Portland Pilot's Dance Team

Basketball season is in full swing and the Pilot's dance team sent over a picture of the dresses we made for them this Fall. The dresses are athletic mesh lined with a white nylon tricot and finished around the neck, arms and base with a matte spandex. Our neighbors at KW Screen Printing did the logos and numbers on the back with a vinyl transfer. It was our first project that we sent to the printers in the middle of the build and it was a great success!

PartyDancerz!

Pamela of PartyDancerz contacted me because she was having a difficult time finding someone locally to make her dance costumes within the budget of a fledgling small business. I have never really made a cheer uniform before, but I knew that the pattern drafting was straight forward and I'm a whiz at sewing lycra, so I bid it out and the rest is PartyDacerz history!

The uniform is fundamentally a sport bra and the skirt is a circle skirt built onto a pair of trunks with a yoke waist, the secrets are all in the details, such as the rouched sideseams on the waistband, or the point at the center front. The top went through multiple redesigns and ended up a very nice halter. I graded the patterns to universal sizes and I mix and match the top and the bottom pattern sizes for each dancer.

I am excited that we will be collaborating on future dance costumes! For more information about PartyDancers and to book them for your events check out their website .

Leta's Bollywood Dance Costume

Dance costumes are a lot of fun to make. I really enjoy all of the glitz and detail of dance costumes compared to Regional Theater costumes, which tend to be based in reality. Leta found us on the internet and contacted us initially with a picture of the costume she wanted made and was delightful to work with because of her organization. After our initial meeting I sent Leta a list of the materials and yardage requirements as well as a list of suggested fabric stores to visit. Within a week we got together again for a fitting on the mock up and I was able to get started in the real fabric immediately.

Having all of the trims and and fabrics so early in the process made it really east to apply a lot of decoration with the pieces still flat. This helped us save time in construction by applying the trim by machine rather than by hand.

Due to the nature of Leta's routine, and most dance routines, fit was extremely important. It was crucial that the bra and trunks had a firm and supportive yet flattering fit.

So much FUN!

Spring's First Wedding Clothing!

Bride and Groom Tim and Alley put an add on Craigslist looking for custom made wedding clothes for their Steampunk style wedding in a zeppelin over San Francisco and I was so intrigued I sent them a link to M-Horton.com to take a look at Iggy's Steam Punk Wedding Dress as well as other designs. In our initial meeting they were really prepared with drawings, research collages and swatches of the fabrics they are interested in. This is a collage for Tim's waistcoat, which led us into some fun drawings and ideas!

We are talking about a high neck waistcoat with a double breasted V front and a lacing cutout up the center back. Tim has purchased his pants and shirt and is looking for just the right cravat and the vest fabric is still being found.

Allie found a rendering on the internet of the general idea of what she wants and complimented it with photo shop, magazine clippings and drawings. Allie is going for a unique corset shape, a waist cincher with a scooped back that conceals a train of trailing ribbons. We are also building an underskirt out of a fantastic light weight and buttery ivory wool which will very nicely compliment the forest green charmeuse overskirt. To finish it off we're working on what I call the "magic shirt" which is a delicate halter neck chiffon piece built on a foundation of the ivory wool. It poses a unique challenge and I'm currently thinking of building it to attach to the bra, check it out:

Allie is finishing off the look with ivory arm covers and goggles!

I really love making unique and beautiful clothing for creative people!

Iggy's Steampunk Wedding Gown

I LOVE making clothes for my friends, they are outrageous -- both the clothes and the friends! I have a good understanding of their personal style. Iggy is no different, when she asked me to make her dress I knew it was going to be a work of art. She is always seeking out original and exciting local designers and is not afraid to be the most daring person in the room. She has a confidence that people notice and respect.



In our initial conversation Iggy had a folder of pictures torn from magazines and a record cover with a woman in a peacock feather showgirl train and the specific instructions "Girlfriend, I want a SHELF in back!" I had sent her to the fabric store to get swatches of fabrics she likes and we talked about other ideas that interested her. I then took a trip to the fabric store and looked at what was available, did some drawings and we got back together for another round of design which I detail in the blog here.

This was a really challenging project and a continuation of "The Most Amazing Things I Have Ever Made". During this project I took Susan Khaljie's Couture Sewing School and learned fantastic new techniques for corsets in delicate gowns, which allowed me to find great success with this corset, made from silk taffeta, lined with organza and flannel. Also a unique challenge is the way the pants are cut, with a side panel that is on the bias. I chose to cut the side panel on the bias because I thought it would give me the ability to fit the pants with less ease as well as support the pleating at the knee.

The cake walk of the gown was the shrunken jacket, it slid on with perfection at the first fitting. It took two tries to get the sleeves just right, but it really paid off because I think they are fabulous and 'hug friendly'. I really like the choice to line everything with the royal purple china silk and the sleeves are the only place where we can peep it.

Finally, the bustle, in two lengths! Feathers were the design ideal but also a budget constraint. It was important to Iggy that she have a train to walk down the isle as well as a danceable "shelf" train. She had originally requested two trains, but I encouraged her to integrate them to save money on both materials and labor. I chose changeable silk taffeta as the main material because of it's crisp hand and double face. I built up bulk with two colors of netting to create texture without weight and we built the florets from trim and silk flowers. To integrate them I built a short "party bustle" where I focused the embellishments and then build a removable long train extension that fit smoothly under the party bustle, to be taken off for the reception.

Thank you Iggy and Bram -- for falling in love and making this happen.

Working with Guidworks

We share our work space with Mar Ricketts of Guildworks, an architectural fabric and kite company. We met in early spring via Craigslist, where Mar was searching for someone to share his space with. We got along well and he was really interested in having us here because of our sewing skills and his occasional need for a sub contractor.

Mar does the huge fabric installations that you see at festivals like Rothbury, Pick-a-Thon and Beloved as well as installations at businesses around town. The first project we picked up for him was a day light reflector for a sky light in the music room at the Da Vinci Arts Middle School, which built an eco classroom you can read about in the New York Times.

The music room is part of a program at the University of Oregon that studies energy efficiency in buildings. You can read about the design of the daylight reflector on their website, this is the picture of the first one they tested:

This is the sectional view of the one I worked on, the reflector is the trapezoid suspended in the center below the skylight:

 

 The reflector is made out of panels of Gore Tenara an architectural fabric that is durable, UV resistant and recyclable!

Paul's custom pinstripe bamboo suit

Photo by Sean Morrison

I met Paul and his wife Moira last summer at a music festival outside of Salem, OR. They were visiting one of Paul's childhood friends, a friend of my partner Jim. Paul had recently proposed marriage, and they came out west to make the decision to move from Brooklyn to Portland. Paul told me that he was looking to have a suit custom made for their wedding and was having a hard time finding an eco fabric in charcoal with a narrow pin stripe that he wanted. After months of searching online and in stores I went to Paul and suggested that we consider making our own fabric for the suit; my experience in theater has exposed me to no end of detail work to get just the right fabric and I was sure this was the only option. First we discussed screen printing the stripes and having them bend into geometric patterns, similar to this picture I tore out of a magazine:

After more thought I felt that screen printing may look cheap and have spotty results and decided that sewing the pin stripes would give the most controlled results. Paul had a graphic designer friend of his work up some sample stripe patterns that we picked a few from and I made some samples of the patterns. We had multiple fittings for the muslin of the suit and did more rounds of samples, fine tuning the size of the stripe as well as the the thread color and placement of the accent colors in the stripes, this is our final sample:

All in all the suit is a great success and a continuation of the best work I have done to date.