Little Black Dress... Embellished Cape.

The Toile Stage: Continued...

After finding a lighter weight fabric to toile my cape with I was able to continue the process.
 As the calico is quite a heavy and stiff fabric I couldn’t get a realistic toile whilst using it, therefore I created a new toile using a lighter weight fabric, more similar to the georgette I would be using. I cut out my pattern pieces in this lighter fabric. 

 I then sewed the toile together using two side seams an then tried it on the mannequin. This lightweight fabric toile was much better to work with as I could get a more realistic view to how it would look like in my final fabric. The shape looks alright but needed taking in slightly down the sides, but this was just a tiny bit to shave off to take it in slightly to create a better fit.

 Front

Back

The shape of the shoulder didn’t seem to be sitting correctly; with the advice of a tutor, I added tucks or little pleats to lift the sides of the shoulders up slightly. This seemed to work and the shape did look a lot better once the tucks lifted the cape a bit. With the shape and silhouette of the cape sorted it was now time to think about how the embellishment would be placed onto the shoulders.

 Before Tucks

With Tucks

It was suggested to me to embellish directly onto the shoulder pads and then attach the shoulder pads on top of the cape. I wasn’t really happy with this idea as I thought it would simply look like I had just placed something on top of my cape rather than the embellishment being part of my cape. 

To get a better idea of how this suggest technique would look like; I was given an embellished shoulder pad that someone had previously created, I then placed this onto my cape.

 As I had imagined it looks like it has just been place on top rather than it being part of the garment. This process made me even more sure of how I wanted to embellish my final cape; I would place the shoulder pads underneath the cape and then embellish directly onto the cape fabric.

The Manufacturing Stage:

I was happy with the shape of my cape and now knew how I was going to embellish it and therefore it was time to cut out my pattern pieces in the final fabric – georgette. I had to use a lot of pins and a weight to hold the fabric in place because it is so light and moves so much when trying to work with it.

Using a baby overlocker I sewed the side seams of my cape; I used this method rather than a normal or French seam as the fabric is so light and sheer that this is the best possible way to sew the sides with the least impact on the garment visually. I then tried the cape on a mannequin; the shoulder again doesn’t look right and needs to be lifted – as I did with the toile.

  To get a better idea of  how the cape would look on a person – because the mannequin has no arms and therefore the cape would hang differently, I tried it on a real life model. 

After fitting the cape on a model I still believed the shoulders needed lifting slightly; and with countless failed attempts at putting in tucks to do so; I eventually come up with a solution.

  Putting tucks in was much easier with the last toile but for some reason the tuck wouldn’t lie correctly with the georgette fabric – they would either look correct at the front but horrible from the back or vice versa. 

 The solution I came to was to put in a two-point centre back tuck; this lifted and brought in the shoulder really nicely. I also believe that this kind of tuck creates a nice detail to the back of my design. 

With the shoulders and back of the cape all sorted it was time to work out what to do with the front. 

 As I wanted the design of the cape to just sit on the shoulders and hang; I didn’t want or need to create any fastening, instead I decided to tuck the centre fronts underneath the shoulder pads and create a doubled over centre front detail. 

  This solution would create the dramatic look that just sits on the shoulder whilst adding a nice extra touch to the front.

To finish the edges of my cape I used the baby overlocker around the centre fronts and all the way around the neckline, I then measured a length of black satin bias tape to fit around the entire cape edge.

  Before attaching the satin tape, I pressed the whole length in half; once pressed I then carefully placed the edges of the cape into the centre of the folded tape and the edge stitched the tape in place. 

  This process was quite difficult because the fabric moves so easily with it being so light, but after two attempts and very careful sewing I eventually managed to successfully attach the satin binding to create my satin bound edges. 
  
The reason I chose satin to bind the edges of the cape was to help tie the two garments together to look like they were made to be worn together. The satin edges work well with the duchess satin fabric of the dress

With the satin binding attached to the edges of the cape; it was almost time to add the embellishment details, but before that I had to tuck the centre fronts under and tack the shoulder pads in place.

  I was then ready to start embellishing; starting slightly below the shoulder pad I sewed a row of sequins anchored with a black seed bead – this way there would be as little threads visible as possible. Using the shape of the shoulder pads as a guide I sewed the shape I wished to achieve.

  Once I had sewed a few rows; I notice that while I was embellishing the shoulders were lifting even more (which luckily I had anticipated and therefore there would be no problems with the final fit). With the shoulder lifting I thought it would be best to stop and place back on a mannequin; and then by eye I drew a line as to where the embellishment should be on the other shoulder and then started to embellish that side.

   I then decided it would be best to work by sewing a few rows and then alternating to sew another few on the other shoulder rather than finish an entire shoulder then move onto the next. This method worked well for me as I was using 3 different coloured sequins which would create an ombré effect of colours graduating into black. 


 After many long hours of sewing tiny beads onto the cape; I was finally finished embellishing the shoulders! 

I am particularly pleased with the graduating effect of the different coloured sequins, and also the fact that the amount of visible thread was kept to an absolute minimum.  It looks its best when the light hits it; it sparkles and creates a striking dramatic effect which is exactly what I wanted to create.

 All that was left to do now was to finish off the hem; to do so I simply level the hem off by measuring from the ground up to the hem where I wanted it to end, I then placed pins where I wanted the hem line to be and the once I took the cape off the stand I cut along the line created with the pins. 

 With the new hem line levelled and cut; I then simply baby overlocked the entire hem line to create a very small neat looking hem. I wanted a small and simple hem as I didn’t want to take any focus away from the embellished shoulders of the cape and with the fabric being so light and sheer personally I think this is the best way I could have finished the dress.

Throughout this module I feel that I have coped well with the challenges I come across and I am happy with the result of my final garments. I think the dress is nicely fitted and shaped to create a sleek look ; and I think the simplicity of the dress works well with dramatic looking cape. The heavily embellished shoulders of the cape rightfully take focus and look best when the light hits them. I also light the contrast of the soft flowing fabric of the cape with the bold embellishment; I think this creates a lot of interest. I also like how the satin bound edges sometimes can be seen when there is movement, I do think that this helps tie the outfit together nicely. 

  Overall I am happy with the results as the final garments have worked well and look like I had originally designed them.