Fashion illustration

Because our concept is Mystery/Mirror, I tried describing our design like a woman appears from a mirror.

The dress is still connecting to the mirror surface.

To be honest, painting the mirror frame took a time more than the woman.

Used media:

Pencil

Acrylic colour

Water colour

0.5mm pen

tracing paper

Sewing the dress

I used some new techniques which I learned though making my sewing file. The samples are really helpful.
All notations are in this video as usual.
It is slightly long this time. So, please have a nice cuppa, and enjoy!

Sewing File 2

There are more sewing samples here which I have done so far.
All details (needle size, stitch length and thread info) are in my actual sewing file.
I will add some more until the deadline.

Technical drawing sheet 2

I add design illustration and small pattern illustration to my technical drawing sheet.
I used Photoshop to put colour in it.
I also scanned the actual fabric and used it to show the pattern.

Fabrics and trimming shops in London

We went some more fabrics and trimming shops in London.
Adding more Shepherd Bush, Edgware, Hackney and Victoria.

Technical drawing

I have learned how to draw technical drawing from this book in last Christmas holiday.
This book is very easy and well explained, I will recommend somebody who wants to study it.
I also practised with Adobe Illustrator and it was very fun!

So these are my hand drawing ones.
I used proper fine pens (uni, pin, 0.5, 0.1).

B,Szkutnicka (2010). Technical Drawing for Fashion.

London. Central Saint Martins Book Creation

And this is one with Illustrator.
Both are almost same but computer ones have much more clean lines.
Usually we do not have to draw side, but this design has details on sides so I drew it as well.

The Longest Day in March

I showed my first toile to tutors on Thursday and we found many 'not good' parts. The worst thing was hiding some darts. It means I need to remake patterns. And because this module is very short, I had to finish the new toile until tomorrow. So, I got only 24 hours. I thought I cannot sleep tonight...

Making pattern 2

Because one of our group members was absent from school last week, one of us had to make another one for her. I did not mind to make again, so I started making a new design again. Anyway, it is good practise. I am happy to do again.
(After I made this video,I realized I made a mistake about making notch. The way is for home sewing, and for industrial quality, we should make tiny snips as notches).

[Extra] Making a toile

I started making a toile. Sewing stage is much more relax than making pattern.
All notations are in this video.
Anyway, every single parts of process are fun!

Dyeing workshop

This workshop is a kind of introducing for dyeing fabric.
It is easy if it was small amount, but if I need to dye for whole my collection, it will be very hard to get good outcome. If I had a time, I will experiment some more.

[Extra] Pattern making

We started making pattern from other member's design.
First, our group was going to make more complicating silhouette but it was seemed to be impossible.
So we changed our design much easier and basic shapes.
Then we swapped our design.
The shape I had got one was long and tight dress with a big box pleats on the back skirt.
It was mostly basic shape, so it was not difficult. But the skirt was 123cm length.
Anyway, all notations are in this video.

Sewing file 1

Basic lines and curve, gathers.
I used black thread for this practise. Because one is for challenge, (black thread cannot gross over bad seam line) and the other is for permanent reference file (easy to find out seam lines).
I slightly regretted what I did not do ironing all samples before taking these photos. (Of course I did after that.)
What is a difficult point is controlling sewing machine speed.
Some of them are very fast and hard to get it slow. It means curve, corner, edge seams are often run over.
I need to get use to using industrial one as soon as possible.

Taped dress: Preparation to pattern making

This method was very interesting and unexpected.
Because I have been thinking that pattern should be followed normal panel shapes.
But this practise was much unlimited.
So I challenged very stream lined patterns.
I have no idea how my design turns to 3D.
I will see it when I made the toile.

Fabric contents workshop

[Fibre]

Natural Fibre
-Cellulose (Plant)
    Linen (flax), Cotton, Hemp, Bamboo, Pineapple, Nettle, etc.
-Protein (Animal)
    Silk, Wool (Sheep, Cashmere, Alpaca, Vicuna, Camel, Angora, Mohair, Yak, etc.)

Man-made Fibre (early 1920's)
-Rayon 'Art Silk'
    Acetate, Viscose, Cuprammonium (Brushed silk)

Synthetic Fibre
    Poly-amide (Nylon), Polyester, Acrylic, Polyvinyl Chloride, Polyurethane, etc)


[Weaving]
Plane, Satin, Basket, Twill, Brocade/Damask, Pile, Herringbone, etc.

It was very useful workshop. I could tidy my confused knowledge up.
For example, 'Denim' is, a name of fabric, the contents is '100% cotton', weaving is 'Twill'.

*Polyurethane=Elastane (Europe) =Spandex (USA)
All names indicate same fibre. Also each company has different brand names such as...
Latex, Elapspan (by Invista), Creora (by Hyosung), ROICA, Dorlastan (by Asahi Kasei), Linel (by Fillattice), ESPA (Toyobo)

Design Development

These are design development for Mystery/Mirror. My main concept is turning landscape photographs to vertical and find out shapes from the outline. Horizon becomes centre line. One side is the reflection. It is quite similar technique to technical drawing. Our group is going to mix each members' designs and ideas later. So these are not the final designs.

Extra practise for Pattern cutting

What a fascinating technique is!
I want to know more about pattern cutting.
So, I tried practising with a refernce book.
All notations are in this video.

B. Zamkoff, J. Price (2009). Basic Pettern Skills for Fashion Design. Fairshild Books.USA

Fabric and Trimming shops around SOHO

These shops are already familiar for me.
What unique thing is, each shop has each strength.
For example, Cloth House (North one) has wide range of natural fabrics for interior like Linen and cotton (they do not have any sheer fabrics!), on the other hand, Broadwick Silks has many fabrics for dress (like organza, doupion, Velvet and heavy embroidered silks). Cloth House (South) and Borovick Fabrics Ltd. have some unusual fabrics such like rubber (not Lycra!), polyester mixed with real feathers, new pattern Lycra and synthetics.
Their contact details are in the video.

My group theme.

New module has begun. Our group theme is "Mystery/Mirror". The target season is SS12. The theme is introduced from WGSN research. The colour ranges are dominated by dark colour and some vivid organic or geometric patterns. It may be slightly unusual for SS, but in these days, bright, pastel and white colours are quite classic for SS. Key desiners will be Gareth Pugh's and Alexander McQueen's SS2011.