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.