Runway!! Confection cutie collection at Hokonui Fashion Design Awards

Yay. Final pictures. I love how the collection looks (and at the show people screamed when my designs came out, that was exciting-and no, it wasn't my mum screaming in the audience :) ) Ha ha.

I have always been inspired by bright colours and I like relatively simple clothes (plus I'm not skilled enough yet to do more complicated stuff). I thought my collection had a real sixties feel to it too. I love it. And now I have 5 new dresses in my closet :)

The choreography was awesome, I love the cute wee poses the girls did. Thanks beautiful models! Great work :)

Dress number 5: hot pink and bright stripe dress

This dress was really simple to make, and I think it is one of the most effective. To make it, I made my block, cut out  where I wanted my stripe, and then added on a new seam allowances to each piece I cut,. Then I simply made that offcentre piece in a different fabric. Tada, super easy!!

Oh, and this is my nod to bright orange that is so featured this season (one of my stripes on the left is orange, haha).

I also chucked in a couple of pleats at the neckline off one side for fun and interest(you can see them on the right side on the above picture).

 Next up: the runway collection images!!!! yay!!!

Dress number 4 :red/blue contour dress

So this dress was also a part of the three included in the collections entry in the fashion show.

It was interesting making this dress, until now, I never really realised sewing needed much in the way of maths, but do make this dress, I pulled out the my ruler and made a graph! I taped up Anne with where I wanted the contours, and then had to make  a table with coordinates of the lines of the curve, e.g. every two cms I measured where the curve was on the x and y axis and  wrote down the coordinates (using the side seam and hem as the 0,0 axis). Geeky huh? I have no idea what real designers do when making clothes but it worked for me. Then I plotted these points on a graph and drew between the lines and this is how I made the curve for the pattern. Made that sound complicated? I was so proud of myself for working out a way though. This dress I designed with making the most of a woman's figure: The centre strip comes out at the bust and hips and curves in at the waist (to try and make the wearer lookk like she has a sexy hourglass figure, of course!)

 I forgot when I was making this on Anne, that although I had set all her measurements to be the same as mine, she has a much longer torso( which I can't adjust as there is no dial there), so I probably should have curved the dress out for the hips a little higher up whan I made it (as it makes my chest area look huge).

 Isn't it neat that as a woman we can play with the lines on our clothes to make our bodies look a different shape? It sure is a lot less effort than diet and exercise, haha. :)

Next up: lucky last dress number 5: pink and bright stripe dress.

Pink/purple swirl dress:dress number 3!!

This dress was part of my collection. I called the collection confection cutie as the dress I first made reminded me of lollies:,bright fun colours and swirly. I made all my dresses from the same fabrics, just in different colours. I used these fabrics mainly as I had 10-12 metres each of the bright blue, purple and red left from when I bought them in a sale at new year for a dollar a metre. And I managed to find some hot pink in the same style. I really like colour blocking too. And since I have made these-colour blocking seems to be really in fashion, so that's handy.

My inspiration :)

I had so much fun making this dress: mainly because I drew my picture, managed to make a pattern and sew it and it all came together perfectly first time. maybe I should do a tutorial some time on how to make a swirl dress as I just sort of made it up, and it worked.

 Modelled on Anne.

I will put the runway shots of this dress up once I  have shown you the other two dresses in the collection as the shots are of all three together.

Next up: dress number 4, contouring red/blue dress

Runway shots: dress number 2

This is a bright blue and bright purple hoodie dress, the hood is lined in a stretchy blue/purple floral.

 I ruched the neckline, but I guess I didn't do it well, as by the time of the fashion show, it came undone and looked more like a cowl neck, haha. I ruched it by gathering the fabric just under the neck with a hand stitch. next time I ruche, I will sew a piece of elastic to the back.

 My pleats I made down the front-I just kind of eye balled the fabric and folded to make these-I was too lazy to measure. I put the different colour in a pleat form to make the dress a little more intersting, I love how it turned out.

 I wish I had made a belt to go with this dress, just to cinch the waist a little more, a belt would be suitable with this dress as I out a strong horizontal at the waist with that seam being there.

 Runway shots!! (with it looking like a cowl neck, haha).

Thank you lovely model :)

Next up, dress number 3: Pink/purple swirl dress

Fashion show: the professional shots!

Yahoo, my pictures arrived from the photographer. I will show you my shots at home on Anne and then the runway pics :) Dress number one: pink/purple circle hoodie dress  (that is number one out of five!)

Thank you to the lovely model :)

Next up, dress number 2 (pleated blue/purple hoodie dress)

My fashion show dress

As I think I mentioned, I entered a fashion show here in NZ.

Me wearing it today and it is so sunny and beautiful-yet it is supposed to snow today.

It was called the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards aand is a nation wide competition and I entered 5 dresses. We were not allowed to take photos at the show, and I am still waiting for the professional shots to arrive from the photographer. In the mean time, until I can show you some photos off the catwalk, here are some images from one of the 5 dresses (I actually wore it today :) None of my outfits place anywhere but it was such a thrill to go to a fashion show and see my designs on display. There were 700 people in the audience on the night I went and the Fashion show has been on t.v. twice. It was really exciting for me to be a part of the show and has given me a lot of confidence with my designing-and thanks to Anne my mannequin for her help in being my figure to design and create the outfits off.


So this is an outfit I entered in the Streetwear category.

As you can see, it is 2 colours, hot pink and purple. It is stretchy, but that lovely thick stretch drill I love so much. I made a hood on it and lined it in the same fabric. The lining was a super stretchy synthetic with concentric circles all over it . I simply cut them and top stitched them on-whuch was a bit lazy as you can see the edges are unfinished and roll slightly. I was not sure how to finish them well but I think it will be fine as they will not unravel or anything.

 

 This dress shows off my tummy a wee bit, but it actually looks better on a curvy person than a thin person, so I don't mind. Oh and I'm wearing one of my button braclets and the colours worked very well together. The brightness of this outfit really uplifts my mood and it made me feel cute and playful.

As I get the pics on the runway I will put them up :)

Cute button bracelets

I have gotten a little button crazy recently. I sewed buttons all over a dress I made (which I still have to show you), and I have been having fun making bright button jewellery too. I was inspired by this beautiful funky bracelet my friend had, and I thought 'I can make that'. I bought approximately 500 buttons off Trade Me, all bright platic bright colours(they came in a bulk lot sale-I didn't buy them individually, haha) . I really wanted bright yellow giant buttons, and it had some, so I was happy.

These are what I made.


This is by far my favourite, it is all purple and blue, and each button has another button threaded on top.

I wear this one with my red dresses, I love bright colours, they make me happy.

This is my least favourite, purple, green and yellow. Wearing these is a really easy way to brighten up a plain outfit, I have gotten a lot of positive comments when I wear them.

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My cute pink, red and yellow girly one. These are really easy to make. All you need is leftover buttons, elastic to thread them and ten or so minutes.

I ran out of my good elastic when I made this one. It is best if it is stretchy, but not too stretchy, if you know what I mean. This is a really long one and I wear it wrapped around my wrist a few times.

What have you been crafting recently? Have you seen any neat button things I might like?