Little Black Dress... Manufacturing Process

After being told everything was correct and told to begin making my final dress; the first thing to do was cut out my pattern pieces in my chosen fabric: Duchess Satin. Folding the fabric in half; selvedge to selvedge, I placed my pattern pieces carefully onto the duchess satin; placing the centre front piece on the fold and measuring from the selvedge to the grain line of each piece; to place the remaining pieces as accurately on the grain line as possible. Once placed accurately onto the fabric; I then cut all of the pieces out ready to begin manufacture.

I was then told that I would need a lining for my dress and that pattern would be different to that of the dress. Therefore a pattern for the lining was needed; to create the lining pattern I traced off each of the pattern pieces for the dress and took the depth of the facing (4cm) off the top of each piece and then adding a 1cm seam allowance back onto the top. This pattern is needed because the lining will be attached to the facing rather than the top of the dress, therefor the alterations are needed to adapt to the shape of the pattern to fit the lining in correctly.  Checking that the lining pattern pieces were correct, I then pinned them to lining fabric before cutting the pieces out ready for manufacture.

 Pattern Drafting

 Pattern Pieces

 Lining Fabric

Pieces cut out in Lining Fabric

Before starting to sew the dress together; the sides of each panel needed to be overlocked to ensure they don’t fray. Using a 3-thread overlocker, I carefully overlocked the edges of each piece, taking my time whilst overlocking round the curved edges to make sure I didn’t trim off any excess fabric.

 Overlocked Edges

With all the edges overlocked it was time to start sewing. First I pinned the edges I was going to sew together, matching the notches together to ensure I sew the pieces together accurately; starting with the side front pieces to the centre front panel. To ensure my seam allowance stays the correct size I used a guide, measuring with a tape measure 1cm and placing the guide on the machine to ensure my seam stays 1cm all the way down.

 Setting guide to 1cm

Pinned Fabric ready to sew

Taking a 1cm seam allowance; I sewed the side fronts to the centre front and then pressed the seams open, I then sewed the side backs to the side fronts and pressed the seams open, finally I attached the side backs to the centre backs and pressed the seams open. 

 I also attached the back pieces of the facing to the centre front piece, but first I attached interfacing to it; by cutting pieces of inter facing using my pattern pieces, then ironing them onto the duchess satin pieces before placing them in a heat press to fix them in place.

It was now time to sew my lining; using the same method of sewing the side front panels to the centre front, then the side back panels to the side fronts, etc. I attached the lining panels together, however instead of overlocking each edge and then joining the panels, this time I used a 5thread overlocker to join each panel to one another; overlocking the edges and joining them together in one quick process. Although I found it a bit difficult at first, because the fabric is so slippery, this process was very effective and saved time.

Once all of the lining panels were sewn together; the facing for the top of the dress was attached to the lining. Taking a 1cm seam allowance, I carefully stitched around the curved top of the lining, ensuring that the centre front goes nicely into a point at the centre front. I then overlocked the centre back edges of the lining; ready to attach to the lining to the dress. 

The lining is then attached to the dress by lockstitch joining the facing- which is attached to the lining, to the dress, taking a 1cm seam allowance and sewing with fabrics right sides together. Again I had to ensure the point goes down at the centre point correctly, a notch is made to help with this once turned out. I then trimmed the excess seam allowance, and pressed the seam. I then turned it out and edge stitched along turning the seam under towards the facing.  

It was now time to close up the back of the dress; first the zip needed to be inserted into the centre back. I changed the foot on the machine and edge stitched down form the top to the zip, as far as it would let me sew. I then turned out the top of the dress, making sure the corners pointed. I then joined the remaining back seams – the dress and the lining, and pressed open. 

 Inside Zip: Open

Inside Zip: Closed

I then turned out the entire dress and overlocked the hem. Measuring the 4cm hem allowance, press the hem before sewing a blind hem using blind hemmer machine.

 Blind Hem: Inside

 Blind Hem: Outside

Once the blind hem is sewn in; turn out the dress and lay on a table. The lining should be longer than the dress; therefore it can be trimmed to the correct size at this stage. Using tailors chalk I drew across the lining along the edge of the duchess satin dress hem. Then moving the dress out of the way, I cut off the excess lining, and then double over 1cm and sewing a hem on the lining before pressing that flat. The dress is now complete.

My finished dress; fully lined, pressed and ready for marking. I tried it on a mannequin to finish and take photographs for documentation and evidence, as you can see the dress doesn’t quite fasten all the way up; this is because the final fitting of the toile was fitted to a model and not the mannequin therefore once on a person/the model it will fit better. I am happy with the result, although previously concerned about the small fit, and I think it will work well with the embellished cape I designed.

Little Black Dress... Toile Stage

Each pattern piece was then cut out carefully following the lines and then ready to try making in fabric, starting with a calico toile. Cutting a length of calico long enough for my design and then folding it selvedge to selvedge to ensure the grain line is correct was important before placing the pattern pieces on, if the grain line is off the fabric will hang incorrectly. I placed the pattern pieces onto the fabric ensuring they followed the grain line by measuring from the edge to the grain line on the pattern piece, I also made sure the Centre Front was placed on the fold as this will form 1 singular piece once cut in fabric.

 After cutting out each pattern piece in calico, I was ready to sew. I started with the front of the dress by attaching the centre front panel to the side front panels, ensuring they matched up at the notches made sure that the pieces were correctly fitting. Then I attached the side backs to the side front panels and then finally the centre back panels to the side back panels, all the time taking a 1cm seam allowance. The seams were press open and then the last stage was to close the back by inserting a zip and closing the seam.  

Once the toile was completed it was time to have a fitting. The fitting enabled me to see how the dress looks once on, for this fitting I used a dress form/mannequin. From the first fitting I could see that the top of the dress was quite big, all around, and this would therefore need to be adjusted to achieve a better fit. However the lower part of the dress, from the hip downwards seems to fit quite nicely.

As the toile looked far too big I altered it by taking it in at the sides and a little bit on each panel. I pinned the fabric to see how much the dress needed to be taken in. I then drew with pencil where the pinned fabric ended; this would be how much I needed to take off the pattern.  I would then be able to make the same changes to the pattern by taken in the same measurements that I had with the toile; as the pencil marks would be there as a guide once I took the pins out to get the toile off the mannequin.

By the measurements of the 1^st toile the pattern needed to be taken in on each panel; I did this by transferring the lines marked with pencil that I drew whilst the pins where holding the fabric in place to form a better fit.  Once the new measurements from the alterations were transferred onto the pattern; I cut out a new set of pattern pieces out with the new measurements. I then checked that the pieces still fitted together correctly after the alterations before cutting out in calico again to sew a 2^nd toile. 

After repeating the same process of sewing the Centre Front panel to the side fronts; then the side fronts to the side backs, then to the centre backs; to sew the new toile it was time for another fitting. For this toile I decided not to insert a zip but instead fastened the back with pins to create a back seam; this enabled me to save time and materials (i.e. a zip) but still achieve a true fit of how the dress would look once sewn in fabric.  As seen in the images the 2^nd toile achieved a much better fit, the bust is still slightly large but this didn’t concern me too much as the mannequins measurements are not very realistic or true to real peoples figures (most people have a fuller bust than the mannequin, or at least in my opinion).

As I was happy with the fit of the 2^nd toile; it was time to create a facing for the dress, the facing will slightly change the shape of the dress once attached so it was important to try it at the toile stage. To create the facing I placed the centre front and side front pattern pieces together, like they would be once sewn, I then placed pattern paper over and traced off the shape of the top of the ‘dress front’  4cm deep,  I then repeated this process for the back of the dress too. The back and front facing pieces then needed a seam allowance of 1cm added all around (with the exception of the centre front which would be cut on the fold).

I then cut the facing out in calico and attached it to the toile, sewing the front and back facing pieces together first. The facing can be quite difficult to attach because of all the curves you have to sew whilst doing so, and getting the centre front to point properly is also challenging. Once attached a notch is put in at the centre front before turning out, edge stitching along and then pressing. 

Once the facing was successfully made and attached to the toile; I pressed and turned out the whole toile and placed it on the mannequin once more to check how it looked. I was surprised to see how different the shape looked with the facing on; it created a much sleeker look, the smooth curves looked really good and were right for my design. I was pleased with this toile and was happy to move on to creating the dress in the final fabrics.

Although I was happy with the fit of my toile and ready to move on into fabric; a tutor insisted on another fitting; this time with a person. In order to do so I had to close up the back of my 2^nd toile by sewing a seam from where the zip would end, if there was one inserted, down to the hem and pressing the seam open. I then tried the toile on a model and the tutor insisted in taken the dress in even more (I was a bit apprehensive to do so as I thought the model was particularly small and feared the dress would not fit many other people).  The toile was taken in slightly; with alteration of taken 1cm to 0cm from centre front to the bust point and 0.5cm to 0cm at the centre back to the waist; the hem would be sewn in at the originally designed depth of 4cm.  The alterations were made to the toile and pattern pieces and I was told I was now ready to make my final dress.

Little Black Dress... Pattern Cutting

After undertaking a series of research including fashion, theme, sampling, etc; I produced a range of designs  from which I then selected a garment design to manufacture.

After finalising and selecting a design to manufacture a Specification sheet was created in order to work from. This sheet is vital for the making process and must be at hand at all times; the sheet shows front and back views of the design drawn as technical flats – showing details, seams, and stitching, etc.

Once the Specification sheet is completed and ready to work from; the pattern cutting can begin. The first step in the pattern cutting process is to trace around the basic block; in this case a dress block. After cutting a length of pattern paper, I drew a line straight across the width of it with a long ruler; this line enabled me to place the dress block onto the paper lined up correctly making the process more accurate. Placing the waist line of the dress blocks along my drawn line; with side seams together, I traced around them ensuring I marked on all the important markings, for example; waist lines, darts, Centre Front, grain line, etc. To make this easier you should always weight the block down with something to prevent it from moving whilst tracing.

 Once the block is traced off properly you need to make sure you label them correctly by stating what the garment is, i.e. Dress, the piece, i.e. Front or Back, the size, and if necessary your name (if anything goes missing then it can easily be returned to its creator).  Also remember to mark on this that it is the 1^st Draft; you may need to come back to this at some point.

Once I had the basic dress block traced off, I was able to alter it to fit my design. I started by changing the neckline; using a dress form (or mannequin) and a toile made from the block – I measure how far down I wanted my neckline to be and then transferred this onto the pattern paper, I then curved the line from the centre front point over to the base of the ‘arm hole’; this would create my neckline to be like the one in my specification sheet. The same process is then repeated to alter the design of the back of the dress.

To change the basic block into a pattern for my design; I had to create seams and panels, to do this I simply took out the darts and extended the lines all the way through the dress, this would then create four separate panels once traced off and created into pattern pieces.

Once all the changes had been made to the basic block too make into my own design, just like the one on the specification sheet; I was ready to trace off my pattern pieces. Placing another sheet of pattern paper over the 1^st draft and weighing it down with something (sometimes it is better to pin the papers together for extra care), then I simply traced off each separate panel and added 1cm seam allowance around the panels (with the exception of the Centre Front) and a 4cm hem allowance to create my pattern pieces for my dress.

When tracing off each pattern piece for my dress it was essential that I remembered to mark all the important details such as the Centre Front, Waist line, grain lines, and notches – notches are the only way to make sure your pattern pieces will fit together once sewn in 3D, they are really important for matching the pieces together properly. It is also really important to correctly label each pattern piece; in my case I had 4 pieces – Centre Front Dress Panel, Side Front Dress Panels, Centre Back Panels, and Side Back Panels.  Each piece had to be labelled with their ‘piece name’, size and my name. You also need to label instructions for cutting in fabric, for example; if you need to cut on the fold or the number of pieces you need – e.g. Cut x2, would indicate you need 2 of each piece. Labelling the pattern pieces will make the making process much easier.

The next stage: Making a Toile.