The Vortex!

A small introduction into Transformation and Reconstruction pattern making (also known as TR pattern making). 

Shingo Sato is a Japanese pattern maker that introduced TR pattern making. His concept is to diminish darts on garments by adding seams. There is a lot to what he teaches. Draping is a technique used within his pattern making method. If you type his name in on Pinterest, you'll find lots. Here's a board filled with his work. 

The design I'm focusing on in this post is called the Vortex. 

Funny how this Marchesa dress was one of my main inspirations for a project I did to get into my fashion program. 

Left to Right: 

Divna J. Davidović's blog, SewElizabeth,unknown(Pinterest)

Divna J. Davidović's blog, ThanksDad Fashion, unknown (Pinterest)

unknown (Pinterest), unknown (Pinterest), unknown (Pinterest)

Some of the links lead to blogs of people who have played with more than just one of Shingo's designs. So interesting to look at!

A slideshow of some of the Vortex designs Shingo's students from all over the world have created.

Here's a speedy walk through of how the vortex design is draped and attached into a different piece. Done by the master himself! These two videos are taken from trpattern which is the official YouTube account. 

Finally, this is a video I would definitely follow along if I were to try out this design. It goes through the entire process. No words, just a visual tool. 

Bias Fabric Play.

What a week it has been - and it all started out with draping a Vionnet gown. 

The lady herself, with her half scale [creepy] doll.

A brief into one of Vionnet's most well-known creations, The Jabot Dress.

This 3D stuff just made the dress look 500 times more fun.

Here, someone tries to re-create the dress in 20 minutes (slightly disastrous). And Betty Kirke writes an article about Madame Vionnet with design and drafting terms only industry people iunderstand (yay!).

Here is what we attempted in class. The lines are not very clear on the dress (look below!). Good to note that this garment does not have a zipper - the magic of the bias. 

I was not 100% sure what we were doing at first, but then I caught on. The first thing I would do (if I was to do this myself) is to count the number of pieces this dress has and then decide which seams the darts are going into.

The first piece was the front bodice. The red (pink) line, which is the grain line, is not parallel to centre front because the entire dress is cut on the bias. The blue line marks the bias. 

Here is the second front panel. It is again, on the bias. The design line is marked on this piece, and then trimmed down to sit as neatly as possible on the mannequin (Bailey). 

I had a little problem getting the back to work out great because of the shape of the hips. A lot of snips that were too deep were made but this was the best I could do. All dotted lines are the marked design lines. 

Here came the slight confusing part - the skirt. Studying the picture of the actual full garment helped (didn't have that in class). A lot of draping to me is just going for it and seeing what works - what makes sense and what may or may not hold up (if so, what can help it work). This is a little struggle for me because I like going in with a plan - knowing what I need to do and working to plan. 

This has got to be the best trued hem I have ever done. I am so glad that there is a tool out there for this kind of work. 

The last piece of this connects all the way to the back and we get to determine how much volume we want the skirt to get! 

Final pattern pieces, sans skirt. These are Janine's, because my muslin was a hot mess. 

Moving on to the knit twist top. I thought it was fairly easy to drape, probably because it is the same concept as the other twist top. Also, knits are always more forgiving.

We had two identical rectangular pieces. We tied one piece up in the middle, and pinned it to centre front. The bottom half of the fabric is connected to the top just above the bust line. 

Then we play the smoothing game.

I felt like I needed to be careful here to not use the stretch of the fabric as a smoothing tool. Ultimately, as forgiving as knit fabrics are, I don't think anyone wants a top that fits so skin tight they cannot breathe (unless that's the purpose of it). 

Ta-da! Definitely something I've seen in a 40 - 50 year old women's store (and plus size too!)

Next, we worked on some necklines. This is an extended neckline. 

The instructions were rather confusing, but if you stick with it (someway, somehow), it will come together and make sense.

The first step is to press a dart out from the bust point to the neckline. Usually, this would be the shoulder dart.

Then the dart gets traced out, as well as the original neckline and shoulder line.

The back, like most collars, need some ease added to it, so a dart was pinched out before everything gets smooth over and marked. 

At this point, the actual collar should have gotten traced out (collar height) but it's only clicking in my head now. 

The final pattern piece matched the book! Of course, a style like this would need facings.

Foundation Garments.

I'm not sure if this generation understands the term "foundation garments." It's an art form that feels so vintage and over the years, our body and mindset has morphed to create different ideas. Foundation garments are a woman's supporting undergarment, such as a girdle. We refer to them as body shapers now - and they're also used to enhance a certain body area. 

Here is blog post from Melanie who sewed her own corset top for her wedding. She started with a store-bought pattern and figured her way around. 

"I’m not going to talk extensively about fitting and how I tackled changes because really I had no idea what I was doing."

- Basically all of us more than half the time.

To play around with this foundation garment, we started off with a swimsuit block. This is just because it was probably the easiest option. We needed something that fit around the entire body well, as well as something with a crotch we could alter easily. 

My model is a size 0 to 2 in store and I decided to use her bust, waist and hip measurements to make a suit that fits her. Something went wrong along the way and it was too big for her and for me (I'm a 4 to 6 in store). Should I mention that I want to go into the custom-made field?

On the bright side though, it's always better to have it to big and fit it down, then have it too small and fit it up. When we started off, the bust points were totally off, so instead of taking out a big chunk from the side seam, I took it from the CF which moved the bust point to the right spot. I pinned about 6cm on CF and this would go to zero at the bottom of the crotch. 

Still needed to work the side seams a little - this is probably the best lesson I have learnt in draping class. It's not about just taking out (however much you need to) from anywhere on the garment, it has to be eliminated from the problem area so that the fit will sculpt he body. 

An amount needed to be worked out of CB as well, and just like the front, it goes down to zero at the crotch. In my opinion, if this were to become the best fitting base garment of all - it might be better to do it in a fabric that has almost zero give. Transforming that into a 4-way stretch will probably give a better fit than going from a knit to a no stretch woven. 

Last step - instead of using an actual bra cup (none that we made were in our size), we traced the outline of the bra that was already being worn. It's an easier step, but if the bra size is wrong, then the fit won't be accurate. 

Here's a look at what the bra cup would look like on the pattern. I did not make any of the changes pinned to the actual pattern - so it should look slightly different. 

This is probably the easiest route we can go with foundation garments, but it felt like a whole chapter that could be explored for a really, really, long time. 

Twist Tops & Collars.

All images found on Pinterest.

 Unknown, Master Class' Blog (tutorial!), Helmut Lang, unknown, Giambattista Valli

Did you notice how all the twist panels are sitting on the right side of the body? (except Karlie Kloss'). 

Starting this strong with some twisting action. The link for the second picture has a tutorial for a flat pattern - so interesting to see! 

The easiest way to understand this is that it is two pieces - a body piece and a piece that strings through it. 

Started off by marking where the twist is going to sit - the first pin is to mark the neckline, and the second to mark where the body piece starts.

Top yoke is draped on and gathered to as much as you would like to see on the garment. Necessary body lines added (neckline, armhole) then piece removed!

The second piece is draped much like a bodice would. Only one dart is added on to help with fit. This dart becomes the gathers in the top. 

We made the same top out of nine different fabrics to see how it would sit on the body. 

Polyester

Blue fabric is a chiffon - I know for one that it must have been a pain to cut and sew. It also does not look like the best fabric to use for the design. 

The black is a polyester satin of some sort. Looks pretty in the picture, but there was a lot of gathers in excess.

Cotton(?) and Cotton Knit

Not sure what the white fabric is but it could be a knit from how it is sitting. There does not look like a lot of excess fabric hanging out in the front and it's wrapping decently okay.

The second is definitely a cotton knit and although we decided knits were the best for these, this one was not quite right to me. The fabric might have just been too heavy.

Polyester and Raw Silk

We use the black polyester a lot for lining samples/projects. You can tell right away that this is not the fabric to use (even Wincy is feeling it). Too much fabric bulging out of areas we don't need it to. We did conclude though, that for those with this issue, it can be solved slightly by taking it in the CF seam. 

The silk looks quite decent - I think the proportion works well. Maybe you do want that little but of bulk in the front. In this case, I think the bulk isn't too much to make it look unflattering. 

Polyester Knit

Meredith wore the best one in class (not being biased - pun intended). A lot of it had to do with the fabric being a knit (and Meredith being fabulous). The gathered did not hang, instead it pulled it took the shape of the body. This would be the best if the look was minimalist, but with a twist! (so full of it today). 

Collars - don't know if I would ever drape. I'm not sure if anyone drapes collars them. Maybe if you had an odd neckline? 

I worked on three collars in total and all of them had the same process. Started off with so basic guidelines - this all depended on what collar it is and the body measurements.

With CB marked, the piece is put on and little snips made all around to help fabric sit flatter. 

 For the most part, a small pleat (about 1-1.5cm) is put at the shoulder as ease. This does not appear on the pattern - it's just a way to "set aside" that little bit of fabric. 

Draw in the neckline and the collar shape and remove. If it is a collar that has a rollover, the piece would be folded down, adjusted, then design lines drawn in.

Final piece for a mandarin collar looked like this! Not too, too hard, I promise.

Here's a link to some cool draping designs. They're from a website that is currently unavailable, but Pinterest so kindly rounded up all images pinned from there.