This is a dress I made for myself for a summer wedding. I gathered a few inspiration photos then went to work making it, changing a few things as I went. Designing and making clothes for myself is a little easier then making them for other people because I can change, fit, and try on things as I'm working on it. One great thing about this dress is I only had to buy a zipper for it, both the outer and lining fabrics were from my stash. I am very happy with how this dress turned out!
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This was a custom made evening gown I made for a customer who designed her dream dress and needed someone to bring it to life. It was a long process in the making but was completely worth it because the dress couldn't have turned out better. The customer who designed the dress wanted to be involved in the creation process as much as possible. We first met to go over the design, we talked about all the details and changed a few things around to come up with this final design. I took her measurements and got started on creating the sewing pattern for the dress and testing out some samples of the details, like sewing feathers on to fabric (something I had never done). Once the pattern was made and I knew how much fabric was needed to make the dress, my customer set out to find the perfect fabric for the dress. It took some time but she finally found a gorgeous silk satin and silk lining in Toronto, and sourced the feathers from online. I then worked cutting the dress pattern out and sewing it together for the first fitting. At the first fitting the dress fit pretty good, it just needed a few minor adjustments, we figured out the placement on the straps and feathers, then the dress was ready to be finished. I finished up sewing together the dress and all that was left was to figure out the feathers.... My dilemma was that the feathers needed to be removable for dry cleaning. After bouncing some ideas around I figured out that I could hand sew the feathers onto a 1/2 inch strap that could then be attached to the dress with little plastic snaps. So I started working on doing that and came across the problem that the feathers don't like to bend over the curve of the shoulders... After some exparementing I realized that if I vary carefully sliced and shaved down the vains of the feathers without cutting off the feathers them self, it made the feather more flexible and lay flatter when I sewed them on. Just like that the dress was done!
The customer absolutely loved it and couldn't believe that the design she had sketched out she could now wear, and fit her perfectly! She was beyond excited and will definitely stand out in her one of a kind evening gown at the ball she had to go to. P.S. The dress looked 10x better on her then it dose on my dress form here. Still waiting for her to send me a photo of her all glammed up in the dress. This project was a special request from a customer, her husbands favourite shirt was getting worn out and the holidays were coming up, so she knew he would be wanting to wear it lots. So she brought me the old shirt and some new fabric to copy the old shirt and make 2 new shirts. I took the old shirt apart to make the paper pattern of the shirt, then all I had to do was cut out the fabric and sew up the shirts! The shirts included ribbed cuffs and waistband,
I was asked by a customer if I could make a tie for her father for Christmas. I had never made a tie before but I'm always up for the challenge to try something new! Turns out ties are really easy to make! They involve a lot of hand stitching but if you put in the time to do that they turn out great! After completing the tie for the customer I thought what a great Christmas present for the hard to buy for men in your life. So I made up 3 more to give as gifts myself. They use hardly any fabric so I was able to use some fabrics fron my stash. Not only did these make good Christmas gifts but they would be perfect for Father's Day, Birthdays or weddings too!
These cloaks where custom made to fit my customers. When making custom products for customers I like to include them as much as possible in the design and creation processes. Most likely if you are coming to me to get something custom made you know exactly what you want. I will give you my opinion and throw in my expertise of materials but if you know what you want I try to make exactly that. The customers who wanted these cloaks made knew exactly what they wanted, they had fun going to the fabric store and picking out the buttons, outer fabric and lining fabric. They even got creative and got 3 colours of lining for a colour blocking look. Sometimes when a bride is planning her wedding she has a theme that she wants to carry throughout the entire wedding or she can envision every little detail of her wedding, and it would make it a perfect day if everything could look like how she envisions. I had a bride who was planning her wedding with a country picnic theme. She really wanted red checkered bridesmaid dresses but of course could not find dresses that unique in a bridal boutique. So, she came to me to get the job done. She just wanted something simple, nothing over the top. Together we came up with this simple strapless A-line dress with a touch of lace at the waist. The dresses turned out great and fit in to the theme of her wedding perfectly. One of the other services I offer is custom screen printing. I can take any image or words and screen print/stencil it onto the item you wish to add it onto. Below you can see some custom t-shirts I made for a wedding party to celebrate the bride and grooms stag and doe. The theme was hunting/camo so I took pre-made camo t-shirts and screen printed the symbol they wanted on it (2 deer heads in the shape of a heart) and on the back of the shirts was their position in the wedding party( bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, bridesmaid, and groomsman). Shirts made like this are great for team events and organized activities. If you are wanting some screen printing done let me know by filling out my custom sewing form. The bride of this wedding found some nice light summer dresses on a sale rack at a retail store. They were the exact colour and style she was looking for but they needed a little something more to make them perfect. The dresses were a little to short in the front for her tall bridesmaids, so I fixed that by adding a second layer of fabric to the dresses. Doing this also allowed us to bring in the other wedding colour to the dresses and added more dimension to the dresses. Then to make the dress a little more fancy and look more like a bridesmaid dress, I created a sash to be tied around the waist of the dress with a bow at the back, again using the contrasting colour. And just like that I turned the summer dresses in to one of a kind bridesmaid dresses.
This is a easy way to get unique bridesmaid dresses that you won't find at a bridal boutique. You can have control over the colour combinations and design details to come up with the perfect bridesmaid dresses for your wedding! This green lantern shirt was made for a customer who was going to a superhero convention. They wanted a shirt that they could wear to look similar to the green lantern. The shirt needed to be skin tight so I started with a compression running shirt and added the details in green to make it look identical to the green lanterns uniform. The customer was very satisfied with how it turned out and knew it would go perfect with the rest of the costume that they had already put together.
This custom prom dress was made from an old bridesmaids dress of the mothers, and then revamped with a new design and refreshed with some chiffon fabric layered over overtop and crocheted lace added for straps. This prom dress gave this girl her dream dress that she helped design and a unique one-of-a-kind dress that no one else would have.
UNBOUND 2012 was an industry level fashion show that my class and I put on to showcase our hard work and dedication to the fashion design program. The show was amazing and definitely a once in a life time experience. My collection was called Micro-Edge. Micro-Edge is an outerwear collection of business casual coats that were inspired by microscopic structure. Made from wool and cotton suiting in neutral colours and accented with turquoise leather, these coats vary in length, style and carry on a feminine silhouette. Keeping the women wearing these coats looking fashionable on her way to the office, these light weight spring coats will be in every women’s closet. |
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