Week 23/02

This week as I managed to finish my toile I could starts my final suit. I didn’t manage to complete as much as I wanted to over this weekend as I attended an offer day event at Plymouth Arts university, which was very useful for me in the process of choosing where to go.

When cutting out my fabric I didn't think too much about where the larger parts went as of the repeat but when it came to the smaller parts I wanted to make sure that there wasn't too much white and empty space to make sure that the colours still contrasted, this worked well especially for the pockets where I wanted the purple pattern of the pocket to contrast against he yellow jacket which wouldn't have worked as well as it did if the pocket was white. 

When constructing the back panels I found it very helpful to use the industrial press between seams to keep them crisp and neat between sewing each panels. I found using the industrial press and the wooden clapper helped the seams to set more when pressed which helped the overall outcomes look from the outside of the seams. I think this made my jacket more effective as there was a point of interest, with the contrast, on the back so people don’t dismiss this and only look at the front. I also like how this feature displays all the different patterns in one place as it make sure all my patterns are seen easily before featured in other places.

When I was making my toile I was wondering if the seams would be bulkier using the cotton drill, especially on the back and around the neck where there is smaller panels and where the most seams meet. However, I have found that this is not a problem  and I think that the industrial press has helped this especially with the clapped making the seams flatter. It is useful to know that the seams didn't get much thicker as I like how structured this has made my garment, fitting in well with the suit jacket style. However when I was bagging the flap of the pocket through I did have to trim to sides down to make the edges less bulky, especially where the points where for the zigzag triangle shape as otherwise the points would not have been sharp. After trimming the fabric down closer to the stitching it made the point strand out and not be round which is successful.

Before sewing the pocket on I made sure to try positions and fold over the collar, which also features seam allowance, to make sure l haven't placed it too near the edge of the jacket to be overlapped. 

Week 16/02

 This week was half term and as I had managed to make my patterns the previous week in college this week I could focus on my toile making, I started with the jacket and constructing the raglan sleeve. When attaching the sleeves via the raglan I struggled with angling the fabric when sewing it in to make it fit the shape of the bodice patterns. This may be as resolved when using thicker fabric, cotton drill, or if I add slightly more length to the part of the sleeve which would match up to the Neck.

When I got to this point, I had already cut and sewd the side seams of the sleeve together ready to be attached to the front and back of the jacket, when I realised that when pattern cutting I added the curve into the inside of the arm instead of the outside to be curved outwards with the triangle shape. This meant that I had to remove the curved shape from the inside and redraw it on the outside, whilst I was here I also made the curve wider to make it more of a feature as it didnt look wide enough of the incorrectly made pattern. I had to redo this as if I kept it not only would it not be accurate to the designs shape but the curved arm would be hidden when the arm is relaxed or down.

As of the way I used sharp corners in this raglan it was challenging to change the directions to sew the shapes of the raglan sleeve between the shoulder, I would make sure to snip up to the sewing line to make sure when pushed through the triangle point can be sharp. At times if the seam allowance around the point was making it harder to push through or looked bulky I would trim the excess down, which let it be bagged out.

After seeing this arm correctly sewn into the raglan and bodice, I decided that the triangle shape at the shoulder may be too small and not tall enough to stand out as I wanted it to as I want this to be a large feature that is focused on in my design. To make the pattern larger, I went back to my original draft and thought about the point where the two sides meet and redrew where the new point could be. I used the original draft as it meant that I could be sure the point wouldn't overlap with the other side which was useful to me as l didnt want to change the direction of the triangle, only the length. I also made the triangles wider to allow for the length added so the angle of the triangle isn't so tight straight away, hoping to making the bagging out process easier, I made sure to snip the top of the triangles shapes, once cm from the point, so that there isn't too much excess fabric.

I decided to use calico for this leg because it would replicate cotton drill the most which was helpful to me as it helped me get an idea of how the cotton drill will behave with the thicker fabric as of the similar drape and density they both have. The trousers do not hold themselves as I was hoping that they would but I think that this is because of the way that they are made majority with the cotton with drapes lightly and is thinner than the cotton drill is. If this is still a problem when I made it in cotton drill I could perhaps use starch spray to make it more structured.

I found making the pattern of the lining for this jacket challenging to do on my own, so I waited until going back to college to ask for a dive when it then made since and I am more confident in this process now. I found this difficult as I wanted the lining of the jacket to not going onto the triangles at the shoulders as there would be foam inside this but sit under it, supporting it so I was confused how to excicute this based off of the patterns I had already created.

Week 9/02.

After completing a raglan sleeve sample, I can start designing my garment after having a better understanding of what the jacket could look like. I think that the triangle shape in the shoulder could be larger to make this stand out more and be a bigger element. 

In my design process I found it useful to draw on an image of the raglan sleeve to help me visualize what the designs would look like on a body, or mannequin. It also helped me to develop my designs as once I had done one design, I could develop this on the same page to show clearly how I have developed my thinking. This also helped me to think about my designs as I knew the scale of my current raglan sample so having the drawings over this helped me to think about what size they would need to be. 

I started pattern cutting with the raglan sleeve, which I used the same method as learnt in class, before tracing each sections, front, back and sleeve. I found the process of this first step overall okay but I did have to slightly adjust my thinking as I am not using the normal bodice block. Once traced I spilt the sleeve in two and curved the sleeve and added the shape to from the shoulder pad. I then traces the back pattern onto paper, flipping it to create the back piece in one before drawing lines where I would want the different panels to be. These then got traces of with seam allowances, keeping the drawn back pieces as a reference to me helping my see where each piece would go, noting down each pieces number to keep the sewing order simple. 

Making the patterns for the trousers was slightly challenging as I needed to think through which way to cut the pattern to allow the cut out section in the trousers to be in the right direction. When cutting and lashing the trousers bock to be made into flairs I made sure to note down the measurements so that I could replicate it for the other leg. Trying to match up the different panels for the back and the front took time as I wanted to make sure the side seams would line up.

I found that pattern cutting this suit pushed me as I tried to not keep the blocks shape in my garment especially with the jacket and raglan sleeve. I think I worked well to develop my trousers as I developed my trousers design to have more layers and patterns. I found tracing off each pattern helpful rather than cutting the patterns up as it helped me to have a base to go back to from what my patterns would of started from. 

I also made sure to put my patterns digitally onto my design so that I could see what it would look like on my final garment to check that the patterns contrast each other and check that they fit into the place I want them too. This also helped to to complete a lay-plan so that I could order my fabrics with the right amount of fabric for each pattern and section of my garment.