Fabric
Hand block printing is the technique of imprinting a desired design onto fabric by means of wooden blocks and is one of the earliest known techniques for textile printing. A hand carved wooden block is dipped into color trays and then stamped onto fabric, thus leaving a permanent print design. This technique is applied by use of hands only. You will notice slight inconsistencies in the print, but I think this makes it more beautiful- just like life.
Project Specs
- Both stitched on an industrial serger (Juki MO-6816) and industrial straight stitch (Juki DDL 8100E) machines.
- Hand sewing applied to many areas such as hem facing, cuffs, hem, center front extension, bound seam finishes, clean seam finishes and buttons.
- Approximately 22+ hours to construct both coats, not including any pattern drafting.
Design Elements
Two Piece Sleeves
1. With right sides of fabric facing each other stitch seam from top of sleeve cap down to placket opening notch.
2. Press seam open and continue pressing into placket area the width of the allocated seam allowance.
3. Turn raw edge in and under the pressed open seam allowance and press the entire length of seam from top of sleeve cap down to bottom of placket opening at wrist.
4. Edge stitch along folded edge or slip stitch down to garment.
Gathering Details
Bound Seam Finishes
Fabric Covered Buttons
Optional Silhouettes
Styling
Final Designs & What I Learned
Gathering is essentially a very simple concept— excess fabric pulled together to create shape or volume around the body or in a specific area for movement (ease). As you read earlier, I experimented with different variations of gathers in different seams. Going forward, I would never place two gathered pieces together (ex: bodice and skirt) with a woven fabric. The straight stitch that connects the two does not control the gathers and the gathers will just fall out. You need to secure a gathered piece always into a solid pattern piece like a waist band or in my case; I improvised with binding the interior waist seam allowance to ensure the gathers did not fall out.
Happy Sewing!
Designed, photographed and written by Sheila Wong Studios.