Week Nine.

Blog Week Nine.

 

In pattern cutting this week, we started by making poppies for Remembrance Day. We did this by gather fabric to create a circle shape and adding a black button. When cutting out our patterns for this, we thought about how to cut them out to be more sustainable and cost effective. I liked doing this as it made me think about how I can successfully conserve fabric when cutting out, this will also help when we complete group projects so we as a group can place patterns in a way that wastes less fabric.

 

We also learnt about different types of pleats; knife, inverted box and box pleats. I also learnt about yokes and where to find them. I found being taught how to construct these techniques helpful as I have never constructed them before. I found making these into a pattern complicated, but once I thought it through and thought about the shapes of what I was trying to make I was able to make a successful pattern.

This week we made designs for our liberty skirt which mine is inspired by plants. We started by creating a mood board, which I include my own photos to show what I wanted to make out of reflection of what skills we had already learnt and how I can develop them. I wasn't happy with my first mood board as I feel it dint work well together as the images where far apart and didn't link too well.

 

For my designs I focused on designing gored skirts with godets, this is because I feel like this is a smart looking skirt which I feel link s to the liberty clientele. When designing I made sure to experiment with the lengths of my skirt and godet, the number of panels, and adding pleats. This was because I wanted to make sure I was sure of which skirt I wanted to make by experimenting with small design changes.

In photography this week, we learnt about lighting and how to use positioning to create darker and lighter photographs which reveal more or less of our models. I think this was great to learn how to do because the way you position your model you can enhance the model and make the lightning just on them. This could make the only think you see be the model and your garment making the focus just be on that.

 

In textiles this week, we created patterns with dye and varnish. I liked creating my designs as I like creating multiple layers and seeing how the colours interacted with each other. I liked how the varnish blocks out colours so they stay the original colour because it means you can clearly see the contrasting colours I created. I focused on created marks that looked like you would see on insects. I also tried to replicate their shapes. I think this worked well as my designs are inspired by drawings I have previously created.

 

We also experimented with using better quality cartridge paper to see if that made a different result. I preferred the higher quality paper as less ink was absorbed making the page dry quicker and feel stronger which will be useful for when I want to develop my designs, e.g. free machine embroidery.  When completing this I also created a few designs inspired by fruit for my fabric designs. I think this worked well as it made me able to start thinking about colours and shapes I want to include in my designs.

I also experimented with ink and bleach to create patterns and I like how this turned out because of the sharp lines created by the fountain pen and how using more or less bleach varies the colours on your page. I will repeat this digitally developing my skills from CAD.

In CAD, I learnt an alternative way to create repeated patterns, I like this method of making your pattern a swatch because it means that you can quickly replicate your designs. It also means you can make your pattern into any shape and then repeat that.

 

In stretch this week I further researched the history of ‘The Winters Tale’ and completed my mood boards. I am enjoying this stretch project as it is challenging me to think about design aspects which are needed to allow the dancer to move freely. I enjoyed making my costume designs for my three chosen characters as I made sure each dress has a different style.

 

 

Week Eight.

Week Eight

This week in pattern cutting we learnt lots of different techniques to create different skirts. We learnt how to create a pattern for a panelled skirt and a gored skirt. We also learnt how to develop this to create a godet.

To created the panelled skirt we started by tracing our skirt block. We then, to add flair, extended the line that runs 90 degrees from the darts. You would need to extend this by how much flair you want to add to the bottom. You then need to add flair to the to the side seam panel. You then need to trace Around the pattern splitting it into two, don’t include the dart into this pattern.

We also looked at a gored skirt pattern, where we really had to look at the measurements and the dimensions of the body and block skirt. We decided to create our pattern with a eight panels for our skirt. To make sure it would fit the body we divided the waist measurement by 8, the hip measurement by 8, and how wide we want the skirt flared to be at the body by 8.  We also thought about how long we wanted our skirt to be, I made mine to be might calf.

We also learnt how to make a godet to go into the gored skirt. To do this we had to make the pattern, we made the length of the godet by measuring where we wanted it to show in the skirt and how wide we want the skirt godet to show. We decided to use a 1.5 cm seam allowance on the side and a 1cm seam allowance on the bottom as we would sew a small double turned hem as its on a curve and we wouldn’t want a bulky hem.

We are making a toile for part of the gored skirt with a godet, that adding the godet in was simpler than I thought it would be. However, it did get slightly complicated as I used calico, so the fabric is the same colour each side, so the front and aback side got slightly mixed up. I think my seams ended up neat so I’m happy with how my toile was executed. There is a slight gap on the top of the godet where it is attached which I will now know to watch out for if I make this again.

I am interested in creating the gored skirt with godet in my pattern cutting lessons, but I would like to have a longer godet because I would want it to be more of a statement piece.

 

On Tuesday, I presented my zine about The Arts and Crafts movement and William Morris. I presented this as a zine as I wanted my presentation to be tactile and physical. I enjoyed making this on Adobe Illustrator as I got to use skills I have previously used from graphic design. I like how the colours I used in my zine as the background linked to the images I used, and the artwork Willaim Morris has created.  

 

On Wednesday, we visited The Design Museum for the Barbie exhibition which was great to see the evolution of barbie and the clothing she’s worn through the years. We also went to the Victorian and Albert Museum to visit the Niomi exhibition. I liked this exhibition because all of the design made for make me think about different materials and fabrics I can use in my designs and different ways you can add layers.

On Friday in textiles, we created repeated patterns through using a viewfinder. We did this so we can focus on certain parts of our drawings we drew in the past. I like doing this as I focused in on different parts of my drawings that I wouldn’t have thought to previously. I created different types of patterns, to make my page to ensure they wouldn’t be too repetitive and become boring to look at. For some of my patterns I have draw over the connecting lines to make the patterns link better and become more cohesive.  In my own time at home, I developed these patterns to make some of the pattern digital, I added more lines and added watercolour to a few of my designs.

In CAD this week, we researched illuminating letters and designed our own. We did this so we will, in the future, learn how to import these into adobe illustrator. I liked researching these as it was interesting to learn about their uses and the history of them.

 

 

Week Seven.

Week Seven.

This week we constructed our A-Line skirts in pattern cutting. This was the first time I have done this. We constructed the main portion of the skirt in the lesson then completed the rest of it in our own time at home.

We made our full scale pattern and cut it out onto fabric and interfacing ready for our lesson on Monday, where we started by overlocking the side seam so the skirt. This turned out better than last time, as I managed to not shave off any of the fabric so my seam allowances were accurate. 

Next we attached the conceal zip using a conceal zip foot, this was my first time using this and I like how it hugs over the zip teeth to hold it in place. To sew along the seam allowance we pressed the fabric so when it laid flat it have a groove of 1.5cm to act as a guide. I found this really helpful to sew accurately and I will use this in the future when sewing. 

When sewing the zip we sew from the top down so that the zip pull is on the right side up. We made sure the zip stop is just below the seam allowance on the waist. I learnt that with the conceal zip foot you cant sew around/ past the zip pull, to overcome this you have to change the foot to a regular zip foot to continue to sew the rest to the zip to the skirt.

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o sew the seams put right sides together and start sewing from where the stitching of the zip has ended. Pull the zip tail out of the way, so you don't get it caught, then sew done about 5cm. Once you get to this point you can change to the normal straight foot if you are more comfortable sewing with this, I did this. 

When constructing the facing I found it more difficult to comprehend, because of more complex steps. For example, when sewing the facing to the skirt I got confused on which side I should stitch it to. This resulted in me sewing it to the wrong side of my skirt so I have to unpick it and resew it on the right side. It took me patience to achieve my finished toile as I had to rewatch a supporting video multiple times. 

Lastly, I finished my hem with a double turn using a iron to press to seam allowance then folding it back in on itself. This worked well as it made it easy to sew over it as it's held in place. 

In our last pattern cutting lesson we investigated fabric and fibers using magnifying glasses. This was useful as I learnt about different category's that fabrics can be placed in; woven, knitted and bonded. We also learnt about different fabric with use different hems. For example, a bobydoll rolled hem can be used on a mesh fabric.

In photography we played with different lights to create different lighting; contrasting, complimenting and to set different moods. We did this using lightening filters. We also used plinths to create different dimensions and angles. I like how my photography has turned out and how the plinths have created divides in colour. Next time to improve this I could play around with the angle and directions of the plinths more.

In Stretch this week we started to look at our new competition for The Royal Opera House; The Winters Tale. In this lesson we researched information about the competition; this involved understanding the plot of the ballet, when it was set, where it was set, the characters involved and the music played. We could chose from a number of job roles; hair and make up, costume, set design and marketing. I chose costume as this is something I am interesting in doing this in the future.  For these we have to design a number of costumes then submit one full or a part of a garment, either full scale of mini. I am looking forward to completing this. 

In textiles we started by reading through and understanding our brief, this was helpful as any questions we had about it got answered. Then we started to make mood boards about what we wanted our wallpaper to include. I have chosen the theme insects for mine. We learnt that a moodboard should generally be about 6 pictures of things that link to each other without be the same. This was useful as we could then develop our moldboards so they're more focused.

In CAD this week we learnt how to how to use photoshop to edit photo's specifically to alter imperfections and. To do this we used many different tools. For example, a tool which allows you to draw using other parts of the image, this can smoothen out the skin pasting other areas of the skin onto where you want it to go. After we where content with our editing, we also edited the gradients of the photography and edited the colours. I did this to make my image look bright and give the background a higher gradient so the autumnal colours look brighter. I found learning this really helpful as I have never edited photos before so I'm glad I have learnt this skill to edit photography in the future if I need to.