week 3 - trousers 1

The third week of Explore Materials we had to make a pair of trousers and my team and I chose to work with linen which is a middle heavy and moving fabric. I thought of a trouser that would have a really low cut around the hip and another printed fabric would continue on the top and shape a kind of a bubble. I started with a basic block of trousers and i worked with a kind of gathering i would say, using much fabric on a smaller piece of calico and sewing it all around.

Then I added pockets

The next step was adding the front of the trousers which i thought i wanted it to be simple.

The next step was to add the upper part ,so i used a printed cotton fabric , added elastic on the part of the waste and connected it with the first piece.

The last part of the trousers was adding two more pieces of cotton fabric on each leg which i thought should open in the bottom with a Velcro up close.

The last detail I added was cutting out some small wholes on the front surface so that the design looks like a continue on the cotton fabric print.

The trousers where ready to be worn!And the show started once more !

General comments about the garment:

When finishing the trousers, I was not as satisfied with the outcome as I did for the last two garments. I believe it was too full of information and the viewer did not know on which area to focus first. I think that the basic mistake was the choice of the additional fabric. If I would only work with the given black linen fabric , it would be much better.I think this pair of trousers would not be able to be called fashion due to the design of it. Another main problem that the garment had was the pockets on the back which stood very low as i did not count where i should place them the right way. A good aspect of this week was that I noticed I improved my sewing skills and I felt more confident with it. A main thing that I should improve the next time is focusing on the phrase ' less is more' and create a much smarted and simpler garment. I used two meters of black linen fabric which costed me 5.50 pounds and a meter of cotton fabric which costed me 3 pounds a meter. Both fabrics where sourced at the Goldhawk fabric market.

week 2- dress

This week's garment was a dress and my team and I decided to work with clear PVC fabric. The inspiration for the dress I made was the fabric it's own. PVC is a waterproof material so i thought of making a functional dress, waterproof against rain, in the best way I could. Starting, I made cut a pattern of a simple A line dress fitted to the body, but decreasing the centimeters on the lower hip.

The next step was the decoration of the lower part of the dress. I thought of the shape of an umbrella, and how I could use this shape for the advantage of the dress, so I turned the shape upside down and this automatically created some kind of big pockets all around the skirt. I cut a circle on a blue pvc fabric and separated the centimeters in exact same parts, then i sewed it around the dress. Then I cut and added two sleeves, a blue and a stripped one with blue and clear pvc.

The next step in the creation of the dress was adding a hood. I had never before made a hood so I created my own pattern as I had first looked at hoods in my closet. I wanted to decorate the dress and that's how I came up with the idea to use in my advantage the invisibility of the material. So I experimented by putting many colourful threads on a square piece of clear piece and one more over the first one. I sewed it all together in order to trap the design inside the material.I cut the shape of the hood and added it on the dress. finally I put a thin piece of fabric in it so that the person who wears it can wrap it around the head. The last step was to add a zip, which started from the middle back of the hood and ended in the lower back.

The dress was finalized and the show was about to start! Here are some pictures of my dress worn by the model.

My general comments about this garment:

I believe it worked quit well as an idea and it came out exactly as I imagined it but it had a big technical mistake, this was the size and particularly the lower hip. The fact that I reduced the centimeters because I wanted it to be fitted on the body, made the area become really small in the end, so that no hip of a size 8-10 could be able to fit in. The result was for the seam to rip of the that area. I think that this dress could be called fashionable in its own way, as it was different and fresh, as well as humorous but I could only imagine an extreme singer of celebrity in it. For an opening I used a big zip that started from the middle of the hood and ended on the lower back, which I think was right on the top in order for a head to fit in but wrong on the lower part in which case the zip should have been longer.The next time I could improve my pattern cutting skills especially for the hood and the sizes. For the making of this dress I used 2 meters of clear pvc whic costed me 3 pounds a meter, and 1.5 meters of blue pvc which costed me 6 pounds a meter. Both fabrics were sourced at borowick ltd at Berwick street,London.

Week 1- Skirt

In the first creation of garment, the challenge was to create a skirt. My team chose to work with cotton and the buyer bought 100% cotton fabric in colour pink. When getting into the working room I had in my mind to start with a simple a line skirt, so that I could work on the basic pattern of a skirt. I added some details of a fabric that was a composition of cotton and silk, so that the  garment had some decoration.

After I finished the basic line of the skirt, I had a look at the small book I keep all my findings with garments and details and I got inspired by the ballerina skirts. I started experimenting and the basic idea was to create a garment that was " a skirt on another skirt".I liked the thought that this would create a contrast between the sophisticated and ladylike a line skirt, and the girly ballerina skirt.I wanted to make a much shorter ballerina skirt with many seams. So I tried to cut a circle which I later on, but into many small pieces and re-sewed again.

\

After I had all the pieces sewed together I took my experimentation further by tearing of the half seaming and sewing the one skirt on the other. The parts of the small fabric pieces that where left, where hanging down and I wanted to put them back on the top.That is how I made the top part around the belly and trapping the small pieces in there. The part under the belt of the belly was out of many torn vertical stripes. My last step on the process of making was to cross inside out another piece of the satin fabric horizontal.

The zip was added in the end and my model was ready to wear the skirt right before the fashion show.

My general comments about the garment:

I personally believe that it worked quite well as an idea but not as a garment due to the many technical problems that were obvious in the way it was sewed and the really low quality of the fabric. I think that if this idea would be worked with another type of fabric and more effort as it has to do with the hours of working on it, it would be a really good and easily wearable skirt. I think that it is fashionable but not at the moment, because the idea is kind of innovative and different from what a buyer can find in the shops, but I think that it could be a trend set. The serious mistake that I should really work on is the opening and in this case the zip because on the lower part it was visible on the outer surface of the garment. There are generally many things that I should definitely do to improve for the next week such as taking more care of the finishings and finishes, taking more time on the sewing machine so that I am not stressed to hurry up with everything on the last second and trying to add a detail like pockets.

The fabric I mainly used for this skirt was 100% cotton and some additional detailing with composition of cotton and silk. I used two meters of fabric for the whole final outcome and it costed me 3 pounds for 2 meters of cotton and 5 pounds for 30 cm of silk. The buyer bought the fabric from the Sepherd's Bush market area of fabric stores.