Constructing my Bubble/Balloon skirt – Final Piece

I have previously created a practice toile for a bubble/balloon skirt and wrote about how I constructed in a blog called Constructing my Bubble/Balloon Skirt – Toile.

For my final piece bubble/balloon skirt, I have already cut out my calico fabric and Ice dyed it. I wrote about Ice dyeing the fabric for my final piece in a previous blog called Ice Dyeing Fabric for my Bubble/Balloon Skirt – Final Piece.

Next I turned the stitch length to 5 on the sewing machine.

I then sewed along the top and bottom edge of both of the pieces of fabric for the skirt with a straight stitch length 5. This will allowed me to gather the fabric.

Once I had sewn the lining and the larger outer skirt, I laid the fabric out on the table so I could easily gather the fabrics.

I then began to gather the top of both pieces fabric to approximately 35cm.

I then began to loosely gather the bottom of both pieces of fabric bigger than 35cm.

After I gathered one of the linings and outer skirt panels, I followed the same process above for the second lining and outer skirt fabric.

I then turned the stitch length to 2 for more of a normal stitch length.

Next I pinned the bottom edges of the lining and outer lining together for both of my panels.

I then sewed the bottom edges of both panels using a straight stitch with a stitch length of 2.

Once I had sewn the bottom of the skirt I turned it inside out so that seam was on the inside of the skirt. I then pinned the top edges of the lining and outer lining together of both of my panels.

I then sewed the top edges of both panels using a straight stitch.

This is what the two panels looked like once they had been sewn along the top edge.

Before I could continue constructing my skirt, I needed to sew my Suffolk puffs on which I did and wrote about in a blog called Sewing Suffolk Puffs with Bondaweb and sewing them onto the skirt – Final Piece.

Below is a photo of the Suffolk puffs sewn on the front and back panel of the skirt.

Once the Suffolk puffs had been sewn on, I then laid the outside of the front and back facing each other.

I then pinned together one side of the skirt aligning all 4 pieces of fabric together, leaving a gap at the top to sew in my invisible zip later.

I then sewed down that side.

Once I had sewn one side I moved on to pining the other side , this side had been pinned all the way down one side aligning all 4 pieces of fabric, I then sewed all the way down that side of the skirt.

I then turned the skirt the right way around and tried it on to see if it fitted and it was a bit too big so I made some tucks on the top edge of the skirt to make it smaller.

This is what the skirt looked like once the sides had been sewn and tucks had been added into the top edge.

I then drew and cut my waistband 10cm wide using the measurement of the skirt at the top where the waistband will be attached with an extra 2cm seam allowance around all the edges.

I then pinned the waistband to the top of the skirt before sewing it.

So once sewn it looked like this.

Next, I changed the sewing machine foot from a normal one to a zipper foot, I then tacked the invisible zip in the skirt and waistband with a longer stitch.

I then sewed the zip again as close to the teeth a possible with a normal stitch and stitch length..

I found that tacking the zip to the skirt first, really helpful as when you sew it down with just pins holding it down it usually slides a lot and moves out of place.

This is what the zip looked like when it was sewn and the zip was done up.

I checked the zip at this point, before moving onto the next step to check that I had not sewn on the teeth of the zip otherwise it would not work.

This is what the zip looked like on the inside of the the skirt.

I then sewed the hole at the bottom of the zip closed.

Next I want to fully enclose the zip within the waist band.

I started by folding the top of the zip down to one side before folding down the top of the waistband and pinning it in place.

I then sewed it so I looked like this, I then turned it the right way around so you can see the zip and the seam is on the inside.

I then repeated the process for the other side of the zip.

This is what the skirt looks like with the zip fully enclosed in the waistband.

Then later on a different machine which I am going to use to sew the waistband down and fully finish the skirt.

I then turned the dial pictured below to 6 which is a straight stitch with a small stitch length.

I also threaded my machine with an orange thread that matched the skirt in hope that the stitching won’t be visible.

I had previously considered using bondaweb to hold the waistband down but that did not work.

I then folded the waistband down and pinned it in place before sewing in the gap where the waistband meets the skirt.

You can slightly see the stitching below but it is barely visible in a close up photo.

This is the stitching line on the inside of the skirt.

Below is a photo of the front and back of my fully finished bubble/balloon skirt.

I am very pleased with how my ice dyed bubble/balloon skirt with Suffolk puffs has turned out. I think it looks very effective and I really love the photos of my bodice and skirt I think the two garment go together really well.

I have taken clearer photos of both my bodice and my skirt in a blog called Styling and photographing my final finished garments.

Sewing Suffolk Puffs with Bondaweb and sewing them onto the skirt – Final Piece

In a previous blog called Suffolk Puffs with Bondaweb, I made 5 varied sized Suffolk Puffs and they were the perfect size. So to create the Suffolk puffs for my final piece I am going to use the same objects to draw around. This will allow me to create exactly the same sized Suffolk Puffs.

I have chosen 3 different coloured fabrics to make the outer Suffolk Puffs from and 3 different fabrics for the innner circles.

I am going to cut out 21 outer circles, 21 inner circle and 21 bondaweb circles this will create 21 Suffolk puffs in total.

For the first fabric, I drew around 7 different sized circles using a black biro pen.

I drew around two sized 1 and sized 2 circles and then only one of sizes 3, 4 and 5 as they are larger circles.

I then did then followed the exact same process for my next two fabrics.

Once I had drawn around all of the outer circles, I moved onto drawing the inner circles using a template and a white dressmaking pencil. There are 4 inner circle templates size 1 and 2 have the same sized inner circle and size 3, 4 and 5 have slightly larger circles.

There are 2 grey and 1 brown fabrics, I used an old T-shirt and shirt as well as an old grey fabric. I used fabrics I already had rather than buying more just for a small circle of fabric.

I did the same for all three fabrics drawing seven circles on each.

I then used the inner circle templates to draw 21 circles using a black biro on the Bondaweb. There are 12 circles the size of the template 1 + 2 and for size 3, 4 and 5 3 circles of each size.

I then cut out all of the circles using dressmaking scissors, the outer circles, inner circles and Bondaweb circles.

Below are photos of all the circles cut out for each of the Suffolk puff sizes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

I then ironed all of the outer circles to try and remove the creases.

These are one of the outer size Suffolk puffs once they had been ironed and there still are a few crease in the fabric from where the fabric was originally folded.

After I had ironed all of the outer circles of fabric, I got a tea towel and dampened it under the tap to use when fusing the Bondaweb to the fabric.

I started with getting one inner circle and one bondaweb circle and placing them on the ironing board side by side.

I then made sure that the inner circle fabric was laid with the inside facing up, I then placed the bondaweb on top with the rough webbed side touching the fabric.

I then placed my damp cloth on top of the circles and then placed the iron on top of the circle for 10-15 seconds to fuse the bonaweb to the fabric.

Once I had ironed it for 10-15 seconds, I removed the damp cloth from the circles and allowed the fabric to cool slightly.

When it was cool I got some scissors to remove the excess Bondaweb around the edges of the fabric, I then slowly and carefully peeled the paper off leaving the layer of glue fused to the fabric.

This is what the inner circle of fabric looked like once I had removed the paper.

I then got my larger circle of fabric with the inside facing up and laid it flat on the ironing board board before placing the inner circle with the side that has the adhesive on facing down.

By ironing the inner circle on the inside of the fabric this means that when you sew your Suffolk puff the pattern will be visible on the outside.

 I then covered the circles with a damp cloth and ironed the circle for 10-15 seconds.

After that I took the damp cloth of the circle and left it to dry leaving the inner circle adhered to the larger circle.

I then repeated the Bondaweb process for the rest of the 20 Suffolk puff circles.

The photo below shows all 21 circles with the second fabric fused using Bondaweb in the centre. I layer them out in there sizes and colours. Size 1 is the smallest and Size 5 is the largest.

I then choose three different orange threads that matched the orange fabrics.

I then got my sewing needles and scissors to cut the thread.

I started by threading my needle with double thread of the matching colour and making a knot in the end. I then hand sewed a even running stitch all around the edge before carefully pulling the thread to gather the fabric. Next I evenly spaced the gathers before tying a knot in the thread and finishing the Suffolk Puff.

I then repeated the sewing process above 20 more times to sew all of the Suffolk puffs.

Below is a photo of all 21 fully finished Suffolk puffs.

I then got my partially constructed skirt with two separate front and back panel’s and pinned then to my mannequin before arranging and pining the Suffolk puffs on the skirt randomly where I wanted. I tried to make the amount of Suffolk puffs on the front and back even.

I only partially constructed the skirt before sewing on the Suffolk puffs as shown by the image below, there is a gap between the lining and the outer skirt. So if I sew them on now, you won’t see the hand stitches as they are on the inside of the skirt.

I then carefully hand sewed the Suffolk Puff to the front of the skirt, the stitches are on the inside of the Suffolk puff so they are not visible. The stitches in the right photo are on the inside of the skirt.

After I had sewn the Suffolk puffs onto the front of the skirt, I pinned the skirt onto the mannequin and I realised there was quite a big gap at the front at the bottom of the skirt that did not have a Suffolk puff on. So I took a small Suffolk puff of of the back panel, which I had not sewn yet and I pinned it on shown in the photo on the right.

I then sewed that one Suffolk puff onto the front panel of the skirt.

I then moved onto the back of the skirt and I sewed all the Suffolk puffs on and I then pinned it onto the mannequin to photograph.

Below is a photo of the Suffolk puffs sewn onto the front and back of my bubble/balloon skirt.

I am so happy with how the Suffolk puffs turned out and look on the skirt. I think they look really effective and looks how I envisioned it within my design drawings as the suffolk puffs represent the craters on the surface of Mars.

I then finished constructing my skirt in another blog called Constructing my Bubble/Balloon skirt – Final Piece.

Styling and photographing my final finished garments

Once I had finished my bodice and skirt I wanted to take some photos of them together.

A friend took photos of myself wearing the finished garment and I printed those photos of and put the in my folder.

I tried to make both garments to my size and the bodice fitted well. However the skirt is a bit too big around my waist so I had to pin the skirt with a safety pin. I also had to pin the skirt when it was on the mannequin as it was also still slightly too big.

The mannequin has a silver wig to match the silver strip of fabric.

I used a ring light to try and get as clear photos as possible.

Below is a photo of the front and back of my garments on the mannequin.

Below is photos of both sides of the garment on the mannequin.

The next photos are of the bodice and the skirt.

The Mars Perseverance Photo Booth, has a variety of different background options and you can upload an image and it will add your silhouette to the photo and then you can save this image.

I used my front photo of the garments on the mannequin and uploaded that image to 4 of the different backgrounds.

The first photos are of the mannequin on the surface of Mars.

The last photos is of the mannequin on the surface of Mars stood by the NASA Perseverance Rover.

I really love the photo booth photos as this links incredibly well with my theme.

I am so happy with how my final garments look in the photos.

Bibliography

Mars.nasa.gov. 2021. Mars Photo Booth. [online] Available at: <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/photo-booth/ > [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Sewing french knots onto my close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic – Final Piece

In a previous blog called Sewing French Knots Into Fabric – Hand Embroidery I wrote about how I made a french knot sample and also where the inspiration behind the sample came from, the french knots on the sample represents stars.

I was really happy with how the sample turned out so I decided to sew french knots onto my final piece bodice, which I made in my last blog called Pattern cutting and constructing my close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic – Final Piece.

To sew french knots all I needed was hand embroidery needles, white embroidery thread and embroidery scissors.

I started by randomly sewing french knots on the front of my bodice, on the front of my bodice I sewed quite a few french knots at the bottom of the bodice and gradually going up the bodice they became more spaced out and I then did the same to back of the bodice.

Below is photos of both sides of the bodice with the french knot all over the bodice.

Sewing all of the french knots onto my bodice definitely took longer than I originally anticipated.

However, I really love the bodice covered in the french knots which represents the stars, I think this embroidery technique looks very effective. I very happy with how my bodice looks now that it is completely finished, the french knots not only add detail but also texture to the garment.

Pattern cutting and constructing my close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic – Final Piece

I am using the pattern pieces I made previously and wrote about in a blog called Pattern cutting my close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic.

I then went on to create a practice toile out of calico which I wrote about in Constructing my close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic – Toile.

I found making the toile of my bodice very difficult and I have learnt from that how important when making my final piece it is to take my time to perfectly align all the corners and to ensure that I have sewn all the way to each corner before cutting into the seam allowance to release the tension as previously I cut too far into the seam allowance.

Also when sewing my toile I accidentally flipped the front bodice pattern pieces over so when I finished constructing it I realised when you look at the bodice the cube was on the right when I intended for it to be on the left so I will ensure that this does not happen.

I made my practice toile just out of calico but for my final garment I have decided to use a black cotton jersey and a Lycra that is a shiny metallic silver colour. Because I chose to use Lycra I an unable to add interfacing onto the cube sides as during the ironing and fusing process the fabric would melt and ruin. Instead I will stuff the cube with a soft toy filling to give the cube structure once I have constructed my bodice block.

I started by cutting out all of my bodice pattern pieces out of my fabric, I added roughly 1.5cm around all the edges.

The 1st and 3rd front pattern piece and the back pattern piece have been cut out of black jersey and the 2nd pattern piece has been cut out of silver Lycra.

I pinned the patterns down before I drew around the pattern pieces that are being cut out of black jersey with white chalk and I marked on the notches before cutting them all out.

For my 2nd front panel piece, I then turned my silver Lycra fabric over to the plain white side so that will be on the inside of the bodice and I flipped over my pattern piece so that was also on the inside and I pinned it down before drawing around the pattern, drawing the seam allowance on and drawing on notches.

I started to construct my bodice by sewing the one dart on my third front bodice block piece.

I then also sewed the 4 darts on the back panel. I started by sewing the two large bottom darts.

I then sewed the two small top darts.

Now that all the darts have been sewn I moved on to sewing together the 3 pattern pieces that create my front block.

I pinned and sewed it section by section to avoid mistakes, I started by sewing the 1st and 2nd bodice block together. As I went along after I had sewn a certain section I would then cut into the seam allowance to release the tension in the fabric.

After I sewed the last section of the 1st and 2nd bodice block together I realised it seemed all gathered and did not lay flat, so I unpicked that section.

I then re-pinned it and sewed it again and it then laid completely flat and was not gathered.

This is what the outside of the bodice looked like once I had fully sewn the 1st and 2nd bodice block together and the cube shape started to be formed.

I then sewed the 2nd and 3rd bodice block together to form the front bodice block. I used the same process above of going section by section, pinning it, sewing it and then cutting snips in the seam allowance.

This is what the front bodice block looked like when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd bodice block had been sewn together.

I then pinned the front bodice panel and back bodice pannel right sides together.

I then sewed the two shoulder seams.

After that I sewed the two side seams.

I turned the bodice the right way around and then put it on the mannequin to check that the seams where right.

I then pinned and folded the hem before sewing it.

I started hemming the neck hole by cutting snips in the snip in the seam allowance before folding it over twice and pinning it in place, I then sewed it.

I did not like the way the hem on the neck sat as it would not lay flat and it curled. So I folded and pinned the hem again. Once I was happy with that I sewed the hem again.

I then followed the same process I used for the neck hem for the arm holes cutting snips into the seam allowance folding the hem once sewing it and then again and sewing that to achieve a better hem and finish.

I then did the same for the other arm hole.§

Previously I had created my toile out of calico which is quite a strong fabric and it is good at holding its shape and when creating my toile I even experimented with using interfacing to improve the definition of the cube further.

However when I had found that the perfect fabric for my bodice was jersey and Lycra I decided to use them instead of calico, I knew straight away that using these fabrics meant that I could not use interfacing but I did not think that the fabric would have not any structure at all until I started constructing it.

So then I decided that I would stuff the cube with soft toy filling and that will give it the structure. I then stuffed the cube and realised I had no means of keeping the stuffing in as there was almost no excess seam allowance to sew a piece of fabric to secure it.

I decided to cut a cube net measuring 6cm by 6cm which I could tuck in the back of the cube to try and stop the toy stuffing falling out. The netting has not been sewn onto the fabric so it is not secured in place. It is just a method to try and avoid the stuffing falling out, If I had sewn it to the fabric I personally believe it would have ruined the design and look of the garment.

This just holds the stuffing in the cube.

These are a photos of the front and back of the fully constructed final piece close fitting bodice block with Pattern Magic.

Below is also photos of both side of the bodice.

I am really pleased with how my bodice has turned out it did take a little longer than I planned to construct as I wanted to go slowly to try and avoid many mistakes throughout the construction process as it was the first time I had ever sewn a stretchy material like jersey and Lycra. I did not find sewing with a stretchy fabric that difficult.

The bodice is not fully complete yet as I have to still sew french knots onto the bodice block using white embroidery thread.

Ice Dyeing Fabric for my Bubble/Balloon Skirt – Final Piece

After comparing the different dyeing process I have trialed in this project in a post called Comparing the dyeing methods I have trailed . I came to the decision that I would use Ice Dyeing to dye the fabric for my final piece Bubble/Balloon skirt as I absolutely loved the sample I made using this dyeing process.

First of all I cut out the panels for my skirt, I am using calico for my final piece skirt as I used this fabric for my skirt toile and my ice dyeing samples and it seemed the most Ideal fabric for this. I cut 2 linings, measuring 65cm wide and 70cm in length and I cut fabric for the outside of the skirt as well, this measures the width of the roll and 80cm in length.

I finally rough cut a waistband a bit longer and wider than I needed so I can cut it down to the right size when I am attaching it to the skirt.

I started by gathering everything I needed for the ice dyeing pictured and labelled in the image below.

The photo below is of the 4 powdered dyes, I have chosen them from the Ice dyeing colour test on fabric I made, this has allowed my to look at colour combinations and individual colours to make a better choice of colour to suit the colour palette of my theme of Mars.

The dyes I used were Tulip Red, Goldfish Orange, Peach and Golden Yellow.

I began the dyeing process by dampening all 5 pieces of fabric under the tap. Dampening your fabric before adding the dye allows for better dye saturation.

I then got one piece of fabric and laid it flat on the table.

Next I crumpled up the fabric and then put three elastic bands around it to hold the fabric together.

Once I had put the elastic bands on I placed the fabric into the container.

I then repeated the process above for the other for pieces of fabric.

Below is a photo of the fabric in the containers there is 3 pieces in the left container and two in the right.

I then placed the ice cubes onto the fabric ensuring that all the fabric in both containers are covered with ice.

This time I used a spoon to add the dye powders onto the ice instead of just shaking a bit onto the ice this allows me to control the amount of each colour dye is added to the top, for some colours I added more and others I added less.

I started by adding Tulip Red onto the ice I added a very small amount of this particular colour compared to the other three colours.

Next I added Goldfish orange onto the ice in both containers.

I then added Peach onto the ice.

Finally I added the last colour Golden Yellow onto the ice.

This is what the left container looked like once all the dyes had just been added and a close up photo of the powdered dyes on the surface of the ice cubes.

This is what the right container looked like once all the dyes had just been added and a close up photo of the powdered dyes on the surface of the ice cubes.

This is what the ice dyeing looked like after roughly an hour it had only started to slightly melt.

This is a photo taken a lot later than the photos above and the ice cubes had melted a lot more.

The ice cubes melted very slowly, I think it took roughly 5 hours for all the ice to melt away completely.

As the ice had fully melted and soaked into the fabric, there was a lot of dye that had collected in the bottom of both of the containers, so I removed the fabric and placed it on the lids and got rid of all the liquid in the bottom of both containers so the fabric did not sit in the dye as it would still soak into the fabric and dye it so I ideally wanted to avoid this.

I then placed all the samples back into the container and then I left it for an hour to see if any more dye would collect in the containers.

When I checked back after an hour there was no dye in the containers so I decided to remove the elastic bands off of each piece of fabric and unravel it slightly so they could begin to dry.

The next day, I decided to take my fabric into the garden and rinse it out in a large tub.

I started by filling the tub with water.

I only did two at a time and I rinsed them out in the water.

I then rung the fabric out to remove the water as you can see from this photo compared to the one above a lot of the excess dye rinsed out.

I then repeated this process for the 3 other piece of fabric.

I laid the fabric in the sun to dry for a bit on some plastic bags so the artificial dye did not damage the grass.

This is how my fabric looked once it was dry it was extremely creased from being crumpled up and tied up with elastic bands.

I then filled the iron up with water and steam ironed all 5 pieces of fabric.

This is what the finished ice dyed fabric looked like once they had been ironed and I had managed to remove all of the larger creases. There are still a few small creases in the fabric which I could not iron out, but I quite like the look of the fabric with the small creases as it adds some texture similar to the surface of mars that has a rocky terrain.

Now that my fabric has been cut out, ice dyed and ironed it is ready for the construction of my final piece Bubble/Ballon skirt.

I am really happy with how the fabric turned out and how all 5 pieces of fabric have a similar amount of each colour with each being very different in design and they all have different water marks from the ice melting and the dye drying.

I am now looking forward to beginning the construction process of this garment.