Draping, shaping and being unique...

So it is the start of my second week back at college and I have been given THREE briefs already!

Today we began working on these briefs by draping on the stand, creating shapes and fitting a sheet of calico to the mannequin figure. 

I worked with my fellow college student and blogger Jenny. (Here's her blog... http://jenny-onlyhime.blogspot.co.uk/) I hope you enjoy looking at her adorable blog! 

Today I also learnt that darts, shaped seams, pleats, tucks, gathers, drapes and stretch/knit fabrics can help the fit of a garment to a persons figure.

So me and Jenny attempted some folds, pleats and different drapes.

Here's how we took the task and what came from our ingenious thinking! Haha!

This was created using folds and overlapping the fabric to fit to the curve of the waist.

To create the pleat like shapes and folds in this shape I tucked the fabric through the elastic waste of the mannequin.
I didn't find this very affective as it looks rather frumpy. 

I really like this draped shape as it has lots of twists, folds, pleats, tucks, 'scrunches', etc. It shows off lots pf draping techniques all in one shape. 

I would ove to make a garment like this, BUT where would I start?

This again is just folds and in my opinion a little boring and repetitive. 

This was created by splitting the fabric in have, folding one half and wrapping it around to invent a bow. The folds and pleats formed themselves as we manoeuvred the fabric to create a distinctive bow shape.  

Much like before this was created using many tucks, pleats, folds etc. I think this looks like an actual garment like the other as it has a low neck lone, the shape and the waist and it all drapes well to the mannequin. 

Again this is tedious, with very little done to it except a few folds and pins to pull it to the figure.

This looks very roman in my opinion. It resembles a toga shape.

The pleats on the shoulder are very repetitive and it is unbalanced around the bust, making the mannequin look a lot bigger than it is, unlike the waist that is synched in.

I'm not sure how this shape came about as it has little shape except it looks like a deflating balloon.

The bow once again, from another angle.

Our attempt at fitting it to the bodice.

From this we learnt how to create the bodice block.

To create this we pinned the fabric, folded onto the mannequin and then pulled the far corner to the diagonal opposite corner to give it a funny draped shape. 

For this I just held out the fabric at opposite sides to make it voluminous. 

This looks like a deflated balloon in the more literal sense and I have a book that shows you how to create something similar. 

I may post about those books in a later post.

For this we just folded it at different sections of the garment to make it figure hugging.

This was my version of creating a bow, which failed but turned into a new shape.
I really like it!
What do you think?

Jenny's ingenious bow skills!

Isn't it amazing?

A slightly different version to the folded, dress like shape from earlier.

This was a shape created while the fabric was still hooked over the elastic, we just fanned it out in different directions. I'm not too keen on this.

A close up of the above image. I like it from this angle.

This is a squid-looking shape that was formed my accident.

This is my ultimate fave!

Look at all of the detail!

What do you think?

What do you think of our draping?

XOXO