CHANGE OF MIND

At the start of this assignment I considered many different concepts to then finally narrow it down to two. I started to research into a circus concept as it owuld be bright, bold and fun to experiment with but then I realised it wasn't me and wasn't as widespread as I would like it to be. So I developed it to another choice of mental health and realised that the ambiguity of how the brain works and how unpredictable life is could be interesting for me to attempt to produce a garment on. I researched into depth with threads of crimes, symptoms, illnesses, family and health all having their individual symbolism.I realised that I could play with different inspirations to make them unique and complex with a challenging concept to portray. I brought in my own personality as I'm not attention seeking like bright colours and not loud and as fun as spots and stripes can be but I am quiet and observant and find disturbing and awkward things unique to life.

SAMPLES OF QUILTING

I definately wanted to both quilting and pills together as they link with my concept with recovery and healing the mental state of mind. I attempted the same hand stitching technique to secure all the pills and figure out which direction and distance they would be placed to make a balance. I attempted with different textures of lace, cotton, quilting. Also I wanted to see whcih colours and patterns would obscure the same finish of what a garment on the runway based on mental health would look like. Out of all these I preferred the quilting as it was original choice and first attempt but if gave a 3 dimensional effect and blended well with the colour of the calico but the pills uplifted from the 2 dimensional pattern.

HOSPITAL GOWN

LACE

QUILTING

COTTON

FINAL DESIGN FOR TOILE

For my final design I combined ideas of quilting, pillows and pills together to create the design most suited for my chosen concept. I developed this final design by sketching over egg shapes and took inspiration from each of the influences to have threads from all the catorgories that fall under mental health. All the different pills represent the different members of my family all sewn into the quilting to add texture and portray my concept obviously. The fastening was influenced by the tie back featured on the hospital gown incorporated onto the draped fabric portraying bandages and recovery. The quilting will be in a different material to give an insight of what the lining will look if it was made into a garment.
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CREATING MY TOILE

STRAIGHT BACK SKIRT
I made it easier for myself by cutting the back skirt on the fold as I wasn't inserting a zip or button and sewed in 4 darts creating a nice fit to the shape of the hips.

STRAIGHT SKIRT WITH INVERTED PLEATS
With creating this pattern I had to find the dart and pair up with the fourth notch and sew a dart in on both sides so they would be even. As it was cut on the fold I had to ensure that both sides would be equal so I sewed a vertical line 10cm downwards on either side and pressed open the darts. Then I had to match up and press as the paper pattern told me to reveal two pleats either side of the skirt.

PATTERNS FOR MY CHOSEN DESIGN

My chosen design uses a front skirt with inverted pleats and a straight back skirt. I refreshed my brain on how to make the inverted pleat pattern even though we did it the other day but it was quite complex so I thought I would challenge myself. This design suited my design very well allowing the quilting to filter underneath subtley revealing the pills captivated inbetween. It would give it a suitable shape given it a tight shapely fit with added inspiration from a mental health concept.

1. First of all I measured the dart and drew a pleat stitch line with halve of the dart amount on either side of the dart.
2. I then I separated the panels by slashing and traced the first half of the pattern. Then I added 4 columns measuring 8cm wide and attached the other the other panel. Then I folded the first pleat stitch line on the fold into the centre and the other pleat stitch line on the fold until they both meet at the same point. I finally added 1.5cm seam allowance on all sides except for the side cut on the fold.

FRONT SKIRT

BACK SKIRT
The back skirt will consist of a fitted shape with no adaptation to the normal skirt shape.This occured as I wanted the skirt to be balanced and more detailed at the front with an easier manipulation in the back. As the inverted pleats are fairly complex I didn't think I would be able to fit in time to do adaptations in both sides of the skirts.

THE STORY BEHIND MY CONCEPT

In my design my plan is to obtain a front pleat in the front of the skirt with an inner lining underneath with a panel of quilting with pills sewn into each of the squares portraying the vision of a capsule and popping them out of the packet.

I would only do inside of the pleat just to give a minimal insight off what it could look like with material. There will be five differenntt types of pills to correspond with all the members of my family to make it more significant to me as family are an addiction just like pills are. Some research looked similar to bandages so I've decided to drape 2 strips off fabric round to tie at the waist and just below recreating a hospital gown fastening. If I had time I could instal a belt to create a straight jacket ointerpretation attaching it to the strips of fabric tieing at the back of the skirt to give restiction and volume.

BOX PLEATS AND INVERTED PLEATS

I created a front skirt with a Box pleat and had to model it on the mannequin to see how it would shape around a bodice. This allows the pleats to become visible to the skirt as it gives the skirt volume.




Similar I created inverted pleats on a front skirt which I found more complex to iron the notches in the right positions.