Burda Style For people who sew

Description

First! This project is up in the Burdastyle Instructables contest – view the video I created and vote for me here!!

This project was created for my final project in my draping course this past quarter. Our theme was “Metropolis,” which is a term that encompasses the pulse, the feel of a city. I was inspired by the silent film ‘Metropolis,’ with it’s ‘futuristic’ architecture (yet looks retro now) – the curves, the windows, and the straight lines of the Raygun Gothic architecture style. I wanted the material to reflect the concrete, steel, and glass found in skyscrapers, so I used a lightweight crinkle gray polyester as the body of the garment, but then I washed the whole thing with india black ink (one problem…it runs when it gets wet….so you just can’t wear it in the rain….) There is a little bit of purple crinkle polyester at the top of the front of the garment representing the the life and vitality that is found in a city. It is a fully lined dress, but I was too cheap to put boning in. (the dress form is not my size, so I will never be able to wear it)

Probably the toughest part of this garment was the back zipper – I put it in 4.5 times!! I originally used a zipper that was too short, so then I put in a nice metal zipper for an interest point. However, because I did the original dress drape in a really stiff cotton, the material pulled funny around the dress form when I made up the actual garment and I got some funny bumps over the behind of my dress form. I slightly solved the problem by installing an invisible zipper (it was lighter weight) and my manipulating the fabric more along the back opening. overall, there is still a small bump, but it is way better than before. I learned my lesson about draping in a material similar to the final fashion fabric!!!

And the shoulder piece. my goodness. Originally I had planned to put the ‘windows’ around the waist to form a peplum-like silhouette, however once I got them pinned on the garment, they just looked too tacky and costume-y. So, I started playing around with how else to use the pieces I had made (each one is composed of an iridescent layer and a vinyl layer bound by the crinkle polyester and has pieces of wire down the sides to give them stiff shape). I came up this removable shoulder piece that I think is kinda fun and the dress could be worn with or without it – it just snaps on to the lining.

What do you think of the dress? It’s kind of unusual, but I think I would wear the dress sans the shoulder piece out in the evening – would you?

*Note: the runway photo taken before I dyed the dress and is worn with my {iris} chiffon cropped top. Also – can you believe I took all those photos with my iPhone! I was amazed at how well they turned out!

Material Notes

crinkle polyester
clear vinyl
polyester lining

Difficulty

Advanced

Categories

Season

Spring

For

Women

Garment Type

Dress

Style

Other, Evening Wear, Classic

Material

Other, Polyester

Credits

Runway Photographer

Mike Adams