Custom Katastrophic Silk Chiffon Gown

I just finished an unusual project for myself- designing and sewing a formal gown for a client!  It's such a change from my normal design work of knitwear for every day, but it's interesting and exciting to get to use really rich and beautiful materials, like the silk chiffon and silk velvet I used in this project!  

Here are my sketches for the idea of the dress which I created after meeting with my client and looking at some pictures together of what she liked.  I first wanted to make sure I was a good fit for her as a designer.  Luckily I really liked her inspiration pics and it was easy for us to come up with something we both could get excited about.  You can see some variations, some of which I'd like to start as a jumping off point for other custom dresses:

I really love drawing and it's one of my strong points, so naturally in my design process I rely a lot on my drawings, which is where I make most of the design decisions.  This time since I haven't ever worked with this kind of fabric before I wasn't sure how the design would translate to the finish piece, so it was a bit of an experiment.

DIY Dress Form Part 1: Building the Mold

 This is the SECOND installment of my Ultimate DIY Dress Form Tutorial!  Click here for the Intro post.

BEFORE building your mold, there are several things you have to consider:

* You are going to have to stand very still with excellent
    posture without moving for at least an hour.

* The mold is going to be very fragile.

* If you move or shift, your mold is not going to be accurate.

* You might want to protect your skin if it is particularly
    sensitive.

* And lastly and VERY importantly, you CAN'T do this part alone!!!  All the other parts you can do pretty much by yourself, but you can't wrap yourself in plaster bandages and then cut yourself out by yourself!  You need at least one friend to wrap the bandages on you and then cut you out.

* Also, keep in mind that you are going to be basically naked except for a ratty old pair of undies that you are ok with ruining, so you better do this project with someone where there is mutual comfort with seeing most of your bare naked body, and in fact getting very hands on with said body.  In a 100% business way, of course.

p.s. I hope you like this ridiculous picture of me (left) and my friend Rachel (right) who is always adventurous and hilarious, which is pretty much the perfect thing for a project involving getting almost naked and then having to literally stand around like that for a couple hours.

For this stage, you will need:

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: