Secret Garden Studio

Secret Garden Studio is where you can find me, see ya!!!!

Coming Soon

Secret Garden Studio coming Fall 2014

more details to come.

LWD Completed also January's Garment AGAM (Pic Heavy)

Completed

These two dresses from the Chanel Spring/Summer 2014 RTW Collection were the inspiration for my design. I was/ am loving both the textiles and and silhouette. So I had to have mine.

So I have finally finished my dress. It only took me a month ( being sarcastic here).  I first had to redraft my knit top sloper. For one I have gotten a bit smaller since I perfected my first one last summer and two I needed a lower hip for this dress. Then I took like two weeks off due to the only thing that can get in the way of me and my sewing... FAMILY.

Once I was back in the studio, cutting out was a lot easier than I expected. I think this is my first time cutting out single layer, I basically treated the fabric as though it was a plaid. What took me a lot longer than I expected was matching and hand sewing the seams. Other than that sewing this dress was quite easy. The main body and skirt portion is made up of a polyester ruffle knit. For the sleeves, neckband and skirt band I used a cotton knit. The skirt band is made up of two layers to help give it support.


Quick Stats:

• Self drafted dress
• 8 pattern pieces (front, back, sleeve, neckband, front skirt band, back skirt band, front skirt, back skirt)
• Sleeves are just below elbow
• Dress is ankle length
• Semi fitted design
• This was my own design inspired by Chanel S/S 2014 Collection

 For the fabric I used both a cotton knit and a polyester ruffle knit I got  here in Riyadh. You can get your own from fabric.com. I had been eyeing this fabric for probably at least a year and I really wanted after seeing MazzyGirl's review. I have at least another meter left I think a simple tee maybe in mines or one of my daughter's near future.

Cut single layer since I need to match the ruffles on the side.

breaking out the good shears

I almost pulled a Jennifer Lawarence , ruining my dress with doritos dust.

I had to pin and hand sew every seam to keep it from slipping under the machine

Matched Side Seams

Cotton Knit Band

Front Plain

Back

LWD

Until next time, happy sewing...

A Garment A Month January Plans

Chanel Spring rtw 2014 is the inspiration behind my next garment. I really like the lines and textiles of this collection and want to see how I can play with them for myself. I'm going to use this in my little white dress.

Self drafted of course and details to come soon.

Until next time, happy sewing...

A Garment A Month November & December

  So here are my very late MAGAM garments. November's boatneck top and December's Betsy Jacket from DIY Clothes.  While the top looks very good on me the neckline could use some more work. I think its mostly fabric related than anything, when I used facings for it they did not lay a flat as I wanted them to and when I used bias tape it made the neckline stand away from my body. In both treatments I used self fabric and the fabric is stretch embroidered cotton. I plan to work with some more and try to perfect it since it fits me so well.

December's Betsy jacket was not as successful as my top. Since my shirt is a bit fitted and the jacket is suppose to be a bit loose, I went on and just drafted this one from scratch using Cal's directions again. Once it was made up in muslin I noticed I had a bit of fullness in the armhole area. I darted it out and transferred the dart to the shoulder making a princess seam. Since I had plan on using a denim I decided to also add front patch pockets to give it sort of a classic denim jacket look.  Well once I had all the changes made and sewn up again in muslin, I realized that all that extra fullness at my waist is just not a good look. So I'm going to have to play around with this one also before I can commit to some fashion fabric.

shoulder princess seam

Until next time, happy sewing...

December's AGAM

I'm mostly done with November's garment and it has been for a while but I have not been in the my little studio for a while so I'll just post it with December's garment.

For December I plan to continue my self drafted pattern route and this time its one of my projects from Design-It Yourself Clothes.

The Betsy Jacket

Thinking Out Loud : How To Get Good Fast

Suggestions Welcomed

I know it has been a while since I last posted but like life it has its ups and downs. But I have been thinking a lot about something I said in this post, I mean why not try if I like it so much.  But then the fear and self doubt that no matter how good I get I'm missing something that I can't teach myself or is only gained with years of industry experience or that flat piece of   paper proving to the world I can do it someone showed me how. But if I'm designing and making my own patterns and putting them out there who needs it if my work can speak for its self. Now comes the question how do I get that good on my own? I have the passion and drive but my options are slim at best. I'm smack dab in the middle of the desert with no opportunities available to me not much support and funds are extremely limited. I don't say this get any sympathy or anything just stating the facts and what I am up against.  But I still feel all is not lost.

Ever since I first heard/read about the 10,000 rule 47 months ago to the day, I have been fascinated by the idea that I could become really good at something if I could put in the time. Even when I go back and read my comment I left my desire to learn patternmaking was there. It has been for along time now but its only recently that I started really applying myself and thinking about doing it on a professional level. I have since listened to the audio version of Outliers and it kept me intrigued but something kept nagging at me.  I think that was this nagging that has mostly kept me from trying the 10k hour challenge, it has to be more to it. So like most thinks I get a sudden interest in I did a lot of research which lead me to the book Talent Is Overrated and found that it was more to it than just putting in the hours. Deliberate practice

Deliberate practice is a form of practice usually developed by a teacher or instructor to move the learner beyond their comfort level in an effort to improve performance. There are a few key features to deliberate practice 1) highly demanding mentally, requires lots of focus and concentration 2) designed to improve performance 3) must continue over long periods of time 4) must be repeated 5)requires constant feedback after all how are you to know if your improving 6) it isn't always fun.

PM - T + 10k+ DP= Mastery

So how do I put all of this together patternmaking minus teacher plus10k hours (I'm sure I can do this part) plus deliberate practice to get to that master level? I don't know, right now I'm using DIY Clothes and I do because it designed as a self teaching book and there is no other like it, to teach myself but I'll be done soon and then what, what do I do to push myself past this level? Food for though I guess. I'll leave with one of my favorite phrases I have found years ago when I first started looking into the 10k hour rule.

"Passion is a necessary component of success, but, alone, it is not enough. Vision without action deteriorates into daydreaming. Without persistent practice, passion fades"

Burn Test

Rhonda over at Rhondas Creative Life is currently working her way through the MSDP certification program and I have been eagerly awaiting  post about her progress. At one time I was considering this program. It was not to get certified at least not right away but to use it as a self teaching guide (note: this is NOT a course), but the board had issues with that so I just dropped it but I was still curious about it.So when I saw that Rhonda had signed up and would blog her progress of getting certified  of course I had to follow along   :-)  

First up is the burn test. I thought that maybe others would like to see how fibers are identified using a burn test before she posted her results. These can be found in the book above. I got this book on sale when I first started sewing years ago, at the time it was way to advance for me, it was like reading a foreign language but it was about sewing clothes so I knew I wanted it and I have since used it many times over the years, its no longer in print but if you can find a good copy I do recommend it.

So here are the textbook results now lets wait and see how Rhonda's results compare.

Until next time, happy sewing...