New sketches

I've finally been able to put pencil to paper and get some of my ideas that have been keeping me up at night down on paper. I'm really excited about how these little gems turned out! My husband was trying to steal them! So that has to be a good sign right?

I have to say a big thank you to Amarina (isn't that a beautiful name) of Ursa Major (awesome vintage clothing in sizes 14+) for providing me with some gorgeous curvy croquis (is that the correct plural form?)!

Don't be surprised when you see these in garment form soon:) 2014 is my year to go big or go home!

Happy New Year!

Source: TechBlogStop

Happy New Year! Good riddance to 2013! I've been a busy beaver over the holidays trying to get things ready. I have big plans for 2014!

Here's one of my new additions to the sewing workshop.

Got a thrifted dress form and padded her out, still deciding on a name for her

Ordered sample kit of labels from BCI. Review is here, if you want more info.

Sourcing fabrics and lace:)

 And Sketching finally!!!

New website!

Still under development but the new site is up at marlenaboutique.com. I'm in the process of transferring the blog posts over there. I'm still debating on whether to keep this blog updated or move everything over there. What do you think?

Supporting Independent Designers

In the past week or so I've come across 2 great articles about supporting independent designers. One was specifically about the price of handmade garments aka answering "why does this cost so much" question. The other article is specifically 5 key points on why handmade lingerie so special. I'll share the links in a minute. First I'll give you my $0.02.

Of course I'm a bit biased since I'm an independent business owner myself. But I also walk the walk. I try to support local businesses, shop at the farmer's market and make informed choices. I'm not perfect and yes you will see me in big box stores on occasion. As an independent designer I am very aware of the blood, sweat and tears that go into creating your passion. Making something from nothing. Starting with a concept and seeing that thing through to the end, a finished work of art. I know from experience how hard it can be to part with that thing of beauty, you have dreamt about for months hoping it is going to a good home that will appreciate it. I also know about mean customers, crazy show organizers, wondering if you have a hobby or a business when someone tries to talk you down on price. But I know personally, I feel at my personal best when I'm making something with my hands. I love the creative process. I love the feeling of fine fabrics and trimmings in my hands. I love thinking through construction processes. I love the smile on a customer's face when they see my piece. And that my friend, makes it all worth it.

On pricing

On handmade lingerie

Sneak peak pt 2

So my dear photographer, Christina of Midnight Sunshine Photography has sent me these two lovelies! A big thank you to Sweetpea for allowing use of my favorite bookstore for this shoot! If you're in the Tacoma area, go check out King's Books.

Corsetry Part 2

I'm finally finished with my first corset! Truly a labor of love. This custom pattern required at least 4 separate fittings and many adjustments along the way. I learned a lot about my body, pattern making, grading, fitting, and handling power tools. As Dr. Whaley, Provost of the New York Fashion Academy says "making a corset is part sewing and part metalwork." I also learned you need a lot of hand strength to make a corset...from cutting coutil to setting the grommets to cutting the boning oh and hand sewing through 6 layers of coutil while trying to keep dotted material nice and even, I realized I need to work on my hand strength. Anyone have any exercises?

 My corset has a gentle sweetheart neckline and a v-shaped lower silhouette. Red and black tapestry patterned coutil make up the outer part of this lined corset. The lining is red polka dots on a black back ground. The corset has a 7 closure (extra long) busk in the front and laces in the back with metal tipped polyester lacing. I believe there are 22 grommets on each side. The edges of the corset are bound with the polka dot coutil. The over the bust bones are spiral and the rest are medium weight steel bones. If you want any other details just ask!

Without further ado, here's my beautiful corset. Want to see the progression? Check out the in progress pics in part 1. Professional pictures coming soon, so stayed tuned.

Front of corset

Back of corset

Corsetry

Canvas mock up

Stitching up mock up

Fitting #3 with lace up strips

Fabric selection

Final custom pattern

Preparing lining for cutting

Figuring out layout for fashion fabric

Grommets set

Laced up!

Only the binding is left to finish

To be continued....

Line and proportion

Line and proportion are two topics that aren't talked about as much as they should imho. The line or silhouette of the clothing can make you look taller, thinner, or shorter and stumpier. Think of your favorite piece of clothing or outfit. How does it fit you? How does it make you feel? Now take a closer look. I want you to look at the design lines of the garment. Look at the seams. Which way do they go? Do they visually lengthen you? Do they add curves where you need them and skim/smooth those that need them? Does the garment flow or is it tight?

Some general concepts about lines:

-Vertical lines make you look taller and usually thinner. These lines help the eye visually lengthen as you look up and down. However if strong vertical lines are very far apart they start to look wider.

-Horizontal lines move side to side and visually increase your width. The more contrast there is the wider you will look also (think of a black and white horizontal, striped shirt).

-Diagonals are a bit in between horizontal and vertical. Depending on how much they tip one way or the other they can either be slimming or thickening.

-Curved lines add softness and femininity. You rarely see heavily curved design lines on mens' wear for this reason.

-Straight lines are seen as more formal.Often straight lines are seen in tailored garments. Straight lines can also counteract the natural curves of the body.

Proportion is how pieces make up the whole. For example, how does your jacket and skirt relate to each as part of the whole outfit? Its a type of relationship of your garment(s). Is your outfit pleasing to the eye? Or is it so off balanced that it just looks silly...perhaps a skimpy crop top paired with a full ball gown style skirt would not have a balanced proportion to your eye. With that being said, designers (and nature) often group things in odd numbers. Like 1, 3, or 5 buttons on a blazer or jacket. Odd numbers and odd proportions (1/3 vs 1/2) are often more visually interesting than a completely balanced outfit.

So next time you are putting together an outfit or sketching a new design, take a pause to think about your style lines and the proportion of the garment.

Finding Inspiration

Where do you find your inspiration?



I found a lot of inspiration from this book "Contemporary Lingerie Designs." You can read my review of the book on Amazon here (if you purchase the book through my link above it will help me continue to provide information to you:) I am always intrigued by where designers find their inspiration. I know some people start from a concept, others from a silhouette, some from nature or a certain fabric. Some designers use a combination of methods. How do you find inspiration? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

For the Spring 2013 line, I was inspired by 80s glamor. In particular I had seen some beautiful 1980s vintage lingerie on Etsy. I loved the silhouettes of the teddies and wondered how I might apply that to a full figured lingerie line. I started loosely sketching some ideas. From there I narrowed down my ideas. For our class we had to come up with at least 5 complete looks. I also started looking at color palettes and doing magazine tears.

Inspiration Resources:

Colorways: 
An awesome site is Designs Seeds. This site has different pictures that the artist then pulls out the colors and creates palettes with usually about 5 colors. Another great site for color inspiration is the Adobe Kuler site.

Designers:
I recommend looking through some of the Pinterest pin boards. I've linked to my page, but also try googling "Pinterest + a designer's name or season." If you're inspired by street fashion take a look at the blog style website lookbook.nu.

Fabrics:
If you'd like to start with the fabric first, check out fabric.com or nyfashioncenterfabrics.com/ or search for a particular fabric designer's name or line.

More board pics

I finally took some better shots of my mood board and technical board (including some close ups). I posted a few pics of my tech board and storyboard earlier. If you want to see even more of the progression check out where I started on blogging about it on Tortilla Designs.

Without further ado here they are!

Fabric swatches

I've found a few potential fabrics, I like the color of the brocades but I'm looking for something a bit higher quality that shreds less! Anyone have tips for working with brocades? The pink lace has a bit of pink satin under it. The gold is a poly satin and the black lace is all by itself. I think I have a lead of the bamboo jersey, I love the feel of that stuff! So tactile! I have a bad habit of feeling random materials including clothing people are wearing!!!

6 colors and 4 swatches=10

Technical Drawings

These were truly a labor of love. I'm pretty darn proud how they turned on. It's a good feeling when you impress yourself:) The technical drawings were created in Adobe Illustrator. There was much cursing, hair pulling and otherwise all out frustration during the process. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I will add that many of these I had to draw twice, first I had tried to do my tech drawing using 1/2 of my fashion sketch lady (because she is not straight on to the camera so to speak) and I got a big slap on the hand by my instructor (I still love you Jason) and had to redo them on a the straight on perspective plus size croqui. The layouts were done in Adobe InDesign for the lookbook and technical board. You can see more of the progress of my class on my other blog, Tortilla Designs here.

The Sable Babydoll set

The Fallon Cami

Alexis corset

My favorite, the Domonique Kimono

Fallon long slip

Another topper, the Samantha Pegnoir

Alexis Tap pant

Krystle teddy, my second fav

Logo design

I created this logo for "Marlena" using Adobe Illustrator. I was going for an elegant look that was a bit traditional. I also choose to have the logo in just black and shades of grey. This way it is more versatile and won't look dated. Plus it helps save money in printing costs. If I want to colorize it for a particular reason, it will be easy to do. What do you think of this logo?

Spr 2013 Lookbook

Open publication - Free publishing - More fashion

Technical Board

A quick look at my completed Technical Board. I'll have to add my tech drawings in another post, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.

Color Story

For the Spring 2013 line here are the colors:

Ocean Blue 
Tempting Turquoise
Royal Purple
Sultry Pink
Metallic Gold
Black Oil

These bright, bold colors are reminiscent of the 80s.

Moodboard progression

I've decided to just give a visual of the progress of my moodboard. If you want to read more in detail check out my posts here or here