Friday 30 September 2011

BUSY FRIDAY...

Today I have been reminising of the times last year where we made a flatfelled seam, so we were set the challenge of doing it ourselves and I found it easier this time round even though I haven't done them for a year. Bazaar I know! After I had completed that I then went onto a harder task of creating a fly zip and here are the steps if you fancy trying one out or are stook right now with inserting one into your trousers:

Cut out short patterns.

Sew from the fly notch 1.5cm seam allowance and notch all around the curved seam.

On Placket sew 1.5cm seam allowance around the curved edge and reduce bulk to 0.5mm.

Bag out and press, then over lock the open edge.

Over lock curved edge on fly facing.

Pull back front of shorts where the right opening of the fly zip is and align fly facing to the point where the stitching stops at the fly notch.

Press towards fly opening.

Place over fly facing and measure 2cm from bottom curved edge of the facing and align stopper to then tack up the middle of the zip.

Secure zip down by sewing in the middle of the zip and curving below the stopper on right side of fabric.

Iron other side of the zip 0.9mm to almost meet the point and press.

Switch the machine to a stitch length of 4 to tack down the right side of the zip making sure its level at the top and close to the teeth.

Pin placket underneath zip lining it up with right side of the zip. Change the stitch length back to 3 and secure on the tacked line.

To finish the fly zip of secure the loose facing and zip with a few stitches and sew from the point leftwards 2mm and back tack making sure everything is secure.

Why not try it home, it will keep you busy.

Thursday 29 September 2011

MODELLING ON THE STAND - DRAPING...

This was the most fun part of the catch up lessons as anything would be right because it was purely experimentation positioning fabric in all directions of the mannequin ensuring that there was a form of drape on the stand. I attempted this a few times incorporating inspiration from a cowl neck and then just letting loose and doing my own interpretations which I found inspiring and interesting.
What are your thoughts?

EXPERIMENTING WITH DARTS ON THE FITTED BODICE...

After finally completing the tasks that I had to catch up with on Friday I have learnt how to insert darts in any form on the bodice. I placed one in the shoulder seam, centre front line and waist line all from the bust point. I think it looks good it could be neater but I would do that if I was creating a real life garment. I think this was a good way of knowing the positions of the darts and how far they can move to be accurate. I don't know what you think of it? How do you like it?

MODELLING ON THE STAND - CLOSE FITTED BODICE..

After missing last Friday's lesson I have had to play catch up with modelling on the stand by firstly getting taught how to create a fitted bodice using this method. The steps in which I did this were:
1. Pin down centre front line maintaining the straight grain along its line.

2. Cut the neck line 1cm above the original neck line and notch to allow it to lie flat.

3. Construct a shoulder dart from bust point to shoulder seam and pin in place.

4. Cut shoulder seam 1cm away from original markings on the mannequin.

5. Cut armscye inwards 1cm of the mannequin marking and notch on to allow it to lie flat.

6. Line fabric along the side seam line and pin in place.

7. Cut fabric 1cm away from the seam on the side seam for seam allowance.

8. Construct waist dart to fit to the bodice taking in all the excess fabric and then cut fabric 1cm below the waist line to provide seam allowance.

Overall, I think it worked well after adjusting the darts so they were neat, I think I learnt a lot about positioning and making sure everything was correct making sure the measurements were accurate for real life situations.






Wednesday 28 September 2011

BRYCE AIME A/W 11...


During my time at London Fashion weekend this was one of the designers collections that I saw whilst sitting by the catwalk. Th collection was based on futurism and some dresses had an influence from Gareth Pugh's designs using lightweight fabric to sculpt around the figure. He fuses very tailored garments with prints and always makes them work. Most of his designs can be found at: //www.bryce-danice-aime.com/ where you can view his later creations.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

SARAH OWEN ADVERTISING LUCY IN DISGUISE...


I was one of the lucky ones that got the pleasure to listen to Sarah Owen talk about vintage clothing and Lucy in Disguise whilst interviewed by someone at London Fashion Weekend. This tells you a bit about what vintage is and what her and Lily base the collections on. I learnt more than I knew about vintage and I'm glad I went to this talk... What do you thin.. any views on vintage or Lucy in Disguises style.

DAY FOUR... SOHO...

Considering I was in London I thought it would be a good opportunity to collect some fabric samples from fabric shops that stocked Organic fabrics and come across fabric shops that I haven't been to before and get some of there fabrics. I went to Biddle Sawyer Silks, Cloth House, Liberty, Silk Society, Macculoch & Wallis, Misan fabrics, Berwick Cloth shop, Broadwick silks. Every time we asked the help desk at the hotel they told us that the places were only 5 minutes down the road and literally Soho is so close to the hotel and Oxford Street which I never realised. I saw a interesting building on Shaftsbury Avenue which was brightly coloured and thought I would take a snap shot of it. When I got home on that day I also had about 8 parcels full of fabric samples waiting for me on my bed. I was glad I got loads but now I need to annotate them all...






DAY THREE - CAMDEN MARKET..

Three words that describe Camden Market is: Hectic, Busy and Full with people. I have never seen a market so busy in my life and on such a large scale. It puts Chelford market to shame. I was a bit more luckier with purchases getting a handmade printed t shirt, some 1950's flat shoes and a camera case as it was more in my price range compared to London Fashion Weekend. Stalls were filled with clothes, cakes, toiletries, crafty things and it was filled with vintage shops that had historical clothes that dated from 20s, 30s and 40s. There was a lot of graffiti near the toilets which I found really interesting as it brings the art form to life in a dull depressing place where the toilets are situated.

DAY TWO... LONDON FASHION WEEKEND...

The second eventful day in London was spent finding London Fashion weekend and watching the catwalks also seeing Sarah Owen talking about Lucy and Disguise and Grace Woodward introducing the designers in the catwalk. There was a lot of pushing and fashion fanatics trying to bag themselves a bargain but unfortunately I didn't buy anything it was overpriced and nothing took my fancy so I just did the cheap thing and tried to get anything FREE! I got to listen to the interview and recorded it as she was talking about Vintage Clothing and yet again I was recorded on Television. These are images of all the collections that were part of the catwalk at London Fashion Weekend which were trends that would come about in the next year and Grace always advised us on the trends to come.

FRIDAY - DAY ONE OF LONDON TRIP - V&A VISIT...

After getting booked into the hotel we set off into the streets of London on a mission to find the V&A museum. Once we got inside there were various exhibitions on Cultural influences, Power of Making and other arts like ceramics and architecture. The power of making related to this current unit of sustainability but just my luck it was no photographs allowed.The main reason for this trip to the V&A was that we were scheduled to sit in a talk with Celia Birtwell which was televised as it was an interview which we didn't realise until we got in there. It was a good experience to see how she developed and how her career started out. There were a lot of her friends in the audience that looked rather fashionable so I could have been sitting next to fashion designers who knows?















Friday 23 September 2011

OFF TO LONDON...

I'm just going to say that I won't be blogging over the weekend as I am going to London to see Celia Birtwell and was there is to offer at London Fashion Weekend. Hopefully I shall come back with some exciting photos that I can share with you all. See you soon..

Thursday 22 September 2011

SAMPLE GALORE...

I got another batch of my fabric samples come through the post costing £5-00 but got given all the information with it and about 30 organic samples which was good for the money. There was an interesting selection from texture to properties that they had. The website for this company is : http://www.greenfibres.com/pages/default.aspx
I would recommend them to anybody as they are quick and give you everything already typed up and positioned next to sample making everything just so simple.





DESIGN AND PLAN...

The whole day has been spent getting my head round the Golden Ratio and I have drawn a diagram which has allowed me to process it and finally understand. I designed the dress as seen on a previous post using this method and I have to tell you it's very difficult but a logic way of thinking to design. We then set up our own working spot and started to sketch. I used the pencil and collage on the first attempt and then paint, pencil crayon, pencil and collage on the next one and both worked out really well.




GOLDEN RATIO WITH A TWIST..

Instead of a formal Maths Lesson we thought we would put our creative skills to good use and construct paper garments using the Golden Ratio Method. At first I didn't understand, and couldn't believe I have never come across this technique in Maths before. Surprising you can make Maths Fun! I will share you the design in the next post as I have already plugged in the camera and the method behind this mathematical based design. This design was mainly based on fortune teller shapes and Origami folding and playing with different shape to sculpt the form in order for in to function.








REPLIES...

At the weekend I emailed a few organic organisation hoping that they would answer a few questions that I had prepared to get a better understanding of sustainability. Fortunately, Annie Greenabelle( http://www.anniegreenabelle.com/) replied and gave me some answers that allowed me into the world of this industry giving me details about where the fabrics came from and production time period. The question and answers are:

1. Where does all your fabric come from?
Our Organic, Fair trade cotton is bought through a company who from their 12 rural centres across India, coordinate organic fibre cultivation with a selected group of local farmers. A team of agronomists is based at each service centre who monitor growing to international organic standards. The farmers receive a fair price for their cotton.
The cotton is then taken by road to the spinners to be spun into yarn and from there to the weavers to be woven. Finally the fabric is dyed and finished and transported by boat to Europe to be made into garments in our factory.
We also use reclaimed fabrics which are from ends of rolls.

2. Where does your inspiration come from?
At Annie Greenabelle we go to Designer Trend forums to see future trends, take inspiration from vintage clothing, catwalk and also street style- what people wear day-to-day.

3.How difficult is it to produce Organic clothes?
Once we have bought our Organic Fairtrade certified cotton, the producing isn't too difficult. Our clothes are produced either in a Fairtrade factory in Poland or locally in a Fair trade factory in Leicester shire.

4. Is it a longer duration whilst in production because their Organic or not?
Not really as we are a smaller company we don't produce as much as a very large brand. Our delivery time is about the same as any big company. Producing garments locally in Leicester shire means the process is an even shorter duration.


Tuesday 20 September 2011

MORE SAMPLES FOR ME..

Today I got three packages in the post today full of vibrant and organic samples. The three companies that sent me these sample was: http://olivialuca.com/home/boutique/ ,
http://www.norfolktextiles.co.uk/Default.asp
http://www.ragrescue.co.uk/
They all sent me interesting samples especially Rag Rescue which is a organisation where they recycle expensive vintage fabrics for £0.40p which is really cheap and economical.

ILLUSION OF MOTION - SHADOWS...

After going to Nottingham on Trent University open day I got some inspiration from the sketchpads linking to this unit and illusion of motion. This was used by creating shadows on the mannequin and I thought it look interesting so I thought I would have a go. This was really difficult to gain the shadow that's why the shapes are a bit unbalanced but it was my first go and I thought it worked well.