Creating my toile:

Firstly before creating my toile I had to work from pattern peices, which I had never ever done before! Therefore this was going to be a challenge in its self, I was excited to create my garment as my love for fashion and studying fashion has grown throughout my time on the textiles course so I was positive at the fact I wanted to include a garment for my final peice and exhibition. 

The first stage of creating my toile was cutting out the pattern peices from my chosen pattern (I have covered this in a previous blog post) I then pinned the two pieces together and turned inside out when placed on the mannequin, I also had to take some length off the hem line as the simple shift dress pattern was far too long for my liking. The processes I used for this stage was cutting out my pattern, using the over locker and sewing together, including hems. 

The second stage was familiarising myself with the overlocker, as I had never used one before I decided to create a few sample peices and get to grips with how it worked, the overlocker cuts the fabric using a sharp blade whilst sewing a edging on to the chosen fabric, as I was only creating a toile (a practice peice before creating my final peice) I used calico which is a thick linen like fabric, I sewed around a square and sewed a hem onto a scrap peice of calico. After doing this I felt I was ready to begin overlocking my toile!! 

PHEW, I've done it! Unfortunately I didn't take any photos whilst overlocking my toile but it was the same process, as shown in the photos unfortunately my overlocking didn't go as well as I would have liked as my needle came unthreaded several times however this is something I shall work on and take extra care when creating my final real dress! I pinned both of my pattern peices together perfectly and sewed them together leaving a 1cm edge using the foot of the sewing machine to guide my needle keeping the gap the whole way down the toile, I made sure I only sewed the shoulders and the sides together leaving the arm holes, head hole and the bottom of the dress un stitched as the dress wouldn't be wearable, once this was done I pinned the bottom of the dress inwards to create a bottom hem (1cm wide) I sewed around the hemline creating a neat looking hem, I them removed the pins I had used.  

My final toile which I am extremely happy with considering I have never used the processes I needed to create this, I feel once I create my final dress I need to take more care when using the overlocker and making sure my seams meet exactly and precisely.

HEALTH AND SAFETY: 

Be care full when using pins, overlocker, scissors and the sewing machine as all things listed are very sharp, the overlocker and sewing machine needles are moving at high speeds and could easily go into fingers if not careful when using this equipment.

Check that the mannequin is stable as if not it could fall on you, the mannequins are heavy and dangerous if pins are pinned to the mannequin.