Week Sixteen.

 Week Sixteen. 

In Pattern cutting this week, I cut out my fabrics and overlocked them. This made me learn how to use the industrial over-locker which is useful as now if the other one is busy I can use this or if needed that colour I can. This was also useful to use as this is what they use in industry and I already know how to use this. 

When cutting out my fabric for my final top I made sure to cut it with as least waste as possible, learning to be less wasteful. This made me think about where I should place the pattern pieces to do this. 

At home, the weekend before the lesson, I managed to finish of my toile learning that some of the facing wasn't quite the right size so I amended this for my final outcome. This made me remember that the facing should be the same length on the front and back so that they line up and look neater. I also learnt that not not heavily iron the front pin-tucks as it gives them a flat look rather than a flowy look to the change in directions. I will make sure to not iron these in my cotton material, although the cotton may act differently as it is less rigid and structured to my calico fabric for my toile. 

In textiles this week I made my pattern, learning how to cut the pattern to make the dart the right shape and how to make the facing pattern without the dart. In this lesson I sewd the front of the toile, marking where the darts should be sewn. This was helpful as it made my sewing accurate. I learnt how to put the bodice and skirt blocks together to make a dress pattern, this made me think logically how to this as I have never done this before and I did some research and then made the pattern how I thought I should. This went well as when I made my toile for it I was happy with the shape it created and all the seams lined up.

When toiling the facing this pattern was also slightly too small at the shoulder on the front. This made no issues however I did amend it so the seam allowances would match and be accurate, this made me think about how I could change the pattern which I then did so when I made my final garment it I more accurate.

This week I also cut out, overlocked and painted my design onto my final fabric. I found it challenged decided on how I should paint it. I learnt the best way was to pin the two panels together at the S/A and mark out where I want the circles to go, then unpin this and paint it flat. I also decided where necessary to sew the dart closed before so I could see how it would look finished before easier. 

In the lesson I managed to sew the panels together and add the facing, I'm glad I achieved this as now I just need to add the zip, applique and hem the dress. 

In photography, I shot horizontal pictures of shapes inspired by Kandinsky and this made me think about lighting and the composition of where I want to place my shapes to make it look balanced. 

In Stretch this week I thought about sustainability in textiles and how to reuse scrap fabrics. I used these to create a weave which I taught a classmate to make a mini loom using scrap cardboard to make it. I also showed them how to create a weave and the way you do this. 

In CAD we learnt how to use InDesign. I have previously learnt this but it was awhile ago so it was good to have a refresh of this software. 

Week Fifteen.

Week Fifteen.

This week was the first week back from Christmas holidays and we started by looking at and amending our mood boards. This made me learn that I stuck too many pictures of tops onto my mood board that it was slightly overcrowded and featured too many pictures of other work. This helped me to make a new mood board and think about what I could do for my next mood board for my next project to make this more developed.

We also started to think about what samples to make to help us with our designing process. This made me think about different types of pleats and pin-tucks which I could feature in my designs. This made me learn how to make the pattern for each of these which has led me to becoming more confident in this skill. I made a pattern for inverted and normal box pleat as I wanted to be able to see and hold the difference in these. I preferred the box pleat as you can physically see the box shape which I prefer. I also learnt how to pin-tuck, I wanted to do this as it adds texture to the fabric. I learnt that by sewing at a 90-degree angle to the pin-tucks, manipulating the direction of the fabric making it look similar to weaving, linking it to my artists Anni Albers.

 

To be ready for my textiles lesson this week I had already completed a mood board to inspire my designs. I did this so that every piece of work I do in the future I make sure to link it to my artists work and colour scheme.

In Textiles when started with applique, I mad ensure to complete all of this with circle designs to link to my artist Kandinsky. I think these worked well as I included a range of design and include different stitches. At home I further developed this by using hand stitching as I wanted to demonstrate a wide range of techniques. This made me learn that when using thicker embroidery thread, I like to use contrasting colours to make them stand out more. In some of these samples I also added wadding, this made me learn which stitches work better to hold the wadding in place. I also experimented with fabric paint which made me learnt that it dries quite quick which will be beneficial in my final designs when making them on a time limit. I also learnt how to patchwork without seeing the seams, I found this difficult as I didn’t follow a guide, and I tried to make it based of an idea. I learnt what order to construct it and if I did this again the result may be neater and thinking about what I did last time and changing it slightly.

In Stretch this week I photographed my final costume for the competition for The Royal Ballet. I am happy with my outcome as of the time limit and the limited fabric I had to work on the skirt with. I was inspired by the methods of the ROH through how they make costumes, for example, the hock and eyes to reduce the risk of a zip gamming and how multiple hooks mean multiple wearers. I did this to reflect the knowledge of my research and what I learnt when I toured it. 

In Photography this week I photographed my model holding different shapes we painted to represent Kandinsky. This made me think about which colours best suited the red background and where I should place the shapes to look most effective. It also made me think and become more confident about lightening and where the best position is to get the best lightening would be.  

 

In CAD this week we could continue to do any work we wanted to do I started to create designs for my Tate Modern Top which made me think about different pleats, shapes, necklines I could use in my designs.

Christmas Holiday.

During the Christmas holidays I completed work for pattern cutting and textiles. I completed pressing work where I learned about the Hoffman press and the pressing industry. I also pressed some garments, I did this in sections so that each part was pressed thoroughly. Doing this helped me to think about how I should press my garments and the order I should do it in for the best finish. For textiles, I completed abstract paintings which were inspired by certain words and music. I listened to a range of music so that each piece was different and the mark made would look different. This made me learn how to paint freely and to not think about the paintings being neat. I also analysed my painting I want to use to inspire my garment design, which helped me think about all the design aspects which will help me think about what I want to feature in my designs.

In this time I also made a skirt for my stretch project which is for The Royal Opera and Ballet design competition. This was good to do as it was a challenge because of the lack of fabric I had less, this meant that I had to think of ways to allow easy movement for the dancers with less fabric. To overcome this I cut into the panels to make slits so that the dancers leg would have a wider range of motion. I have now finished this costume and I am happy with the outcome of it especially as of the little time I had to make it. If I had more time to complete this I would of made sure too overlock all my fabrics to give a more professional outcome. 

Week Fourteen

Week Fourteen. 

This week in pattern cutting we created a pattern for a back yoke with an open front seam so we would be able to add a fastening as the neck hole was smaller. We made a pleat for the back panel to allow movement. I like how the back pleat look as it gives a neat detail whilst adding functionality. We cut out two back yokes, one to be a structural part of the bodice and one to hide the seams, I think that this went well as my seams are hidden and back is neat covering most of the original stitching.  We used the burrito method to sew seams together which further developed my understanding of how to do this technique. The only negative to this was as we where working small scale it was difficult to pull the bodice through the neckline as of the bunched-up fabric. I am happy with my toile as the made me know he pattern I made is correct. I also managed to finish this with time left before the lesson ended so I managed to write up my notes from this lesson in my book.

 

In textiles this week, I made my on interpretations of what I the artists work look like to me in my own style. I liked using oil pastels to do this as of the concentrated colour they had which makes a high contrast. Doing this and me think about ways I could show the artist work in my style of how it makes me feel to make it more my own when designing and exploring different techniques. 

 

In photography this week, we didn’t have a teacher so we continued to research artists which link to colour which help me to understand ways the make samples and what colours I could use in my project.

 

In CAD this week we made digital fashion flats using the pen tool to trace over an image. I found this helpful as it made me sure of what they should look like and how I can add detail to my fashion flats.

 

In stretch this week I added hook and eyes to the back of my bodice, I did this because in the Royal Ballet they use hook and eyes to allow the costume to fit more than one person. To finish this all I need to do is add eyelets to the straps so they can tie together.

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.