Friday, July 4, 2014

Ballgown: Day 1 (Or, First Steps)

day1.6 day1.5

Yesterday, after a craptastic morning at home, I went to school to start my ballgown. To my surprise, my day completely turned around; I've been so anxious about this process for so long that I was expecting the first day to be super stressful, but it was actually really fulfilling and great.

Draping the first muslin was completely magical. I have a theory that designers have different learning styles that affect their preference for draping vs. flat patternmaking, because today I found out today that draping feels really intuitive to me, and I had no idea before! Although I took draping when I first started at school, it had been a long time, but once I started, something clicked. It was fascinating to see how the fabric wanted to move when I pushed and pulled it in different directions, and I loved the control of having design lines on a 3-dimensional object so there was no guesswork in the curves of the patternwork.

By 1:30, I had my design lines; by the time I left at 9:45, I had draped and sewn up a muslin of the entire bodice and sleeve that fit almost perfectly - which, I gotta say, has never happened to me before. I have a feeling that the most time-consuming part of this gown is going to be the construction, but I'm really excited for the opportunity to be slow and methodical with my sewing.

day1.3 day1.1day1.4 day1.2

I set up my room little by little in the last week, and working in it yesterday was kind of awesome. Sparklepants used this same room before me, so it felt important to me that I change things around so that the room felt like my space. I moved pretty much everything, and hit on a nice layout that kept important things like the sewing machine and the iron close to each other. I love having things organized - it keeps things so much less stressful when I have what I need close at hand, and a place to put things everything from my purse, to dirty dishes, to extra ribbon. (My stuffed fat corgi - very originally named Fat Corgi - has a special resting spot on my ribbon box.) 

As a nice little extra, I got a new pair of Keds and some socks yesterday. As silly as it is, I like the idea of wearing something cute every day, because I always feel better about life when I dress up.

Even though I'll be working all day today, too, I might wear something thematic to the 4th, so I can feel like a member of the party when fireworks start going off outside my window!

Happy 4th, and happy Friday!

Love,
Cory

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