Week Thirteen.

Week Thirteen. 

This week in Pattern Cutting we started to construct our bodices. We learnt how to make a French dart to make our bodices fit the body better and to make the bodice look more elegant.  I found creating this pattern a bit complicated because of the many steps you need to include, however, reflecting back on it now I have done it once the steps I would follow have become clearer. We learnt to use the corner of the table to fold the pattern, this was useful as it meant the pattern will be folded neatly so it lays nicer once its flat again on the table.

 

We learnt how to make a squared neck by lining the front and back together so its even. I’m glad we learnt how to do this as I like how a square neck looks, and I think it will be useful for my project considering the gift shop top is less formal similar to the square next.

 

Lastly, we learnt how to make a square dart, I like doing this as I found the steps straight forward and the look of a square dart is neat. This is also a good way to create lines in my bodice linking back to some of the colour artists who include looks of abstract lines.

 

At home I created a full-scale bodice pattern with a square dart. I found this straight forward as I wrote notes from the mini scale which I could translate into a full-scale pattern. When creating the pattern, I did the first draft wrong, as I only came down from the top 7cm when instead of 7cm (including seam allowances) from the bottom of the arm and neck. I realised I did this wrong as I firstly thought the pattern piece looks too small for the full-scale size, I checked this by rereading notes and saw it was wrong so I redrew the facing and then cut it out onto fabric and interfacing.  

 

In the lesson we started to sew this bodice together which was hard as of the fast paced sewing and the time we had in between the new step of construction.  As I couldn’t finish this in the lesson I finished it at home. I found this tricky and had to watch a tutorial many times as I sewd a few parts wrong leading to me resewing them. This happened as I got two steps round the wrong way leading to my toile not working properly. Once I had fixed this the next steps where more straight forward. We learnt how to make this so we can use these skills to make our garments linking to the Tate Modern. 

 

I also made a mini scale toile using the burrito method with another square dart. I chose to make this have a square dart so that I could develop this skill and become comfortable with this. This mini scale toile went well as I had no issues following the steps nor did I have to unpick and resew anything. I like the burrito method as it gets the rest of the bodice out of the way and they were you prepare and the steps makes sense, for example, the way you roll each arm hole once you’ve done the other to do one at a time.

 

I also created a sample of a curved dart which looks good and went well as I followed the same steps to make the pattern but altering the shape of the dart. This turned out neat as I managed to catch all of the fabric when sewing the seam allowances. Also the start of the dart line up.

 

In Textiles this week we created swatches of dyes we had mixed; this was helpful as it gave me an idea of different ways to include techniques in my colour garment. I also mixed different dyes together experimenting with equal parts of dyes and different unequal measurements. This made think about the different colours I could use and mix to make y fabrics look closer to my artists colour pallet. I tested this on both paper and fabric so that I could see how they react to the colours.

 

We also created tie-dye samples which I like the way they turned out as of the contrasting colours I sued and the way there is negative space in some of my tie-dyes.

 

In photography this week we painted up card yellow, blue and red onto triangles, circles and squares. This was useful as it meant I learnt about Kandinsky colour theory and what he thought each shape represents. This will help me in my sampling and textiles to think about what colours I want to use.

 

In CAD this week we learnt in depth about the pen tool and how to use it using websites which you needed to create images bending the pen line. This was helpful as it meant I can known develop designs digitally better as of a higher understanding of how to make shapes.  We also learnt about scale in fashion flats which will benefit me when I need to transfer my drawings onto online.

 

In Stretch this week I managed to produce a lot of work. I cut out my fabric, sewed the panels together and top stitched the whole bodice. As this was a timed process this isn’t the most technical correct bodice as it would be better to add bias around the outside, but I only had time to topstitch around it. I like the way this turned out as of the neat seams and the colours I used to represent the Shepards daughter who lived in the woods- earthy colours and floral patterns.