draping

I heard once a good way to unlock your creativity is to name your inner artist and your inner critic. For years, I have tried to do just that, and for whatever reason I’ve come up empty. I finally gave up.

When I got my dress form, I was asked frequently if I’d named her. The question never failed to make me uneasy. Even as I worked to shape my dress form into my own personal measurements, I eyed it with a certain level of reserve, maybe even suspicion.

The stand-offishness that I had with my form didn’t help at all when it was time to start draping. For some reason, I’d decided that draping was the true test of my sewing chops, and if I couldn’t do it, then I’d have to admit I suck at something I desperately want to be good at.

After my first workshop with Julien (read about it here), I brought home my form, perfectly sized to my proportions and marked accurately to practice the art of moulage, which is a specific way of draping that uses corresponding lines on the form and on the muslin. Guess what?! I didn’t touch that form for a whole year!! Believe me, I was sewing like crazy. But draping? Not once.

So I signed up for a second workshop with Julien. And this time I decided that I would not walk in that door until I named my dress form. She would be a stranger no longer.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Vivie! It took a lot of time to come up with the right name. Some of you may have already guessed that she’s partly named for Vivienne Westwood whose garments are world famous for their amazing drape. But last time I checked, I’m no Vivienne Westwood, and using the name Vivienne sounded pretentious. But a nickname, yes! That works! Vivie has French feel which is my way of honoring my teacher Julien and the very French method of draping that he taught me.

Can I confess to you now that naming her worked? It really did. Where I was tight and inhibited, Vivie is fun! She brings out the best in me and we now have a lot of fun working together.

So, it’s only fair that Vivie get her own photo shoot. She’s earned it. She’s currently wearing the draped car wash skirt. You can see a video of our work together on our Instagram.

God bless you, if you’ve read this far! And if you’ve decided that I’m not a total lunatic (or that my kind of crazy matches up with yours) then come back next week to see a muslin of the car wash skirt. See you soon!

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

Dress made by Tracey

Pattern, Draped on a Dress Form during a Workshop with Julien Cristofoli

Fabric, Striped Shirting from Mood Fabrics

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

After about 500 years on my dress form and sewing table, this dress is finally on ME! What a long time coming! Let me start at the beginning. When I began sewing, I knew that the skill that I wanted to learn most of all was draping a garment on a dress form. In fact, the entire reason that I stumbled on to Susan Khalje’s website was because I was searching for a draping class. At the time that I first found Susan, her website stated that there were no draping classes scheduled but to check back later. I went ahead and signed up for one of Susan’s jacket workshops instead which turned out to be WONDERFUL. (You can see the results of two jacket workshops here and here.) But I was still obsessed with draping, so I went looking for someone local who could come to my house and teach me to drape, and I found Lindsey. But she taught pattern making, so we scheduled those classes instead. I learned so much from her and you can see the results here and here. But guess what, I STILL wanted to drape a garment! So, on to Plan C. I figured I’d go to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Well, that was an exercise in patience while dealing with a bureaucracy. It turns out that since I have a masters degree, I couldn’t enroll as an undergraduate and I wasn’t qualified enough to enroll as a graduate student since I’m relatively new to sewing. Finally we figured out that I could get around all of that by enrolling as a non-degree student, but I couldn’t just go straight into draping, I had to take Fashion Tech first. You can see the results of that class here.

Picture this, my second semester at SCAD, and I enroll FINALLY in my first draping class. Hallelujah!! First day of class, I’m early, and I’m a complete and total geek with all my school supplies all ready to go. I’m sitting there. And I’m sitting there some more. I check the time. Someone else should be here by now, right?! Fifteen minutes in to my class time and I’m still the only one there. Turns out that I’m not the brown nosing teacher’s pet. I’m just the dumb ass in my 40s that doesn’t know to check my SCAD email (who even knew I had a SCAD email?!) to find out class was cancelled.

Plan D. What IS Plan D? I was out of ideas. And that’s about the time that I was checking out Susan’s website again (I am probably her most frequent visitor because I just like to look at her workshop schedule and daydream about taking every single one) and what?!……there it is, Draping Workshops with Julien Cristofoli are now scheduled. He’s coming! From Paris! I think that I emailed Susan and called her too. I probably confirmed my place at least 5,000 times. I sent in my deposit immediately. Then I obsessed over what natural disaster would occur to keep me from getting to Baltimore to learn from the master. And yes, when the time came, my flight was cancelled, but I jumped in the car and drove through torrential rain. And incidentally, it rained so much in Baltimore that an entire sidewalk slid off into ditch. It made the national news.

But I made it there. And Julien made it. I really don’t have the words to truly describe the joy I felt watching and learning from him. Julien is a lovely person, and the elegance and grace he has while draping really has to be experienced. This dress I’m showing you today is something that I started in Julien’s workshop for Tops (not Dresses). I had been short on fabric for a few of the previous exercises so I overcompensated with a lot of extra fabric, and my top turned into a dress instead. (I draped the back on my own, once I got home. It took me forever to work up the courage to try it by myself.) I can’t take credit for the choice of fabric. While we were draping, Julien casually mentioned how a stripe might look nice because you could really see how the fabric was shifting, and I seized on that idea and I used that idea. And it was a really good idea.

As I write this, I now have two workshops with Julien under my belt. At some point very soon, you will get to see the product from my second workshop with him. And guess what happened during my second workshop. The Baltimore Riots. We haven’t been able to figure out if I am bad luck for Baltimore or if Julien is. But whenever he comes back, I will definitely be there. So brace yourself, we don’t know what’s coming!

To see time lapse videos of our photo shoot and to hear about Santiago’s photography process, be sure to check out Facebook page.

Take care, everyone. See you soon.

Introducing….

Julien Dress