Constructing the Toile

By the end of week one we have started to put our pattern pieces together to make the toile.

 

We decided to quickly pin the garment together to gain a better understanding of how the pieces join and the shape that is created. To do this we roughly pleated the gathers on the back panel.
I am pleased with the overall look of the gown but I feel there are some inaccuracies to the original garment

  The curves of the armhole are peculiar and we were aware of this when we drafted it. On the front panel, in order to get the side seam and CF the same as we had measured we had to make the armhole really shallow and this does not work when adding the sleeve. I am looking forward to seeing the shape of the sleeve in the original garment again to see how we went wrong, as I think this will help me learn a lot and progress with my pattern drafting skills in the future.

The front of the yoke sat a lot lower on the mannequin than it did on the Mayor. I think this is because of the difference in figure. On the Mayor the gown appeared to sit a lot higher on the shoulder because his chest and shoulders were broader. It is important to consider when fitting this garment that the client may be wearing a suit underneath and the shoulder pads and tailoring of the jacket will push the robe up, as demonstrated in the picture on the left. This will therefore mean the yoke will appear to be higher on the body.


 It is great to see the sleeves fitting together after the confusion with pattern drafting!

Top-stitching sleeve to wing

To sew the upper sleeve to the wing we top-stitched it into place as it is on the original gown










Abi and I sewed a sleeve each and we both came out with slightly different curves when top-stitching the sleeve to the wing. This is another thing we need to double check on the original garment.

Front view of sleeve 

Mock up of Sleeve


I am pleased with how we have drafted the sleeves so far. There are elements that need adapting but I think we have got the overall appearance of the sleeve right.

    

Back view of sleeve