THE PERFECT PATTERN BLOCK

It all starts with a block, a pattern block.. of course I am talking about pattern drafting, an area of fashion design which I really enjoy and get quite geeky about!

Pattern blocks are the starting point of any pattern/design, it is a simple pattern with no seam allowance. It has marked on it the darts, grain-line and labeled with the size, piece, how many to cut ect. From this first pattern anything, literally anything can be made.. it's all up to how creative you are.

I needed the perfect pattern block that fits the Size 10 mannequins we use in university, so I went in today and kept on drafting/cutting up in calico and sewing together until I got the perfect fit. I'm really happy with it, so now I can take this and create anything I want, knowing that it will fit perfectly!

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BLACK JERSEY

As I'm now on my 5 month long summer holiday I couldn't just sit around doing nothing! So I've decided I'm going to work on my core skills.. pattern drafting, sewing and illustration. I want to sew as much as I can, for fun and for me, the dream is to make a whole new wardrobe of clothes for myself!

So last night this design came into my mind.. a floor length black Jersey dress with extra long sleeves. It's simple, classy and a little bit grungy. I don't work with stretch fabrics, not since A Level Textiles, it's a hard fabric to cut and sew (for me personally). So I want to tackle that and I think this is the dress I want to attempt to master working with Jersey. 

I really like this illustration, I just love the black with soft pastel pinks. If you've been following me or checking my Tumblr out (link in the buttons to the right side) you will see my style has gone totally grunge these past few months! So I think this illustration fits in quite well with my new style!

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3D-2D-3D EXTREME MAKEOVER

This week has been an exiting one at university, we had a workshop to help us with our new project

It was called 3D-2D-3D Extreme Makeover.. basically we had to choose a 3D object, take a 2D pattern from that, then create 3D shapes with those pattern pieces on a mannequin. It was really fun as I had never used this method of pattern cutting before but after this week I think I will be using it a lot in my future work as the results I got from it was amazing.

So my 3D object was a shoe, one of my double stacked Creepers to be exact, I thought it had a really interesting shape and would give me some great pattern pieces to play with. I covered the shoe in cling film then wrapped the shoe in layers of masking tape, it actually looked quite cool all wrapped up. From that I drew my cutting lines with notches (very important!) so that I'd be able to match up the pieces with each other.

I cut the masking tape off, very carefully as I did not want to cut into my £65 shoes that I haven't long had! I transfered the pattern to paper, cut out.. then I started to play!

Just by placing the pieces on the mannequin in different places you can create really avant garde, really new shapes that would be hard (for me anyway) to create from just flat pattern cutting. I spent 2 days playing with this, and that's what it really felt like.. playing. Just by moving things about, distorting the silhouette and thinking about combinations of shapes that you wouldn't normally have thought about creates designs that really are out of this world.

I took well over 200 pictures of all my 'creations', enough to fill a sketchbook already and from these I will take them into development.. I'll sketch and illustrate from these and hopefully come up with some innovative original designs.

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INNOVATIONS

So I got my new project brief.. and I LOVE it.

It's called Innovations and it's all about as you may have guessed, being innovative. It's a really exiting project, we have to develop the theme of 'Transparency', this project will focus on - manipulation, distortion and radically altering the human silhouette, and redefining the natural contours of the body.

It's a really interesting brief and along with our own interpretation of the theme we are having 3 week long workshops that will teach us new skills such as experimenting with new fabrics/processes, new pattern cutting methods and techniques.

I've already started my research as you saw with my trip to Bristol Aquarium, I'm really interested in undersea plants/coral and looking at deep sea creatures as they're transparent and utterly beautiful. I'll keep you guys updated as I go along, I really want to try and document this project on this blog.. just like I did with my 'Fleur De Eternelle' project last year.

Tomorrow I start my first workshop.. 3D-2D-3D Extreme Makeover.. I'll be blogging about that later this week!

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CARDIFF

WOW, my life has changed.

Ty Pont Haearn - My New Home

I have been living in Cardiff now for almost 3 weeks and attending the University of Glamorgan for about 2 weeks now, my life couldn't be more different to the life I had back in Llanelli. Coming from a small town/village and suddenly to be living in a huge city is quite the step up for me, but it's been such a positive change.

I now live in the Cardiff city centre, it seriously only takes me a few minutes to walk from my flat to the centre of town which is amazing because I don't have to rely on busses or anything to go where I want/need to go. It's also opened up a whole new way of living, change of lifestyle and getting used to a lot of new things.. such as living by the railway.. the first few nights were pretty much sleepless! I've now got responsibilities I've never had to deal with before such as washing, cooking, cleaning but I'm slowly adapting and learning some valuable life skills, I'm struggling most with the cooking.. I have burnt quite a few things, filling the kitchen with smoke.

I'm also living in a flat with other people, it's only been 3 weeks but I already love my flat-mates.. Hannah, Jim, Emma and Bonita. They're great and I'm so happy that we get along so well, I love it when we just hang out in the kitchen together.. cooking, chatting just generally having a good time. I already call the flat home, because now it does feel like home. For the first few days it felt like I was staying at a hotel, but now it's my home.

Starting University has been another huge life-changing part of the past few weeks, so far I'm enjoying it. It is a little boring just listening to all the briefs and inductions, but as soon as those are done we can get more stuck in with practical work which I'm really looking forward too. I've had my first Pattern Drafting lesson and been on the industrial sewing machines, so already I'm learning new things. The first week we did have a Project Runway style challenge, which culminated in a Freshers Week Fashion Show.. more on this in my next post!!

It's been a mad few weeks, everyday has been an adventure so I hope you can understand my lack of posting on here. I hate neglecting my blog but honestly have not had the time to post, but once everything starts settling down I'm sure I will be posting regularly as normal. That's it for now, my next post will be on the fashion show!!

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