresses (or trapeze dresses - call it what you want). They're simple, easy-to-make and you can have many variations of them. These are a fun style to wear for spring and summer! See this DIY from a Good Housekeeping Crafts book from 1971 - photos at the end of my own trapeze top from a while ago! (Bear with me on the photos here - this book is quite cumbersome and hard to scan.) Applique patterns, in case you wanted the dress to look EXACTLY like the photo. (But why?) How to cut the fabric efficiently. (This is actually pretty important cost-wise for you - especially with something this big.) Using pattern instructions from my patternmaking book from college, I created this swingy trapeze top a bit ago. I used sweater fabric from a thrift store find for the collar of this top. I also opened up the back on the pattern to have a diamond shape. It c...

Shingo Sato and the Art of Transformational Reconstruction

So I got really excited on my break at work today when I got an email from Burda about a webinar they're doing on a pattern technique called "Transformational Reconstruction" developed by Japanese designer Shingo Sato. I hadn't even heard of Shingo Sato until today let alone his design technique but oddly, it's sort of the path I'm going down with my designs anyway as seen with the Sunrise Panel dress as well as the Petra Dress and the pattern making involved in those designs. What I did there is perhaps a "light" version of Sato's where the darts and shaping are hidden in the seam lines. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that my design aesthetic focuses largely on color blocking, unusual seam lines, and a love of anything psychedelic. Note: All photos stolen from the internet. Sorry! I'm super-excited. Let me know if it's yours and I'll take it down. Shingo Sato teaching. More designs using...

Manic Pop