Off to Sunderland.

Today I accepted my invitation to go to Sunderland to study Fashion Product and Promotion. I had been originally applying for a second year entry but got declined. I wanted to know why to see if there was anything I could improve on in the future. I got a reply from the admissions advisor and she said it was down to me giving the impression that I wasn't confident enough in my work. Despite this, she then asked if I would like to be put forward for a first year entry and I accepted. I am really looking forward to study on this course as I feel I will be able to expand my fashion knowledge into different elements such as Fashion Photography and Branding as well as Fashion Design.

Final Major- Topshop In Bloom Garment Construction

 Pattern block and original toile for shorts

 Trace off block pieces

 I tried on the shorts to see how they fitted. I need to make them looser to make them look like my design.

 Changed dart in shirt pattern

 Shirt pattern pieces

 Finished Shirt toile front and back

 Collar needs modified to sit better on the shirt

 Modified arm and neck holes to accommodate for the collar change

 Cutting out in final fabric

 Looser shorts were far to baggy. Check pattern and re-cut pieces

 Pattern pieces for dress.

 Testing pleats for skirt on dress

Dress bodice

 Zip in shorts

Who wears short shorts?

My shorts are almost finished. I am really pleased with how they're looking. All I have left on them now is the waist band and the scalloped edge. 

 Picking stitch colour. I ended up going with the blue one.

"Fashion has no rules"

Today Paul Shriek came into college for the next part of our work placement with Delaval Hall. He went over what was being asked of us and showed us his initial ideas such as colour and silhouettes.
He also brought a collection of books with him, which we looked through to start to think about what we'd like to design.
Here are some images that I took of my inspiration from the books.

Discovery Museum - Last Day

It was the last day of our work placement at the Discovery Museum. Today me and Jade padded out a male mannequin to fit an Indian wedding robe. Caroline from the Discovery Museum had already pinned the wadding to the mannequin so all that was needed, was for the pieces to be sewn on.
There was quite alot of  layers as the original mannequin was too small to be able to support the robe.

 Attaching the wadding

 Indian Wedding robe

I have really enjoyed this work placement because I've been given the opportunity to work behind the scenes of putting together an exhibition and what needs to be done to make the pieces in the exhibition look at its best.

Discovery Museum - Day Two

On Tuesday, we attended the second day at the Discovery Museum. We finished off any sewing from the week before then me and Jade were allowed to see if the padding we'd done, worked. We were instructed on how to lift the garment properly by supporting it. It looked much better with the padding.  

 Padding the bottom.

Getting the dress out of the protective cover. 

Buttoning up the dress 

Editing Experiments.

I've been using a software on my laptop called iPhoto to edit my images. You can change the colours, saturation and exposure, as well as putting different effects on images. I stuck with the effects as I didn't want to defer too far away from the original images because they looked good the way they were. I sampled with all the effects but these were my favourites:

• Black and White
• Sepia
• Faded Colour
• Faded Edge

Here is the same image in each of the edits.

 I really like the faded colour effect. It is subtle and still shows off the details in the dress.

Pa-pa-Paparazzi

Today I met with my photographer, Lauren to collect the disc from the photo shoot. She took me through the photographs on the  computer. The original images were quite dark, but she'd also went through them all and lightened them up so they would be easier to edit. She managed to edit some of them but they weren't how I imagined them to look. I suggested that I would do that part as it was something I'd never really done before and wanted to attempt it.

Here are some of the original darker images.

These are the same three images, but lighter. 

It's a nice day for a white wedding.

Today was the first day of a short work placement that myself and three other students have been selected to take part in. It will be held by Tyne and Wear Museums and with take place at the Discovery Museum. Our job is to help pad out the mannequins with wadding so that a collection of 20th Century wedding dresses can be put on display. We have to make sure that the mannequins are padded out enough so the dresses can look their best and that there will be enough support as some of the garments are fragile and very old.
I am really looking forward in taking part in this placement as this exhibition will be seen by a lot of people from Tyne and Wear.
This placement will be taken place on Tuesday afternoons, 1pm to 4pm until the 17th of April.

 Cleaning the mannequin

 We used shoulder pads to make a bigger bust.

 Using a Herringbone stitch, we attached the shoulder pads onto the mannequin.