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. 

week two- the 8th day

Day eight- Friday 4^th May

10am-6:30pm

Today I felt like I took one step forward and then three steps back. I was again working on the black trousers. There was a pinch in the fabric from the hand sewing that I had to sort out first, and then I pressed all the seams and cut all the threads. I then finally moved on the waistband, there was also a pinch in the fabric as well. So I re-sew that, matching up the both ends of the band together on each side. I then tried on the trousers to check that they fitted and was hanging straight. We then soon discovered that the right leg was longer than the left leg.

To fix this I had to undo all the work that I had done over the last three days; unpicking the hand-sewing, side seams and the binding. I then measured out how much the right leg was too long by (1cm). We then put the trousers on a hanger and hung them from a door frame, so when I was making the leg shorter I could match it up to the other one. But what I found really confusing was to get the legs at the same length I had to make the right leg longer. When I measured both legs after I had made the adjustments, the right leg still came out was longer. But when they hang next together other they look equal.

After lunch an illustrator came in. she was working alongside Sunny Williams, so he could tell her what changes had been made on the garments so they could be added in.

I guess it has been a disappointing week, as I have not progressed at all. Again next week I will work on the trousers. Hopefully I will get them finished on Tuesday, when I am next in the House of Sunny. 

Week two- 6th and 7th Day

Day six- Tuesday 1^st May

10am-6pm

My first of task of the day was to hand-sew tape to the lapels- on the inside of the jacket-, next to the roll line.

Next I was putting binding on to the hem of a pair of black trousers.

It took me a while to do the first leg, as I could not get it straight and to lay flat. But after a while I got the top stitching looking good and the second one went in perfectly straight away.

To finish off the day I sew together the outer leg seams, being careful to match up the binding on each side. 

Day seven- Wednesday 2^nd May

10am-7am

Today begun with sewing the in the sleeve lining of the grey jacket, as show in the photograph above.

The above image of the fold that is put into the cap height of the lining, this is done instead of gathers. It is much faster to do and i think looks better.

These two photographs are of the back of the lining. They show the fold in on the center back, it runs from the back neck down to the hem.

I spend the rest of the day finishing off the hemming on the black trousers I was working on yesterday. First I had to re-press the fold line, to make sure it was straight a crisp. Secondly I had to hand-sew the hem up, only catching one thread of the trousers fabric so the stitch would not show through to the front. I had major problems with this, because the trouser leg was too big when the hem when It was turned up. I was not looking smooth and was bucklering, causing the stitch that I had carefully done show through to the front. So I had to unpick all the work that I had just done.

To fix this problem I had to make the leg slimmer. First I measured how much I needed to take off the side seam. It was 1.5cm, so I took off 75mm from each side of the seam. Unpick the inside leg seam, and then marked out with pins the new seam with pins. At the fold line of the hem I had to merge the new seam line back with the old seam line of 1cmm I had to also do this at the top where I had not unpicked.  Next I sew a straight stitch down following the pins (there was not a little bit extra seam allowance), I then re-pressed the hem and hand-sew the hem back up. I stayed an hour later to get this done.

Above images show the trouser leg after the alterations had been made to the inside seam, and the hem pinned up before I hand-sew it again.

While I was working on the trousers, a client came round to be measure for a suit. The House of Sunny is a women’s wear brand, but the client was a man. As he was going to be paying good money for a suit and wanted a tailored made one, Sunny Williams agreed to do it. Sunny can make men’s suits so it was not a problem, but was happy that the client did not want trousers as well! It was interesting to see the measurements being taking, as I have told practiced this on class mates and not actually used the measurements.

My next post will be of Eighth day with the House of Sunny. 

week one- 4th and 5th day

Day four- Thursday 26^th April

10am-3:30pm
it was a short day today, as the designer called the interns in by accident we was post to have Thursday off.

My first task for the day was to sew together the sleeve linings, press them (only using the tip of the iron) and then pin them to the rest of the jacket lining. When you pin the linings together, you must pin on alternating sides to ensure that the sleeve lining is spread evenly. As shown in the image above.

The inside welt pocket was already done by the designer. I took at photograph of it because it was made really well and was really strong. in a way i felt like this represented the quality and the standard of the House of Sunny garments.

I then was working again on the dogtooth trousers, that I was unpicking yesterday. Needed to add a black to both hips.

The photograph above is of the grey trousers with the black hip panels. The photograph illustrates what i was going to be adding to the dog tooth trousers.

I pinned the zip in, then sew it to the trousers, and then topstitched it to finish it off. The first top stitching that I did was too far away from the zip, so I had to unpick it. Unfortunately the stitch had marked the fabric, I was trying to get it out with the iron but it was not happening.  I will have to unpick all the work tomorrow, which is really annoying because the trousers were looking really good. 

Today we also found when the collection was due for. The house of Sunny team has about weeks to make seven two piece suits for a product photo-shoot on the 18th May.

Day five- Friday 27^th April

10am-3pm

Sunny Williams had another meeting up in London again and so had to send interns home early. I am hoping that he does not have as many meetings next week, so I can work on the collection more.

Today was another day that started with unpicking on trousers. I was taking out the right hip panel on the dog tooth trousers, which was not made easy by the fabric that easily frayed. This made everything look really messy.

I started again on the panel by cutting it out and repeating all the steps that I had done yesterday. I had got the zip in was about to turn it over to top stitch it and then noticed that the black panel somehow looked smaller than the left one. So the day was not going to well.

So I moved on to sewing in the sleeve lining, that I had pinned yesterday on the red jacket. Sunny does not put gathers into cap of the sleeve, he just puts a pleat in which I found much earlier and thought that it looked nicer. Finishing off my first week at ‘HofS’, I pressed out all the seams on the lining.

With the promise of fabric shopping, I am looking forward to next week.

Week One

I have now finished my first week at House of Sunny. This week I worked from Monday to Friday, and on most days 10am-6pm.

Day one- Monday 23^rd April

10am-6pm

Today was a good day. I and two other interns were introduced to the studio and what Sunny Williams (the designer) and his team do, which I have mentioned in my previous post.  Me and the other making/ construction started work on a pair of trousers. Firstly we cut out the fabric, which Sunny was excited to tell us that it was the same fabric that Armani was using in there collection. As I was placing the pattern pieces on to the fabric, I noticed that there was no seam allowance on the patterns. Sunny cuts out his fabric in a different way from what I have been taught.  He adds the seam allowance on the fabric by drawing round the patterns with tailoring chalk or a pen, think that this makes cutting take up time. He also does not use pins to hold the pattern pieces to the fabric, he uses small weights. This is done to avoid marking the fabric, which I think is a good idea, as with particular fabrics once they are marked they are marked for ever. One more thing that he does which I find odd, Is that he irons the fabric after it has been cut out!

Once we had cut out all of the pieces, we then over locked all of the edges of the trouser legs, a part from the top edge. I then out layers of interfacing on the waistband to make them extra strong and would hold their shape. The way that he keeps the trousers looking smooth and crisp, is by putting the zip of the trousers that the side, on the right hip. At the front there is a fake zip guard, which is sewn together in the same way as a normal pair of trousers just minus the zip.  

Next me and the other intern moved on to making pattern pieces for the intern facing, and cutting out pieces for the jacket to go with the trousers and then some stay to go on the inside of the jacket.
Whilst I was doing this, a model came in for a fitting to check the fit and the hang of the garments. And with that, came the end of my first day.

Day two- Tuesday 24^th April

10am-3:30pm

Today we had to finish early, as Sunny Williams had a meeting.

Sunny has interned in Savile Row, so he knows the traditional tailoring techniques, but as he is doing women’s wear he had found a cheaper, happy medium of mixing ready-to-wear techniques with traditional ones.

Firstly me and the other intern cut out the interfacing pattern that we had made yesterday, ironed in the interfacing and sew in the stays. Next I hand sew onto a shoulder seam to keep it extra smooth and to help the seam hold its shape.

The above two images are of tape that I hand sew to the jacket, just next to the roll line. This makes the roll line look really straight and crisp.

I learnt a new tip today about welt pockets. When you sew the one cm allowance in to join the two sides together, do not cut off the seam allowance. This is done because when it is turned through, it helps defines the corners of the welt. 

Next I put a pleat into the lining of the jacket down the centre back, by ironing it in. Sunny taught me to use the tip of the iron when ironing a seam, pressing it out to make sure that it is a defined line. To conclude my second day at HofS, I pinned together sleeve linings and cut out the pocket bags.

Day three- Wednesday 25^th April

10am-6pm

Today was a good day, even though I started the day carefully unpicking trousers that were made from Dog tooth fabric, which liked to fray a lot. Then I ironed on interfacing to black silk satin, which was going on the shoulders of the grey Armani fabric jacket.

Next I moved onto working on the welt pockets and pocket bags from yesterday. Firstly I had to put strips of interfacing in the potion of were the welt pockets would go, using the pattern as a guide, onto the cut out fabric. 

I and the other intern were doing the stages together on different sides of the jacket. We then cut through the fabric in-between the pockets bags and cut a ‘V’ shape at the ends and right into the corners. So when it was turned through nothing would pull on the outside shell. Once we hand pulled/ turned the fabric through the hole that we had just cut, we pressed the welt pockets to make sure they were equal. Another thing that Sunny does which I find odd, is that he does not hand sew the side edges of his welts down, instead he machine sews them down. I personal think that it makes the £500 jacket look more manufactured and ready-to-wear.

Next I sew the pocket bags together; I sew them twice for extra strength. Finally I sew together an interfaced waistband and then pressed it, unpicked side seams on the dog tooth trousers, so tomorrow I can add in black silk satin panel, to make it the same as the other trousers in the collection. 

My fourth  and fifth day at the House of Sunny will continue in my next post.

  

Introduction to the studio and what goes down.

Introduction to the House of Sunny

On the 23rd of April I started my 5 week internship placement. I was introduced to the studio and some of the other interns that I would be working with, as well as the designer Sunny Williams.

A lot goes down in the studio; on one side is where the pattern cutting, pattern alterations, prepping the fabric, machine and hand sewing takes place. On the other side of the room his where all the promoting, organizing and the preparation for photo shoot happens. It is quiet nice that it is all in one room because for me, I don't know an awful lot about that side of the business, it is interesting to hear and see what goes on and the large amount of planning that goes into it.

The house of Sunny is a very new brand and has now found its consumer market, which is contemporary women’s tailoring, and he uses a mix of Savile Row tailoring techniques mixed with some of his own. Sunny Williams aim is to ‘get the women back into the suit’. At the moment the company is making clothing for clients and small boutiques.   The pieces that I and the other construction intern are working on are in away prototypes for a production photo shoot; they will be constructed and finished completely, then will go up on the web site where clients and boutiques can place orders. Once there orders start to come in, the patterns will be checked one last time and then sent off to the manufactures to be made.  These “prototypes” are the new collection pieces -and the production shoot will be on the 18^th May, so we have 2-3 weeks to make 7 two piece suits and other smaller elements of the collections.

Day to day events at the surrey studio would be; cutting out pattern pieces in the real fabric and lining, and interfacing.  Machine and hand sewing, general constructions of the garments. Promoting the brand, sorting out call sheets for photo shoots, making contacts with other people in the fashion world, posting on the blog and creating make up looks. Occasionally models will stop by for fittings to check the garments fit and hang.

My next post will be of things that I achieved and done in the studios, in the next couple of days of the internship.

The link below is of the house of sunny blog
http://blog.houseofsunny.com/