Monday, October 06, 2008

Finished My First Garment!

After months of sewing this and that...I finally completed my first garment. It was a traditional Korean dress called a Hanbok. Lauren was participating in a parade called "Celebrating Cultures." Her school asked all the kids to dress up in something representative of their heritage and march around the parking lot singing "It's a small World." It was a good excuse for me to show her that she's got Korean in her blood, even if it is only 1/4.

I wanted to buy her an original Hanbok, but could not find any in the area. I spoke with my mom to see if she could get her one. She knew where to get some, but they were all about $90-$120!! I told her absolutely not! I don't want to spend that much money on something she's only going to wear for 15 minutes and march around a parking lot wearing! This was a perfect opportunity to make one myself!

It took me 5 days to make this dress and I feel that I did a very good job at replicating the authenticity. I chose bright satin fabrics for the dress. The chogori (jacket) was light pink with maroon trim on the collar and sleeves. The chima (dress) and the goreaum (sash that ties the jacket) were the matching maroon color.

I researched the dress as much as I could online, going through lots of images and youtube videos. I finally understood how the dress was made up and what important features of the dress needed to be included. I crafted the dress without any patterns, totally free-hand. I did a few fittings with Lauren to get her sizing down for the length of the dress and jacket. Luckily, I had been working on a minnie mouse costume for Lauren prior to this project. I had only completed the bodice of the costume, but that helped me out with assembling the sleeves and lining for the jacket.

It turned out very nice! My mother thought I did a fantastic job and she was really impressed when she saw the dress in person. She said it was very authentic. I pointed out some minor flaws, but she said that she and her friends were very impressed with the craftsmanship! The best part of the whole thing was that it only cost me $25 in fabric and notions to make the dress!!

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2 Comments:

Blogger Vivian said...

freakng awesome!! I wish people around here wore those.. i would TOTALLY wear one! Soooo beautiful!! You picked such fantastic colors!!! Marii has magic sewing hands!!

1:20 AM

 
Blogger marii said...

The look really comfortable! I would wear one too! The real ones are made from silk, so you know that would feel awesome against the skin!

My magic sewing hands have been too lazy...I need to complete the Minnie Mouse costume this weekend!!!

9:45 AM

 

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