London Fashion Weekend & British Music Experience

London Fashion Weekend
Throughout the module i have tried to visit various exhibitions and places that may give me a better insight into clothes themselves, i have tried to broaden my knowledge and look at how clothes are made for different purposes, e.g costume, stage, catwalk, highstreet.

I feel this will give me more ideas and a better understanding when it comes to designing and making, also i can see what techniques and finishes are used to achieve different looks.

Here i visted London Fashion Weekend at Somerset house, this gave me an oppurtunity to touch, feel and examine a wide range of clothing from independent boutiques and designers to the high end luxury market.

This was an invaluable experience to see how its done from one designer to another, below are a few cheeky photos i managed to take before getting told off :(

Love this print on the moschino cheap and chic jacket, all the printed jackets behind are moschino.

Viktor and Rolf and one my favourite designers, these were some of my favourite pieces from the day.
Here i particularly loved the way it had been draped.

I loved the pleated arm details and detail around the neck reminded me of origami, i think this piece is elegant and the small details make it a beautful piece.

British Music Experience

I realise when designing or making clothes the British Music Experience isnt the first place you would think to go for inspiration, but i felt it gave a different view and a different insight into making garments. When making clothes for stage obviously the brief or idea is different to a catwalk, it gave me different ideas of designing,  decorating and embellishing garments.

Lady Gaga dress.

I loved the shape of the lady gaga dress and would be interested to find out how to pattern cut this!

Spice Girls costumes

These pieces obviously made for a specific purpose using design, colour and embellishment to personalise and try and portay someones personality through design.

Famous Geri Halliwell dress, used rhinestones to create shimmer effect.

Black Sabbath Cape.

These last two dresses 60's Lulu dresses were my favourite as they are least like costumes and are more wearable, they remind me very much of french connection dresses that being designed still today

French Connection dress

PURE - private study

WEEK 22 - TROUSER 1

This week adam sourced the fabric for us all

Making

As i have never pattern cut or made a pair of trousers, i knew this was going to be a challenge, i chose to have a theme i could develop through the 3 weeks of making trousers, with this i copied the basic slimfit trouser block and sectioned it off into 3 bits, with the intention of using the same 3 sections in different ways each time.

For these i worked with just the top part of the trousers, the part that includes the zip,

When thinking about what to do i wondered what shape would be created if i flipped the top part and sewed them together, making shorts.

Below are the pieces cut out.

I did some research in books and on the internet, i found loads of useful videos on youtube, i challenged myself to attempt pockets and followed the videa below, to create inseam pockets.

I found the video really useful and very easy to follow, the above pictures show me drawings the pockets and sewig them, above is the front side sewn together.

I also used my zip foot for the first time, in my past improvements i said i should use a zip foot to attempt an exposed zip and stop my badly attempted disasteriously stitched zip, and why didnt i use this earlier!? I makes sewing zips a thousand times easier and looks so much better.

Finally, i carried on experimenting with the fabrics and found bleaching worked most successful with the velour. I dip dyes the bottome and soaked it in household bleach for 20 mins, then put it through a normal 60 wash

Improvements;

In previous posts i have put to use a zip foot to improve, this week i did that and the zip is a 100 times better

Other Findings;

How well did it work as a garment?

Okay, i don't think it was a disaster but i dont think its great either, i need to try a waistband next time as the garment was too big on the waist, it worked in the way that the pockets made it more functional

Is it fashion?

Elements of the piece are fashionable, the dip dying works well is in at the moment, also i think the pockets give the garment a young, fresh feel.

I don't like the colour or the fabric and found it uninspirational, i think i did the most i could to make it fashionable.

What was the fabric?

Velour

How much did you use

2 metres

How much did it cost?

£5 p.m

where was it sourced?

Shepherds Bush

FINISHED GARMENT

week 21 - dress 1

This week the challenge is to make a dress, we decided Cameron was to buy the fabric.This is how i went about executing mine......

I firstly, looked for inspiration, i came across this L.A.M.B AW11 cape dress i thought worked really well, this became the basis for my inspiration.

Dress 1-Making

Basic Bodice Back with Seam Allowance

Again this week i carried on building  my pattern cutting skills. I knew i wanted to make a fitted front and a draped back so rather than using the dress block i constructed the front using the basic bodice and basic skirt blocks.  Instead of cutting each pattern block i traced them and cut them on the double.

Basic Bodice Front

Basic Skirt Left Front

I then went about sewing all the pieces together to create the complete bodice and front skirt, i didnt pattern cut the back skirt as this would form part of my draping. I again included in the darts, the pictures below aren't the best but i feel this was a particular part i have improved on since last week. the darts were much more accurately placed and better sewn in.

Back Right Dart

Front shoulder Dart

I finished by experimenting with draping the back, adding in my zip to the side and 2 buttons on each shoulder.

Improvements/ What went wrong;

1.The shoulder seam I pinched together, and pinned along making it looked as though i'd sewed the seam inside, it was only after sewing it i realised i should have layed the fabric flat over the top of each other to create a smooth finish, which i did on the opposite shoulder.
Improvements: keep practicing seams!

2. The neckline became my next problem, i pinned over the seam allowance and sewed fine until i started to have to really curve my sewing. I found it really difficult to not sew in a straight line, i unpicked the neck quite a few times, eventually i tried sewing half way from the left stopping and sewing in from the right, this didnt work either and as the picture shows i couldnt get the lines to meet, causing the stitches to come undone.

Improvements: practice curve sewing to give smoother lines.

3. I  need to look into the finish of garments even further as i feel they make a massive difference to the look and quality. Waistband bounding, Fusing, Hemming and Binding are all elements i plan on researching, i also think the use of an overlocker may make my garments look tidier on the edges.

4. Buttonholes; I did'nt account for the amount of time it would take for me to sew the awkward fabric and with this i didnt have time to make proper buttonholes for my cape back fastening.

improvements: buttonholes and better time management!

5.Zip fastenings; Although i think i have majorly improved on putting in my zip from last week, i didnt hold the stretch fabric hard enough meaning i had a zip longer than my fabric.

Hold onto fabric evenly

6. I didn't realise until tess said in the crit that i'd cut the fabric wrong,

improvements; read and research more about selvedges as keep getting them confused!

Other Findings;

How well did it work as a garment?

Overall i feel as though there are vast improvements from the previous week but a new garment always brings new challenges, the fabric was horrendous to work with and i feel that the fastenings of the garment need developing further. I feel the best part of this garment is the design idea rather than the make or fabric.

Is it fashion?

The design; yes -  I am very pleased with how the garment design turned out, the idea of a very fitted front and cape like back is not something i have seen before and i feel it worked well, it is an idea i would like to develop further in the future.

The fabric;no - I didn't like the print or colour of the fabric, it looked dated and impacted on the whole design,  i feel as though no matter how well put together the garment would have been or how innovative the design the result would never have been outstanding due to the fabric.

It looked so much nicer on the small fabric swatch we picked it from!

What was the fabric?

Polyester with a silk finish

How much did you use

We bought 2metres and i used practically all of it

How much did it cost?

£3pm

where was it sourced?

Goldhawk road, Shepherds bush

FINISHED GARMENT

Week 20 - Skirt 1

.SKIRT 1 - Making

For the first skirt our team elected myself to be the first buyer and we decided to work with a light linen,  as i have never pattern cut before i decided to work with the basic pattern blocks and create an a -line skirt to gain experience in this. 

original pattern block traced

waist darts cut and closed

front panel of skirt, darts swung and opened

I drew out the pattern blocks on spot and cross and added the 1cm seam allowance as well as the darts, whilst doing this I decided to challenge myself further and began playing with the dart positioning, i swung the darts from the top to the bottom of the skirt and opened them up 30cm's to create extreme volume.

I did this as i believe because linen is a light weight fabric it would work well in a loose flowing form.

As the picture above shows ive cut and closed the dart and went on to true the line and add onto the waist the dart measurements.

As a design feature i chose a chunky purple zip to sew on the outside of the garment, i also did all the stitching in the same colour to match this.

As i researched i found that linen creases easily, to experiment further i put the skirt on a long wash, took it out and scrunched it into a ball and left it to dry, i planned to steam in the creases at uni. The wash also frayed the edges, giving an unexpected design feature.

Skirt 1 - What went wrong

where to start?!....

1. I regret sewing the skirt in a contrast colour stitch as it showed off my terrible sewing skills! The stitching also began to come unfastened, particularly on the darts, after research i realised this is because i haven't doubled back on the last few stitches

Darts coming undone

2. As ive been sewing the skirt ive been pulling on the fabric, making it uneven at the ends, with one side being longer than the other, it also stretched the fabric making it really big around the waist, resulting in me having to add in extra darts.

Extra darts and unevenly sewn! needs work..

3. I also need to research into finishes inparticular waistbands, as ive just doubled the material over.

4. When sewing the zip i found difficultly getting close enough in, to sew it onto the fabric properly, resulting in uneven stitches and alot of time wasted!

 5. After confusing myself alot and sewing the last seam wrong 4 times i gave up, i need to work on how to sew the last seam, as i cant seem to not sew it on the outside!

6. One thing i didn't bargain for!... when using the uni steamers to iron in the creases, loads of brown mucky water leaked out onto my skirt! :(
 As it was the morning of the show i had to change the design of the skirt to cover this, i draped the skirt and hand stictched it in place, it actually made it more interesting and became quite a design feature! getting it wrong to get it right
but note to self, ALWAYS DO A TEST ON EVERYTHING FIRST.

Other Findings;

How well did it work as a garment?

It was wearable, and resembled the shape and structure of a skirt..... i find that an achievement, as it was my first pattern cut, my first attempt at a zip and my first time making a garment!

 Is it fashion?

In my personal opinion, fashion is suprising and new and i dont feel my basic a-line skirt was this, although the end result after adding in the drape element i feel was working closer towards being fashion.

What was the fabric?

100% linen

How much did you use

We bought 2 metres, i used roughly 1.5m

How much did it cost?

It should have been £6 a metre, bargained down to £5 a metre

where was it sourced?

Fabric World, Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush

FINISHED GARMENT