Fashion Career Advice by StyleSalt: Adding embellishment to your designs: Wanna be a fashion designer series

by Misty Huber  

A few special details are where you can really add personality to your pieces. Practice constraint, however, and always start with a design plan in mind to keep your design from looking amateurish.

• Buttons

For ultimate effect, choose unusual or interesting buttons, they give clothing a more couture look. You want thread that will either match the clothing or the button.  Cut off about 15 inches of thread, and place your button where you want it to be sewn on. Thread and knot your needle, then push your needle through the back of the garment, up through the button hole, so that the knot is on the underside of the button.

After you’ve pulled it all the way through, push the needle back through the opposite buttonhole and down back through the garment. Repeat this several times to be sure you have enough thread to hold the button steady.  On the last pull-through, double knot the end, again on the underside of your fabric.

• Sequins

Use a metallic thread that matches the sequin color, then knot the end and pull it through as if you were sewing on a button (see above). The only difference is that you won’t be able to bring the thread through as many times, two or three times maximum. If this seems like too much work, look for thread that already has sequins attached to it. Add sequins of different sizes, but in the same color family. Make it original by doing an ombré color theme.

• Crystals, rhinestones and mirrors

The Bedazzler may have taken some heat in the past couple of years, but adding some sparkle to your designs can actually inject major drama. The wrong answer is to add rhinestones of a rainbow of colors haphazardly to your cat sweatshirt. These items belong on going-out and evening wear, and there are few exceptions.

Choose embellishments that have a flat back, and essentially you can just glue them on with fabric glue. If the crystals or mirrors are beads, meaning they have holes on either side, you can also handsew them on, just see below in the beading section.

• Beads and pearls

Because beads are so small, it can be quite time-consuming to add them individually, which is why beaded garments can cost so much. You don’t want to have start over on this project, so start by drawing a pattern on tissue paper so that you can transfer it to the fabric (can pin the paper directly to the fabric) so you know exactly where you’re putting each bead. When you’re done, you can just gently tear the tissue paper off of the fabric without damaging a single stitch.

Start with about 24 inches of thread. Even if you have more than a few beads you are putting on at a time, so you can remember to keep tying them off. Knot it at the end, and then pull the needle through the underside of the fabric, through the bead, out the other side, and back through the garment. If beads are close together, you can come right back up from the back and go through the next bead. Finish by double-knotting the thread again on the underside of the fabric.

Make it original by looking beyond glitzy beads into items that people could have for daywear, such as wooden models.

• Appliqué

Cut the appliqué piece if needed, and sew the edges if necessary to give it smooth borders. Place the applique where you want it to go, and then either sew it with a sewing machine or do a straight hand stitch. You may need to use a denim needle if your appliqué is thick, such as embroidered lace. Use a thread that matches the appliqué.

If you want the look without stitches, for example if you are adding flat material to flat material, you can also use fusible web, which is similar to a tape, that will melt pieces of fabric together when ironed, and you can do this directly onto the garment.

Make your appliqué original by adding two pieces of fabric over top of each other, or topping with beading or other embellishment.

• Embroidery

Don’t think of this as grandma stuff, you can embroider any design (as whimsical or avant-garde as you choose) with this easy method. Just draw your design on a piece of tissue paper using colored pencils to designate where thread color changes. The trick is that you need to draw the mirror image of how you want it to appear on the front of the garment.

Pin the paper to the underside of the garment—on the opposite side of the fabric where you want the design to appear. Stitch directly over top your drawn lines, I suggest a split stitch. When finished knot your thread on the underside of the garment. Gently rip the paper away to reveal your design!

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Fashion Career Advice by StyleSalt: Mastering the art of the drape: Wanna be a fashion designer series

By: Misty Huber @ StyleSalt

When you first learned to sew, you probably started with patterns, where you traced and measured fabric, sewed and constructed it to your finished garment. You may have even learned to do your own pattern making, a major step in becoming a fashion designer. However, if you want to get out of your 2-dimensional designing box, even just for fun, it’s time to learn how to drape.

Draping is a design method where you hang fabric over a dress form, and construct the garment directly on the mannequin, so you can bring your creation to life while you’re working. It is a much more dynamic way of designing, as you can see your piece in motion, so it’s often used for more dramatic pieces like dresses and skirts, but also for blouses, suits, coats and trousers. The most commonly used fabrics for draped construction are silks, satins, chiffons and jerseys. Draping is also a good tool when making body-conscious clothing, as you can work to flatter and contour to the silhouette you want in real time. Both of these reasons make it essential for evening gown and bridal designers to master the skill.

While the Greeks and Romans may have made draping design famous (toga party, anyone?), Madeleine Vionnet brought it up to 20^th century speed with her introduction of the bias cut, cutting across the grain of the fabric to give it a softer drape. 

Vionnet did her mock-up draping on a doll model

Despite what die-hard patternmakers might tell you, draping can be every bit as precise as flat design, even more so when getting the exact placement you want on embellishments, seeing how the fabric floats,  and how small tweaks change the silhouette.

How to drape

Sketch your design so that you have an idea of what you’re going for, even though the beauty of draped construction means you can make changes as you work. Measure the exact center line of the dress form and run a contrasting color of tape down the vertical line of the form. This is so you don’t lose track of the center line and go unintentionally asymmetrical.

You probably want to choose a muslin material to do your mock-up in, as it’s relatively cheap and easy to mark. Some designers prefer to choose other fabrics, especially if the finished product will be done in silk or other fine material. If you are just learning, I still recommend you start with muslin, as your results will be close enough and you won’t be wasting your better fabrics.

Hang your material on your dress form to start, pinning it to keep it secure as you work. You can alternatively drape on a model, especially if you are tailoring it to fit someone specifically, but this can be a long and arduous process so you’ll want to find someone who doesn’t tire easily.

Begin pinning the fabric where you want gathers, tucks, twists, folds, cascades, etc. Make sure you are letting the material fall naturally and aren’t pulling or otherwise manipulating it as you work. Use a permanent marker to label areas of the dress that need further sewing or identification. After you feel you have the general shape you want, you can start cutting and further contouring and smoothing as necessary.

Ideally you have a second dress form that you can use your actual fabric for when you’re finished with your mock-up, so you can keep the first as a sample, unpinning it only when necessary. But if not, you can remove the muslin from the form and stitch the parts that you had pinned together.  If you need to make a flat pattern from your draped construction, you will have to take apart any pins, marking everything well, before tracing it onto pattern paper. This is necessary if you are making several dresses using a similar pattern.

Once you’re skillful at draped construction, you can mix the flat and draped methods, for instance using a flat pattern for the bodice of  a dress, and draping for the skirt.

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Fashion Career Advice: Introducing StyleSalt.com Boutique Editor

As a new writer for the SFFAMA , I am so happy to be collaborating with such a fantastic organization. Like the Alliance, I too have spent a large portion of my career helping and educating emerging and independent designers. Working as a fashion editor for magazines like Shape, Natural Health and Fit Pregnancy, I would meet new designers on a daily basis and was able to witness what made the difference in who succeeded and who didn’t, and the reasons aren’t always obvious. It didn’t matter who the designer was, or how far they were in their career, their passion for their designs was palpable. This should come as no surprise to any artist, if the passion’s not there, there’s no reason for the endless hours that can consume you as a budding fashion entrepreneur. But you need to know the steps that will take fashion design from hobby to successful career, and I want to help you get there.

In my current position at StyleSalt.com, I am able to work one on one with independent designers in our Boutique section, http://www.stylesalt.com/boutique. Our goal is to make apparel and accessory design a more accessible career for new talent, give designers a free place to sell their creations, free promotion, and an instant audience.

In my role here with this blog, I will be passing on my tips in a variety of areas for helping you to succeed as a fashion designer, and answering any questions you might have. If you prefer to reach me directly, or want to become involved in StyleSalt’s boutique for emerging and independent designers, you can contact me at misty@stylesalt.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

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