Week 4 (30/9/24 - 6/10/24)

On Monday I had Lareen for pattern cutting where we learnt how to cut out a pattern, first trying with our mini pattern blocks, going through it step by step. I learnt things like how the hem should always stick out on the pattern piece because it needs to line up with the rest of the pattern when you lift it up (especially for something that tapers in or on a curve), I had not thought of this before, so it was a nice insight. We then took what we learnt from our practice with the mini blocs and drafted our pattern pieces for our toile (a mock-up). I didn't use the actual design I wanted to do since it was very long so I used a smaller design that I had made a fashion flat on, this was to save fabric and money while trying out the techniques that I would use in my final design.

 Photography was our last lesson with photograms, and I think this lesson came out the worst for my designs on the photograms because most of them didn’t really show up on the paper that well and there wasn’t much variation in the designs themselves since they were all the same things. However, I did like some of them because I managed to get an interesting effect on the paper by moving my hand slightly while the paper was being exposed.

 Stretch on Tuesday was spent drawing up concepts for our poster designs using the themes we had chosen before (I chose FUTURE, FOOD and ART HEALING). I made sure to think about the different ways I could include fashion related things in the poster, i.e., embroidery or collage. I prefer the designs I drew for the FUTURE section because I had more ideas for where to go with it. I thought about all the different things you’d have to consider for the future relating (mostly) to fashion. I thought about different themes that are around in media like biopunk, steampunk, utopia and dystopia along with the idea of fast fashion damaging the environment. The other was a bit harder, for FOOD I went very literal because I didn’t know what else I could go into so the designs are very basic and not intriguing. Like that, the designs I did for the ART HEALING section were plain. Though I did think about different things in pop culture and culture in general (from multiple places in the world). I drew the Ouroboros, a snake that represents the cycle of life and death, a magic 8 ball and some flowery patterns, my favourite on this page was one where I drew a star and a lady floating under it, this is because it was original and unique when compared to the other designs I had made.

We painted the textures we had made last week with Sam, and I didn’t resonate with any of the colours or patterns I made with the paint, somewhere better than others but I did not feel like most of them actually resembles any of the work I had done in my book with my topics or with previous work. There was one or two that did feel like what is in my sketchbook but that’s only a few and I would prefer if more of them fit into that category.

At home, while doing work I decided to finally add some references to existing products or designs to pages that I had already done in my folder, I think it helped to show actual designs because I helps you to see the fashion of that time better than a drawing of my own. I also, while doing a page on mitred corners, practiced one myself with a small piece of calico because I thought it would help me to achieve a better understanding of how to sew a mitred corner. It did.

 

With Lareen on Wednesday, I learnt how to draft and cut a placket and a waistband. During this I learnt how to visualise better when making a pattern and I came to a better understanding of seam allowances. There are a lot of considerations you must make when drafting a pattern and you must be careful and accurate when you draw the pattern piece up. This will be an instrumental learning experience, and I need to make sure I remember all the key points so I can create neat and professional garments in the future.

At home, I lay out all my pattern pieces on a piece of calico with a ruler to create my costing of my toile. This was a learning experience since I did lay out my pieces wrong because the back pattern piece should have been placed on a fold as it is only one piece (this was fixed when I cut the pattern pieces out). I placed the waistband on the weft grain since calico is a plain grained fabric and isn’t a patterned fabric, so it won’t affect the outcome of the skirt.

 

Thursday was spent creating depictions of plants and flowers for my sketchbook. This helped to provide research into the different patterns plants and flowers are naturally found with, which will, in turn, help me to think of designs I could make for my liberties pattern.

 

On Friday, we tried a new technique of Gelli-printing which is where you put paint onto a gelli plate, put a design/ object on top and place a piece of paper on top of that to achieve a design. This is one way of doing it, after the first print you can take the object (in this case leaves) off and press the painted side of the leaves onto a different piece of paper and then you can press another design that includes both the plain part and the design of the leaves all in one by putting the paper on the top of the full gelli plate. This is a nice way of mark making because you can achieve cool and intriguing designs by removing the paint in some areas, drawing on the plate gently or creating textures on the plate before carrying out your prints. There is a wide range of outcomes that can come from this type of mark making so I will keep it in mind for the future.

 

The most prominent part of my weekend was making my Bauhaus inspired hat which was a lot of cutting and sticking but I think it was a learning experience because I didn’t know where to start when I first began other than me wanting to add geometric shapes to the hat in some way shape or form. To complete this, I did my best to just ‘go with the flow’ because I knew if I procrastinated, I wouldn’t get it done for Monday. I had some basic ideas floating around in my head so I simply started with one idea then moved onto whatever idea I thought would go best with the ones I had already applied.