Making A Dress With Rachel:
Week 1
Hello everyone! This is Rachel from the Danielson Famile. For those of you who don’t know, I am also a clothing designer and am part of a handmade children’s clothing company called Mamma Made (www.mammamadedesigns.com). I am very excited to take you through the process of how a garment is developed from start to finish though a series of blog posts.
I’m currently working on our line for Spring 2008 and I really love to design dresses. There is nothing sweeter on a little girl than a special dress that can showcase her personality and simply make her feel beautiful. The dress that I will be working on and sharing with you will actually be available in the Spring—so you’ll have a sneak peak!
I have a little black sketch book where I doodle, but as my sister Megan tells me, I design backwards. Usually designers make a sketch that they love and then find the perfect fabric, but I find the fabric first and then the dress creates itself. I prefer to use 100% cotton fabrics. They wash and dry well, they are sturdy and lend themselves practically for children to wear and thrash, and you can find some really cool prints. I prefer quilting cottons because the quality is higher. When you feel the fabric, it has a solid yet soft feel. When you hold it up to the light, you can’t see through it and it has a nice drape for skirts. Here’s the quilting fabric I have chosen for this dress:
Now I am going to my sketchbook to work on some ideas. You aren’t allowed to make fun of my amazingly horrible sketches. The truth is that when I have the fabric, I see the idea in my head but I have to put in on paper just to make it a bit more solid. You can’t really see what the final garment will look like because you can’t see into my head, but I will share my elementary sketches with you anyways.
I’m going to mull over these for a bit and maybe even change things around. After we get our idea finalized, we will begin to create the pattern. I would love to see your comments and ideas as we are going through this process together.
Love, Rachel
November 5th, 2007 at 11:37 am
if i was buying (or making?) clothes for our daughter (who we’ll hopefully have sometime in the next three years), i’d probably go with sketch B. the fabric down the center gives a symmetrical something-to-look-at, and the pattern seems pretty classy.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Three out of four moms agree–that fabric is wicked awesome. Can’t wait to see how the dress comes together!
November 8th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
hheeeee heeeeee
I’m sorry Rachel- the only reason I am pointing and laughing at your sketches is because you asked us not too- (mine as just as bad)
Love your sister!
November 9th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Thanks a lot Megs!
I agree with Joshua about sketch B. Now I need to think about the skirt panel and whether it should have a front pleat with a “peak-a-boo” fabric panel underneath, or have just a block of contrasting fabric. Muse. Muse.