Year two Week two

In Pattern cutting this week I learnt how to sew a pl for a cuff. I found this manageable as the steps wher broken down section by section so the information wasn't overwhelming. I think this was a useful skill to learn as I can now finish of a shirt properly with it looking neat.

This week I started my first portfolio page, looking back at my first project and pulling out work I thought would work well together and be of a good enough quality. I looked back at past patterns and decided to collage these.

As this my first page, I hadn't made a illustration before to this level so I learnt how to break down the process, starting with the heads and experimenting with shapes before deciding on the final head to start the process of my body. When doing this I found it useful to look at the shape of the fruit on which the garment was based on rather than a usual shape of a head to make it a more arty illustration. 

I learnt that my illustrations look good with the use of different media’s rather than just one flat piece, for example using oil pastels the make add colour details making it more interesting to look at. 

At home this week to expand on my sleeves,making it more historical and costume like I decided to make a Marie sleeve after seeing it in my 19th Century fashion in detail book as it really like the way that the sleeve bunches making volume. This also mixed historical and modern ways to make clothes as i made it to look traditional but used elastic to rough it in. If i was to do this again I would make the pattern longer to allow for the fabric to create the bubble shape when it bunches up. 

I also experimented with a circle/frill cuff but instead of flopping down this has stayed in the circle shape around rather cuff, which could be useful for a specific costume but was not what I expecting, this could of been because I lined it making it thicker for the weight or as it wasn’t gathered enough. 

Year two Week One

After a summer off, I am back for the start of year two of college. We have starting off by unboxing our new sewing machines and learning how to use them. This was useful as it meant that when it came to sewing my lessons, I would know what to do so I could start immediately. This was my first time using a sew machine with a touch screen, so it was interesting to see that I had so many stitch options and ow it was even able to embroider icons/ images onto fabric. We then constructed sewing machine covers for these so that we could hold the handle through the top and have pockets to store the feet. I found this a useful task to do as it helped to ease me back into the class structure. Whilst doing this ask it allowed me to practise my bias binding cutting and sewing as this is something I used to struggle with, keeping the stitches on he buas edge. I sew quite a few bias binding around the sewing machine backs in order to keep the edges neat and all of them went well because I made sure, they were pressed before sewing them making the bias tape more set in its position making it easier to sew it accurately. I also topstitched every machine cover when the handle comes through. This made me focus on accuracy and neat sewing as this is a part that is very seen. As I wanted them to be done in time, as once this was done others could add other parts, I made sure my sewing was quick but accurate, this helped me to understand these new machines and get back into sewing with a bit of a deadline.

 

We continued this into our textiles lesson, where we met the first years on this course, it was nice to meet the and o talk about what they’re interested in. When meeting them we assisted them into finishing off he machine covers. This was useful as it made me work on communication through teaching them how to sew with the new machines, introducing myself and explaining the instructions. I found this ask not bad as I was quite used to this from my work experience, as the students n the first year where in secondary school when I was at work experience, so I was fairly comfortable talking to the student I was with.

In our next pattern cutting lesson we made continuous strip plackets. I found the demonstration to be slightly confusing but when putting it into practice I found the technique to make sense. I had already made something like this when making skirt samples, but this was good to refresh as it made me learn how to use this as a cuff and my sample this time was more successful of my developed accurate stitching and how I managed to make the fabric lay flatter this time through taking more time to be precise when sewing it.

 

In textiles this week we started making portfolio work by firstly going through our old work, I found this helpful as it made me think about what I need to develop to be out in. To make this a successful portfolio page I took my fruit work from year one and started to design an illustration to make my design look more interesting. At first, I found this difficult to not make the face too literally or look too much like a face, so I decided on the pomegranate fruit to be the head. I experimented with what the style should be like using my left, right hand and continuous line or sketching. I decided on continuous line drawing the face as I like how to helps me to not get caught up o the detail of the face and how it makes it look more abstract. When drawing the body of this I found that it looked good with a log thin neck to contrast the large wide head to balance it out. I also learnt to keep the body longer to create fashion proportions. Over the weekend, I added designs to this through collaging magazine strips onto the body after trying to digitally draw the designs and not liking the outcome.

 

In my own time at home, I sewed a Marie sleeve as I saw this in my 19^th century fashion book and I wanted to test it out. When doing this, I learnt that using elastic works well to create gathers which once worn created volume. If I were to do this again I would make the sleeve pattern longer as the elastic and volume made it further up the wrist, so I should add more length. I really like the way that this turned out as I like how it creates the bulb shape throughout the arm. 

France’s new law on ultra- fast fashion.

 “France has passed a law curbing ultra-fast fashion brands by banning advertisements (including paying influencers to promote) and putting a tax on each item sold depending on how environmentally destructive it is.”

I think that this is going to positively affect how many people are exposed to the ultra- fast fashion brands as the advertisements are banned. Whilst it is a good thing that France is taking a step to reduce the use of ultra-fast fashion this does not stop people from accessing it and still being able to buy from these brands. If advertising is banded it will stop influences from showing new clothes and collections from these brands stopping new short lived trends which lead to mass brought fast fashion, effecting the environment. I think adding tax on each item sold depending on how destructive it is will help to stop people from buying from these ultra- fast fashion brands as freely. Adding more tax on should also encourage people to shop at charity shops and second stores making shopping keeping shopping affordable and good for the environment. I think this will help to reduce the amount of  destruction to the environment, however, there are larger countries that need to also take this initiative and more for the impacts to be substantial, for example, America who have one of the largest greenhouse emissions in the world, which fast fashion exploitation and buying contributing to. Overall, I think that this is a good step in the right direction and should encourage behaviour changes in other country’s towards fast fashion and how it effects the environment. 

Week Twenty Nine

 Week Twenty Nine

To start this week after half term our group had a chat and we saw where everyone was at. We had all mainly finished our garments with only small parts to finish. I needed to sew mine and a couple of Amy's three dimensional structures on with hand sewing, I also sewed mine and Liv's labels onto the garments. When putting Liv's design on the mannequin we struggled with the bottom fitting over the shoulders, she was thinking of replacing the zip with a longer one but we then had the thought of unpicking the bottom of the seam up to near the zip to create a split which meant the fabric could stretch and open around the shoulders. This will also be beneficial for our models as it will be easier to get onto them. 

After I finished this I continued to make my diary of makings digitally. 

Overall, It think that my group has worked well together and it was great to work with people I havnt worked with before. I think that our design have worked well together with clear links between them with our 3D structures and the same fabrics. 

In Photography this week, I finished making my tabloid/zine finalising the title and the final few pages layout. I have now ordered this off of Mixam printing which will arrive soon. 

In Stretch this will I finalised my designs by combining designs and colouring them with similar colours to my initial/ developed designs. I think my designs have worked well as they have bright colours trying to keep the mood positive. I also chose to do three separate subjects on my murals to try and relate to more people and  to hopefully interest people. 

In Cad this week I continued to work on my look book and I also made sure my photography zine was accessible on other computers and added it to a usb stick. 

Half Term break.

May half term.

Over the start of the break, I looked around Plymouth Arts University. I really enjoyed the Campus and it felt welcoming with lots of spacious rooms and linking buildings. As this wasn't an open day but an open tour event I didn't learn a lot about the course but I did see a few costumes that students had made an found them very inspiring. This was a student guided tour so it was nice to hear about her perspective and experiences and how they are more than welcome to try different subject and techniques than hat they do as a degree, they are even encouraged with weeks where you try about different areas of creative arts. I was pleasantly surprised with the Plymouth area as well as I have never been but I found the Marina and the Docks a nice place to be. Unfortunately the costume graduation show wasn't full out but I did see the textiles show which looked great and a few fashion garments where displayed in the hallways which where nice too see. 

I also visited the Falmouth open day the next day which I learnt a lot about the course and what they offer. I found it interesting how they focus on the design and making this into costumes. For example, instead of manly making the outfits, lots narrow down on the buying of clothes and then adapting or distressing it to make it suit their design and character. I was surprised by the grounds of this campus as there are large gardens and an old house which I learnt is used a lot as the backgrounds of photoshoots of film. In this course you also work a lot with other students, like film you would help supply the costumes. They also have a very large costume store that gets used for films or television. When visiting I also had a look at their textiles grad show which looked very interesting. 

In half term I made most of my designed garment for the group architecture. I started with making the pleats which went well but was slightly more challenging than the toile as I couldn't draw the fold line the whole way down as I didn't want to stain the white cotton fabric. Sewing this into the trousers went well as I was confident in the angle and how to arrange the pleats so that they create a curved shape which start going in and out from the seam. This time the trousers came together with no problems as I now knew how to sew the pieces together to get the trouser legs facing the right side up. 

When sewing the waistband, I firstly sewed across the waist but I wasn't happy with the result as the line wasn't neat or straight and the side seams created bulk. To fix this I decided to cut the fabric to create a straight line so all of the fabric was the same height. As one of the seam seams was higher than the other, doing this meant they where evened out and the bulk was smaller and less noticeable. As I cut the fabric the amount of extra fabric that we left to fold over was reducing this meant that I couldn't fold this as many times but it was still enough to fold the fabric under making it neater. This also meant that the elastic was slightly too big so I trimmed some of the top and then it fit, this didn't affect the elasticity so this wasn't a problem. I added bias binding to the hem of the trousers which was challenging as the front and the back meet at a point because of the asymmetrical curve. 

When sewing the top together I didn't come across many problems. However, where the thread is held at the top of the machine it would sometimes wrap around that metal stick and causing less thread to go through the machine so the tension was affected, making the fabric bunch up. At some points it was necessary for me to re-sew this so I had to unpick parts of this and re-sew them so the fabric wasn't tight. I think the piping I the seam of the top has turned out well because the zip foot managed to get very close to the piping itself. I think it also looks sleek in the seam as I firstly pinned it the one side of the top and then pinned the seam together entirely so that the piping is securely in the right place bending correctly around the curve of the top. 

To attach the hood and the collar to the zip I sewed them together first. This worked well as it meant they wouldn't move apart when I attach the zip, attaching the zip was simple as all I had to do was simple sew a line near the zip teeth. 

Once I sewed the zip on I thought that the collar and hood fabric went past the zip a bit too much making it look messy and occasionally get caught in the zip teeth. To amend this I decided to trim the fabric down so it wouldn't been seen with the intention of seam neatening again after. This was a problem though as the fabric that was left over was too thin for the machine foot to sit on and sew along, I decided to try different feet for example also a zip foot which still didn't work. As you can't see this it isn't much of an issue but next time I would think about this is advance so this is neat and looks good. As the fabric is shorter it sometimes still catches in the zip but much less and only in certain points.  

In the Half term I also started a new way of writing diary of makings, I started to do the digitally. I arranged the photos and scanned a photo of the brown paper that I use in my sketchbook to be the background of my writing. I think this has worked well as it's a similar format to my book and when scanning the brown paper it has come up a bit lighter which has made the writing on top of it easy to read. 

Week Twenty Eight

 Week Twenty Eight

This week in Pattern cutting we started to cut out our final fabrics. We thought it would be best to start with the white fabric as there was the most of it. We worked well as a group to do this as we pinned and cut all together as a group placing the fabrics bin the right place according to our layplan. We managed to cut all the white fabric out in this lesson which was good as we couldn't start this right away as the other members of my group hadn't finished their toiles yet. In the other lesson we continued to cut out our fabrics, we did split into two groups and cut out the fabrics in the different colours which worked well as we managed to cut all our fabrics and start to seam neaten them with the sewing machines.

Over the weekend I made sure to add the open ended  zip to my toile to attach the hood. This was my first time working with an open-ended zip and I found it straight forward as it was clear which side opened and I'd need to sew on.  I also added the elastic in the waistband which has made me sure that Ill need thicker elastic to go in the waistband than the one I have at the moment as whilst its stretchy I think it'll be too thin and light to securely hold the trousers up.

In Photography we continued to make our zines/ tabloids and this went well as I managed to add about six pages to it which finished it off. To finish it of properly I will rearrange a few of the pages layout or add things to make it more interesting. 

In Stretch this week I create initial design based of off each mood board and created different colour ways within this to see how I could include the colours. I did this digitally so I could get a wider range of colours. Doing this helped me to see how I could make each mural link together as the themes don't link to each other. I made sure to use colours I had previously researched so that none of the colors had negative connotations. 

In CAD this week I started and finished making a small look book for my colour project which I think worked well as the page backgrounds link to my garments and I included photos of my two garments and close up pictures of samples with a similar colour scheme aswell. 

I wont be in for the last lesson of the week as I am looking at University open days. 

  

Week Twenty Seven

Week Twenty Seven 

Over the weekend I made the trousers toile, finishing pleating for the side of the leg. I decided to only put the pleats on one side of the toile so that I wasn't wasting time as I was confident in this. When making the toile for the trousers I had to redo them a few times. When sewing the two legs together I was at first confident that I put them the correct way together but when looking at it after I had sewn them I had accidently sewn front of the trousers to the back so there was two holes with no way of being able to get into them as of the crotch seam. After I tried again and ended up with one leg inside out and the other the right way around. So after unpicking them I had tried again and I managed to do it right this time, unfortunately the blog I looked at to help with right the blog was worded a bit incorrect with which pieces should be in/on the other leg which lead me to sew the legs in different sides earlier.

This week I made my top toile which went well as I managed to sew it in one lesson. I made piping to put in the seam, as I think it will work will to contrast the top and work to link the colours and garments together as a group as we will all have features of this blue bias binding. I made the pattern for the facing and the sewd this on. For this I used the burrito method as the opening is the side seam. Doing this has helped me to developed this skill as I needed minimal help from notes to do this which is improvement from last time. 

I received the hood sample from a member of my group so I managed to see how this looked against the top and think of ways on how to attach it to the top. Some of the ways to attach it we considered was sewing it straight onto the top, hooks/eyes, poppers, zips. We ultimately decided to use an open ended zip so they hood can be completely detachably and to use a slightly contrasting colour so that this will be made more of  a feature. 

I pinned the hood to the top of the mannequin with the 'collar' and was happy with how it turned out and how it all stood out. I think to develop the collar I could add the wire into the bias binding channel at the top so that it keeps the shape better.

We also completed our costing/ layplan for all of our pattern pieces so that  I can go any buy all of our fabrics. We decided that each other colour of fabric would have its own layplan so we know how much fabric we need of each colour. 

After college we completed our fashion film in Waverley Abbey. We made sure to keep the comments from our fashion film take test in mind to help improve our fashion film the most it can be. We developed it by including more close up shots of our garments and making some of the clips more snappy. This process went well as we all agreed on the shots we wanted and all gave ideas on what to do and how to pose.

In Photography this week I worked on my Photographing zine and also did a photoshoot based on the connation's of inflate. Firstly, I decided to use the balloons to represent other parts of a persons body, for example, putting it Infront of their face. After doing this I thought about experimenting with shutter speed to create different lines. I like the way this worked and how it made the photos look blurry whilst still being in focus. I also like the way that the red background works well and slightly contrast the grey balloons and white jumper.  

In Stretch this week, I continued the project, Step by Step, using the artists I found last week to research into them to further help inform my task and designing. It helped me to think of design ideas as I took the work from the artist I knew I liked and then found more similar works. After doing this I created work inspired by the artist so that I could think about how this would look on a wall as a mural. I used oil pastels to do this as I thought this would be the best way to create bold and bright colors as they are pigmented. 

In CAD this week I experimented with front page layouts and where I could feature my text and the hierarchy within this, for example most important is the title. This was useful as it will help me to make my look book more proper and laid out correctly. I also experimented with type faces to see which I fell would suit my title and lookbook. We learnt about different websites in which you could access more typefaces for free and download them which was good as now I have a wider range of these to make sure they suit my lookbooks style well.