Past Projects

As I am coming to completing my degree and leaving education forever it has got me thinking back on some of the projects that I have had over the years, how iV approached each one, and how they have all turned out. Final major projects always seem to be my favourites as I have the opportunity to try out my own ideas and write my own brief and concept! One of the first times I got to do this when when I was finishing my foundation diploma in creative arts where I focused on fashion.

Shopaholic

Like every other girl out there I love nothing better then shopping and buying clothes. And what's even better is selling old clothes to make quick easy cash for new ones :)

And IV found an app on my phone that is excellent for it!! I'd say so much easier then ebay and likewise websites.

Dissertation research

When we were first giving our briefs for dissertation of course it was slightly abit daunting but now that iv made my plan and making good head way with my research I am really getting stuck into it and enjoying finding out new information and looking at things in a different light to be before.

 For my dissertation I have chosen to look at film and how creatures and monsters are created and portrayed which techniques have been used and how have these techniques evolved over time with the new technogologies  and new materials.

To help me along with my research I have made a very small survey of 7 questions which would be great if people could take part and fill out just so that I can find a wide range of views and opinions on certain areas ect.

www.surveyminkey.com/s/DRG35B8

Thanks for the help and if anyone has any ideas or interesting this that they think I should look into while investigating please do comment!

Thank you very much 

Beamish

Although it has been my summer break I thought this would be the best time and opportunity for me to keep practicing my skills and learn more knowledge in a different way compared to my course and the only way I would do that would be to do a volunteering placement with a company.

Summer playsuit

This summer has really got me motivated !!! I'm not sure wheather it's because I know in September I'll be starting my last year of education, or wheather been at my work placement is inspiring me to do more and keep up my creativeness and keep practising, or wheather I'm just actually ready to start my life and my career and I do secretly get a buzz when people comment on things that I have made :)

So the next little project that I set myself was to make a little play suit. As always picking my fabric was again so hard as very thing is so pretty and nice all of the different patterns, prints and motifs. (Iv just told myself I'll make it in every fabric ) so I chose a nice blue floral print.

Again I got this fabric from Dainty suppliers in Washington, 100% my new favourite shop by far!! It's so easy to get carried away whilst picking out one or two things in there. So with my fabric bought it was then onto making my pattern. From a previous project at Newcastle College I already had a full jumpsuit block pattern in my size so all I had to do was make the alterations to the pattern to become the style and silhouette that I was after.

When altering my pattern I started with the easiest thing, the length. I measured roughly on myself how long I wanted the shorts to be but added abit extra just to make sure, you can cut it off if it's too long but it gets complicated when it's too short and your trying to add extra on!! After that I went onto the top, I knew that I wanted the darts taken out and two seams down either side of the bust instead, I also alterted the neck line and the thickness of the straps. 

Whilst making my jumpsuit pattern I also had an unwanted helper!! My cat was very interested in what I was doing but made my job all that little but harder when he would want to lay across the whole of my pattern!! I'm sure the professionals in their fancy studios don't have these sorts of interruptions :p the jobs of been a student without a pattern cutting table!

So all my pieces had there seam allowances added to the appropriate places and where laid out to be cut out. This is something I find to be exciting because you know your making the move forward to see you design and pattern become 3D and real. After this it was on to assembling it.

After it was put together there were a few extra alterations that needed to be made, the first one was the leg length, I made it shorter and also added to extra darts in the side of the bust. But I came across a small issue when trying it on. Although I had a zip down the side I found it difficult to get into trying to force my head past the shoulder straps!

Although this became an issue I did enjoy the problem solving element of it and gave myself a day to brain storm and think of how I could over come this without changing my design or pattern to much. The idea that I came up with was to add buttons and a small strap to the shoulder seam so that it opened and closed with a small button, I then turned this into a feature and added buttons on the other side too for decoration. 

Luckily I had any amount of small white buttons which would match perfectly it would just be the issue of finding matching pairs and which ones I liked most and wanted to use.

To finish off the playsuit I added a wide navy blue ribbon above the waist. Overall I was happy with my playsuit and it was comfortable to wear and easy to move around in.

Now onto my next little project :) 

Summer panda top

Well that's another academic year done and finished with, and it's time to enjoy the summer. But aswell as enjoying the summer and all my free time I like to give myself little projects to keep practising my skills and make good use of my time.

From my last project at CCAD of course I had to buy fabric for it, this is when I discovered my new favourite shop - dainty suppliers in Washington (northeast England) it was like an aladins cave of everything fabric, and craft I was in heaven so like always when I go shopping for when thing I get distracted by everything else that I want to purchase and something that really caught my eye was a lovely panda printed Cotton!! 

I really love animals and especially pandas (not just because they are black and white :p) and I thought this fabric was great so I had to buy it and unfortunately it had to take a back seat and sit in the carrier bag until I had some free time to make something with it. So I decided to make a lose fitted vest top out of the fabric, something simple to get me started again obviously without any tutors help if I were to get stuck. But I must admit to make my pattern I did cheat abit, I already had a vest in the exactly silhouette that I wanted for my panda fabric so I simply drew around it but added a little bit of length to the bottom.

After that I neatened off my lines and had my front and back pattern pieces to make my top. Like I said this was an easy top to make but of course nothing runs smoothly at first when I soon realised I had not bought enough fabric for the style of top that I wanted to make as the pattern was wide at the bottom, (a designers and manufactures nightmare) but after trying out a few differnt ways to lay my pattern pieces to the fabric I found a solution to my problem. I decided to give my top a yoke, this meant that I would. It have to put a seam right down the back of the top which I certainly did not want to do!

After cutting my pieces out I begin to make up my top attaching all of the seams. I always made my own binding by cutting long strips of fabric along the biase pressing it where I wanted the fold and attached it to the arm holes and neck hole to neaten up the edges.  I made my own small hem along the bottom and used a decorative stitch to give it a little more detail. The only thing that I was slightly disappointed with was the fact that the inside seam edges where raw and this was down to the fact that I do not own an over locking maching, but it's something I'm now looking into purchasing :p

Overall I am absolutely thrilled with my top and the way that it has turned out it has defiantly giving me the inspiration and boost to want to make more of my own clothes. It has also sparked off a lot of potential business and career ideas which I need to start thinking about as my final year of been a student looms. I thoroughly enjoyed making this top and can't wait to get back on my machine and start to make something else.... Any ideas?

Jackie Hallatt

Whilst wring my creer plan rort for my course I managed to get a hold of a local costume manufacture, luckily she was able to answer some questions for me so that I could have a more personal insight into the working world of costume and threat re productions. This is a small set of questions that I sent to the Costume manufacture Jackie Hallatt, who lives and works in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I only asked 8 questions but found her answers to be very insightful in terms of helping me plan out my own career and which steps are right for me to take.

1)      What is your educational background? (Did you go to university? What did you study ect?)

After leaving school at 15 ,I completed a City and Guilds course in Ladies Bespoke Tailoring at London College of Fashion obtaining a Distinction. I also gained a diploma in Ladies Bespoke Tailoring also from London College of Fashion, also with Distinction.

I then worked as an apprentice in Ladies Tailoring at Bermans and Nathans Theatrical Costumiers. At a later date I gained a BA Hons degree in Costume Interpretation from       Wimbledon School of Art, obtaining a 2:1

2)      When did you become interested in costumes?

I was always interested in sewing and started at the age of 5 with my mother teaching me. This continued with a love of fashion and it wasn’t until I got the job as an apprentice that I became interested in costume.

3)      What types of projects get you excited the most?

The projects I like best is anything technically challenging or avant garde, something that makes me think “however am I going to make that!”

4)      What made you become self-employed?

I became self employed because there are very few permanent jobs within costume and the only way to work as a costume maker was to become self employed.

5)      What was the first production you worked with? How did it come about?

As an apprentice I worked on a feature film called Return to Oz , I helped make the “wheelie men” who skated around with rollerskates on their hands and feet, it was a great first project at Bermans.

6)      Where do you source your fabrics and materials from? Do you work with a supplier?

I am supplied with all my fabrics, linings, buttons etc by costume supervisors who’s job it is to source the costume makers, fabrics, shoes hats etc etc and balance the budgets on productions. Most of the fabrics come from London, Germany, France and Italy.

7)      Do you enjoy running your own business? What are the pros and cons?

I would rather be employed than run my own company as the responsibility and pressure of deadlines always falls on my shoulders, however I do have a certain amount of control over what I do which is nice.

8)      Do you have a team that works for/ with you? What’s it like to manage a team? What type of employee do you have (pattern cutter for example)

I don’t employ any staff but do use freelance staff to help me make the costumes. I am not a natural manager and find managing people difficult but its lovely when they present you with a pile of beautiful costumes.

Alice in Wonderland continued....

Well then, I have survived my first term/project at Cleveland College of Art and Design and can actually say i'm enjoying it. At first I was a little nervous and sceptical as I was entering into second year of the production design for stage and screen course and with everyone been there a year already I thought it may be a bit for difficult for myself as everyone would know each other and the ways and styles of the school but I actually settled quicker then what I imagined I would have and have already made a good group of friends :)

Pintrest

When I started the Alice In Wonderland project I also joined Pintrest to see what it was all about and it is say that say that I am very much addicted!!!
When looking at a topic it give hundreds upon hundreds of beautiful images so to start with I just made an Alice In Wonderland board but have now started many more as so things look so beautiful, interesting or inspiring that I dont want to forget it, or where i found it when i come to look for it in future. I definable think that it is modern technology at its best and is a great idea although it is too easy to spend hours on the site!!
I also have the app on my phone so even while travelling to uni on the train I can be researching for imaging so just for things that inspire me in general!! I really did find it helpful as all the images just sparked off new ideas and different things that I could look further into.

Have a look at my Alice board and leave me a comment on what you thought. Are you a pintrest fan? What would you say are the best kinds of things to find? Also follow my boards and see what Im pinning  daily.

http://gb.pinterest.com/ashcloud92/alice-in-wonderland/

Discovery Museum Newcastle, LBD Collection

As I have now finished uni for the summer I thought it would be a good idea to spend my summer blog posts for what I have done and seen in the past, some projects that I may talk about will be from years ago but I feel that if I critique them very strictly and pick pointers then I will be able to see how I have progressed areas that still have room for progression, and development and also looking at things I have attended, places and visited and things iv seen, what ideas and methods do I like or find interesting in order to help my skills and knowledge grow and develope! So my first blog of the summer will reflect on a visit I had a few years ago, but I could still use the information for future projects.  

On the 3^rd of October 2012 the discovery museum Newcastle opened up their amazing fashion archives for our class to go and visit. We were all studying our second year of FdA Fashion at Newcastle College. After a lovely long summer off we straight away got stuck into our latest brief of ‘The Little Black Dress’, and to start us off we started to research into the subject which is normally the most important part, seeing where it first started, how? Why? And how it has evolved over time, and the reasons for certain changes in the garment and changes in the fashion trends.   

So, back to our visit, although the main focus of the museum is science and the Tyne side’s history the fashion is maybe forgotten about a little I thought until we were taking into the huge archives. Everything was neatly wrapped and preserved in boxes and referenced in dates and categorised. Straight away without seeing anything specific I was blown away with the amount of things that they had and size of the room that we were in, and on the other hand I was extremely disappointed that I would not be able to have a good look through everything!!! (Although I feel I would have been there for a long time if this was the case).

            We met two very kind ladies Joan Milne and Fiona Southern. Who had laid out a miniature collection of the little black dresses for us to have a look at to take some photographs and sketch from. We had to put of aprons and gloves so that if we were to get close to the garments of even touch them to see a part of the dress we would not damage them. They had gotten a large range out from different decades/ time periods/ styles for us to have a look at and a few that they explained to us were worn by a signer from the north east. The women were very knowledgeable about the garments for example the way they were made for the lady on stage so she could move ect.

The bottom of this dress above was fringed, which would have made such special shapes when worn on stage, there was also red stitching when we looked closer which showed that the garment could have been slightly too big for the wearer, and the fact that it was red thread again showed that with certain details it simply did not matter as it would not have been so noticeable. (Again I loved how person this visit was as I may not have known about that if it wasn’t right under my nose). 

Been able to see all the different garments was fantastic, especially how we could get up close and see the details which with some of the earlier pieces would have all been done by hand without today’s technology. Also it was good to see up close how the silhouettes of the dresses have changes over the years, and actually feel the weight of some of the dresses which the modern day working mother simply could not wear for its impracticality. I mainly looked at the detailing again just more of a fascination to think how much time would have to have been put into each piece.

This dress we were told seemed to be the oldest and was more than likely to have been a night gown, although when we got a closer look there was a lot of work gone into the garment, and seemed to be very heavy which is strange to think people would sleep in a garment which would have been so uncomfortable.

Here are some other dresses in the collection that they Joan and Fiona had gotten out for us to see, again it fantastic to see up and close how the garments had changed and developed, and what parts stayed the same. 

Joan and Fiona also explained how on the older dresses (before it became fashionable) how certain mistakes would have been over looked as a result of the garment would have only been seen by candle light nit like the bright bulbs we have today.  The dress below was a Fenwick’s original copy of Dior’s 1950’s New Look, just after the Second World War. There was such an up roar about how much fabric was included when some people where still been rationed and the fact that I have seen and touched it, was pretty incredible.

I really enjoyed the visit for the fact that we could actually see the garments up close rather than an old photograph from an internet search, it was more personal I felt and that fact that the women knew so much and that we could chat with them and ask questions was fantastic (you cannot get a chat from an internet search).Also It showed that the women were very excited to be able to show off their beautiful archives to people who were interested rather than boxed up all year round. It was a really good opportunity and I am pleased that I got to see it. Hopefully future projects will mean another returning visit to the museum to see what else they had hidden in their large wardrobe of a look into the past.

           

professional Studies and development

Since September I have been working along a syllabise that will help me developed my personal and professional skills so that when I leave this course I am ready and knowledgeable to be able to get myself a job and conduct my self and my attitude in a grown up professional way. Over the next couple of weeks I will start compiling my research that I have found together to put it here on my blog as a reminder for myself and the steps that I have taken for further reference and even maybe they will help other people if they are in my same position or thinking if a degree course is right for them before employability.

To round off the year to this course the class have been asked to write a report of their career plan. For me I think I should find this ask simple as it is something I focus and research often, seeing what my options are and what people want from me as the employee. I have a few different career paths that I think I would like to try my hand at so for my report I think I may chose one and see what ways I can get into that job, what is required of what, what is the job description, is it really the right job for me.
I my opinion it would be hard to say today what it is that I am going to do for the rest of my life, I could do everything possible to get my dream job and in the end it still may not happen or on the other hand I could get the job and six months down the line decide it isn't for me after all. But that life, and if im honest im just excited to get out and start living it, and to work in the industry that I have been preparing for most of my life!! For me it will all be a great set of learning curves and experiences which will hopefully all pull together in order to shaping my career.

So.... my career path options are;
I would like to work either in London or with a touring theatre production company for plays and musicals. If I am to look at this for my report I would definitely have to find out what key roles are needed within the costume department and which I feel but be most suited to me.
My second option for a career path has stemmed from a long life dream of working in the Walt Disney parks (preferable Florida, you cant beat the sun :p) Again I would like to explore the different job roles there are and what I would need to bring to the Disney company. As this job would mean moving countries I would also have to investigate how I would go about that, and are there any trail periods available to see if I like that company and if they like me?
It really excited me that I am starting to explore all these fields right now as I well and truly feel ready to start my career!!

If anyone has any websites or contacts or information that they think would be helpful for me while I am doing my report and for general research purposes please feel free to comment or contact me, every little bit helps, I'll keep everyone up to date in the mean while :) Thanks

Sleeping Beauty the Ballet

As my theme for the Alice in Wonderland project is ballet i thought it would be a good idea to at least go and see one live so that I could see first hand and up close how the costumes not only look but how they move and what new shapes and silhouettes does this create and make and what effect does it have on the audience ect. So I was lucky that there was one coming to Sunderland which is not to far from where I lived at it was Birmingham's royal ballet Sleeping Beauty.