Denim

Before our CAD project we had a quick skills for making project when we were thought the basic skills on a flatbed sewing machine and produced a calico shirt and a pair of shorts. I really enjoyed this module as it was on the machines which are where I feel I have a natural talent at. So I was extremely please to hear that we would be doing another making project and it was all based around denim.

 

To start us off we researched into the history of where the Denim jeans first came from, and I’m sure everyone knows all about it so I’ll not retell the story of Levis Strauss, and how they turned from work year to a modern day can’t live without trend.

 

So after the research it was time to design to choose what type of garment we were going to make. Of course the first things that came to mind when starting to design were the obvious ones, jeans, a jacket or a pair or shorts but as we had just done shorts and a shirt (which is very similar making process to the jacket) I thought that I would try and challenge myself to see how far I would stretch, and strengthen my abilities.

 

After a long thought process I had decided to make the jumpsuit design. Just like other projects I made a toile before my final garment to check that all of my measurements from my pattern pieces where correct and that it lay and looked the way that I desired. To start my toile I laid all my pattern pieces out along my fabric making sure that all the grain lines where matched up and were straight. After I had checked this I cut out my entire lot of pattern piece.

I started with the top of my jumpsuit, so first I had the collar, edge stitching along the ‘wrong’ side, leaving the inside of the collar left out.  After this I attached the front two parts of my top together down the front seam. Just before I was about to attach my collar to the top I realised that it was too long so would been trimming down and the collar pattern would need changing too.  Also while we were thinking about how we would attach the collar to the top we realised that I would need to cut a ‘lining’ for the top so that I would be able to bag out the collar.

 I then came across another problem. Even though I was going to bag out the collar the part that goes around the neck would be still left open with a raw edge. And yet another problem that I faced was; how was the person going to be able to get it over their head.

When overcoming this problem I made a ‘peter pan’ collar and added extra to be like a button wrap to be able to add a little hoop and button to allow the user to get their head in and out. I then attached my collar to the top bring the lining up and bagging in the collar securing it and hiding the rough edge. I then folded the other rough sides on themselves and edge stitched the side together. When making my real collar and top I have to remember to make sure that the side of the collar with the edge stitching should be hidden this is the ‘wrong’ side.

The next part to do was to measure how long the top had to be to be able to fit onto the pants it left me with 4centimeters to gather 2 on each side under the bust. Now the top is ready to be attached top the pants.

After I had finished the top I moved onto the pants. Firstly I attached the pocket bag to the pants stitching along the top, I then turned the bag over and top stitched top of the bag, so that it would lay flat. I next added the pocket lining by sewing it together to seal the pocket. That was the front of the pants done; next I added the darts in the back of the pants and joined the side seams of the pants and the inside leg. After I had joined these I realised that they did not match correctly at the bottom so I would have to go back to my pattern to check that they go to the same length. The next thing that I had to do was pin together the body rise indicating where my zip would go, using the invisible zip foot I added the zip and closed up the rest of the pants, and removed pins. 

 The last thing that I had to do was attach the top to the pants. After it was finished I tried it on a class mate to see how it fitted.  I used pins and drew on the toile to indicate any alterations.

 

 

I was really impressed with myself with my final garment, it looked like I had wanted it to and although there were some small challenges along the way I think that those were the best ways to help me learn to make mistakes. In the past I had used an embroidery machine before but not the same size as I did for my leg piece, it was great to be able to use other machinery available to me to try to come up with different effects and styles, and not have the piece solely focused on the design and cut. I also thought that the jumpsuit looked very professional and think that it gave me a confidence boast to try bigger and better things for the next time I have a making project. Obviously my grade reflected how confident I was with my garment as I ended up with a distinction.

 

CAD

OOOPS!!! do I deserve a slap on the wrist!!! The last six months have been so manic I feel that I have been neglecting you blog, so to say im sorry heres an entery…..

 

So I’ve just started my second year of FdA Fashion and have been looking back on the other briefs and projects from the last year and boy do I have room for improvement the first one that I looked back on was my first attempts at CAD…..

 

Apart from a couple of doodles on paint or a bit of photo editing I had never designed or illustrated digitally on the computer before, well that was until I was handed my second brief of first year which stated that I would be taught how to use the program Adobe illustrator to make my designs digital.

 

Our first task was to look at existing digital designers and see which style of work that we liked the best to help us find inspiration when coming to create our own images. I seemed to have picked up on the basic skills quite easily and enjoyed the simple short tasks that we were given to get us used to how the program worked and what tools would give a different effect. Along the way I took constant screen shots so that I could annotate the images so that I ended up with my own reference file, so if it were to do it again, or could not remember how to use a certain tool I would have my folder for backup to remind me.

 

I feel that I did learn a lot on this project and felt rather confident to have a good play around with it and explore different tools even if I was not going to use this effect in my final designs at least I had a greater knowledge of the program then before I started with it.

 

I really liked this effect, so even though I did not use it for my final illustrations it would be nice to go back to this and play around more and find a way to make my design rather than using one from the internet.

 

 

 

When it came down to my two final images I was not 100% happy with how they turned out. It could have possibly been that I tried to use too many different skills, effects and tools on the one image that it looked like there was too much going on. Although saying that I now feel more confident to have a try at doing more designing work on the computer, and I’m sure the more I do it, the more time I spend on it practising, my illustrations should improve over time.

 

I did really enjoy this module as it was something new, that I had never had a go at before. I have learnt new tools and skills which I can take forward and use again in other projects. Although they are very time consuming I believe that the images can look very professional and effective.