Senior Thesis Part 5: Women's Fitted 3 Piece Suit

For this piece I wanted to go above and beyond and make it the highlight of my thesis. I wanted to push myself in my construction skills and also in my print design to create several fabrics that could go together. I decided on making a fitted three piece suit for myself (of course) including a lined notch collar jacket with vented two piece sleeve and a right breast welt pocket for a pocket square, pants with fly closure and two back welt pockets, a vest, and a matching tie to pull it all together.

I wanted to design these prints in Adobe Illustrator giving it a very clean look to match the sharp aesthetic of a well fitting suit. With the suit being traditionally serious attire the print had to put a fun and ridiculous twist on it. The first print was for the jacket and pants printed on cotton sateen. Using elements from that design I created four prints to complement it. One was a different color scheme for the vest. In another I repeated one element to make the jacket lining which was printed on silk de chine. In the third I made a stripe pattern that was going to be the pocket square for the welt pocket of the jacket. The fourth was a continuation of the "slurpee" cup element in the design for the tie. In addition I designed and printed a tag with the fabric design name to be put in both the jacket and pants. I named the fabric series fresh factor and the tag reads, "Fresh fabric for a fresh suit."

In making a suit, most of the work goes into the pattern making and fitting of the practice muslin suit to ensure that everything will fit properly (and comfortably!). I included my notch collar draft to give you a little behind the scenes on what had to go into making the pattern (lots of geometry). A lot of what is great about this suit are the small details. I matched up the jacket fabric as well as the welt pockets in the jacket and pants. This suit was a lot of fun to make and I can't wait wear it and then make another!!

Sketch, fabric prints for the suit, vest, lining, pocket square, tie, and tag.

Notch collar draft

Jacket:

Center front pattern piece laid out.

Back, side back, and side front pieces sewn together.

Sleeves cut, sleeves sewn.

Over collar and under collar pieces cut, sewn collar.

Front facings, back neck facing, and collar sewn to jacket, fresh factor tag attached.

Practice welt pocket, finished welt pocket on upper right breast

(with fabric pattern matched) for pocket square.

Sewing lining together, sewing lining to jacket.

Finished jacket with lining sewn in.

Pants:

Fabric cut out of pants pattern.

Front pocket pieces cut out.

Back welt in progress, pocket sewn.

Front pockets finished, back pockets finished.

Zipper sewn into front of pants.

Waistband with contrasting fabric lining and tag sewn onto pants.

Vest pieces cut out, vest finished.

Base tie pieces cut and sewn.

Tie in progress

Finished tie

Three piece suit complete, front and back

Vest and tie