Trousers Handed In!

I had to finish them off at home but I'm sooo happy with my final pair of trousers. The sewing went so well and I had no major problems, not one minor problem either really!
I chose a grey fabric as you know and ended up using a baby pink silk for the pocket lining which worked really well as a contrast. The trousers now fit really nice and I'm so happy to have handed them in today.
I'd love it if they got picked for the media fashion show in a couple of weeks which will feature some of the trousers made by first years. It's a charity event for the blind so I had to provide a written description which, if I get picked, will be read out as the model walks down the catwalk.

Also on a random note, I met the 3rd year student I will be helping for the rest of term today. She seems so lovely and I'm actually really excited because the collection she's designed is just the sort of thing I love - bright colours, patterns and quite commercial items. I don't start work with her for another 3 weeks but I've offered to go in during the Easter holidays if she needs me.
Work I need to do with her includes pattern cutting, tracing off patterns, helping with photoshoots, designing and making accessories, and basically just to help tie up any loose ends. I think I'll also be needed to help dressing for the graduate fashion show at the very end of the year which will be hard work!

I'll let you know how this goes!

That Vintage Feel, My Shirt and Trouser Project Update

I bought my fabrics for both the shirt and trouser on Monday and they are exactly how I wanted. I bought some gray fabric for the trousers, they've got some stretch in them and are plain pale grey, they quite thick with a nice weight should help the fall of the trouser legs. I bought 2 metres at £5.99 per metre. I then bought the prettiest dusty pink silk dupion which has a slight shine to it. This was more expensive at £10 a metre, I bought 2 metres again.

On Tuesday I fitted the trouser toile and the only change I needed to do was to take in the leg more, as it wasn't quite fitted enough. I took a good 4cm off from the master-draft and re-drafted my pattern. I've cut out all my fabric now and have over-locked all the pieces except the pocket bag and facing as this is a different fabric which I didn't have on the day.My trousers are slim fit, and they come out slightly at the hips to give a good silhouette. They are size 10.

Today, after fitting the shirt onto a mannequin last week, I changed some of the shirt such as the length of the sleeve. I also wanted a gather at the sleeve head so had to sort this out on the master-draft. I changed the collar shape too, I made it smaller and rounder to make it look more delicate. I've cut all of this fabric out too, ready to start sewing next week at university.

I need to buy a zip for the trousers and some buttons for the shirt, I've got some in mind I just need to find somewhere that does what I'm looking for!

After falling in love with the dusty, antique pink silk I immediately made my mind up that I wanted the style of this outfit to be quite vintage - accessories would be gold and I'd love a model to wear my shirt with a really big, statement necklace. I can also imagine a huge pair of gorgeous, cute heels that would go perfectly with the fitted trousers.

My Portfolio

All work done by me, I'll update it as I add to my portfolio.

I wrote my CV this morning in Professional Studies. It was the first time I had written one since school, oops! But I was surprised to find I could write so much about skills that I've learned since college. I was asked why I had kept my CV to only one page, which I thought was a good question. I guess it was my instinct to just fit it all onto one page. I think it just looks a lot neater and as employees only take a minute to skim through, one page is simpler and more straight to the point to look at. On the other hand, if I had a lot to write about, only keeping it to one page would be silly; why only have 1 page of information about yourself when you've got so much more to tell? As my skills and experience grow I'm pretty sure my CV will too - just like my portfolio!

Super Cute Strawberry

Thought I'd just share with you a bag I ordered on Wednesday. It's the cutest bag I've ever seen. Quite Katy Perry inspired don't you think? I've not been so excited about a bag for a long time, oh this joys of being a woman!
Ok, it's not very practical, I can't carry much in it but I don't really care! It's definetly a pretty accessory more than a practical item. I'm counting down the days until it arrives at my door.

There's More To Fashion Than Sewing & Shopping

So Friday's session at university was our Fashion Design Practice lesson. We were working on the Macs on Adobe InDesign to create a fashion magazine front cover. I've then got to use the shop research and reports I did earlier in the semester to do a page comparing prices that would appear inside the fashion magazine. I'm really enjoying this kind of work! I have Photoshop at home and so I'm pretty familiar with the program but InDesign is really new to me.

It's really opened my eyes to the different areas in fashion and if I'm honest, the newer things like this are exciting me alot more than standard pattern cutting and manufacture. Many people close to me are great at art and I've always enjoyed drawing and painting, so I think the reason I'm enjoying these sorts of lessons is that it's bringing the more creative side of me out at the moment. I even enjoy writing, I've got really into this blog malarchy and I quite enjoyed writing the essays on fashion and it's history.

I've really opened my eyes to the possibilities of doing something other than sewing and pattern cutting. Perhaps I could be a future fashion illustrator? Or magazine columnist? Or even a trend researcher for a company?Above is an image I did for a Visual Studies module last semester. I chose to look at gothic architecture and created 2 illustrations based on this. I drew the original figure with pen, scanned it in then using Photoshop, scanned in other images and fabrics for the clothes. The male image I created was similar to this.

I plan to upload more photos of my work to show you soon.

Technical Fashion Projects

Just a quick blog from me today. I spent this afternoon finishing a toile of a basic pair of trousers, which I've then got to adapt to my own design for a final pair. Tomorrow I'm doing more work on a shirt project which is alongside the trousers- I've completed a toile of this too.

So now I have to seriously think about how I want to change the designs for this shirt/trouser combo. I'm thinking dusty pink shirt with puff sleeves, low neck-line and darts to make it fitted, but I'm still trying to find that extra something to make it different. I'm thinking maybe how I embellish it with buttons etc. could really make the shirt more individual.

Now for the trousers I'm not too sure...maybe a grey fabric, or a dark brown? and I can't decided whether to make a really nice wide-leg trouser, or slim-fit, I'm swaying more towards the wide leg at the moment but I'm pretty sure that could change! Anyway I'm going fabric shopping soon at the market in Derby - there's a really great fabric stall (that's been extended recently yay!) which is where I plan to go.

I've already spotted the shirt fabric, ooh I love fabric shopping I'm actually quite excited! It's like looking through your wardrobe and finding something you forgot you had but once really loved - just rolls and rolls of fabric piled up, I have to admit I spent a while browsing the material last week, and I plan to do that again but come away with something this time!

I'll keep you posted about my final designs for this project.

I'm A Barbie Girl

I was browsing blogs today, something that has grown on me immensely since starting my own, and read an entry about a Barbie Runway Show which happened on February 14th this year (valentines day how cute!). The pictures just say it all really, I guess this was a fashion show to present the many different Barbie looks. It amazed me that the clothes looked so much like something Barbie would wear, but at the same time the models didn't look too bad either!I guess Barbie is probably one of the first things little girls look at for fashion inspiration - without knowing it obviously. I remember thinking I wanted to get married in the same dress one of my Barbies had. I also used to get sooo excited when I'd buy a new outfit for her, or sometimes my mum would even make her a cute dress. Although nothing could beat those little pink shoes that always got lost, and strangely it was never the pair that went missing it was only one shoe! I was smart enough to know that Barbie would not look cool in odd shoes, so most of the time she went bare-foot.

Another memory has just popped into my head and it made me giggle. I once attempted to make my beloved Barbie a shiny silver flared mini-skirt out of one of those silver tin foil cake wrappers (you have no idea how long it took me and my boyfriend to work out how to describe that thing!), I made a hole and stuck her legs through it, it didn't go to plan. Hmm it looked very uncomfortable and I think the next day she was back into her pretty wedding dress. That was probably the only fashion disaster my Barbie ever had!
“Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was six and my biggest problem was what kind of dress to put on Barbie"

Style Icon #1

KATY PERRY <3
I've been into her music for a while now, and I respect her just as much for her style.She said herself that she strives to be unique, and she pulls it off so well!
The amount of fun she has shows through in everything she wears. It's really impressive how much it reflects in her music and videos too. I think she's such a great example of showing your own personality in the way you present yourself. I'd like to think I do that too.I would just LOVE to have a rummage through her wardrobe.