Friday, August 31, 2012

Resplendent Nightmare: Fabrics & Materials~


And here we are, the last day of this blog series. I've revealed pretty much all my plans for this collection, with one exception: the fabric and materials!

Fabric
A few months ago I posted a poll on my FB page asking what fabric you prefer - I originally really wanted to make this collection center around velveteen, but to my dismay that was not the most popular vote. Cotton was preferred by a long shot, so that's what I've decided to go with. The cotton I'm using for this line (read: for the SK, JSK, & OP) is a cotton so soft I can't even describe it. I've never worked with it before, and in doing research over the past few months I discovered it. It's the softest cotton I've come across, and I know it'll be just beautiful once sewn up.

There's another thing about the dresses in this collection — they'll be lined! I typically don't/haven't lined skirts and things in the past, because it seemed unnecessary or the fabric was thick enough by itself. But in doing more research and looking around at Brand garments and other indie labels, I decided I really like the clean appearance of a lined garment, and I think it'll help the dresses drape, flow, and look better.

At this point in the process I can't say whether the printed garments will be dry clean only or not. Since the ink I'm using is a shimmy gold, I'll have to do some experimenting to see whether the ink will lose it's shimmeries through the wash.

As for the blouses, I'm actually planning on using a new fabric as well. I tend to use a cotton with a sheen finish (because I think it looks super pretty), but for this line (and possibly moving forward), I'd like to try something different. The fabric I'm thinking of using is a wrinkle-free, light-weight poly/cotton blend and I think it may do better through the wash with all the ruffles I have planned.

Cutsews will be made of 100% organic cotton knit, of course!

Outerwear/vests/pants/shorts — I'm still searching around for the perfect fabric for these. I have a few in mind, but I haven't settled just yet.

Materials & Details
Most of the materials/details in the garments will be gold in color, to compliment the print.

Lace I'm planning on using throughout this collection will be like this, except in gold of course.
For some seam details (e.g., the coat), I'll be using a gold piping.

Organza, shown here in Amethyst.
The bottom ruffle in my dress sketches will be made out of organza, in a color matching the fabric. I had originally toyed with doing gold organza or tulle, but tulle is scratchy and irritating against the skin (not to mention tends to look gross overtime), and I couldn't find a gold that actually matched in organza (the colors were either too yellow or too orange), so I settled to match the fabric instead.


Buttons! I'm really excited for the button details in this collection. For the waist ties, I found these cute little critters, so they'll be holding the waist ties in place. They'll of course be in gold, instead of the samples shown here in black. Buttons for blouses/functionality will be gold as well — round shank buttons covered with metallic gold fabric.

Metallic gold pearls.
Gold chain and pearls. In the pants sketches I have some removable chain details. I'll probably include some sort of pearl detail in the dresses as well, even though it's not shown in the sketches.


Gold thread! Ruffles and decorative stitching will be finished with this.
 
As these were my first run, there's some imperfections as in some of these poor things are missing parts of legs D:
Up close they're not as scary as they might seem :P 
And lastly, my most favorite part — spider charms! (Ugh, I just noticed they totally look coppery in these photos, but that's not at all the case — they're metallic-y gold for sure.) Anyways, this part is something I started experimenting with months ago, but kept it a secret until now. I've never done resin casting or anything like that — I tend to not be too crafty (which doesn't entirely make sense, I know), so I've never had the desire to do something like this before. But I wanted something special and tangible to go along with this print. For example, I had the lollipop 2-ways for Lollipop Parade, and there was no way I was making a spider plush 2-way thing, so I opted to take this route. Each spider will be cast in gold (not actual gold of course) and be finished off with a gem in a color matching the fabric. These are the spider charms that will adorn the chains on the pants, and they'll also make an appearance dangling on headbows and hats.


With that, I suppose I'm finished revealing all things Resplendent Nightmare to you. Tomorrow I'll be opening up pre-orders (for printed garments), which will be found HERE. Pre-orders will include free shipping as well as a special gift. The print and the rest of the collection will be available in about 2 months, on Halloween. And of course I'll be updating here and on my FB page until then~ Thanks so much for reading/keeping up with me all week!

♡MissChubi

5 comments:

  1. The fabrics and designs certainly put me in the mood for Samhain, if nothing else! Everything looks very beautiful!

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  2. I'm a little concerned that the pre-order price for the skirt is $100,000 . . .

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    Replies
    1. Lol, that was just a placeholder while I got things configured and added to the shop - not the actual price :P

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