week 5- final week at House of Sunny

Day fifteen- Tuesday 22^nd May

10am-3:30pm

Sunny Williams has a new idea for the accessory line, which are collar necklaces.  So my first task of the day was to cut out the patterns which sunny made over the weekend. I interfaced the panels which were a collar and a collar stand, checked they all matched up and then sew them together. Next I trimmed only the corners of the stand and collar turned them through and pressed them. On the collar stand I had to make sure that the curves were the same. When I sew stand together I left open the bottom end which will slot into the collar, and when I sew the under collar to the top collar I left the bottom open. I folded over the open end of the collar by pressing it, only on one side. Next I sew just under 1cm attaching the collar to the stand only on one side, then took the folded edge of the collar which had not been sewn and pinned it to the other side. I had to pin it so when it was sewn it could be top-stitched with one stitch. This was my last task of the day; tomorrow I will be sewing the top-stitching onto the collar.

Day 16- Wednesday 23^rd May

10am-1:20pm

Today was my last day at the House of Sunny and had to finish early as I needed to be back at university for 4:30pm.

To start the day off I sew on the top-stitching onto to the collar stand. I had to be careful to stitch on both sides with top-stitching with only one stitch, basically got it first time, had to re-stitch two sections to make it perfect. Then I pressed it so that it look smooth and crisp.

The above pictures are of the collar almost at its final stage. As the images show the necklace collars will feature studs at the corners.

These to images above are of the final stage of the making of the collar necklaces; which was hand-sewing in to the clasps. 

At a later date the House of Sunny label will be hand-sewn in.

Sunny wanted to teach me one more thing before I left, which was how to finish the sleeve hems. First I had to make the sleeve outer shell 2cm smaller so it would fit with the sleeve lining. I then put the jacket onto the stand, as shown in the photograph below.

Above: Next Sunny told me to make the sleeve and the lining the same length all the way round and trim off excess fabric.

The final thing that I was taught was a quick way of attaching the sleeve lining to the sleeve. With the garment the right way round; first you have to pinch/ hold the fabric in place as if they were sewn together. Then you pull the pinched area out through a hole in the sleeve lining seam, though the arm hole being careful not to lose the pinch. Then you pin the lining and sleeve at the hem and sew together like a normal seam. Next simple pull the sleeve back through the hold and then hand-sew the hole in the lining up. And finally in the words of Sunny Williams- ‘Press the hell out of it!’

One finally piece of wisdom that Sunny Williams pasted on to me was that; it is all about the client’s needs. If the customer is un-happy with the finished garment, them will not be coming back to the company for clothing, and could possible ruin a much needed high quality reputation for the business.

In terms of my career options and aspirations, my time at the House of Sunny has informed me that I am quite interested in tailoring as I like the power it gives the body. I have not ruled out dress making completely, but I have found that I do prefer working with seams, shapes, structure and angels. I found that I do really enjoy making, as I see it as a puzzle I need to fit together in the best way possible, but and still also like having a design input into garments. I did not get the chance to do any proper pattern work, and feel like this is something I will want to work on because I enjoy working out how I am going to the fit the garment together, and taking it through the whole making process. I was also able to home work on my hand-sewing skills, I do quite like hand-sewing as I feel it gives and real handmade feel to a garment. So all in all I would much enjoy becoming either a machinist seamiest or a pattern cutter.

I was a little disappointed that the fabric shopping for the client was cancelled, due to much needed work on the collection, but I have really enjoy my time at the House of Sunny and have learnt a valuable insight to the business. 

The End of Week Four

Day fourteen- Thursday 17^th May

12pm-5:30pm

The first thing I did was start on the dog-tooth trousers. I sew the black panels to the side seams and over locked them in. next I pinned in the binding, measuring 8cm from the bottom of the trouser leg. To avoid the same problem I had with the black pair of trousers, me and sunny cut off from the sides where it looked like I was going to be too big when it was turned up, and over locked it again. I turned the hem up and started pinning it down and I soon realised that even though we had tried to avoid the problem it still happened. One leg was 1cm too big and the other was 1.5cm. I think that half the trouble is that Sunny has an eight cm hem! It was not a happy note to end the day week on.

I have been given a task for the weekend. I need to find some zips for the cape, that Sunny Williams and the other new intern are putting together. He has asked me to take pictures and note down prices and lengths. 

week four - the unpicking

Day thirteen- Wednesday 16^th may

10pm-4:30pm

Today I sent 2 hours and 30 minutes un picking a pair of the dog tooth trousers, the black silk satin panel was cut on the bias, and there for was not hanging properly and was ruining the shape of the trousers. 

I had to unpick all the top stitching that is along the edge of the black panel, being careful not to cause the dog-tooth fabric to fray. It is a loosely woven fabric so the more I touched it, the more it frayed. I also had to take out the zip.

Then I had to take out the waistband, unpicking the hand stitching that was holding it to the trousers. Once the waistband came off the fabric was fraying a lot.

Next I re-cut new black panels on the straight grain, I was trying to be spearing as much as possible with the fabric as another new intern was cutting out a cape out of the same fabric. Then I pressed them, and then pinned them into place. They are ready for me to sew in tomorrow.

week 4

Day twelve- Tuesday 15^th may

10am-3:30pm

Today went fast as we finished early; again Sunny had meetings in the afternoon.  A new intern started today, on the promotion side of the business. I was first to arrive out of the interns, and my first task was to cut out sleeve linings, for the black jacket, and attach them to the rest of the lining which I put together at the end of last week. 

This above photograph is of the black silk satin lining I was cutting the lining out of. As you can see he does not iron fabric before it is cut, and draws on seam allowance to the lining.

Once the lining was cut out pressed the pieces, checked they matched up then sew them together. Next I pinned the sleeve lining to the jacket lining, on the stand, and then sew together. Once all the seams were pressed I made an alteration on the lining. The alterations had to match the changes Sunny made on the outer shell of the jacket.

The image above is off the alteration I had to make on the lapels. The lapels were not fitting right on the body; it was 3cm too big and so had to be taken out.

The next step was to transfer the alterations to the paper patterns. Then I had to measure the arm holes and tops of the sleeves patterns, on the outer shell and linings. To finish off the day I made the alterations on the paper patterns. 

Wee three- Day 11

Day eleven- Thursday 10^th May

10am-6pm

Today the client that we measured last week was coming round for a fitting, and so the toile had to be sew-together. The first task that I did today was to cut out the pattern pieces in calico for the menswear jacket. Once the all the pieces were cut out, I pressed and checked they were all matching up. Next I sew the garment up, pinning sleeves to the armholes by placing the jacket on to the stand and pinning on alternate sides up the arm hole.

Just as I finished sewing the sleeves on the client came in. we checked measurements and how it fitted and also made further alterations on the toile which will be transferred to the pattern. Further sections of fabric were made, and a date was set for fabric shopping; Friday 18^th May. The client paid a deposit, and was told to next come in next week for another fitting.

For the rest of the day I worked on a pair of red trousers. I hand-sew waistband down the same way I did on the black pair, hand-sewing down in various places. Next I hand-sew the button to the front of the waistband, sew and cut out and sew the tabs for the button hole, turned it through and pressed down. The next step was to top stitch the tab to the waistband. For the last task of the day I hand-sew claps on the inside of the waistband.

we are not in tomorrow, as Sunny is going to a photo-shot. 

Week Three

Day 10- Wednesday 9^th may

10am-3pm

To get the day started by trimming down the half the seam allowance on the button tab, from yesterday, and then turned it through. 

The two photographs above are of the next stage; I hand-sew the button to the waistband, but I had to be careful not to catch the waistband lining. After I had finished stitching I wrapped the thread around the base of the button.

Then I put the pleat into the lining of the main jacket. The pleat is over the centre back/ middle of the lining, as show in the image above. The House of Sunny have their own lining with their logo printed onto it.

Above: I was checking both facing pieces were the same size, I did this for all the pieces.

Above: Once all the pieces were matching, I attached the self-fabric to the bottom of the lining. When I was machine sewing I had to be careful to sew in a straight line. Next I sew the facing of the lapel to its lining piece.

Above: The next step was to sew black silk satin to the lapel, this is a design feature and creates the rest of the lapel. I stitched by machine it down, to keep the seam allowance of the silk satin getting the way. 

 To finish up the day I pressed all the seams of the lining and facing, as shown above.

I will be finishing early every day for the rest week, as Sunny Williams has meetings in London all this week. 

week 3

Day nine- Tuesday 8^th May

10am -3pm

Today was a good day; I finally got the trousers hem done. I top stitched the binding that I had pinned in place at the end of last week, and then I sew together the side leg seams. When I was doing this is was careful to sew along the crease/fold that was there from last week, so when the hem was turned up it would fit nicely with the rest of the leg. Next I pressed out old folded hem edge and pressed in the new one.

The photograph above is of the next step, which was to hand-sew the hem up. This time I did I diagonal stitch, because this way the stitch is less visible on the right side of the fabric.

Before I could move on to the next step, I had to put the trousers on to a hanger and then hang them from a door frame to check the two legs were matching up properly. As shown in the image above. 

As the hems were finally matching I was able to move onto the waist band of the black trousers. First I ironed the lining so it was no longer creases and looking fresh, the lining gets creased easily because it has interfacing on the back of it. I trimmed down the seam allowance by 1/2cm , were the waistband was attached to the waistband lining, then matched the bottom edge of the lining to the 1/2cm, sew them together and then over locked it. When I was using the over locker I was careful not to cut away any fabric. Next I ironed down the new over locked edge and ironed the lining into place. The lining needed to fold down so it covers the over locked edge. 

The image above is of the hand-sewing stitch I did to hold down the lining. This was done at various points along the folded edge; it was not done all the way round so the lining can have some movement. 

This photograph shows the finishing task of the day; I cut out and interfaced two tabs for the bottom fastening for the trousers at the hip.

Just before I left with another intern, Sunny Williams ask me to buy him so calico for tomorrow and source white fabric for a photo-shoot.  The fabric had to be wide, cheap and not see through. as  we finished early today due to meetings Sunny had to go to, I went to Fabric Land on my way back home and picked up the items.