FMP Toile 2

This was the toile that I was nervous to do. I figured the first thing to concentrate was to think about how the skirt is going to stick out at the side. I asked a fellow student what they thought I could do and one of them said boning but I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to stay up on the hips and the garment. Another said to use sticks and to bend them around the body so that it curved to fit to the body and stood out. I figured by using two sticks that where bendy but just a bit and tided them together to create the length that I wanted them to stick out at the sides because thats where I would tie them. taking on this idea really helped me with a starting point although it might not happen I wanted to try it because it might help to then develop another idea. Using sticks that I found in the woods that where quite thick and bendy but not as heavy so that they would fall down off the hips. Then chopping down to same size and tying with string and leaving it on my mannequin so that it stays in shape so that I take it off the mannequin and it will stay in shape for me to put the fabric on. When taking the sticks off it was perfect, they stayed in shape. I tested by putting them back on the mannequin and fitted perfectly knowing that I was a similar size to the model so I tried it on and it fitted really well and tight so that I knew that it wouldn’t fall down. Also thinking that I would also have the shirt underneath which it will also help to keep up. Adding the fabric was the easy part, folding over the fabric at the top of the skirt so that the sticks can slide through the seam and then just draping it to the shape that I wanted first using calico then using a light fabric so that I knew the effects of how the fabric was going to shape when draping it and pulling it upwards. I realised however, that when I tried it was the light fabric that I used a lot more fabric where as with the calico I only used a metre which is what I preferred as it was easier to take up at the side and I feel created a nicer shape. I wanted to be also shorter because the lamps in my nan’s flat where I got the inspiration for the garment where quite small lamps so I thought it was better to make it smaller.