Behind the scene fitting with Jen from TLC's Little Couple

Hi everyone,

It is always kind of nice to have a moment to write a blog. It is my quiet time. If you are a fan of TLC's, " The Little Couple" you might have seen the episode where I made Jen Arnold a suit. This blog and video are about the behind the scene story.

I normally do not make suits because they are not my specialty and I get nervous when I'm out of my comfort zone.

But after hearing what she has been through looking for a perfect suit, I just had to do it for her. Jen has been wearing the same suit for 10 years because she hasn't been able to find someone to make a flattering one. The one she has now was made over 10 years ago and loves it so much that she has been trying to get someone to rub it off to make duplicates of it. The copies were not successful. Then a few years ago, she had 2 suits made by a tailor. The tailor did some very unnecessary padding that made them very masculine and she couldn't wear them. This is when it becomes very clear what the difference between a designer and a tailor and even female designers vs men designers. I could be wrong but when I design I really do think about the female body and the female psyche. Us ladies, have a lot of issues with our bodies. The best designers are the ones that silence that negative voice inside us and make us feel or see our better self. Good designs really do boost your self esteem.

I made a dress and gown for Jen before the suit, so at this point I feel I understand her body pretty well. For me, she needed a suit that had no padding. Her old suit had a standard lapel which I thought was the wrong collar for her, it made her very strong shoulder line even more noticeable. She needed a soft shawl collar to balance her and add some softness to her shoulder line. Jen's body is very proportionate even though she is smaller. I needed to exaggerate certain seams to showcase her curves, so I added a back waist yoke to the jacket. A little kick in the back yoke creates a beautiful side silhouettes, much more feminine. Every seam was thought out to really give her the perfect fit.

What I really love about working with Jen is that she really appreciated all of my work. That is the best reward for me. Making clothing is a lot of work and nothing is more rewarding then someone loving what you do and really appreciating your work.

Jen, I hope you wear this suit for the next 10 years. You look great it in!!


Here are some pictures from the fitting.

Chloe

My New Summer Dresses

Good morning everyone,

Hope you all had a wonderful fathers. Now it's time to give your self a present! Now that summer is here so are fun summer dresses at Lot 8. If you went to the Italian Expo you might recognize some of the pieces from the fashion show.

Come by the store and check it out!

3D origami flower demo for the Lot 8 summer window

Good afternoon everyone!

I just wanted show y'all the new Lot 8 summer window we have been working on. I wanted to do a very bright colorful window for the store and I found this origami technique and fell in love with the flower it made. The written directions were kind of confusing but I figured it out after a few times. So I thought I would demonstrate how simple it really is and how beautiful the out come will be!



Each flower we made takes 5 pieces of paper and each half circle takes 6 flowers, so in all we folded 1440 pieces of paper! It took 5 people 150 hours to finally complete this project it was a lot of work but it turned out to beautiful!

Hope you love it as much as I do! Please leave comments I'd love to know what you think!