FMP Creating My Toile

Having my final design and technical drawings with me and finished, I was ready to create my toile. Im not the best at making in general but I have a general knowledge of how to put a garment together. I had some help when it came to making the shirt and shorts as I got the pattern blocks from my neighbour who used to make clothes for her self but making them I did myself. I new that there was going to be some problem solving involved especially when it came to the skirt. The shirt was quite simple as I have made a shirt for the industry project but the hardest was the collar and lining them together I really struggled with, a lot of unpicking but I found that if I placed the pins downwards instead of across then I would be able to sew over them without the shirt moving.

The shorts where quite easy until I came to adjusting the pattern block as a I found the the crotch was to big when I tried it on me. Luckily I found that the models size and my size was very similar so it was ideal when it come to fitting and adjusting the garment when trying it on. Having to test the pattern block and make two toile shorts just to test the shape of the shorts. I also had to consider the ruching on the shorts as it decreases the size and I didn’t want it to stretch to much that the ruching would loose it shape. So I had to test the length in which I was going to have the shorts and not make it to big that they would fall down. The second pair was successful and fitted perfectly. As I was going to use polyester satin I wanted to use a light wight material so that I could see the ruching and how it effects the shorts. I decided to use interfacing because its light and easy to work with.

Then for the smaller top, I wanted to use knit. Knit being so stretchy I wanted to use a cheaper knit in my toile to see and test with what I was working with. Going to a charity shop and getting a cardigan with the similar consistency as the knit that I wanted to use just to test the stretch in the fabric which will make it easier for me when creating the final piece. I thought that working with the knit was really easy and just stretch around the mannequin really easily. Although I had to put some darts in maybe because I did use a cardigan really did help me to know where I wanted to put them so that I could take it to the block and use when I use the final knit. To make sure that the pattern block worked I wanted to test onto just a plain fabric with a bit more strength so that I could see clearly the shape and if the darts worked. Using a plain fabric helped me to work it to the stand adding notes to the top showing the centre front and where the darts where going to be and where I wanted to cut which really helped me to finalise my pattern block. However, when attaching the zip to the back I found that the zip was to long and that was the smallest zip that they had in the shop so I needed to change the length of the back. Before using the knit I did create a paper top using block paper to test the shape of how I wanted the top look like with out wasting any fabrics. I really liked this idea because I knew exactly the shape that I wanted to achieve.