a quick note from me...

Finished toile for top yesturday and my pattern for my trousers. Also found the fabric i want to use. I have to get it from america and it took me ages to find it but my designs will look so much better if they are in the correct fabrics.

Kind of enjoying buying and merchandising but theres quite a lot of info to take in. We have to create a promotion board for this unit so im doing quite a lot of work on illustrator.

Started jacket pattern for my toile. ive had to do lots of samples to create a correct pattern for the front panels. its taken me ages but i think im almost there. Also been working on my illustrator technical drawings. It takes me a while but i think im getting the hang of it!

Kind of enjoying buying and merchandising but theres

quite a lot of info to take in. We have to create a promotion board for this unit so im doing quite a lot of work on illustrator.

Hello 2009!

New design project is Sports v Fashion... my honest first thought was 'oh crap!', but i'm actually really into it now! I think that at first i was worried because i my knowledge of sportswear is very small, however, that meant that research was absolute essential. The amount of research i have done has really helped and i'm a lot more confident about the whole project having done it.

I chose to use 1920's sportswear as my inspiration and i will be using hard wearing performance fabrics such as Gore-tex and ripstop. My 

philosophy will be something like 'Tradition meets Innovation' and i will be creating a collection for a collaboration with The North Face. So far so good but it does mean that i will have to construct a jacket, t-shirt and trousers for my finished outfit... no pressure there then!!! I'm actually quite excited about the construction part, its going to be sink or swim i afraid but i enjoy a challenge!

Note to self:need to start C.V and covering letter!!!    

Will be starting Buying and merchandising this afternoon. i think i'm going to learn a lot from it and am kinda looking forward to it to!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

First Term Update

So its been awhile... lots to talk about then!

Last project of last term was all about the philosophy. Create your design using inspiration from your philosophy. I kind of went quite arty with this one because apparently my last projects needed more. i did enjoy this one though as i felt i had a bit more free reign than the last project.My philosophy was 'Take only what you need from the earth, respect all that lives and grows upon it'. I was generally happy with my finished work with this project so its all good! However, what i found quite odd during the first term was that we had tutorials for our design projects on the deadline days! Each time i left a tutorial i wished i'd had the help during the project and not at the end! Advise isn't very useful if you get it to late. Oh well, new term, new tutor, new project, which i'll come back to later!

Fashion debate went well, we won the couture debate but lost the fashion ethics one, on the grounds that although ethical fashion is the way to go the against team had worked hard to find a plausible argument.

Got all work in on deadline days so not too panicked! Plus got given next Design brief early so that we could do research over xmas hols. bonus!

Its nice to be on track

Making a skirt in construction at the moment. wasn't going well to begin with... had to re-do the back of my skirt and zip. I was having problems with my machine. I know your not supposed to blame your tools but i spent half the day fixing my machine! Honest!!

Deadline for the folk project is on Monday so working mostly on that. Going well really although i did struggle to get inspired. But i seem to be pulling it together now.

Our fashion debate went well on tuesday. I was the spokes person for the For group. The against group were really prepared but manage to win the couture debate but we lost the fashion ethics debate. It was decided that although Fashion ethics is the way forward the against team had really worked hard to make a strong argument. 

Other than that I'm up to date with my work so feeling pretty good this week.

Feeling confident this week!

We started to use illustrator last week and by this week i have been able to create some flat drawings with it. its difficult but you can create some really accurate drawings so its worth the effort. Yesterday we also did some flat drawings on paper. i found this was within my comfort zone. drawing is what Im good at especially if the object i am drawing is in front of me. However, next week we will be doing flat drawings of our shirt designs for our Folk project. i have a feeling that Im going to find this more difficult because its quite different from just drawing designs. Im really going to have to think about the technical stuff, i.e. where the seams are, any stitching on show etc. ill have to look at other shirts to help me. 

We also went to london this week for fabric sourcing. it was mostly successful but we didn't make it to Goldhawk road. we tried but by the time we found it we had 25 minuets to get back to the coach and had to get 2 tubs to get there! Our group had to source sports and performance fabrics which actually turned out relatively easy to do. We found that because the fabrics we wanted were relatively cheap most of the fabric stores were happy to give us samples . Some of the other groups were finding that they couldn't get the samples they wanted.

The end of last week we had 2 days of pattern cutting. I'm feeling pretty confident with cutting patterns at the moment and am pleased with the work i have produced so far. Its nice to see my folder filling up!

i hate being ill!!

Been ill all week so a little behind but hopefully by the end of this week will be almost caught up. Some how managed to do some work at home in bed so was able to put something together for Organics project, and get it finished by deadline on tuesday. Although i was relatively pleased with the finished result i may put some time into redoing my mood board and sketch book. The standard of some of the other students work was amazing so i should really get myself at least to that level. I know i can do it on the presentation side just have to concentrate. May struggle for a while with the technical side of things but thats what I'm here for. If i already new everything i would already be in a fast paced, well paid job that would never be boring! I have to say i am learning something new every day... just got to try and remember it all!

The Hard work has now begun!

End of the week now. need to sleep! we had pattern cutting and construction at the end of this week. Pattern cutting seems relatively simple although Im sure they'll be much more complicated and difficult patterns but mostly its just common sense. So no stress there yet but finding it hard getting used to the machines. The sewing machines just go so quick, but stayed behind for a little while friday to try and get to grips with it. Still pretty sketchy though! I can just about manage the overlocker now though so one down one to go!

Had a look at Drappers web site... loads of jobs in London and Midlands, which was quite reassuring. I know its early but i think I'm going to at least have to put a bit of thought in to what I should do for my placement. Need to find out best locations and companies and find out whats out there.