Midnight Garden - Q/A

A Question and Answer Day!

I was going to do another post on Midnight Garden fitting/drafting/artwork, but I wanted to answer a few questions and realized it would probably just be better to do a Q/A post.

Designdreamer wanted to know: "What kind of silk are you using?" It has a crepe sort of feel to it, so it isn't smooth and shiny. It is drapey, but once it is quilted, some of that will go away. That mostly depends on the type of batting and how much stitching is involved. The stiffer the batting and more stitching equals less drapey.

Suzy wanted to know: "When you design these Art to Wear garments, are you always the model? Or do these shows have other women (or men) who would be the model in your stead?" At this point, I make the garments to fit me. I don't always travel to the show to model the garment if there actually is a fashion show included in the quilt show. It is so much fun, though, to model your own piece! Most of the time the entry form will ask for the size, and I usually indicate the garment's size in RTW sizing and suggest that they find a young, small teen to wear my clothes. This avoids problems such as at Paducah this year when an entrant said the garments were a size 10, but were too small for a model who was a size 6 RTW. If I ever enter Bernina's contest (Check out the garments! Unbelievable!), they do specify what size to make the garments as the garments go on world tour for a year and are modeled by many different people.

Finally from Dawn, a drafting question. "To get more ruffle in the center back, though, did you slash just to the right of the center back fold and spread it to the left?" Yes, exactly. Actually for v. 1.1, I slashed 1/2" to the right of CB, and spread the pieces 50 degrees. That was too much, with that much fabric so close to CB on both sides. For v. 2.0, I slashed 1" from the CB line (and then every 2" after that towards the sides), and spread 50 degrees. That seemed to work better for my vision of the peplum. It's well worth it to do a little trial and error to see what looks best.

Parting Shot: Well, there's one more Q/A! Vicki wanted to know: "Have you listed your conquests on your hiking pants?" Actually yes, but only the 4000+ footers. The small stuff isn't on the pants. I just write the name of each mountain as I complete the hikes with a fabric dye pen. I need to add a section for 2007 with Waumbek on it. There should be enough room on the pants for all 48 names.