Pandemic Apparel

I had this tutorial sitting on my HD for over a year and finally decided to get back into making tutorials. Hopefully this time around I'll upload a new tutorial weekly, but for now until I get into the swing of things I'll upload one every other week. Enjoy! YouTube

Last week I started to clean my iron plate and found an article RealSimple made, but omitted a few of the steps since my iron manual advised against it. It came out pretty clean, As you can see from the first image, that I doctored (I realized in the middle of cleaning that this would be a good blog post). How I cleaned my iron: I used 8 Tbsp Baking Soda & 4 Tbsp Cold Water (its a 2 to 1 ratio). While the iron was cold I applied the paste with a towel, then I wiped it off with a clean towel. This didn't clean the iron, but it took some of the mineral deposits off. I then turned the iron ON and set it to HIGH and steam to HIGH. With a damp towel I wiped off the paste. Then, I placed a clean towel on a heat resistant surface, and started squirting it with water and started working the iron back and forth on the towel, using steam. Some of the iron's steam vents got clogged with the paste. I used a wet cotton swab to clean the baking soda from the vents. This was no easy task...

I remember seeing a preview of the Schmatta - Rags to riches to rags documentary on HBO.com and was waiting for it to air or for the DVD to be released. I figured that HBO would included it on the HBO GO app, but they didn't. After looking for this documentary for some time now I discovered this link someone had posted on a forum. It downloads pretty quickly and is of good quality. The documentary has interesting facts regarding the garment industry in New York. Since I'm from LA I'm more interested in our history, never the less it was informative.

Saturday, February 05, 2011, was the opening of the 19th annual art of motion picture costume and design Exhibition @ FIDM. Right after parking we made a B line for the exhibition. I love costume design and nothing gives me grater pleasure than to see these wonderful costumes in person. I have often thought about working at a museum, but how does one get started? Enough about me ... Here are a few pictures of the costumes. I took about 140 pictures, but I only found 12 that I wanted to show you. The exhibition was in a Z pattern, which was fun to walk around. While watching Burlesque ... I noticed that some of the scenes look like Cabaret. The costumes and musical numbers were pure candy, but the story line sucked. On a bathroom break, I found the famous Dior dress displaced in a glass case. Across from that was a wall show casing a few pictures and designs. They always have the best displays. I remember when I attended FIDM they had a new display on each floor, every week. I miss thos...

I've updated the calendar on my vimeo group " DIY Sewing " to show the dates for fashion week around the world. Enjoy!

I've been wanting to do a video tutorial for some time, but with work and lack of natural light in my studio I've been putting it off. I might do a few short tutorial on hand sewing. Which I've been wonting to do for a long time now. What I really wanted to show you are some tailors techniques for hand sewing, but I haven't been able to find the proper information over the internet. This means a trip downtown to the BIG library ... hmmmm. So what I'll do is make a tutorial on basic techniques. If you have any request about hand sewing please let me know and I'll include them in my tutorial.

I've been debating on making this post. In the end I think it would be easier to create a blog entry than to make a video tutorial. I few weeks ago I purchase this "Draping" book which I've been trying to buy for some time now. I really goes into detail on the history of draping and how it all started. Which my school failed to teach us. Okay ... its time for the draping part of this tutorial. [I would like to add that this book deals with CM not INCHES so if you don't have a measuring tape with CM on it you'll need to do some converting here is the formula: cm x 0.39* = in in x 2.54 = cm *Shown as 0.39 after rounding to the nearest hundredth (0.3937008).] You'll need the following measurements: (size 6 US) • Upper arm width (27cm) • Elbow width (23cm) • Wrist width (16cm) • Arm length (61cm) • Lower arm length (25cm) • Arm hole circumference (40cm) Supplies: • Muslin Fabric • Cardboard • Poly-Fil • Pins • Rulers: L-Ruler, French Curve, Clear Ruler • Threa...