Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Fig. 1 This is my treasured mannequin. They say in the ateliers of Haute Couture, that if a mannequin is torn and used, she has seen beauty and life. It is with great sadness that I am refurbishing her cover. I hope she will keep her past and her rich soul.














Fig. 2 I will give her a light colored heavy in weight muslin cover, the same which we will use for the arm

















Fig.3 Any garment including the cover of a mannequin is draped from the cf right first; leaving enough fabric to extend up and over covering the shoulderline, then side front, cb; side back; side. The seam allowances of the cf & cb remain flat, the side front & side back seam allowances are folded over the cf & cb pieces respectively. At the very last the side underarm piece is laid over the side front and side back pieces folding each seam allowance under.











Fig. 4 I smooth and drape the front piece clipping at the neck, smoothing over the shoulder, never pulling, placing over the bust and smoothing over to the armhole seam shaping with my fingers to smooth any wrinkles out. The cover will be steamed after it is made entirely and placed on the mannequin, but not steamed before. Pinning at the bust point and smoothing the muslin from the side toward the bust dart area, the side becomes bias and lays in elegantly. I then pin the bust dart leaving 4-5 cm for the seam allowance at this point. There is a full front piece and there is a cut at the waist for the side front. That manipulation and cut is shown in the next photo.







Fig.5 Notice in the left photo how the waist is cut to eliminate the lower side front. The photo on the right shows after the cut has been made and we have still not cut around the armhole, neck or side as yet. That will be done in the later stages.














Fig.6 A close-up of the afore mentioned manipulation.


















Fig. 7 At this point I'll mark the muslin with a no.2 lead penicl using a twist motion so as to not make large gash marks on the muslin. We might have to change those point marks and want to be able to distinguish each stage.















Fig. 8 In this photo, I have placed the lower side front piece with 4-5 cm overlapping the seam allowances of the first piece.
















Fig. 9 After placing this lower side front piece it is smoothed and pinned to matche the front piece below the waist, and then at the waist, then at the side meeting the top side of the center front peice.

At this point it is necessary to mark both pieces where the pins are place and to make relationship notches at the waist and side of both peices. At this point, the dart may have to be moved to match the stitching line of the lower side front. This is why we have not yet cut any of the seam allowances.









Fig. 10 After marking stitching lines of both pieces and the dart, you may now cut the seam allowances to 2cm, fold in the seam allownaces and check to verify that the lines are plumb.
As you can see, the waist must be adjusted to be perpendicular to the dart and lower side front stitching line....












Fig. 11 ...as has been done in this photo.


















Fig. 12 The center back peice is draped after the center and side front. This piece has the same shape as the front, that is, center back including cross back to armhole, then to waist, although the piece is less curvey therefore, it doesn't have the same dramatic angular cut at the waist, it is rather smooth to the armhole line. Smooth, pin mark, cut the seam allowances to 4-5 for security until you have draped the last two pieces.











Fig. 13 This second photo shows the refined peice smoothed and pinned before marking. Mark as the front pieces. You will see the in the next photo, I deceided to put a dart at the shoulder which would correspond to the lower side back stitching line.














Fig. 14 The back side pieces have beenl laid over the cb piece, lower side back first, upper side back second. Seam allowances will be turned on the back side pieces, over the cb piece where the seam allowances are flat.














Fig. 15 After completing the upper side back piece as all the other pieces, pinning smoothing marking, cutting the seam allowances and turning them uner, the pieces is taken off the mannequin, laid on a flat surface and marked more carfully, and stitiching lines are drawn as in the following photos.














Fig. 16 The dart seems strangely curved in this photo, but in fact it's to fit the mannequin very tightly, so the dart follows the curve of the bust. It's correct.















Fig. 17 Here, we are marking the long seams, using a paroquet, a long ruler shaped like an elegant parrot, then cutting the seam allowances down to about 2 cm.
















Fig. 18 In this last photo, you can see that the shoulderline dart matches the shoulder seam. It's elegantly pieced together. The next stages will be posted thursday.






1 comment:

  1. Anonymous7:59 PM

    Thanks for sharing the method you used for making a cover for the mannequin.

    ReplyDelete