John Galliano Fall 2012/13

So as you know i've been researching into Designers, historical and contemporary. Finding what their inspiration, concept, how they have interpreted it into their collections and what creative thinking technique they used to help create their collection.


For one of my Contemporary designers I researched into John Galliano's Fall 2012/13 Collection. I found his concept and inspiration very modern and current. Galliano's  inspiration for his collection was the equestrian culture of  ' aristocratic heiresses.' This to me was very modern and current due to the royal family at the moment always being in the public eye. The concept for his collection was to show hints of riding jackets, capes and thigh knee knit socks to show the equestrian culture. This collection to me was very interesting to see how much of the inspiration and concept was taken into the collection. Here a few of the garments from the collection on the runway in 2012/13... I can clearly see what the inspiration was so hopefully you can to.

The Making stage of the Shirt dress

 The next stage of my 'biker' look shirt dress... I'm actually really enjoying this project as I find it so interesting how all the pattern templates I cut out fit all together and create a garment! I love the process and seeing it all coming together and most of all the final outcome.

 To start with I inserted both the breast dart and the diamond shaped darts on the front and the back.

The next step was to create the button stand, to do this ironed on the interfacing of the two front dress pieces on the wrong side of the material to give it more strength. I then folded over 1cm and pressed it, I then folded over another 3 cm to match up with the notches and pressed it then secured it with a straight stitch, I repeated this on the other front piece.

I then attached the front and the back dress pieces together by the shoulder seams.

 I was then onto creating the sweat heart sleeve, I firstly inserted the piping to go around the bottom of the sleeve. It was a quick and simple process, all I did was fold my chosen material on the bias so it would give it that extra stretch. I then measured the correct length and shape ready to be cut out, I then placed the made piping on one of the right sides of the sleeve and stitched to secure it in place, I then placed to other sleeve on top with right sides together and stitched.These sleeves would be bagged out so I repeated this process four times for each sleeve piece.

 I then attached the sleeves by matching up the two notches for the back and the one notch for the front and stitch with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then simply stitched the sides of the front and back together from the end of the sleeves to the hem.

The Collar

The next stage was the collar and collar stand...

 I started of by stitching right sides together of the collar and bagging it out and ironing to give the sharp edges and points

I then started to attach the collar stand, I matched up the notches with right sides together and stitched one side of the collar stand to one side of the collar with a 1cm seam allowance, I repeated this with the other side. 

This is where i'm up to so far but hopefully I will  be attaching the collar to the dress tomorrow! and also hemming the bottom of the dress. I will also be discussing and sampling out my alternatives of buttons! 

Gareth Pugh

This weekend I have been researching into fashion designers who are just out there and crazy, and in previous briefs I have come across the designer Gareth Pugh but this time I have actually looked further into his work and collection, and I can't help but love his new Fall 2013 Collection, its just magical and so dreamy to watch. With all the lighting and black and white garments against the dark lights with the spot lights, it really is amazing. Take a look it really is out of this world...

Collar and Collar Stand

So what I did first was get out the pattern cutting book, and read the instructions on how to pattern out a collar and collar stand.

I then traced around the collar I had patterned from the book, but I traced round them separately to create the collar and the collar stand. I then closed up the collar and collar stand by 0.2 cm for the collar stand and 0.5 for the collar, this would give the collar that curve to help shape around then neck.

The final step was to trace around the curved collar and collar stand to create the final pattern, then add 1cm allowance around the whole of the patterns except the cut on the fold side. And there we go the collar and collar stand pattern created and it wasn't hard at all.

Giles Deacon Dress, final images

So like I said yesterday, I did get my final images of my Giles Deacon dress photo shoot, so I have the other ones I posted up yesterday but here are a couple more you haven't seen yet! 

oo and I almost forgot, i'm going to upload the images to showstudio.com tonight to enter the compitition. 

Next project... Shirt dress

Today I was given my next pattern cutting project and this time its to manufacture a shirt dress with a few main features, sweat heart sleeve, collar, slightly fitted and button holes. However I have chosen to add a few more features, I've added two different length hem lines on the front and the back that curve under and also piping to go around the sweat heart sleeve and also the hem. My idea for this dress is to style it with a 'biker chick' look so with the leather jacket, therefore i'm going to have to go fabric shopping this weekend, looking for a black fabric and leather piping to help give it that 'biker' look. 

But this is where i'm up to so far... 

 Okay so to start with I traced around my front and back dress block and removed the back shoulder dart, by taking away 1cm from the arm hole.

I then extended the back traced dress peice by 20cm.

The next was to give the hem line a curved edge, so I lined up the front and back dress piece from the hip line  and chose a point to start the curved hem from, on both the back and front dress piece, I then created a curved edge.

Removing the ugly dart- so I moved the ugly breast dart to under the arm whole, to do this I drew a straight line from 5cm under the arm hole to the end point of the ugly dart.

So to move the new dart, I had to cut up the line that I had just created under the arm hole, and then close up the old dart by folding it over and sticking it down, this created the new dart to open and the old dart to close up and disappear.

I also dropped the front and back neckline by 1cm.

The next part was to create the button panel, so what I wanted to do is to create a 3cm button panel so the buttons would go exactly in the middle of that 3cm panel on the 1.5cm mark. So I added 1.5cm onto the CF line, as the CF line would be the 1.5cm mark. I then added 3cm onto that line this would be the facing of the button panel.

I then traced around that 2 adaption piece including the button panel and facing for the panel, I also added a 1cm seam allowance around the whole of the front dress pattern and cut it out.

 I also added a 1cm allowance around the back dress pattern, except the cut on the fold side.

The next step was the sleeves, so I first of all traced around a sleeve block.

I then measure up the front and back dress patterns with the sleeve to see if the arm hole would first the sleeve into it. The sleeve was to big for the arm hole and there was to much for gathering so I made the sleeve smaller by loosing 1cm off each side of the centre line and folding the paper over into the middle to create a new centre line. I then had to create the sweat heart sleeves, to do the I choose to start the new curved line from the 1 and 2 notches on the front and the back sleeve pattern, I then curved the sweat heart lines to 5cm under the arm hole.

I then traced them both out separately to create two sweet heart sleeves, then I added a 1cm seam allowance around both sleeves and added a grain line.


All I have left to do for the patterning of the shirt dress is the collar and the collar stand, which I will hopefully finish tomorrow then I can start to get my fabric!

My crush

Its finally happened.. I have fallen in love with a bag! YES a bag! The new 'Mulberry Willow Tote - Mint Classic Calf' I can not describe my love for this colour and the bag and the best thing about it is that its basically two bags in one! the front section zips of to create a clutch bag, what could be better? AND the colour wow i'm in love! its summery bright and would be perfect for my summer bag this year... the only problem.. the price! I would gladly be over the moon if some one could buy me this as my first mulberry. Any offers out there?

The new Briefs..

So strange but its true, we have been given the last two briefs of our first year at college (wow time has gone fast, still can't believe it.) The last two briefs are all to do with designing and manufacturing our final garment for our end of year Catwalk show. Following the last two briefs I felt that designing wasn't my strongest area however it grew on me and I am slowly starting to feel more confident with designing but only time will tell... At this moment we have only broken down the brief, created a task list and time management plan (my two favourite things when breaking down the brief, as it makes me feel organised) a group discussion on the critical path and what we did today which was understanding creative thinking, which is basically learning to think outside the box really. Part of these briefs are to start researching into designers (contemporary and historical) and there concept of there collection, so to help me carry out this task I have taken out 'Alexander McQueens: Savage Beauty' from our college library. I did have a quick flick through the book before taken it out and my eye was drawn straight to the fabulous garments and his quotes behind his collection, so i'm so excited to get my head stuck in that book and get researching on his collections.

My Giles Deacon Dress

So I finally finished my own Giles Deacon dress after modelling two! It was a difficult pattern but I managed it! and i'm so pleased with the outcome and can't wait to send in my final photos and enter the competition! ooo its exciting stuff. But basically I had the shoot today, it went well and i've hopefully come out with some strong images. I styled the dress with a simple 'Vamp' style heel, to give it that elegant touch. The images are still being edited but I should have them by the end of the week but in the mean time I do have a couple of edited pictures that I think look so strong and really bring out the colour of the dress, so here you go... hope you like them

Another day of being a model

I thought my time had come of being a model... but no, I had to model another Giles Decans dress (same style but different material) this time it was for my college friend megs photoshoot, however meg went for a trendy young theme with the white kitten heels and bright yellow socks (which I got to keep as a souvenir). This shoot was good fun as we did mess around a bit but after we got the correct shots... don't worry