Toiling

After fitting my toiles on myself over the weekend, I found that creating my own pattern meant the darts I drew in and size of sleeves were quite out. However the measurements of the crop top minus sleeve were correct, so getting a basic bodice block from the pattern cutting lady who came in I started again. This toile was much more successful and I decided to fold over the lower hem and add in a string detail so it can be worn loose or fitted depending on the look. I made sure I kept notes throughout the toiling process to help me remember exactly what was wrong at each process so I could fix it.

[Toile notes]

[Culotte toile 1]

Much like my first crop top toile, my first culotte toile was a mess. Even through using a trouser block and altering it to make the leg wider, it was still extremely tight and the lack of darts at the top made it impossible to move in and take on and off meaning I had to leave the back piece unpinned. When drawing up the pattern I intended to include a zip at the back, but forgot to cut this out on one back panel so there wasn't nearly enough material to include this. Modelling them on Amy may have been a mistake too, she is much curvier than Lena and I felt this impacted how the culottes draped on her. However, saying this, it was helpful to have them on a person as it meant I could see how much bigger I wanted the legs, I decided to add 20 cm to each leg almost doubling the flare. Also due to wanting them high waisted, it really needed darts, something I didn't include in this toile. 

Making these culottes up in calico really helped my design process, I could visualise exactly how I wanted them simply through seeing this 'wrong' version. Trial and error is how I learn best, and through making possibly every mistake within this toile, I know exactly how not to make them. Although this process takes much longer, I made sure to leave myself enough time to be able to do this throughout this week in my planning. I aimed to create a collection of garments for my final piece so I needed to make sure each toile was correct before making it up in the final fabrics. Once each toile is perfected I can move onto fabric buying. This will definitely be done by thursday so that I can buy everything I need this weekend.