LIVE PROJECT - WEEK 10 - Cutting out / Final garment

PROBLEM SOLVING

Unfortunately, we couldn't find the fabric that was originality selected for my dress so I had to improvise with what we had. This is another really useful lesson to learn when it comes to studying fashion. 9 times out of 10, things will not go the way you expected them to! I find it really helpful to get used to this idea, because then I'm less surprised or stressed when this does happen. I was looking forward to using the white linen fabric but I'm also just as happy to use these two new ones (shown above).

Me and Iain were trying to chose between the two and we both agreed to just use both! We discussed using the bottom fabric for the ruffled sleeves and skirt as it has a quality that holds the fabric when you scrunch it.

FINAL GARMENT 

Putting together the final garment was such an exciting process for me. This dress isn't what I'd usually design because I'm obviously designing for Bolongaro Trevor but I'm still proud of it none the less.

I think its the small details that come together that make this garment exciting for me. I particularly love the box pleated collar and button hole feature. I also think that the edge stitching along the front and back bodice panels add a bit of 'extra' that just shows the garment hasn't been rushed.

REPORT

Layouts using indesign isn't one of my strengths but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I quite enjoyed putting it together and I hope that it makes my report more interesting to read.

I quite enjoy the writing side of this course and I think that my approach to research for this part of the project was effective for me and I will definitely be using it for my dissertation next year. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to practice both my writing and layout skills. 

Here is the final outcome of my report. I'm really pleased with it and I think that the wooden pegs are very Bolongaro Trevor!

CV

I used Pinterest to inspire me with 'creative' CV's. I really wanted to experiment with making a CV that was interesting at first glance, easy to read and reflective of my personality and of me as a designer. I think that I achieved this and I'm happy with how it turned out.

CONCLUSION

Although this project hasn’t been an entirely enjoyable experience for me, I do feel that I have learned a lot. I strongly feel that my pattern making and garment engineering skills have improved and I now feel much more confident about third year. Being asked to speak in front of the entire class about my ideas and stepping up to direct the group was extremely invaluable to me, even if it scared me to death. I have also built so many friendships within the group that I had never anticipated for which is just as valuable to me as any skills learned. My confidence has grown after coming to university but this project alone has done so much for me in terms of confidence, self esteem and drive and for that, I am thankful.

LIVE PROJECT- WEEK 9 - Finishing Toile / Amending Patterns / Pocket Workshop

MORE TOILING

Here, I have attached the ruffled sleeves with a small 'tuck', sewn the back of the skirt with elastic (on the grain) and gathered the front of the skirt before sewing it to the rest of toile, again with a small 'tuck'.

REFLECTION

I am so over the moon with how my final garment has turned out! I didn't expect it to go so well and I received some lovely comments from others. I felt pretty lucky that I didn't have any major setbacks along the way. I have learned and experimented with new things while making this garment; box pleats (collar) working with shirring elastic, pointed shoulders and a pointed bodice. I ran out of calico towards the end of the front skirt but it turns out that both Iain and Alena liked the band around the bottom! We have decided to make this a design feature. I find it really comical but great that a mistake can turn into something purposeful.

IAIN AND ALENA TOILE AMENDMENTS

Iain and Alena both came over to see my toile and offered suggestions for improvements;

- keep the band at bottom of skirt (2cm)

- make all the 'tucks' the same width (1cm)

- made band at bottom 10cm away from hem

- back piece to be one piece instead of two

- raise waist higher so that point is more exaggerated

- test to see if neck is okay on body

- bring in sides of front bodice

- put extra elastic in back 

- change button fastening to key hole

- zip in side to allow for ease

I then went on to amend my patterns to make adjustments that had been suggested.

POCKET WORKSHOP

We carried out a pocket workshop with Gill. She took us step-by-step through making a single welt pocket. We requested this workshop as we had welt pockets running throughout our collection at the time. I really enjoy workshops and find them so invaluable.

REFLECTION

I feel a sense of relief now that my toile is finished and that it turned out better than I could have hoped for. I'm both anxious and excited to start cutting out in final fabrics next week and to see our collection come together.

LIVE PROJECT - Week 8 - Technical Flats / Pattern Cutting / Toiling

NEW DESIGN DEVELOPMENTS

After meeting with Kait, I developed two of my designs that she liked. She drew over the top of my existing designs to show me ideas of how I could push the designs further. She wanted decaying and distressed elements, experimentation with asymmetry and proportion and using the stripes in considered directions. I took her advice on board and tried to recreate what we both agreed on, the best that I could.

ILLUSTRATION AND TECHNICAL FLAT

I knew straight away which one of each design that I liked the most so I quickly moved on to  drawing them up into illustrations and then creating technical flats.

TOILING

I started off with a basic bodice block and went back and fourth from the mannequin to the pattern, to get the best fit. If you compare both of these photos, you will see that I've taken the bodice in a little bit to make the shape more flattering and fitted.

Panels are added into the back.

Panels are added into the front and the point at the bottom of bodice is chosen to desired shape.

Pleated collar sewn in.

Trying to create the point on the shoulder using pattern cutting was pretty difficult but I was very happy when I finally mastered it. It was surprisingly easier than I first thought! I used a basic sleeve block and adjusted it for the pointed shoulder. I now need to attach the bell sleeve to the second half.

REPORT IDEAS

I've been looking at the examples of reports from last year to give me a little inspiration and I really like the 'How to be an intern by and intern' report. I want to do something along the same lines but with a different twist as I want to make my report a bit more interesting. 

I recently wrote 500 words of my report and decided to ask Anna for her advice. Sadly, I was taking my report in the wrong direction so I had to start from scratch. I wanted to make my report a bit more investing but that's not what the brief asks! So I went back to the drawing board (reoccurring theme in this project!?)

I don't usually write my essays this way but I remember Anna telling us that planning is very important for any writing and it helps to keep things in a logical order. I am now at the 500 word count again but with a whole new approach and tone. I think that I am back on track in terms of the brief now. I have learned that this way of writing is so much easier! I printed off lots of research pages with the reference material so that it was easy to reference in my report. I went through with a highlighter because I know that having the information in physical form will help me absorb the facts better.

REFLECTION

Although the making side of this unit is really stressful, I'm glad that we have the opportunity to further practice our pattern cutting and garment engineering skills. This is all really valuable for third year and I feel like I have learned so much just from making this one garment. I do think it's really important to pattern cut and make garments frequently because that's when you get better at it. 

I'm very happy with how my toile is going so far and it seems to me that slow and steady definitely wins the race. I've been taking my toile step by step, fixing problems as I go along and trying to amend my patterns as I go along too. I just hope the rest of my toile goes as smoothly!

LIVE PROJECT - Week 7 - Further Design Development / Technical Flats / Fabric Selections

REFLECTION

Monday morning was dedicated to laying out our new design developments to share with the group so that we could take votes and generate our new line up. I was pretty disappointed because only three members out of the 15 of us, including myself, actually drew up developments over the summer. A lot of people assumed that because they were told there was nothing wrong with their garments, that they didn't need to improve. This set us back quite a bit. I am finding group work difficult for this reason.

I think that a group of 15 is next to impossible to work with in this particular unit, especially as it feels like we are lacking direction. The problem with leaving 15 fashion students to manage by themselves is that it is very difficult for a person who is not officially in authority to lead a group of others on the same level. 

We are constantly being compared to menswear, a group of five (we are a group of fifteen) which both frustrates us and disheartens us because 1. a group of five is quite obviously going to be easier to lead than a group of fifteen and 2. menswear are constantly receiving more frequent and more positive feedback because they are being rewarded for doing well.

DESIGN SELECTION

To start with, we decided on Maisy's template to use for all of the designs. We think that it was hard to see the collection working when we all have different illustrations and drawing styles so we spent the morning re-drawing our designs onto our new template. We voted for Maisy's because we thought that it was relevant to Bolongaro Trevor. 

We split the garments up into outfits to create our line up. And changed a lot around, changing jumpsuits and dresses into tops and designing extra pieces on the spot to go with unfinished outfits. We numbered the outfits and finished with a total of eleven. Ensuring that everyones work was utilised. We thought about garments going out on the runway and how they would transition from one outfit to the next, considering the fluidity of the collection as it would be taken out onto the catwalk. 

We started off with garments with pleats, moving into textures that looked like pleats, into softer, flow-y outfits. 

I was asked to merge two of my ideas together as Iain liked them both but wanted to use elements of each to create a hybrid of the two. These are the two designs;

By combining the two, I took the elements of the second skirt and the top half of my developments from the first design to create this dress:

FABRIC SELECTION

We went through every outfit, starting from the beginning and started to pick out fabrics. We had to consider colour, whether the colours of the fabrics worked together in one outfit, but also if they transitioned nicely into the next garment. We also had to consider whether the fabric was the right choice for the garment. For example, A jacket would need a thicker, specific material. Tighter garments would need a possible stretch fabric and pleated garments would need a fabric that holds a pleat.

That evening, we drew up back designs for our chosen selection and technical flats so that we could move onto pattern cutting the following day.

U-TURN / REFLECTION

When we arrived into class the next day, we put all of our designs, fabrics and technical flats onto the board to show Kait when she arrived. We spoke to her one by one in a group, telling her about our designs and where we took inspiration from. She was very quiet for a long while and then said that she didn't like any of it and that she wanted us to all go and start from the 'drawing board' again. 

We all just stood around in silence and I felt the mood in the room drop below it's ever been before. We had been told time and time again that it wasn't right or it wasn't good enough and we all walked in that morning breathing a sigh of relief because we thought we had finally cracked it. To hear the words 'start from the drawing board' after all the time we had put in trying to make it right, was the last thing we wanted to hear.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGNS

I went away to develop my existing designs that had been chosen for the selection. Kait said that she wanted more distress in the fabric and really liked the idea of our narrative: a girl running through the tower of london, parts of her clothing burning or tearing as she runs.

We were only given a short amount of time to develop and given the extremely un-motivating talk we had just been given, I did the best with what time and energy I had left. I focused on the decay element, using my developments over easter to guide me.

TALK WITH KAIT

At the end of the day, we all sat down to talk with Kait one-on-one. I decided to show her all of my developments, right from the beginning. She complimented my work highly, telling me she loved my illustrations and a select few of my designs and congratulated me on doing the amount of work I had done. She gave me suggestions on how to tweak my chosen designs and I walked away feeling much better.This only reinforces my own beliefs and confidence in my work, which was exactly what I needed after how I've been feeling lately.

REFLECTION

Although this week has been challenging and draining, I do think that I've learned some valuable things. I am finding it difficult as always to accept criticism because I sometimes feel that it is more opinion based, rather than constructive. I've learned that one piece of positive feedback on my work can go a long way, that I shouldn't let myself get beaten up by negativity.