Last week of term - Deadline!

This monday we had to hand in all our work for our current project on the Shakers! We all had tutorials organised for the Monday the teachers seemed to like my work and we got chatting about where lots of my ideas had come from and how i could have taken it further if I would hav had more time! They also said if I didnt want to improve any of my previous projects that the final marking would be after the holidays so that was good because I wanted to improve my design board!

Sport VS Fashion

We were then given the brief for our next project with the tiitle Sport vs Fashion and we were asked to think about ideas and start researching over the Christmas break! Luckily I was able to take a few snaps at the exhibition we went to see at the V&A on Fashion vs Sport so I was going to look at that for a starting point!

An Im off for the Christmas holidays til January the 5th!

London Trip!

The V & A Fasion vs Sport!

Week 10- Making the shirt!

At the end of this week we were given the task to design our own shirt! We had the blocks to use to make our own pattern but we had to figure it out for ourselves for length of the shirt, sleeves, collar and the distance of the buttons! It took a day to create the pattern because for all these weeks we were being shown step by step and then all of a sudden we had to think for ourselves which was tricky! It was easier when we started the pattern because I started remebering what I had done with previous patterns as we had done everything before! I used the second day to cut my pattern out on my fabric so that I was ready to go next week. We were given striped fabric so we had to have it checked once so the stripes matched and then secondly to make sure it was pinned correctely so that everything would match up because of the stripes. The second day was more hectic as everybody was in and at different stages so everybody needed help! I was really happy to have my shirt cut out and ready to go for next week to start making!

Week 9 Folk Deadline..

On the Monday morning we had our folk project deadline so we were split into two groups to present our work. Presenting is part of the project because obviously we need to learn how to present out work properly which really scares me. It was really good to see and hear what everyone else had come up with because although alot of us had the same starting points an looked at similar things we all had completely different outcomes to it was really interesting. Then in the afternoon we were given a our new project called the Shaker project.The shakers designed furniture but their phiosophy was 'Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.” So our task was to come up with out own philosphy statement and from this design a fully styled outfit with fabric swatches.
I was quite confused that we had been given the shakers as a starting point and I thought it was tough to know how to go about this project so my first thoughts were to try and research other peoples design philosophys to get some ideas.
In construction this week we were already given the fabric for a pair of shorts that had been cut out for us so we were being shown how to put them together it seemed quite compliacted to start with as we have to put a waistband on them and a fly zip. We had to get up to the point of putting our zip in so that we could concentrate on putting the waistband on in our next lesson.

Week 8

This week we had a pattern cutting lesson on Thursday where we spent all day making a pattern for a shirt and two different types of sleeves, I didnt get all of it finished I still need to cut some bits out but that will be easy enought to catch up with.
We were then given a studio day on the friday to be used to catch up with any outstanding work, so I finished my bodice that we started making right at the very start, finished all the overlocking on my skirt and then just finished some odd bits that wern't finished in my pattern cutting folder so it was nice to have a day to get those odd bits finished!

Week 7

This week on the monday we were scheduled to have a flat drawing session but it was cancelled so we carried on with out shirt projects in our own time. On wednesday Morning we had a lesson with steve working on illustrator working with text and images. The more lessons we have with illustrator the more easier it is as its just a case of picking it up and rembering how you did something. Thursday we had a construction lesson we had started making an A- line skirt so this lesson we were being shown how to put a seamless zip inside. It was a bit tricky an it took me a couple of times to get the fabric as close to the zip as possible to make it look invisible. I was happy I took my time with it though because both sides of my skirt matched and the zip was in perfect. We were then given to the folowing lesson to sew the rest of our skirt together as the next lesson we were goin to be shown how to apply the interfacing to the skirt!

Week 6 - London!

At the begining of this week we had a trip to London to explore the fabric shops to gain fabric understanding! We were given a list of lots of different areas over London with different fabric shops. We were put into small groups and all given a different type of fabric to try and look for! In our group we were asked to look for shirting fabrics which was perfect as we needed to find fabrics to put with out shirt projects!

We decided to head into Soho as it looked like there were lots of shops in that area! It was really cool looking round all the fabric shops as its where alot of the designers get their fabric so there were lots of beautiful embellished fabrics and amazing colours but what we did realise quite quickly is that it was really pricey! The fabrics we were looking for wern't particularly expensive but it wasnt what we were use to paying at the locak fabric shops In Bournemouth so we all took it in turns to buy a smal bit of fabric to share each so we could all have a swatch. We tried to buy a different piece in a different shop.

I noticed that these fabric shops were alot more specialised and each shop had so much choice so it would be perfect to go there to find exactly what your looking for. I am definitly going to choose my fabrics for my final projects in London now!

Week 5 - Folk

This week we were given a brief to design a shirt based on a folk theme. We were given an induction based on the meaning of the word folk to give us some sort of starting point. Folk is the term for people. We looked at folk costumes across different parts of eastern europe and how they differ. From researhing into folk costumes I found that there was alot of work that went into each garment including braiding, handwork, layering, pin tucking and lots of detail. Lots of vibrant colours such as reds and greens were used with heavy patterns and embroidery. From this research we were asked to explore this to form your inspiration and design research and development culminating in a finished shirt design. To begin with I struggled a little with this topic because I didnt actually like the costumes we had looked at so instead I used them as starting point and tried to find recent images that to me had a folk feel. Folk had been a recent trend so I looked out for designers in magazines and came across designers such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana that had used lots of prints, embroidery and tassles which had a real sort of bohemian feel to it.

As soon as i started looking at more recent folk trends I became more interested and I wanted to make my design more fashionable so you could wear it today and look trendy. So I collected pictures from magazines and I new I wanted to design a checked shirt as there was alot of check and tartan in the shops and on the catwalk. I found a perfect fabric sticking with the tradional green folky kind of colours and I then came up with lots of different shirt designs, I settled on an off the shoulder shirt with lots of ruffles to give it a real folk feel and I didnt want to just design an average boring shirt! I was really happy with my final design as I think it reflected the topic well and because I had researched into recent trends it would fit in perfect with the trends right now!

Here are the pictures of my final design with a fully styled outfit with fabric swatches and flat drwaings together with my mood board!

Peclers Paris 09- 10

We had a lectre scheuled for Friday Afternoon for someone from Peclers magazine to come and give a talk about the new Peclers book for 2009 - 2010. This was a really good lectre as the books are so expensive anyway we are lucky to have them in out libarary but to see the brand new ones for the follwowing years was really cool! It was like getting a taste of the trends before they've even come out yet and it was interesting to see how they come up with the themes and ideas. It was alot to take in and i managed to take lots of notes but it was definitly beneficial.

Week 4 - Organic!

This week we were given a similar project to last week we were given two days to create a moodboard and a design an outift to be draped on a stand based on the theme of Organic. I had researched the theme of organic an particularly looked at designers who used pleats and ruffles which had an organic feel to them. We were asked to look at particular designers such as lavin but i also gained alot of inspiration from looking at Sonia Rykiel, Givenchy and Chloe. Alot of their designs reflected the romance style also so its was very pretty and angelic. From researching I new i wanted to use very soft sheer fabrics such as organza and satins.
When it came to actually designing my outfit when we were in the studio I was already kind of clear in my head what I kind of wanted to design, I created my moodboard using lots of blues, aquas cold colours which i thought had an organic sea kind of feel. Then without coming up with a final design I just started draping on the mannequin to get some ideas and I was happy with my design quite quickly so even thought I had kind of done the process the wrong way round I went back in my sketchbook and sketched some of the designs I had tried out and then sketched the final design I was happy with.