Beginning of senior year!

So I guess I’m pretty bad at being a regular blogger, but I hope my posts are worth waiting for!

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in Kent, Ohio! After redesigning a couple of my outfits for senior collection, I finally got to start sewing one! I picked one of the easier silhouettes first to ease me back into my sewing groove. Apparently, that was a good choice.  After WAY too many hours spent patternmaking, draping, and sewing, the final muslin is complete! Here’s a picture!

As you can see, it’s the night before everyone’s first muslin is due, so the sewing studio is a bit of a disaster. To top it off, I feel bad for everyone who had to finish last minute because our new irons require distilled water to steam, and we’re all out!

Anyhow, there’s my dress! I’m rather impressed with my fit, I usually have a pretty hard time once it comes to final fabric. I know I have some corrections to make once it comes to the final garment, but for now, I’m pretty excited!

Hopefully, I get a break this weekend from all the madness to relax with my amazing man!

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Dress Tutorial

Hey there everyone!! It’s been a crazy weekend here in the city! A lot of hot hot days, too hot to even sit in my room and blog! However, it cooled off (like 5 whole degrees) today… a little is better than nothing I guess.

I always hate Mondays, as I am sure most of you do. Last night my room mate and I slept in the billiards room in the lounge on couches in the A/C. One of the best ideas I’ve ever had! Even though I thought I got a good night’s sleep, I was still exhausted today (even Starbucks didn’t help!) When I got to work, the A/C wasn’t on (29th floor of my building, you do the math), and it was so hot and miserable. The only thing that brightened my day was that my patternmaking tutorial was the featured project of the week on the Burda Style website!! go here to see it- http://www.burdastyle.com

The tutorial is how to take the top of one pattern, and the skirt of another and make them into one fabulous dress! The original patterns for the Theresa dress (one that my classmate Theresa designed and had made into a pattern from winning a competition) and the Sidonie skirt are available for download on the Burda Style website! You can try it out too!

Here’s the picture of me modeling my dress:

It was pretty snug on me, but the point of Burda Style is to show yourself modeling your creations, so here I am! I also think it is the completely wrong silhouette for my body… but oh well!

Here’s a close up of the ruffle detail in the front!

And one last shot of the front:

Well, I’ve got to go make myself look presentable- it’s my friend Karissa’s 21st birthday tonight, we have to take her out!

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Photography

Sorry I’ve been gone for soooooo long! I’ve been a busy lady at work! Just finished up a tutorial on how to make two patterns into one! Hopefully you’ll get to see it soon on BurdaStyle! I even got to model the finished dress!

Thank god for my boyfriend, Nick, who bought me a bus ticket to come home last weekend. It was nice to get away for a while and relax with him and the family. I guess you don’t really appreciate the small things until you don’t have them anymore.

Other than that, I’ve been out and about exploring NYC!

One of my really good friends Christine Pace just turned 21 and while I was flipping through her facebook profile, I came across some really great photos she’s taken. At school, we often go to the park and she will take some amazing photos of us! I thought maybe I would share them with you!

This one is of me when we were down by the Cuyahoga River ( I think? ). I was trying to find a rock to skip. Normally, I am NOT photogenic at all, but all of the pictures she took of me are absolutely amazing.

Here’s one of my friend Ashley Gerber. She was also taking pictures that day too!(Her’s were awesome too, but they were old school real photos so I’m unable to post them.)

This is my friend Sam Hawkins right after she chopped her mid-back length hair off! The background is NYC! Lucky her got to study here last semester.

This last one is my friend Karissa Conner. She’s always gorgeous (when she showers ;-)) and she always photographs well. This might be one of my favorite pictures of her.

It’s amazing to have such talented beautiful friends! If you want to see more of Christine’s photos, go to her flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christiney7389

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Senior Line

Since today is almost too hot to think (no AC in my 14th floor NYU dorm room), I figured I’d tell you about my Senior Line for school. The line is called Bloddeuwedd. here’s the brief:

Hope you can read that! :X

Anyhow, at the end of Junior year all fashion design students at Kent have to design a Senior Line that they will actually create their senior year. Once the drawing portion is completed, the school chooses critics to pick four of the eight outfits and give us comments. Mine is Leanne Marshall, winner of Season 5 Project Runway. I just got my critique this week (hehe I rhyme), and I’m very conflicted with the comments and chosen garments. Here’s what the original 8 looked like…

These were the comments I received:

#4, #6, #8, #7 pants with #2 top

One of the comments was to rethink my construction. I need to figure out how I can achieve the shapes I’ve depicted. She also said because it is a fall line, I need to add jackets, which I agree with, but am secretly dreading…

One of her ideas for a jacket was a bolero made of feathers to go over #4 (which will be a pain in the behind, but I can totally do), and I also need to add a mid thigh length jacket to go over #6… that’s where there’s trouble in paradise…

I have always had a rough time designing jackets, and this is no different. I need ideas and inspiration! My mom suggested a slouchy velvet jacket, but I’m worried they won’t go for slouchy because of the severe shapes in all of my other pieces. Hmm. Any suggestions?

In other news, my internship is fabulous! All of the staff are SO friendly, and I’m learning so much. Today I helped with the GAP denim restyle project, where 5 members are to style GAP denim and take pictures. It was really interesting to look up how other people wear their denim, and I can’t wait to see what the members come up with! Also I got a sweet (free) BurdaStyle tee! (there I go rhyming again!)

Minus the unbearable heat, today has been a pretty stellar day.

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The switch to the city

When I found out I was going to NYC for the summer, I promised myself I’d make a blog to keep in touch with everyone, and to look back on after I left. Two weeks later, I’m getting around to it!

For those who don’t know me, I’m a fashion addict. I’m a senior fashion design student at Kent State University. I love shoes. I grew up in Jamestown NY, a smallish town outside of Buffalo, where art and fashion are just not a high priority.

This summer I’m in NYC interning at BurdaStyle (you can find them at http://www.burdastyle.com). It’s my first time ever staying in the big apple, and its definitely worth all the fuss. Thank you, Coat’s and Clark, for giving me this experience!

I bet you were wondering how I scored this sweet opportunity (whether you were or not, I’m going to tell you). KSU has a lot of great competitions and clubs that students are encouraged to participate in. One of them was sponsored by Coat’s and Clark and various others companies. The challenge was to take 3 yards of mismatched fabric and trim and make a beautiful outfit from it. The catch: you have 16 hours. GO!

Now you can imagine what I thought when I got handed 3 yards of naked girls, mermaids, squids, and fish fabric, and studded leather trim. After talking with my mom, who always has some creative genius, I was able to come up with a simple baby doll style dress. I started patternmaking and realized that my dress was entirely too short for anyone except a very, very short person to wear. So I did what I do best- fudged it a little. I added a band under the bust to give it more length. But what to do with the trim… I decided to cut it from 3 studs wide, to 1, leaving extra leather strips. Then it came to me! How could I not do something AWESOME with leather. I cut it into small pieces, wide enough to cover the band under the bust. Voila! Cool leather detail (even if it had to be hot glued on for lack of leather needles and time) Here’s how it turned out-

The prize (obviously) was my internship this summer!!

Even though I’m excited to be here, it is a BIG change from Kent, or Jamestown. At school, I know I can come home whenever I want (yay for having a car!), whereas here, I know I can’t here. I’m already pretty homesick. I talk to my mom at least once a day, and my boyfriend, Nick, at least 3 or 4 times. To add to it, I missed my dad’s birthday, my sister Ashley’s dance recital, and father’s day, and I’m missing my brother, Spencer’s high school graduation and grad party. All these exciting things are happening without me, but I guess its worth this amzing, (hopefully) life changing opportunity.

Anyhow, enough rambling for one night. Us grown ups have to go to work in the morning!! 😉

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