Fall 2024
The final project for my fall semester studio class was to create a draped garment that was inspired by two unrelated prompts. I chose glamour and varsity.
Research
To start off my project I wanted to culminate a variety of old Hollywood looks and classic varsity jackets to have a good point of reference to come back to when brainstorming. Some things I wanted to capture from the glamour references was the cinched waist and the form hugging drapes that show up time and time again. For the varsity theme I wanted to incorporate a sailor collar or the classic two panel sleeve with the ribbed cuff.
Moodboard
Experimentation
Going into my experiment toiles I knew I wanted to capture the classic hourglass shape of the 1950's. Through some trial and error, I was able to create a pleat pattern that I was satisfied with. I thought drafting something else for the bodice portion with the varsity theme would be too much clutter, so I decided to do the two panel sleeves that many varsity jackets have.
Because of the heavy pleating the dress would need an under structure. This was pretty straight forward; I just mimicked the silhouette of my favorite toile on a full-scale mannequin and made it into a pattern.
First toile & undergarment drape
Problem solving
When making my toiles, to create the drape I wanted I discovered I had to create all of my heavily pleated areas on the bias and on a single layer of fabric. This helped make the pieces I was working with stretchy and more malleable allowing me to wrap them easily around the dress form. Another learning curve I had to get around was the sleeve. to figure out the panel placement I assembled a regular sleeve block and marked where I wanted the seams to land. After this I added fullness to both the shoulder and wrist by slashing and spreading to get the billowy effect that varsity jackets have.
Sketches
Final draft
To make my final pattern I took a very similar fabric to the type used on my final garment and mapped out my pleats on the full-sized mannequin over my base garment. I ended up with multiple sections that I took off and carefully marked where the pleats landed and their angles.
