Meet Designer Carolyn Maki

Carolyn Maki is a fabulous designer who is inspired by the 1950's and vintage clothes. Below are her initial sketches for our redesign challenge.  

Update from Carolyn 3/28/2011

I love resale shops and designing my own look, so this project is like a dream come true! I’m excited to be a part of it, though it is a bit unnerving to be probably the oldest designer. All the other designers look to be in their early 20’s – students who are young and eager. Oh, how I remember those days, when you feel invincible and before your work gets criticized and torn apart. The 25 year journey of my career has built my character – it would be nice to win, but in the end, I can only put out a garment that I like and am proud to put my name on.
The hardest (and most fun) part of this project is deciding what to do with the items I’ve chosen. Some decisions are easy (the white eyelet shirt fabric “speaks” to me and begs to be made into a structured dress, and the skirt portion of the dot dress is beautiful, just as it is. The magenta top was a Goodwill steal for $3.99, and the rosettes will provide a finishing touch.
Other decisions are harder, like what kind of bodice to choose, there be enough fabric to execute what I want, how difficult and time consuming will it be to make a pattern or drape (I work 3 jobs and need to squeeze this project in among everything else!) Dreaming up an idea is the easy part; actually turning it a finished product is the hard part.
I am a skilled seamstress (I’ve been sewing for over 30 years and took my first job for pay at 18). Constructing the new looks is the least of my concerns in regards to timing, and I’d bet money that my construction and attention to detail will be head and shoulders above the others.
As I write this, finalizing my model is the most immediate task at hand. I need to do this quickly, because I cannot move onto the patternmaking stage without knowing her measurements. I have a gal in mind, but need to double check with her if she can spare an entire day (she has a 6 year old daughter to think of).

Turns out, making muslins was a wise choice. I fit them last week and the strapless bodice was over an inch too small. Kariann never would have gotten it zipped up if it had been the real thing. If it had been the real thing, I would have had no choice but to rip the dress apart, and ruin the design by trying to insert extra side panels. The overlay piece ended up being a bit too big in the back, and the armhole was too high and needed to be re-shaped.
Because I work as a technical designer, identifying fit issues and figuring out how to correct them is what I do best. I love this part of the process, almost more than creating the initial design. I feel a designer needs to understand both aspects; a designer who can only turn out pretty sketches is pretty useless, in my opinion.
I laid out the dress #1 pattern , and, boy, do I hate working with sheer fabric! The magenta blouse that I am using for the strapless bodice is crinkled silk – very sheer, with a bit of “give” to it. To help make it more stable, I’m going to use part of my $10 allowance to purchase an underlining fabric to help stabilize it. This will also help give it more body so that it will fit and mold to the body better. I’m using the other part of my $10 allowance to purchase lining for the eyelet since it is an off white color. Lining will make the dress look more finished, plus I hate it when you can see a person’s undergarments because the fabric is too thin or not properly lined! The last of the allowance will be spent on an invisible zipper which will be hidden in the left sideseam, so the dress will look beautiful coming and going!
I spent the weekend sewing dress #1 and ran into a couple of unexpected snags. Even with the underlining, the magenta bodice was still too “soft”, so I decided to add boning to the seams to give it some shape. Good thing I had some extra laying around from my last bridal job, as I am out of money for this garment. When I chose the lining for the eyelet fabric, it never crossed my mind that the magenta bodice might “show through” from beneath the overlay and change its color. Well, that’s exactly what happened since I used a cheap polyester lining, and now the overlay looks “gray” compared to the skirt. So I will be ripping it apart and adding an underlining layer in the middle. Thank heavens I have a boxes and boxes of scraps to choose from, but I hate ripping and had better keep my fingers crossed that the diagonal neckline doesn’t stretch as I rip and re-handle, or this is going to look terrible!
The other snag I didn’t count on was the eyelet fabric “growing” when it was pressed. I really liked the initial slightly puckered look of it, but it flattened out as I pressed the seams, so I had no choice but to press it all – except then the garment was a bit too big when I pre-fit the components. Good thing I held off joining the waist seam and setting the zipper so that I can take it in at the side seams.
Despite the above snags, I’m making great progress and should be able to finish this up in another couple of evenings. Which is good, as I’ll need the rest of the week to turn my attention to dress #2.

 

Hooray!  Dress #1 is finished!  I did not anticipate spending four hours to sew on all the little flowers at the neckline, but now that it’s done, it looks amazing.

Dress 2 is much simpler (thankfully!), as I only had a couple of days to pull it together.  Still, like dress 1, there were things that took me by surprise.  My original intent was to have piping in the red brocade at the neckline, but after completing the cups, I realized it was too thick and affecting the fit.  So I simply pulled out the filler, and instead settled for a flat inset.  It still had the look I wanted, and the fit is much better.

As worked progressed on this dress, I realized how much I hate working with poly/span knits like this black, especially since I do not have industrial equipment.  It stretches tremendously, and requires patience and special handling so the finished piece does not get distorted.  Trying to set the zipper in this knit (as well as the bias cut silk charmeuse skirt) was probably the worst part of making this dress.  I interfaced the entire seam to minimize stretching, lengthened my stitches, and decreased the pressure on my presser foot, and luckily, it turned OK.  Thankfully, the waist and neck seams aligned perfectly the first time I set the zipper.  Having to rip the zipper out and try a second time would have been a disaster.

Due to a lack of fabric from the dot dress bodice, I could not construct the contrast at the neckline the way I intended.  So, I settled for a different construction, one that came back to bite me after the dress was finished.  After the dress was completely done and I was fitting it on the mannequin, I realized the dot fabric at the neckline did not lay flat against the body – it gapped horribly!  The only way I could get it to lay flat was to change the halter ties into back straps.  It still looks OK and is totally wearable, it’s just not the look I intended.

Because timing was so short, I did not have time to fit the bodice on my model before attaching the skirt.  Upon fitting on her, I realized the bodice was a bit loose (that darn knit fabric probably stretched and grew as I handled it).  Good thing this bodice is not lined and I was able to take the side seams in just enough to make it fit beautifully.

I have really enjoyed this competition.  Redesigning is a wonderful outlet for my creative side (not to mention totally practical, cheap and good for the environment)!  Please stop in and vote for your favorite, and hopefully I’ll see you at the show in May!