Sophie’s Fashion Blog

Week Six. This week in pattern cutting we finished our pencil skirt toile. In our first lesson we finished off sewing our zip to our skirt, this went well as I correctly stitched it with the zip foot. I learnt that when doing this it is best to pin the placket out of the way, so you don't accidently catch it and sew it to the other side of the skirt. I also learnt how to sew a waistband to a skirt, when doing this I came across a problem. I realised I did not have enough material in my waistband to fit across my entire skirt, this was because I added my seam allowance onto the inside of my skirt pattern and not to the outside of it. To fix this I added calico to the end of my waistband by sewing it on with the machine to make sure it would fit properly. My calico was also slightly too big so I cut it down so it fit correctly. As of this when sewing 'in the ditch' not all the fabric caught so when it didn't I just handstitched the fabric. I also learnt how to 'ba...

Week five This week in pattern we started to construct our skirt toile. I found this really rewarding to do and I’m proud of what I have achieved, although it was difficult as I have sewn a skirt before or anything up to a technical standard. I started this session by overlocking all edges except for where the waistband will go. As this was only my second time using the overlocker machine, I was still a bit unsure of how to make sure I don’t cut too much off with the blade on the machine, this made my seam allowance a bit smaller than I had planned. Towards the end of using the machine as I got more used to it and comfortable I adjusted to where I should place the fabric to ensure I don’t cut too much of off my skirt pieces. I learnt for the splits where it creates a diagonal line down to do the overlocking in two parts- the first for the first corner then the second part in one straight down towards the hem, I found this tricky as when doing this I would catch the corner on the bl...

  Cyanotype Printing.  This is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan blue print that uses two chemicals- ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. To do this you use a mildly photosensitive solution which is applied to a receptive surface like paper or cloth which need to be dried in a dark place. Water colour paper is a good medium to print on but cotton and wool also work too. Any surface can be printed on if they're capable of soaking up the iron solution. You should be taking care to not degrade the image over time as of the alkaline-buffered papers.  This technique was used in the 20th century as a low cost and simple way to make copies off drawings- blue prints! This was developed in 1842 by Sir John Herschel an English scientist and Astronomer. However, many contemporary artist used the process in their art for example Christian Marclay, Marco Breur and Kate Cordsen.   I learnt that a positive cyanotype image can be made by e...

Computer Aided Design In CAD we learnt the rules of design, this will help to make my designs more cohesive and link to each other making my designs more visually pleasing. For example I learnt more in depth about the ‘rule of thirds’ which I have used to develop my photography when taking photos. This helps me to ensure there’s not too much empty space around what I want photographed. I have also used the ‘rule of odds’ in photography in my Bauhaus hat, I have created 7 loops to create a more visually pleasing and interesting composition. We also learnt how to use Adobe Photoshop to edit photographs which I found really helpful as I have never done this before. I found this unexpected as I didn’t know you could edit pictures like how we did e.g.. changing colours in the photo. I will use this skill in my photography to help improve my photos and make them stand out more. This will also be useful to edit my photos if I don’t have time to reshoot, for example if my exposure is too brigh...

Week Four   This week in pattern cutting I have learnt a lot. We started off by cutting out our skirt blocks and labelling which part is what, for example darts, hip line, centre front/ back. I found this helpful as I have never heard these terms before, and didn’t know where they would go. We also went over to what these would mean if they were shortened down- C.F means Centre Front- this was useful as now it will be easier to make quick notes and decode what nots my tutor jots down on the board. We also looked at different types of skirts and how to draw them in a pattern flat, I’m glad we got shown how to draw a fashion flat because now I know the level of detail which needs to be included. I learnt about which designs decisions we could add to our pencil skirt; where we place the seams, zip position, length, depth of waist band. I have been taking these into consideration when drawing and designing my fashion flat, for example I have added 2 inches in length into the original ...