Week 8 Review

This week has been all about cutting out our top fabric. The week hasn't been too much of a learning week, I've just concentrated on getting all of my pieces cut and tacked ready for the next stage. I took care over cutting the Melton and the Moleskin, making sure the grain was lying in the same direction for every piece. Dying the Moleskin has been tedious this week however I've never worked with Moleskin before and seeing how well it takes to dye has been really interesting. The decision was made to dye the breeches a more neutral golden colour to stick with the theme of Dorset colours and then match the waistcoat to the breeches instead of the frock coat. So the plan was to get the breeches looking a nice shade of antique gold. It took a total of 3 dye trials to get the right colour. After the 3rd test both Kelly and me were happy with the tone we had achieved. Adding only the smallest amount of dye every time made it a very tedious and time consuming process. However after the 3rd dye we dried the fabric to realise it was still actually quite patchy, there was just too much fabric to fit in the dye vat evenly. However after 3 dyes and numerous washes it was quite apparent that the fabric hadn't shrunk so a mutual decision was made to cut the pattern pieces and then dye for a 4th time in order to get an evenly applied colour. Other than that the week has gone pretty well. Note to self being if I were a little more confident with dyeing it may have been a much quicker process..more practice needed in this area I think.