My Finished Toile/Skirt!

Finally! I have finished my skirt for the last brief! It took me a lot longer than I had imagined it would, but at least it is complete.

Front

Side

Back

Above are a few images of my Toile. It doesn't look exactly like my chosen design, I had a fair few difficulties. 

I know what your thinking, it's not exactly fashionable, well, it's not supposed to be, I was focused more on the idea of anti-fashion, breaking all the rules, and my original concept for this design, which is rebelling, anger and chaos. 

I began by ripping up scrap fabric, to represent shattered glass, as though thrown in anger. Ripping up fabric in itself  produces a very powerful feeling.I haven't used any over locking, and the rough sewing is shown at the seams as another way of showing rebellion in my design.

Box Pleat and Inverted Pleat.

Above is a picture of a front skirt with inverted pleats that I made during a Pattern Cutting lesson at College. I found it difficult to sew a straight stitch, so it isn't exactly perfect, but I have given it a go, and now know how to sew inverted pleats, with practise I am sure I can improve.

Above is a picture of a Front skit with a Box pleat that I made during a Pattern Cutting lesson at College. I sewed one of the darts in the wrong place so I had to unpick it and try it again, However I feel that it turned out alright for my first attempt.

Pattern cutting lesson Last week.

The first day back in college, it was a Wednesday so we had Pattern cutting;

These are images of a skirt I made in College, as you can see in the pictures there is a waist facing, an interfacing and a retainer row.

Retainer row: The stitching you can see just below the seam. Stops the facing from rolling up at the seam.

Waist facing: The fabric inside the garment that encloses the raw edge of the fabric.

Interfacing: Light, Medium or Heavy, it is sewn to the facing to stiffen an area of garment. It is often used to stiffen collars, cuffs, and waist facings, etc. The heavy weight interfacing is used to help hold the structure of a garment and keep it's bold shape.

I think I should have sewn the retainer row closer to the seam than I did, however I feel my poor sewing skills are gradually improving with practise. :)

How to shorten a zip. :)

I have learnt how to shorten a zip through a pattern cutting lesson. It is very simple and useful to know, so I have broken it down to three easy steps for you.

Step one: Decide on the desired length of your zip and mark it on lightly.

Step two: With a needle and thread, sew a few tight loops around the zipper -over the teeth- where you have lightly marked, to act as a stopper.

Step three: When you are satisfied with your new stopper, you can cut the part of the zip that you no longer need off.

Designing

So I have started my designs based on my theme of change over time (I will try and upload the photos soon). I have based the designs on emotions, and have used a time from my life to represent this, it's based over two years. I was slightly unsure about this, as I have gone through some fairly hurtful things, and being so open about it can be hard. However I have ignored my uncertainties and gone for it.

Isn't it funny how dramatically our lives can change over such a short period of time?

Tattoo artists

In my opinion tattooing is an art form, a tattoo is a piece of art on the skin, and I think their fantastic. They can be so beautiful and personal.

I used to be a fan of Miami Ink, a television show about a tattoo shop in Miami, they create such wonderful, unique pieces of art, it's incredible. One Tattooist in particular stood out to me, and that is why I have chose to write about her for my current brief. Kat Von D is an extremely talented tattooist, and is probably best known for her portraits. 

Below are a few examples of skilfully created tattoo's:

(All images below are taken from google, I don't own any of them.)

Kat Von D

Not so new brief and my chosen theme. :)

I apologise for my lack of posts, I have been busy.

So we are on to a new brief, well, okay, not so new, we have been working on it for about two weeks now, but this is my first blog post about it.
I have had to choose a theme to base designs of a skirt on, and after much deliberation I have settled on the theme of Time, and change.
Everything seems to revolve around time, and change is one of those things. As humans, we change in some way over time, technology changes over time, places change over time, everything.
I'm not 100% sure on how I'm going to portray this concept through my designs, however I am happy with my theme and hope that ideas will come with time.