Garment Deconstruction

The fabric is a blue pattern made of 100% cotton. There are three buttons in the front, a bustier and a tie waist added to this garment. There are no care guidelines, you can iron, wash and dry this garment regularly. The extra notions fit the garment well; they add value to it and allow it to fit each individual person better. However there is one notion, hanger straps, which are not necessary as the garment has straps already. There is a stretchy back panel in the dress to fit individual people,

 a bustier top to the dress and multiple pleats in the front. The bustier top is meant to make this flowing dress more fitted and appealing. The pleats in the front allow the dress to fit smaller in the waist and flare out at the bottom. The additional elements add a lot to the garment by making it able to fit a variety of bodies. 

The stitching quality is average, when the fabric is pulled at the seams the stitching shows through,

 a few seams are not straight and after some wear one of the straps is almost detached. 

The stitching seems pretty easy to just rip if pulled hard enough. The stitching on the buttons was visible from the inside of the dress and the threads were not clipped.  All stitching is complete but this dress would not last more than a year’s worth of frequent wear. The bustier pads frequently fold and scrunch up and there is no way to get in there to move them around. Noted that the stitching was extremely easy to rip out when the first thread was broken.

The hem was stitched with black thread, like the rest of the garment. It was hemmed with the raw edge folded inside the hem. Un-stitching the hem revealed the bottom of the side seam to me. The side seam was stitched with a sewing machine and then serged to secure it. The thread at the bottom of the side seam was not clipped. The bustier was sewn to a waistband that was attached to the skirt. This was attached the same way the side seams were sewn, a double stitch followed by serging. The stretchy back panel was made by gathering a lot of the fabric by sewing over it with an elastic thread. This made it able to stretch to fit each individual person. When un-stitching the bustier, I found the pads had been stitched in, however it seems the other one has ripped, showing poor quality of the securing seam. I found the top part of the bustier was reinforced with interfacing.

The straps were so thin that they folded over each other and became like a thick string instead of a fabric strap.

This garment was made for girls ages 13-17. It is a summer dress intended to be worn on hot days. This product was made of a lightweight material that made it easy to breath in the summer. It was made for teenage girls who like to wear cute body conscious clothing that looks casual and appealing. I think this garment succeeding in made a variable fitted summer dress for many different sized teenage girls to wear on hot days. This dress was constructed on an average level, the seams were all finished and most stitching was not visible. However there are still some issues with the quality of the garment. The garment was very easy to take apart, the threads were able to be ripped 10 threads at a time. The fabric choice was poor as the dress was very light weight and it already flared out so it made the dress very hard to control coverage.

I think the design of this dress was good, however it could have been made a bit long. Overall the bustier and waist tie and stretchy panel at the back were great additions to make this dress fitted and able to fit more than one body type. The straps need to be redesigned and made from a sturdier material as I believe these straps are close to coming off after around 20 wears.  I think it was a good choice to make this dress out of cotton as it was a summer dress and the cotton made it comfortable and breathable. However I think either a slightly heavier cotton or some kind of heavy fabric needed to be added at the end, to help weigh down the light weight dress. The construction of this dress was done well, it had all of its seams finished and most hidden. Some of the seams were not perfectly straight, but it was hardly something to notice. I think the thread quality of this garment should be increased by a lot as this thread was very poor and this dress would not have lasted much longer in use. The buttons and bustier pads were a nice touch to the dress as they added a little something extra to help bring attention toward the body’s curves. I bought this dress one year ago for around $15, this dress lasted me one summer and I am now throwing it out because it has become very short and is starting to fall apart. In conclusion, this dress was bought for $15 and worth about $7.

This was a fun project and helped me learn a lot about how a store bought garment is created. I have made a pact to myself to only buy good quality basics that will last me years, and buy the trendier items at a much lower cost as they usually last as long as the trend does.