Pattern Cutting

Last week I started to pattern for the skirt part of my final garment for the fashion show! I started off by tracing around a size 12 front and back skirt block and extending it from the waist by 113cm.
For the front pattern, I folded it over and traced the other half to create a full skirt front when opened. I had to do this as the front skirt wasn't going to be symmetrical. I then drew the diagonal line across the front skirt - where the neon piping was going to go. I then traced off the two sections separately, calling them section 1 and 2. Finally, I added a 1cm Seam allowance and a 5cm hem.

To pattern for the back of the skirt all I did was trace around the back skirt block and extend by 113cm from the waist and add a 1cm seam allowance and a 5 cm heam.

After patterning the skirt fully, I was ready for the manufacturing!

Illustratorrrr

I came across this illustration when I typed into Google 'Gareth Pugh fashion illustrations,' so I'm not sure if he has created this or somebody else has. However, it court my eye straight away as it had that industrial theme going which links straight to my inspiration of tunnels and underground. Therefore I tried to recreate it with inks and water and here's how it went ...

Toile Diary

Last week the fun started! The toile diary began by sampling all the difficult parts that could accrue and manufacturing the toile!

So I started off with the sampling, looking at all kinds of things from chicken wire to acrylic boards! Testing out what would work best for the shoulders and the front bodice!

I started my toile diary off by sketching out my final design of the front, back and side view and annotating any areas that needed to be explained.

My first sample was looking at zips for the floor length skirt. I had decided that I wanted the zip to be a feature as well as a function, therefore I am going to place the zip on show. I am also going to research sourcing neon zips that could be used as a feature on the skirt to fit in with the colour theme.

The next sampling was for the front bodice, when I was designing this area I had already decided that I wanted to create it out of a plastic material so it would be structured and also fit with the shield look. I firstly looked at this plastic material that was used for a pattern template, however this plastic only came in white and I was looking for black. I tried to problem solve this by spray painting the white plastic, but this didn't give a block colour.

Luckily I then found this A2 sheet of clear acrylic plastic board that was similar to the pattern plastic and it also came in black, so it's been ordered! But I've also been sampling out some areas with the clear piece I found! I tested out stitching two pieces together, which moved around a bit and didn't create a straight line. I tried taping the two pieces of plastic together and this helped it not move around while stitching. I also tested out stitching the plastic to this material that was used for bullet proof vests that I was hopefully going to use for the back of the bodice to help the front bodice stay to the model. This sampling also worked but I used two rows of stitching just to give it some more strength!

My next stage of sampling was for the shoulders, I wanted the shoulders to be very structured and stable so I had a trip to B&Q and and found a sheet of chicken wire that would be perfect for it! So I wanted to test out if I needed wadding and how much I would need! To make it comfy for the model, I also wanted to test if I wanted black fabric on the top of the wire with neon underneath or the other way around! So I've tested all these in my sketchbook and here's what I have done... In order ahah!

Target audience

I've decided that my final garment for the end of year fashion show will be visionary. I had to create a target audience page, which included going into all the details such as: Where does she work? What dress size is she? Is she in a relationship or not? ...and many more. This exercise took me about half a day to create and finish.

The outcome of answering all the questions was that my target audience woman would live and work in London, have an average paid job in the media, is inspired by anyones street style, has no children, is single and enjoys looking for up and coming indie bands in the city. She also enjoys visiting special media events and spending up to any amount of money on an outfit, just to be on trend.

After carrying out this task I now know what sort of standard and finishes my garment needs and also what purpose it's for, which will help me choose the correct fabric for such an event or special occasion.

Back home!

As you've probably noticed I haven't been able to blog the past week, this was because I was fortunate enough to visit The Big Apple!! Yes NYC! Wow what a place it is there! It was amazing and I never wanted come back home!

The shops, they were so good! We visited this area in New York called Soho and it was just incredible. It was America's version of Oxford Street, a whole street full of shops, everything you needed in just one place. It was so good we went twice!

There is so much I could talk about but too much to put into words without getting confused! But I just wanted to say, if I was you, go to Soho and 5th Avenue for shops...so posh but so great!! Also Bloomingdales gives you 10 percent discount if you're from the UK! How good is that?

Here are just a few snaps of the places I visited while I was in New York!

Easter Break part 2

The other part of the Easter break work was to work on developing my final garment, looking at all areas such as colour, features, seams, further development and shapes.
My final garment is based on the seven deadly sin 'Pride' and how war is connected with pride through the trenches and underground tunnels. I've also tried to convey the feeling of pride through my garment by designing a bold, stand out garment. I took part of my inspiration for the skirt of my garment from the Gareth Pugh collection (link on previous post.) You will be able to see the link through these images of my work..

Easter work

I know it's coming to the end of the Easter holidays and I haven't blogged enough, (but it's been sooo busy) but this is what I have been up to with my college work!

Illustrations
As part of our work for over the Easter break, we had to find and research fashion illustrations that target the visionary target audience, and recreate parts of their work making sure we used a variety of medias! So here is what I've done so far...

Marie O'Connor
I choose to recreate areas of this illustration such as the stitching with the sewing machine and the collage area which included buttons, applique, drawings and embroidery thread.

Richard Gray
I loved this illustration by Richard Gray, straight away I thought of the visionary target audience so I would be stupid not to try and recreate a section of this illustration. Gray uses ink, paints and pencils to create his illustrations, so I tried this technique and here is how it went...

Maren Esdar

This illustration uses collage with the cut and stick technique, the pose of the model drew me to this illustration as it's very visionary and an unusual pose. I have started this illustration but I have found it hard to find and match the correct pieces so I have tried to work around it and get the best match I can (still not finished yet) . 

The 'Biker' shirt dress

Well for this blog post I was going to talk about the progress and finishing touches of my shirt dress... However I had a slight problem last week when I smashed my phone into pieces and lost all the progress pieces!! there fore I don't have the pictures of the making of the collar and collar stand :( on the other stand I got a brand new phone yeyyy and I've been able to capture the final product and I wanted to share it with you guys, so here is my 'biker' look shirt dress (still need to get the rest of the fastening)