you reap what you sew!!

Over the course of two weeks, I’ve been working through Look 4’s shirt. This silly thing is the form of algae blobs across the body. I assumed it would take less agonizing time than look 2’s pleats because of its size. I shouldn’t have underestimated her. …

Time spent: 10 hours

The draping process was similar to look 2; I cut strips of plisse that were the WOF, but roughly 20” wide. Trifolding those and snipping at the folded edges, I created spirals from what remained. I took time to vary their shapes and sizes, contouring them to the body. This process took so many pins that I went to Blick and bought two new packs of pins.

These photos were taken as reference to ensure I could piece the shirt back together. Basting the blooms on the form first, the entire shirt was heavily starched and steamed before and after basting. Red thread was used to differentiate the basting from my future twill tape applications. Basting the shirt took around 3 days of 18 hour studio days.

Pictured above is a time lapse of just one hour of stitching the twill tape supports to the back of the pleats. Realistically nobody should ever repeat this ever again, as is visible by my wrist braces and my current hand discomfort and nerve pain. But worry not, there will be a second version of this shirt completed over the span of one semester instead of 2 weeks. The twill tape application was the longest and worst part of this garment’s completion. This took about 3 more days of 18 hour studio days.

All this time and its not even done yet! As I draped and constantly shifted the measurements of each bloom with continued handling, there is a considerable amount of space I have to fill in again. I will complete the skirt as to give my poor hands and arms a break, then return with the complete results. So much work ahead of me and my body is not having it, but I will pace myself better. Special thanks to Arnica gel, Tiger balm, KC Corbi, and Dunkin donuts for getting me through this initial push.