Trompe L’oeil which is French for Cheating the Eye (aka optical illusion).

The examples like the pictures above are described in the book and accompanied video “Transformational Reconstruction” which I mentioned in the first post about Shingo Sato

I was very interested to see how such a design was made so after watching his video on you tube, I made the top a few weeks ago. I used cotton in unbleached and black to make this toile. Imagine such a design in black and cream colored satin.

As you can see the two flaps are integrated in the design. I took some pictures  during the process:

Two flaps which are sewn on both sides of the flaps      trace around the flaps                 design lines, reference marks

Left side view,                                               design lines cut                                                     final pattern parts (11)

right side view                                           left side view

Left flap open                                                       Both flaps open                                              Right flap open

Wonder how this genius pattern is made watch TR Cutting School -Trompe l’oeil technique

See the previous post Shingo Sato Designer

At the end of last year 2010 I was invited to make a garment as part of the Dutch tailors catwalk show for the International Master Tailor Conference which would take place in Rome Italy in August 2011. So now I found the opportunity to make such a dress.

My model who would show the  dress in Rome, lives in Amsterdam while I live 200 km away so I was happy with my dress-form, although my model has a more nicely curved body.

I found the right fabric for the dress (“Balestra” which is a high-end quality 100% polyester satin back crepe fabric and both sides can be used since it has a matt and a shiny side. This fabric is often used for evening  and bridal wear.

And I bought a cheap satin back crepe in purple for my test dress.

I drafted a basic dress and my adventure started.

After fitting the basic dress I could start with the design. But since I am not used to draw (permanent) lines onto a 3D form, I started with pinning wool yarn threads instead. The advantages of using wool yarn threads above the permanent pen lines are obvious.

The wool yarn threads could be rearranged easy without having multiple lines on my basic dress that could make it difficult to see the final result.

When I was satisfied with the design lines on the dress-form, and it really helps if you stand away and take another look.   (The perspective is different from viewing in front of it like an arm length away).

(I also used “Paint” to highlight the shiny parts on the pictures on the computer) and I traced the wool yarn lines with a pen.

Putting the dress on my ironing board I was able to smooth out the design lines with a curved ruler and marked the reference points. After cutting out the pattern I placed the pattern pieces on the purple fabric matt side and some parts on the shiny side.

Since this one would be my test dress, I could use a tracing wheel and tracing paper to mark the seam lines and reference points. I used 1 cm seam allowances.

Detail view of one of the cutout shiny parts where you can see the reference marks, side seam mark:

The new dress design has design lines which are not corresponding at the end points of the darts  so learning how to deal with that the video easing and forming was helpful.

During the next fitting I was not really pleased with the design lines; moreover, the dress was too tight, probably caused by the shape of the pattern parts (some are cut at the bias due to their shapes).

So I marked some new design line points and started with a new drafted dress pattern but now with more wearing ease that would vanish into the design.

The second test dress was better in the fitting but needed some rearranging of the design lines which I could do at home using my dress -form.

The blue lines are the permanent lines which I used for the final dress in blue.

pattern parts matte side :                                                                        pattern parts shiny sides:

I was pleased with the final outcome on the dress -form                   Vanished extra wearing ease test dress versus final dress

see below:

Unfortunately when my model was trying the dress for the last time, some wrinkles appeared due to the bias cut pattern parts.

Obviously the purple fabric was a bit heavier than the blue fabric which I should have known but did not recognize in time. Otherwise I should have fused all the pattern parts with a thin fusible interfacing to prevent the wrinkles due to all the curved lines.

But it was too late to make a new dress since the dress was going to Rome in 3 days.

Well lesson learned for the next time.

It was an experiment and a lot of work but I liked the new take on designing the dress on 3D and I enjoyed making this dress a lot.

So thank you Shingo Sato for being an inspiration  in my process to make a dress using this TR designing technique.

The picture of my model on the catwalk at Piazza Campidoglio in Rome Italy August 9 2011.

His approach to design is not new, since we patternmakers know how to transfer darts , add style lines etc but it has limits because drawing a pattern design on paper has less creative possibilities.

Shingo Sato’s design process “Transformational Reconstruction” which is done in 3D gives so much more possibilities to be creative.

Shingo Sato shares his designing process by giving workshops  in various parts of  the world like in the USA, UK, Colombia, Japan, Italy.

But he also shares his work via YouTube via numerous video’s ( at this moment he added 34 video’s)

It all start with a good basic pattern which you can accomplish by moulage/draping or drafting by hand on the flat ( paper pattern. The basic pattern which is sewn from unbleached cotton will become a new pattern after the design lines are added on a dressform.

Shingo Sato often use wavy or geometric lines for a design but also builds a pattern using his “Architectural Reconstruction”

Example of a dress design which is in my view and amazing design with all those beautiful wavy lines the dress has 8 invisible zippers which are not that difficult to sew but impeccable sewn in wavy lines is a master piece.

( I wonder if Japan has other more flexible invisible zipper brands which are more easy to press into shape than the ones we know like the brands Opti and YKK)

You can watch his video channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/trpattern

website: http://www.trpattern.com/

I ordered his book Book “Transformational Reconstruction”  published and sold by Centre for Pattern Design shows 12 chapters and  2 accompanied dvd’s.

The book can also ordered from his website but you need to understand Japanese language.

If you would like to try designing a pattern using TR, start simple like this one which I made:

You can view how this is done here

I also made a dress and a top inspired by his TR design process and will post about that within a few days.

Enjoy watching the YouTube video’s and learning  this way of pattern designing.

Shingo Sato is also on Facebook and he will start a TR Cutting school in Milan Italy next week where you can attend workshops, see  link for more  information.

Thanks to Shingo Sato for your amazing work which helps to be more creative in pattern designing.

This exhibition will travel to Dallas Museum of Art (November 13, 2011 – February 12, 2012),

the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young (March 24 – August 19, 2012),

Thee Young (March 24 – August 19, 2012), the Fundación Mapfre – Instituto de Cultura, Madrid (September 26 – November 18, 2012) ,

and The Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands (February 9 – May 12, 2013).

The exhibition was fantastic not only to see the 140 garments which were shown but also the display with 30 of the dress models/ mannequins have animated faces.

The clothes are not just displayed on our average mannequin: in true avant garde style faces of those close to Gaultier are projected onto the mannequin’s modeled heads- Gaultier’s own countenance is even present on one lucky model (see video below, it is truly mind blowing). Thierry-Maxime Loriot, the curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts explains the innovative method of display: “If you know Jean Paul Gaultier’s world then you see how creative and how alive and fun it is. It would be wrong to show his work only on boring mannequins.”

Copied from  http://www.stylelist.com/2011/06/24/jean-paul-gaultier-montreal-exhibit/

My husband took a lot of pictures (+ 130) of the garments ( allowed by the museum but no flashes)

You can see them all at  my flickr album

If you have the opportunity to see the exhibition please do, it is phenomenal.

I admire the designs but also the fantastic craft/workmanship from all the people who made those fantastic garments.

see this leopard skin dress’ which is made entirely from tiny beads embroidery.

6 months ago I watched the Arte documentary “The day before Jean Paul Gaultier”on Dutch television with Dutch subtitles, maybe you can watch it too via

AVRO Close Up portal – Close Up: The Day Before: Jean-Paul Gaultier.

If you would like to learn more about leather made garments this book  “Leather Fashion Design” by  Francesca Sterlaccican help you gain a lot of knowledge.

I ordered this book last year from and I am very pleased with this book.

This book was  published September 2010,

isbn 9781856696715

You can see lots of sample pages and the content from the publisher Laurenceking.com see for examples

http://www.laurenceking.com/product/Leather+Fashion+Design.htm

I took some pics from my book :

I have some other books about  leather sewing in my library but

this one stands out because it is a modern book and shows several ways step by step to make a shirt, pair of trousers and a jacket.

And shows beautiful made Designer garments plus a lot of information which could benefit a professional designer , it shows creating a design tech spec sheet too.

For anyone who is interested to sew a leather garment and needs to know how to make a shirt, jacket or pants this is a book you should consider buying.

Of course there are different ways to sew a leather garment but to get you started this book is useful because it shows  you to learn sewing different techniques.

No reason to keep it a secret. There is a specialists’ mercerie or notions store in the Sentier garment district in Paris.

Yes, in France there is a separate place to shop for needles, thread, buttons, zippers, and other trims, as well as needlepoint canvas, embroidery threads, etc. Often there are other things like yarn and knitting supplies, or stockings and hatpins there too. NO fabric, that is to be found in another, separate boutique.

Of course, just like independent fabric stores in the USA, these shops are on the endangered species list.

But I digress. I was staying near the Sentier last month, so it wasn’t far to go to find a specific color of thread I needed for an emergency button repair. I must have walked by the mercerie around the corner from the Rue Montorgueil a dozen times before stepping in to see what I could find.

Since I was there, I decided to buy a half a pound of my favorite Bohin Couturex straight pins, and to ask plaintively if they carried DMC Lacet Super-fin, otherwise known as bolduc band from my days in haute couture school in Paris. This is the flat, narrow cotton shoelace-weave tape used to mark the dressform. DMC stopped making it some time ago, and it has gotten scarce as hens’ teeth. The Chinese owners at this mercerie were stumped, they had no idea what I was talking about.

Another patron in the shop came to my rescue, and suggested 2 other merceries deeper in the garment district, saying that I would surely find my bolduc band there.

Bohin Couturex pins are my favorite for draping, as they are  long and fine, in hardened steel.

Bohin also packages my favorite Millener’s (Modiste) # 9 needles, long and fine for hand sewing muslins and other fine handwork.

That I how I found myself on the Rue Reaumur in front of the Papeterie du Textile, with the small hole in the wall notions shop next door exactly as described. Well, they were doing a land-office business! No danger of this place closing anytime soon. I found what I was looking for, and a few other things jumped in my bag as well: a new tracing wheel with different teeth from the 2 others I have, as well as a mechanical pencil for tailor’s chalk.

Tracing wheels top to bottom: new,  Dritz,  pinpoint

Draping at YSL with bolduc band: from Yves St. Laurent by David Teboul

The fellow at the cash register told me that they order their bolduc band special from a manufacturer down south, since it is no longer made commercially.

My informant also told me about Hamon, a draper-patternmaker’s specialist mercerie on the Rue de Clery. I made a foray up the hill of the Rue des Petits Carreaux past Rue Reaumur, to check it out. Located in an older building on a street of old buildings, the giant scissors above the front door told me I was at the right place. It was indeed a modeliste’s paradise, with scissors, paper, dressforms, irons, muslin, pins, bolduc, and books to teach all about draping and patternmaking (mostly in French, but some with English translation). Fortunately there is a website, so you may be able to acquire items difficult to find in your area.

Hamon

54, rue de Cléry
75 086 Paris cedex 02, France

http://www.hamon-paris.com/public.home.screen

Fil 2000

62 rue de Réaumur, 75002 Paris

métro Sentier sortie rue de Petits Carreaux.

http://fil2000.pagesperso-orange.fr/

Papeterie du Textile

61 Rue Réaumur, 75002 Paris

I love strong color and I love to cook. My kitchen is full of primary colors: yellow, orange, red, green and blue. Yellow and orange are the main colors.

The dining area is attached and there the colors are more muted into pastel shades but dark blue, bottle green and red glass makes it’s presence known against a proper unbleached Irish linen table cloth and white china.

The yellow orange theme kitchen theme is based upon a wallpaper border I put up a while ago. it’s a variation of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with lovely colors and navy background.

The kitchen is a place of activity and high energy and when I cook I am working as quickly as possible. I cook in batches so dinners can be frozen ahead of time. I make most things from scratch, depending on how much time I have. And, well, things do go flying! The other day, after splattering cherry juice down the front of me, I wished for an apron, one with a bib on top.

I’ve never made one (that I can remember). I have aprons but they are all inherited from Mothers and Grandmothers; you know, the full skirted half apron, that, on me, makes me look “like a potato sack with a string around it” as Ma used to say.

I wanted fullness, like the sense of fullness and abundance that a kitchen should exude. I wanted “feminine, and fun, but serious fun”. I am not a cute cook. I get dirty. It’s more fun that way

I had yellow/orange cross dyed linen in the stash and some navy so the challenge was to make a full apron with as much covering on top as well as the traditional full skirt in a way that would be more flattering to my short, full body than the outline of a lampshade on two legs. Oh horrors, that is such a bad look on me! So, what did I have on hand????

Ah, the easily disastrous pattern, View D of an old McCall’s 2947:

Here is the result:

But I noticed the shoulder “wings” were trying to slip down my arms

and that would drive me nuts. So to make sure I would want to wear this apron I made a shoulder stay

that would make sure I could tolerate wearing my new kitchen “tool”. It’s set across the back of the top of the shoulders so it’s easy to get over my head without having to button and unbutton.

I’m moving quickly when I am cooking so I’ve got to be able to throw this on without hesitation. I think it will work well, now.

The second issue for me in this basic design is the fullness of the skirt. I need no extra fullness in the tummy or at the sides. Taking a cue from the spacing of the gathers in the Anna Sui pattern I made earlier

I made an inverted pleat across the belly of the apron, allowed gathers over the pockets, smoothed the fabric at the side seams and put maximum fullness at the back. Can you see the spacing?

Here’s the side seam and back

Here’s the front inverted pleat, top stitched down on each side of the fold. This apron will not be ironed so things must be anchored and stay put. The most I’ll do is to try to smooth out those shoulder ruffles with a quick tug as the apron comes out of the dryer. Maybe.

The peaked front of the waist band was a design detail that insisted on being part of the apron. Seriously, it demanded to be included to counteract all the straight lines of the color blocking. It made me work late.

I drew the curves and stitched them on the waistband, then pulled out the stitches and ironed the shape into the interfaced fabric. Then I could easily applique the shape onto the bib. I like it.

I’m relieved: it cute but not “cute”, decorated but not “decorated”. Hope I remember to put it on before the disasters happen!

Happy Sewing and Happy Cooking

Technical Drawing for Fashion (Portfolio Skills Fashion & Textiles)

Author: Basia Szutnicka

Technical Drawings: Ayako Koyama

Publisher: LaurenceKing in association with Central Martins College of Art&Design

ISBN number: 978185669618

Type of binding: Paperback

Number of pages: 234 with 850  illustrations plus a CD-Rom with templates

Size 11x 8 1/2 inch

Price: UK £ 22.50  US $ 35.00

TSD received an email from the publisher if we were interested in reviewing this book. 

The publisher Laurence King is in the UK and I am also from Europe so I responded that I was interested but would like to do an independent, honest unbiased review about the quality of the book since I would receive the book for free.

This book is fairly new (press release was on April 2010) and in my possession for some time but due to all kinds of errands I had no time to do a post till now.

I really like the book and find it a comprehensive book. I do not work in the fashion industry and use only sketches and never made a technical drawing. But this book is a great way to learn how to make technical drawings if you are a student or work in the fashion industry.

You can see the difference between a sketch, fashion illustration and a technical drawing,which I scanned from the book.

A sketch is a design idea, the fashion illustration a look how a specific garment looks like on a body.

The technical drawing shows all the construction details that are involved in the production process.

 Georgene did a post about Technical Drawings vs. Fashion Illustration

The book is not about fashionable clothes but gives you a comprehensive inside how to draw technical drawings for garments by hand or by using Adobe Illustrator.

The second part of the book shows over 250 technical drawings of all kind of garment styles and construction details, the key basic shapes are shown together with a picture of the sewed toile in fabric. ( a toile is a French word and is a test garment sewed in fabric in bleached cotton) 

For example Skirt Key basic shapes which you can see in this book are:  Pencil Skirt/Fitted Skirt/Sheath Skirt, straight Skirt, A-Line Skirt, Circular Full Circle Skirt, Gathered Skirt, Pleated Skirt.

 The technical drawings of these skirts front and back view together with a picture of the skirts on a dressmodel.

 Plus technical drawings of skirt variations front and back views : Dirndl, Gored, Wrap/Wrapover, Sarong/Pareo, Tiered/Peasant, Handkerchief hem/Irregular hem,  Asymetric, Puffball/Bubble/Baloon, Skating skirt, Kilt, Skort, Peg/Pegged Hobble skirt.

You can see pages of the book via the publisher website

Since I have no other books with this subject to compare with, I cannot tell you if this book is a useful addition to your library but based on this book alone I would buy it if I needed the skills to learn how to draft technical drawings or working in the fashion industry.

Contents of the book:

Part 1:

Introduction

Illustration in the fashion process

How and where are technical drawings used

How to make a technical fashion drawing

Drawing from a garment

Technical drawing by hand using the generic template

Technical drawing from the generic template-using illustrator

Speed design using illustrator

Hints and tips

Style details

Part 2:

Visual directory of styles and details

Garments

            Dresses

            Skirts

            Trousers

            Tops

            Jackets

            Coats

Styling details

            Necklines

            Collars

            Sleeves

            Cuffs

Details

            Pockets

            Construction details

            Design details

            Decorative design details

            Pleats

            Seams

            Stitches

            Fastening /Hardware

 Index and resources

 The CD-Rom contains all the templates.

 !   Full-Size Figure Template

2   Teenage & Plus Size Figure Template

3   Fitted Dress/Tube/Sheath (page 64)

4   Shift Dress/Tank/Chemise (page 66)

5   A-Line Dress (page 68

6   Pencil Skirt/Fitted Skirt/Sheath Skirt (page 76)

7   Straight Skirt (page 78)

8   A-Line Skirt (page 81)

9   Circular Full Circle Skirt (page 82)

10 Gathered Skirt (page 84)

11 Pleated Skirt (page 86)

12 Legging (page 92)

13 Drainpipe/Skinny/Cigarette Pant/Stovepipe (page 94)

14 Straight Trouser (page 96)

15 Tapered Trouser (page 98)

16 Bellbottom/Flare (page 100)

17 Camisole/Strappy Vest (page 112)

18 Vest/Tank Top (page 114)

19 Tunic (page 116)

20 T-Shirt/Tee (page 118)

21 Shirt (page 120)

22 Classic Single Breasted Jacket (page 128)

23 Classic Double Breasted Jacket (page 130)

24 Casual Unstructured Jacket (page 132)

25 Classic Single Breasted Coat (page 140)

26 Classic Double Breasted Coat (page 142)

27 Casual Unstructured Coat (page 144)

 You can read an editorial review at http://www.amazon.com/Flats-Technical-Drawing-Fashion-Portfolio/dp/1856696189

 I totally agree with the above editorial review.

Back Cover:

It’s sort of the opposite of Mary Beth’s bolero that has faux ribs in the fake fur for the cuffs.

Calculating how many ribs in Els’ precise equation was not really possible, so I decided to keep tucking until I had a block big enough to cut my pattern pieces out.

2 days later I was still making double needle pintucks. There was a lot of uneveness and twisting, the thread kept breaking, it was sort of a nightmare all by itself, before I even got up to my elbows in the flying faux fur.

Since this was for a costume, I didn’t worry about the crazy, wonky  nature of the pintucks. I kinda like the texture that it imparts to the rib.

My only concern was that this was taking far too long to do, and I had  to move things along a bit more quickly.

The solution was to piece together lengths to make up the needed parts  - easy enough to do if you just lay one tuck on top and topstitch over it.  It blended in with the tucks on the piece underneath. Thankfully I was  able to cobble together enough lengths to make the trim for both the  bolero collar and cuffs, as well as the top waistband of the skirt.

The folded over bands of faux rib look great.

I followed some instructions I found for fake fur sewing to cut and join the  seams, then stretched my rib bands to the body. All of the seams are sewn  with zigzag at the edge.

Dress rehearsals start soon – can’t wait to see how all of this turns out!

I drafted a princess line blouse with a large wide shawl collar to add some drama.

When the blouse was done and I tried it on I was not happy with the collar design and appearance, to me it appealed too flat . I wanted a more voluminous collar and although the fabric has a bit of volume itself due to the shirring it was not enough to my taste.

I shared my dilemma to my good friend and colleague Neeltje  to change the collar design into a more voluminous collar, and she remembered seeing a voluminous collar  in a pattern magazine “Knipmode” where the outer edge of the collar was flat and a narrow tape separated the ruffled upper collar part from the flat outer edge.

 I used my self drafted collar pattern and made a new one by using a so-called slash and spread method to add some volume.

Flat collar pattern

                                             volume collar pattern

Copied the collar pattern included the in and outer edge seam allowance and added 6 inches (15 cm) in length for a half pattern by slashing and spreading the pattern towards the outer edge only.

I also added 1 cm in width and used a scare ½ cm seam allowance for the outer edge.

 So I had to remove the neckline facing and the upper collar at the neckline.

I kept 1 inch (2,5 cm) wide from the  flat upper collar outer edge intact  and  basted it towards the under collar.

Copied the collar pattern included the in and outer edge seam allowance and added 6 inches (15 cm) in length for a half pattern by slashing and spreading the pattern towards the outer edge only.

I also added 1 cm in width and used a scare ½ cm seam allowance for the outer edge.

Since the outer edge of the upper collar will be flat the upper collar needs to be eased in for the extra length and the volume effect is due to the added width total 1 1/4 inch (3 cm).

Made a test sample from another piece of polyester taffeta fabric.

and made a  new voluminous upper collar.

I stitched the 1/4 inch (6 mm) wide bias tape on both outer edges with the new eased in upper collar lying underneath the tape butted at the flat cut off outer edge and finished the collar and facing as usual.

The bias tape and facings for the front, neckline, sleeve and blouse hem are

made using the same fabric but without the shirring (removed the elastic thread shirring with my seam ripper) because I wanted a smooth fabric for the facings and hems.

detail picture back side elastic shirring:

Facing center front:

                                  facing  hem:

The seams are finished with a three-thread serger and bound with a very lightweight nylon tape.

For a more dramatic way I can wear the blouse with the collar standing up:

I like my pumped up volume collar and it was worth the effort the work involved.

Flat collar versus voluminous collar: