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.