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/