Thought for a lifetime

Einstein made the very important observation that " Imagination is more important than knowledge ".

Friday, August 30, 2013

Changyeostyle; A Fashion Student Success Story




 An email the other day announced a trunk show at a local boutique by the up and coming fashion line
Changyeostyle
What made the announcement exciting is the two founding designers of Changyeostyle are BOTH former students of mine from FASH 100!
Angelina Yeo and Annie Chang met in my class years ago and now are designing and selling their own line of fashions.

Could not resist this skirt and easy top

Changyeostyle fashions are perfect for the casual SoCal lifestyle. 
The designs are easy to wear and the knit fabrics are dreamy soft.

And another easy top in very unique fabric
I purchased two tops and a skirt thinking I would send them to my daughters BUT, I tried them on and loved the feel of the fabric and the great designs. So I'm keeping them!


Angelina and Annie are very creative, original designers with a great eye for detail and fine finishing.
I truly liked all their pieces and wish I had an occasion to wear black lace pants because they've got an amazing pair!

Go to their website, check out their entire inventory, and watch for details about their next trunk show in September at The Hanger in Tustin. 


Thursday, August 29, 2013

One Hour Skirt

Been super anxious to tackle some of my ever-growing pile of projects and finally had some free time to actually attempt a project.


Since I only had about one hour I decided to whip up a quick knit skirt from this great fabric remnant I bought in LA for under $1.


The width of the fabric was just the right measurement for the length of my skirt so I just needed my hip measurement for the circumference of the skirt.
With a woven fabric 3" should be added to the hip measurement for ease but, since this was a knit I went with only 1' of ease. 
Ease is the difference between your actual body measurement and the finished garment measurement.


Cut my fabric into 5 pieces; biggest piece is skirt, 2 smallest pieces will be elastic waistband, 2 larger pieces will be a hem band because hemming knits is difficult.


Since this is a single or Jersey knit the fabric curls towards the right side of the fabric. 


One quick overlocked seam and I had the tube which will become my skirt. 
Next overlocked my 2 waistband pieces together at the short ends to create casing for the elastic.
Overlocking ( or serging ) knits is the quickest best way to construct knits.
  

Left a 1" gap in a waist band seam for opening to insert elastic.


Folded the waistband lengthwise and lined up the unfolded edge of waistband with the top of the skirt.
The waistband is on the outside ( right side ) of the skirt when I overlock the waistband to the skirt.


Cut the 1" wide elastic to a comfortable length for my waist and inserted the elastic into the waistband. 
Using a safety pin on the elastic end I was pulling through the waistband made it easier to feed the elastic through the waistband.
Sewed the elastic ends together and the waistband was complete.


Decided to add interfacing to the hem band to make it a little more rigid. 
Did not want the hem band all droopy, and uneven.


After folding the hem band in half I took a minute to hand baste the hem band so no chance of hem band rippling while I overlocked it to the skirt.
  

Third and last time at the overlock machine the unfolded edge of the hem band was lined up with the bottom of the skirt on the outside ( right side ) of the skirt and overlocked together.


And my skirt was finished!
It honestly took about as long to blog about the skirt as it did to make it.

One project done and only 239,756,000 to go.