Archive for the ‘Fit Sessions’ Category

Body

For those of you that have been following our fittings, the sleeve issue has been resolved! The first and second fit samples were twisting because of the pattern and an innocent mistake made by my seamstress. After the pattern was corrected, my seamstress was still sewing the pleats of the sleeve incorrectly. This is what caused the sleeve to twist in the first place. However, just by looking at the sleeve after completion, you would have never been able to tell there was a sewing error.  The first thing that always came to mind was the pattern.

Once I picked up my third round of fit samples, I took them to my tailor to have buttonholes sewn on.  Industrial buttonhole makers are very expensive. So, for someone like me who doesn’t use one on a daily basis, using a tailor for these minor tasks is necessary if you want a professional looking buttonhole.

While I was at the tailor, I asked for his expert opinion on the sleeves.  He instantly knew what the problem was and assured me he could fix it. He explained to me that the pleats were incorrect, and on one of the shirts the fabric wasn’t cut on the straight grain.  I may be the one to blame for that… It’s hard cutting out fabric at 3AM and not making a mistake :)

I suddenly felt at ease that my samples were in his hands.  After a few anxious days of waiting, I had the patterns back with neat, professional buttonholes and two PERFECT sleeves! I am so thankful I was able to turn my third fit samples into my fourth ones without going through the entire process again.

Below, you will see what was my third round, but became my fourth and final session after a quick fix.  I am very pleased with the outcome, and I hope you all are too!

Next, we have some ideas for our pants, you can look for that in an upcoming post. In the meantime, please leave your comments below! We’d love to hear what you think about the fit, the styling details, our process or even this blog in general. We read every comment and enjoy hearing from you all!

Side by Side

Club

Tie

Collar

Front Collar

Lately, things have not been going according to plan.

When starting this whole process, I imagined I would go through two fittings, three at the most. I never thought I would run into this many problems. Today, I began the process of my FOURTH fitting. Why is this a problem? Well for starters, it costs a lot of money to have samples sewn, especially when you are having three samples sewn each time. With this being my premiere line, I am operating on a very strict budget.

Aside from money, a lot of time has gone into these samples. Valuable time. I have a career outside of Fifth&Brannan that I dedicate 40+ hours to per week. My seamstress is the mother of three children, and my pattern maker also has a full time job. It’s safe to say that our time is precious.

I am not sure where the problems with the samples started. Was it faulty pattern making? Sewing? Or was I just too tired when I was cutting the fabric out at 3AM? Any of these could be the reason we are moving into our fourth round of fit samples. I’m not happy about it, but I must say I’m glad I’m not rushing this process.

Because I pride myself on finding the best fit for this brand, these fittings are key. I would rather take the time to correct these mistakes instead of throwing my hands up. The hardest part of running into problems like mine is to see your release date slip further and further away.

I have a list of things that still need to be done, but because I am doing everything on my own, those tasks seem to get pushed to the bottom of my list. Once I feel 100% about my samples, it’s off to purchase my fabric, complete my production samples, find models, and begin the fun stuff!

I hope to see a photo shoot in my near future :)

A lot has been happening with Fifth&Brannan these past couple of weeks. We were able to escape to the beautiful island of Oahu for a week and rid ourselves of the craziness that has been going on. We are in the process of finalizing major decisions, filling out very boring paper work, crunching numbers, looking for possible interns, searching for a fit model, and much more. In the midst of the hectic schedule, we were able to complete our second round of fit samples. These are much better than the first ones that you saw, but there is still room for improvement. The body of the shirt is much more fitted, the sleeves have been narrowed, and the twisting issue near the cuff has been improved.

Fit1 Body Fit2 Body

1st fit                                                                    2nd fit


Fit1 Sleeve Fit2 Sleeve

1st fit                  2nd fit


Fit1 twist Fit2 twist

1st fit                                                           2nd fit


We are in the process of making our second set of revisions to the pattern. We plan to lengthen the sleeves, correct the twisting near the cuff, and add a few more fun details to the pattern that you will see after production. Hopefully our next fit session is the last and we can move on to production. Third time’s a charm!

A lot has been going on at Fifth&Brannan this week…a lot. We have completed our first round of fit samples and wanted to share the notes with all of you. We are working with very demanding deadlines, and if we want to stay on track with our July/August release, we can’t afford to have anything delay our delivery date. However, when making a garment from scratch, with a pattern that was made from scratch, you are bound to run into a few problems with the fit.

Below are images from our fitting to show you a few common issues designers deal with when trying to achieve the perfect finished product.  These are just some of the samples from our collection.  Did you expect us to give everything away?


Our sleeve cuff is measuring 1/2″ too small in the width which is causing the bottom of the sleeve to twist and pull. Once we add the missing 1/2″, we should achieve the look we originally desired.

Blue Plaid Cuff



Also, our sleeves turned out to be a little billowy. By taking them in 1″ total, we are hoping this will provide a more flattering look without being uncomfortably tight.

Right Brown Plaid Sleeve



The collar shapes aren’t exactly what we were hoping for, some are coming in a little too tall in the height, and some were not meeting our expectations. Also, some of the collars were too tight around the neck, barely allowing us to button the collar stands. I’m not sure if this has to do with a flaw in the pattern, or the fact that our fit model had one too many sushi rolls this week ;) Luckily, collar patterns are one of the easiest to alter!

Blue Plaid Collar

Brown Plaid Collar



Remember, these are not the fabrics that will be used in the collection. All samples were made from material we had available from previous projects.

Brown Plaid Blue Plaid


We are currently in the process of making corrections to our patterns and sewing our second round of fit samples. We’re crossing our fingers in hopes that these will be the final samples and we can get on with production! So much has yet to be completed before launching!

Now that you have gotten a taste for what goes on during a fitting, is there anything else you would like to know? Let us know what you think of the direction we are headed. We’d love to hear your feedback!


Thanks for stopping by,

Katie





Sometimes…

Partyyy Partyy Party

…our clothes make you wanna dance!



@fifthandbrannan on Twitter