Stay True to your Culture

As designers, we have our own cultures, but to get amazing work and reports about you, you have to look into other cultures!


I think looking at other cultures is interesting and it makes you think about the way that you live, and question, why do they live like that or why do we live like that.
The image is right, culture is everything, its every form of tin you have in your cupboard and every shoe all over the world. Its onr particular thing, but also its many different things. The image says that if you put two things together you get culture, I supose that could mean there are many new cultures to come!

Pattern Cutting

Finished Toile, Half scale size 12. Front

The back view of my Toile. I really enjoyed making this and renewing the skills I know.

Basic Jersey T-shirt, half scale size 12. I made this in my last lesson of the semester. I made it using a 4 threa over locker, a bider and a cover stitch. I had never used a binder before, I learnt how to thread it up.

My Illustration of my technical bodice, at the top of the blog.

Technical sheets for the bodice; on the left is the production sketch (a black and white drawing of the garment on a template/figure) and on the right is the working drawing(a black and white line drawing of the garment "flat").

Zip; I struggled a lot at college sewing zips into garments or sampleing, so for me to get this pretty much perfect, well, I was over the moon!

The French seam; used mainly for chiffon materials, because they are so hard to overlock with the movement of the fabric!

The Run and Fell Seam; used on jeans, I think this is my favourite seam, it looks neater and is a little detailed.

Open Seams; the basic everyday seam, thats on pretty much everything.

voguesucks.com

I recently found out that there is a website called voguesucks.com... I decided to look into this, and what it comes up with ties into my lectures this week. Its actually the website for PETA, the organisation fighting to get rights for animals so that they aren't killed for fur in inhumane condtions!

Killing animals for there fur is a big thing, and its a huge industry in China. China is the biggest fur industry in the world followed by many other places in the middle east. China is the biggest offender because there are no laws there to stop the inhumane slaughters.
There are many furs that people wear that we don't think about really, like; Leather, exotic skins (snake, crocodile), wool, beavers, chinchillers, dogs, cats, foxes, minx, seals and birds.


In lecture this week we had the big debate about weather fur is good or not. We were given statements and had to research the statement and back it up, our groups was "We Don't Need Fur Animals Do"

800 animals are rammed onto one truck to the fur farms, then thrown 10ft from the top off the truck to the ground, shattering there leg. Some of the animals have collars around there necks from when theyve been stolen from homes.

They are packed into small cages of 52 square cm. They can't do anything natural to tthem, they are forced to live in there own excrement. The animals go insane from the cages, the frustrasion leads them to self mutilate, pacing round in circles and cannibalisation.

Cages are positioned in either dark sheads where the ammonia of the animals accumulate, their urine and feeces burning their eyes and making it hard for them to breathe. Or the cages will be lined up outside in the freezing winters, in the lashing rain, or the burning sun with no protection.
The mother animals have no where to hide whilst giving birth, and from being crazy they offen kill and eat there litter after.

Killing is so inhumane, there are many methods of killing so that the fur isn't damaged. sometimes even rods are put into the animals' anus and mouth and electricuted until cardiac arrest. Then when the furs are ripped from thier bodies, their half alive bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of others; with the horrible sound of helpless gasps.

my new...."not an obsession"!

Not the cheapest of things to get into, but so interesting and fun! I love charity shopping and finding some interesting and vintage clothes, books and other bits and bobs as you might think. But have you ever thought about going in for a camra?! I think that camras could be beautiful as a print on a really vintage, classic shape skirt and in a menswear collection too. Its not just an obsession now, I'm inspired by it!





Possibly the oldest camra I have ever, will ever see!
 and It's from Conway, my favourtie place in the world!







A reteo Kodak Instamatic Camra, I should have
 bought it just for an ornament!







I bought this one because I just love it and
I have a slightly strange thing for Polariods.







I just wanted the camra bag, but my friend insisted it
was wierd to buy the bag and not the camra too...
Its not is it?!











This was about a fifth of the camras the charity
 shop, Banardos had, I was so amazed!

P-O-R-T-F-O-L-I-O

Its probably the most important thing you will ever show people. And it will be your favourite and best work, I know I'm so proud of mine and its only just on the begining of its journey. You have to be confident in your work, because thats what is getting you the job.

As a Fashion Student, my portfolio should be A3, and depending what your area of speciality is in should be shown in your portfoilio. Everyones is different, no ones will be the same, due to our own particular styles and way we work.

Electricising Feathers

As part of our first Semester, we have 3 lesson, like a mini crash course, learning differnt techniques. One of these is CAD we were shown basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and using them together in a project. We created images, interesting and contraversial to our own unique styles and research.

Illustrator; I played with the morph tool, the liqifier tool(Photoshop) and paintbrushes to see what kind of images I could create.

Photoshop; Anthapmorthism, I made the soft image contrast with the sharpness of an eagal.

Photoshop; I used the clone tool to make a portrait image of the owl

Photoshop and Illustrator; Silhouette of an Owl with"Owl" text 

Photoshop and Illustrator: I created my own pattern for the bin on Illustator and put the image together on photoshop.

Every creative person, and academic has a unique selling point; something that makes them stand out from the crowd, something that makes an employer look at there CV and say "Yes! We need them!". But if you were asked, like we were in lecture, "Whats your USP?", you would stumble and say erm alot just like the question "Why should I employ you?".

It took me a while to realise what my USP was, my USP is my interest in Theatre, Musicals and Costumes. I enjoy fashion history, which gives my designs a historical twist to them weather its in colour or in garment shaping and style.Progressing this interest I have visited a Theatre to make the costumes, study the pantomime and be a wardrobe assistant back stage of the production.

From knowing your USP you can then write an amazing Personal Statement for your CV. Which is what we did in lecture this week. We went through how a professional CV should look and what it should contain. And came up with this;

• Personal Information
• Personal Statement
• Qualifications
• Skills
• Interests
• Achievements
• Work Experience

Thes dont have to be in any specific order, because there are NO rules to make a CV.

Your Personal Statment isn't like what you had to write to get into University, it's just a short paragraph about yourself, explaining your USP or anyhting else that sells you with in 8 seconds!

As a person I believe in my ethics which makes me a dedicated and self motivated individual.

I am an enthusiastic fashion student; who loves researching new trends and experimenting with them. Making the trends unique to my style is important to my signature. In my spare time I make photos and design garments. Being a fashion student has made me fascinated with the Theatre, Costume and Fashion History.

Meadham Kirchhoff

Their Spring/Summer 12 collection is looking beautiful and summery, not like there usual black dark stuff! It reminds me a lot of my College FMP.

I think that this collection of Meadham and Kirchoff is deffinatley the most quiriest they have done, I love it...wish all there stuff was like this!

Even there stuff at topshop this year is lovely and bright:

Meadham Kirchoff at Topshop

How cute is that!

Check them out at London Fashion Week

This is my favourite piece out the collection, its just something I would wear... minus the socks and shoes! I just think its quiet preppy and quirky with a slight vintage look to it, which I love.

Owl Eyes

During my first Semester at Uni we had a modual that let us experiment with textiles techniques, including Knit and Print.
For these the inspiration was British Birds. researching into that I came up with the colours of a Owl, Brown, for the feathers, Orange, for the eyes, and Pink, for the tallons and other little feathers.

In knit I made loads of lace holes, and experimenting with them in shapes. I managed to get some in the shape of an eye. Also used Hold, to make different patterns that resemble owls. My print was at an earlier stage of my project, you can see the theme coming through with the colourse, but my particular print didnt resemble owls.

My work on the Knit Machine.

My work on the Knit Machine with a weight on the end. You use a weight on your knitting to keep it straight and kept on the machine.

Pinning the samples onto the press, to stretch the wool and flatten in it.

The Press steams the wool and then sucks the vapour out of the wool to keep it in shape.

Knit Sample, Owls Wings

Knit Sample, Owl Eyes

Knit Sample

Knit Sample, Owl Eyes

First practice on screen print

Using the Hot Press and Screen Printing together.

Hot Press

Hot Press

Hot Press, I pleated the fabric up, laid bits and pieces ontop of it and put it in the hot press to see what it would look like opened up. But because of the colours against the white, it doesn't look as good as with the pleats closed.

Using water to make the ink spread, I sprated the Calico first in certain places to my print and the screen printed ontop.

Watered down calico and screen print. Then waited for it to dry and cleaned my screen, and printed over the print in the orange, to make a sharp and soft contrast which portrays my Owl influence. Soft feathers, sharp eyes and tallons.

Hot Press, with a pleat

Hot Press