Amanda Matrejek

"For my three items I selected a gold silk skirt, a white chiffon top
and a patterned chiffon top. I’m pretty excited because this is my
first time playing with prints. I’m usually a solids girl, but
recently I’ve been inspired by Frida Kahlo, who wore all these really
great traditional Mexican prints. I couldn’t find anything that
matched that, but I felt like the purple, painted geometric print
evoked a similar feeling.


Knowing that I have limited amounts of fabric, I chose a design that
isn’t too elaborate. That being said, the gold skirt is going to be a
belted pair of shorts and the top is (hopefully) going to be white
with wire-framed flowers in the patterned fabric, which is inspired by
the flowers Kahlo traditionally wore in her hair.


The main concern I have right now is making sure I have enough fabric
in the deconstruction process to make the shirt. I’m thinking the best
way to accomplish it will be to a) to find a small model and b) to
switch up the back so that I use as little fabric as possible. I
didn’t finalize the back in a sketch because I have a feeling I’m
going to have to get creative to get it to work."

Amanda's initial design with fabric swatches.

April 2nd, 2011: From the desk of Amanda Matrejek:

I started by cutting apart my fabric. The good news: I'll have plenty
of fabric for the shorts. The bad news: The shirt is going to take
more pieces than I expected. Turns out choosing small shirts was not

the best choice. While I love the white chiffon, there's a large black

embroidered flower that's going to cut out a big part of my fabric. I
think when I pattern I'm going to try and get that in to the shoulder
so that it gets covered by the wire flowers. It could work, right?
Ergh, I'm going to do the shirt second and put off that disaster as
long as possible.

That being said, I'm patterning my shorts because they're going to be
the easiest part. I don't have my model yet, so I'm going to make them
a little bigger, or at least as big as I can with the fabric I have.
I'm going to use princess seams down the front so I can take them in
if need be. The most important part is going to be fit. But really,
how can you go wrong with gold shorts? Ok, ok, gold lame shorts are a
bit rough, but have faith in my ability to get sassy without looking
trashy.

I think some people are looking at this from a competitive edge, but
the way I see design is this: make things people want to wear and make
it you. I think the most exciting part about this competition is that
it's really about young people and growth. I can't wait to see what
everyone comes up with, because I feel like remakes are something a
lot of us started out messing around with at a young age and being
able to return to that idea with more vision and new skills (like
patterning) should help create some really fresh ideas.

April 4 update 

Breaking news! I've switched my design. I started draping my shorts
and I started thinking: what do I have to get done? How do I go about
doing that? I realized that making shorts will require fittings and
then I realized, why make something that is only fit for one person? I
thought about how these looks are going to go up for sale, and I want
people to actually be able to wear this! Let's be real, most of us
(including myself) are not model size. I'm too short, too flat, my
butts too big. I wouldn't even be able to wear the design, and where's
the fun in clothes that don't fit?

All that being said, I've decided to make a dress primarily out of the
gold, with white, sheer fabric on the top of the bodice. I started
draping it and right now it's a giant poof. Looking at it, it's a bit
short, so I think I'm going to spend my $10 on fabric for bloomers
(because I was able to reuse the zipper from the skirt, and already
had thread). Basically, you know how little girls dress? Full dresses,
ruffled bloomers, flowers? That's kind of my new direction. I know
it's completely different, but I like things to be a little over the
top. Fashion is supposed to be fun and playful and I think this look
is going to be something that's part goofy, part daring, part cupcake.
Everyone loves cupcakes... right?

Done with time to spare. As usual, I've hauled through the final days
to get my finished product (procrastination and I are good friends).
After realizing I wanted to make my cupcake dress, I took all my extra
fabric and gathered it to fit the dress form. Then, I draped the white
top beneath, pinning and altering the neckline to fit my design,
sewing it once I got it to where I wanted. I re-installed the zipper
from the skirt, and then used lining from the skirt to face the
neckline.

I moved on to the bloomers after that, buying some cheap white cotton
to use (on sale 30% off too!). I made a pattern based on the
measurements of the dress form, making sure there was extra so I could
gather the hem and waist. I sewed the waist and added elastic. Then,
for the bloomer, I cut up the patterned shirt ruffles and sewed them
to the hem of the short as I was heming. After, I added the elastic.

The start white looked harsh against the gold, so I took the quick,
easy route for toning them down by tea dying. Basically, take some
black tea and hot water, steep the tea for 5 minutes and then add the
garment. My dying only took an hour, but you can do it for much longer
depending on how dark you want it to look. Meanwhile, I made wire
forms for my flowers and hand-sewed fabric to create the petals. When
I finished dying, the tea had settled too much on some spots though,
leaving dark patches. By recommendation I tried to bleach them out.
Terrible idea! I was able to cover one spot but the other just wasn't
salvageable.

Finally, I added my finishing touches. I took the embroidery from the
white top and added it to the bloomers using the sewing machine. This
helped cover some of my tracks with the dying mishap too. Then, I
added the flowers to the dress and I was done. Not half bad...