DIY Dress Form Intro: The Ultimate DIY Dress Form Tutorial Overview

Interested in learning to make your own professional quality custom dress form for around $100?

This is PART 1 of my Ultimate DIY Dress Form Tutorial where I show you how to make a professional and functional personalized form that looks like this: 

Finished Dress Form!  (It's almost too realistic... )

We will be using these materials:

             *medical plaster wraps, 

             *construction foam, and

             *PVC pipes 

             *Quilt padding

             *4 way stretch knit fabric

     I took on this project last year when I decided as a designer I was way overdue for owning a functional dress form.  However, I just didn't have the budget to spend the $300-$600 it would cost to get a decent and professional form.  (I don't care what anyone says... those adjustable forms you can get at the craft store are a joke, if you know anything about draping.)  I had made a DIY dress form several years ago with my bestie, Megan Winn of The Binding Bee, but it was never very functional and I left it in Indiana when I moved to Austin to pursue fashion design.  I decided it was time to try again and do a better job.

Mailing packages...

Mailing packages to Kitsch. Boutique!!  Contents: Black Mermaid Dresses, feather light mermaid tanks, and infinitely versatile summer wading skirts in black and moss! 

Something Blue

https://www.etsy.com/listing/123365363/valentines-sale-teal-roses-high-waist

Katastrophic and Chaos Card Company collaborations!

Check out the work of the Chaos Card Company on their facebook page and also get updates as to where you can buy these insanely fabulous undies!

https://www.facebook.com/chaoscardcompany?ref=ts&fref=ts

FW 2013 Preview

A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest

Spring Summer 2013 Debuts!

I'm very excited to present my newest collection for Spring Summer 2013!

"Starla is Shipwrecked" showcases versatile knit pieces, inspired by Russian Orthodox sacred imagery and the deep sea, which can be mixed and layered to create a variety of looks for all occasions. Each piece is made by hand by the designer (myself) and my team, and the collection as a whole integrates hand dyeing, custom embroidering, and a special collaboration with Austin's Chaos Card Company who worked with me on screen printing glow-in-the-dark artwork on some of the pieces (which I LOVE and am super excited about!). I am also excited about the two beautiful micro modal fabrics made from birch tree fibers that I was able to use for this collection. One is blended with 8% spandex for an extremely comfortable fit and silky surface, and the second is a 10% silk blend which creates an unbelievably soft and delicate, yet durable, semi-sheer knit. Most exciting of all, the whole collection is available for pre-order from NOW through December 31st! Orders placed before Nov. 15th will begin shipping in February and later orders will ship by May 1st. You may pre-order through Etsy or contact Katastrophic directly at katastrophicdesign@gmail.com. View the whole lookbook featuring gorgeous photography by Shayne Stroud on Katastrophic's facebook page!

Suit no. 1

Today was a pretty awesome day. I delivered my first custom tailored suit to my client, Keegan, who will be wearing it tomorrow as he delivers his graduation thesis. It's a euphoric feeling to have finished this project. I had a very short time frame to create this suit (I had to work 12 hour days almost every day last week to get it done, and that does not include the time I spent researching and reading up on how to actually draft and construct a suit, or the time spent drafting the pattern, and the two preliminary muslins made to establish the fit). I knew this was going to be the hardest thing I'd attempted, but I've been wanting to learn to do menswear for a long time, and I also have wanted to learn to make pants. Nothing motivates like a deadline, though, so I took on this project to force me to get into those areas. It was definitely hell week for me, but I was right in believing once I was through it, it would be entirely worth it.

the wage and pricing dilemma...

There is a lot that goes into creating a selling clothing that most people don't see, and a lot of factors that I have really struggled with in trying to keep my brand affordable, but also ethically produced.  I wrote this post while going through the pricing process for my Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, and it brought up a lot of the fundamental ideas behind my business and why I am spending my life designing and selling clothing.
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This morning I'm trying to finish my sales packet to mail out to a few special boutiques I really love, and I'm having to finalize my pricing calculations. This is probably the most cringe-inducing part of the design and production process for me. I've kept track of how long it takes to cut and sew each design, and the yards of fabric and other notions for each, and I have to plug in the actual dollars into my formula to get the wholesale and retail prices. Here's the formula I use, and you get to have a special preview of my Fall 2012 collection because I'm going to use the numbers for my Charles dress in the picture above. It feels kind of revealing, but I have nothing to hide:

Boxes!!

Lately I've been working some on Katastrophic's branding. If only I could hire someone to design it all for me... BUT when you don't have money to buy fancy things, it's amazing what a few crafty supplies can amount to. And now Katastrophic underwear has new packaging... made entirely by hand from paper, puffy paint, typewriting, glitter, and origami!

Here is a pile of prototypes and a pretty good picture of what my work desk usually looks like:

Here is the box that made the final cut:
(I have to admit, I did impress myself with this one. I was beginning to feel like a loser for doing origami and puffy paint for 2 days...)

And now for a gratuitous dose of pure cuteness: this is how Peanut and I deal with living in a cold little house.

Stay warm, friends!

Lace for the new collection is on it's way!

I spent a good amount of time this week researching lace suppliers to source lace for my new collections. I was about to try to start ordering lace from a giant factory supplier in China because it's almost impossible to find anything else. I felt a little bad about just buying the normal kind of factory mass produce lace at cheap prices, but I decided it was good enough to be using ethically sourced fabric. When I told JR he pooped on my party and told me I shouldn't be making a compromise like that. So I started looking around a little more and pretty quickly this is what I found:
Eurolaces.

Laces made from %100 organic cotton, and even the manufacturing process involves no chemicals.

My order is shipping from Europe today or tomorrow, and I can't wait to get it!