This is completely irrelevant to weddings...

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...but I thought this would be a nice time to see what I'm doing in Problem Solving since I wont be posting any more pictures of anything wedding related till the dress is done. Selfish? Yes. If the groom shouldn't see the dress till the day of why should you? (j/k) Anyway for those not in the know of PhilaU classes, Problem Solving is the class that is like those random Project Runway challenges (make a dress out of dog food! or and old coat! or streamers! I figured it'd be a nice interlude to keep you entertained for a while. So here we go.

This project was to study  deconstruction and reconstruction. The challenge was to buy a coat from the thrift store, take it apart and re-work it into a garment or other body adornment. The body emphasis was the shoulder. My base inspiration was Junya Watanabe, a Japanese designer; and Nicki Minaj. This is the resulting "romper". The top is the shell, the shorts are the lining and batting cut out of the jacket. The knit waistband was reworked into armholes and the top is actually cut from the sleeves. The buttons and zipper were recylced from the front to the back.
Southpole Jacket: $10


These next three are the Body Systems challenge. We had to pick a body system and interpret a topic of our choice. I chose the cardiovascular system, and I focused on Heart Attacks, resulting in renal failure. Yes, morbid I know. You can blame my mom, who's an RN. The color palette also had to be monochromatic- meaning various shades of one color so I did tomato- burgundy reds, with black as an accent. The burgundy represents the dead muscle tissue, the tomato- blood flow and veins and the deeper red are vessels. I focused on the left side of the body as people tend to feel the symptoms on that side.


 the heart exploded! :-/
Heart Attack 3 pc
Top & Skirt:Tissue paper, streamers and metallic yarn. Armband: Wire, streamers, yarn.

This has nothing to do with Problem Solving. This is the jacket and top combo I did for Advanced Patternmaking/ Tailoring, inspired by the musical artist Prince a la Purple Rain. It has velvet skinny tuxedo pants with the tuxedo stripe matching the jacket midriff  but I  havent finished them to photograph yet. They exist though.

Purple Rain suit. 100% wool/silk charmeuse/ velvet burnout
jacket Est. Retail: $600+
Alas. sew thus is my life.

New problem solving on Thursday.

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