Category: Process

Fashion Show!

Some shots from the rehearsal, which was a day before the show. Learned how to walk and where to stand. The venue was not as big as I expected but it was still quite nice.

Joan walking along the tables.

The water droplets look really cool as they flip in the air by her walking motion.

She managed to get a new pair of heels, so this was not the final outlook.

Getting ready for the actual show!

Makeup is done! It is more of a natural look with a thin eyeliner and some blue and silver eye shadows.

The professional hands of Audrey to make a nice bun and keep Joan’s hair up.

Simple and elegant.

Showtime, baby!

The lights look stunning in the backstage. It is dark enough to see the lights well!

I wasn’t able to get pictures from her actual “runway” walk. These were taken outside after the walk.

Another picture under the shadow of the building that makes the lights more visible.

Cute facial expression 🙂

The back: transparent plastic water bottle that was used as the container connected to the front with tubes.

And the overall front look. STUNNING!

All this is thanks to Mangosteen to let us showcase our collection with their show!

But the greatest gratitude goes to Galina! Professor and Designer Galina Mihaleva!!! Thank you for allowing to take your class and have so much fun in your class! Fashion Technology has been one of my favorite classes ever!

Final Production Time!

So this is how it looks when you put the top and bottom piece together!
Quite gorgeous, isn’t it?! I might be biased though ^^

The rest of the time was spent testing the electronics and attaching the lights.

Here you can see the lights – picture taken from below. We first tried to tape the lights to the skirt… it failed. So the solution was to use hot glue and glue the wires to the skirt… it succeeded!

THE final testing of the lights! Looks awesome!!!

Now making the filtering pouches. The fabric is used so that the charcoal would not by any chance flow into the droplet pouches to drink.

Ironing the plastic to be infused.

Making the final versions of the water-droplet pouches with the attached blue straws!

Going to use some hot glue to conceal any openings.

Testing with the tubes and the pump. Unfortunately it did not work out 🙁 There must have been an opening somewhere that we couldn’t figure out.

So we switched to plastic bottle as water container. Concealed the holes with a lot of hot glue to avoid any failure this time 🙂 And it worked! See the water flowing in the tubes!!!

Yeah!!! The pump is working and water is flowing!

Final addition: making small pockets for the Lilypad & Power Bank and the Battery & Water Pump. I sew three velcro strips on both sides of the dress at the bottom.

This is a picture of the pocket attached on the left side of the dress.

Top piece is ready!

After meeting my model, there was some tailoring work to do.

Galina helped me pin the new dart lines and I sew the new lines with the machine.

So here we have the finished, tailored side darts.

Now, ready to do the final touches: neckline, shoulder lines, zipper and bottom.

Let’s start with the neckline – getting some pro help 🙂

I’ve sewed the facing together – this will be the inner part.

Pinning the neckline together and ready to sew.

Now, it’s sewn together.

We just need to do a little trick: clipping. By this, you can make sure that the neckline will end up flat.

Clip a little more where you have more fabric.

And there we go!

Woah, looks awesome on the mannequin!

Just gonna do the same on the two arm holes: cut out the fabric, sew the parts together into a facing, pin to the dress, sew it together and clipping in the end.

A look from the inside. Neckline and arm lines clipped!

Another trick taught by Professor Galina: layering!
Because there are multiple layers sewn together here, it creates a thick hump on the outside. We can cut the excess fabric so that you have different widths of layers that will keep flat when the fabric is flipped.

Here is an insider picture of the layering and clipping work.

But it can look more finished if you look at it from the other side 🙂

Unfortunately the dart lines did not align 🙁 But the facings look nice at least!

Let’s get the zipper done now! Galina showed me that you need a different presser foot for the zipper, which is the transparent one on the left.

Ready to sew after changing the presser foot.

This presser foot allows you to go by the line of the zipper. The regular presser foot does not have the space.

It is so cool to watch the master!
The zipper is done!

Wah, looks nice!

So here is the end product! The neckline!

The arm hole!

The zipper!

The end of the zipper!

Finishing touch: hand sew the bra cups to the seams.

And it is ready! Ay, I just forgot to take pictures of the bottom line. I was too excited to finish it up so slipped my mind to document 🙁 Please just look closely to the bottom end 🙂

Bottom piece is ready!

Yay, I also have a model now! Thanks to Galina and her spotting eyes 🙂

And it looks good on her!

Sewing row by row. The top cannot be reached from the bottom so the skirt has to be removed from the mannequin every time.

Sewing my faith into the dress! Another way to express gratitude to God!

Before getting to the top, sewing velcro straps on the back side to leave the opening.

You’ve gotta sew it by hand because the skirt would be ruined with that tiny space in the machine.

But hey, reaching the top real soon! Just one more layer to cover up the skirt.

And here we go! The bottom piece is ready! Each water droplet taped and then sewed on the skirt by hand!

Close up of the top row.

A sneak peak to the inside.

Another close up !

Woah, how cool!

Electronics

Testing the water pump system with the tools:

This water pump does not seem to work even though I have all the gadgets…

Also, trying to get ahead with the LED lights. Exciting moments: soldering for the first time ever!!! (So many cool stuff you get to try out with this class!)

This is how the wires should be connected to the light.

What you need: soldering iron, soldering metal and a holder with two arms.

Putting the light in one of the holders and the wire in the other holder. Then a little ball of metal on top to secure it. So cool!

Metal balls one-by-one.

And here we go! First connection is ready!

Continuing with the connections.

Got a few lights connected. Took me quite a while thought but practice makes perfect 🙂    

Fifth Production Class: Bottom piece & Water container droplet

Going to attach the water droplets to the bottom piece. 

About 100 water droplets…

Starting from the bottom to the top.
Pinning the droplets first to ensure the exact location.

Then using double-sided tape to attach the droplets to the skirt.

Mass taping:

Hmm…not bad. But how much more to reach the top??? Ran out of droplets already and haven’t even made it halfway up.

At the same time making the water container droplets from clear plastic so we can get a see-through look 😉 First drew and cut a template from paper and then the plastic.

Infused to plastic droplet sheets but only on the outer rim leaving about 2cm open on the top so that water can be poured into it.

And here it is! The clear plastic water droplet container!!!

In the meantime the taped droplets fell from the bottom piece 🙁 The infused plastic skirt is not as flat so the tape does not stick to it for very long. What to do then? Sew the droplets on one by one. All you need is a needle, white thread and a thread snipper.

Sewing an X-shape to make it tight and durable.

Fourth Production Class: Bottom piece

Putting together the two parts of the skirt by infusing them.

Almost there…

Just one more side…

Handy dandy ironing machine and table!

Ay, turned out that infusing made the skirt kinda short. What should I do? Add one more layer to the bottom!

Producing ie. infusing plastic layers for the bottom to extend skirt.

And there we go!

Problem? Looks unfinished. Well, I have all these droplets… cover the whole skirt then 😉 Good idea!

Gonna start water droplet mass production…