elizabeth

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to make a quick post about a few different topics! I haven't written about my knitwear class in a long time. Mostly because we have been simply making swatches of different techniques and preparing our final project. The final is due on May 27th, so it is really crunch time over here. My inspiration this quarter is elephant skin - I love the textural qualities, and it's been really cool to translate that into knitwear. I need to photograph my sketch, mood board, and progress so far to share it with you! I will do that tomorrow and post it here by Saturday.

As far as footwear goes, we have critiqued our designs to death (4 times now!) and we're ready to focus on the final presentation. For Thursday, we will have some thumbnail sketches drawn out of how we want to present the final design concept. We'll have several pages explaining the concept, the trend it follows, our target market, and of course a few pages to communicate the design itself. Footwear is kind of on the backburner right now since knitwear is due long before it.

Finally, internships! I interviewed all April, and I don't remember if I announced it here or not, but at the beginning of May I was offered an internship position at Fossil. I'll be moving to Texas in mid-June to work in the women's leather accessories department. I'm very excited, I've always wanted to go to Texas, and I already have my housing lined up with some other girls from my school. I can't believe how quickly this quarter has gone! This summer I want to work on majorly overhauling my design portfolio, and I want to blog about that process here to help everyone else put together a beautiful exhibit of their work. I'll also be working on my 2nd wedding dress order this summer (the 1st is in progress right now!) so I have a feeling I'll be quite busy!

Anyway, that's all for now, just thought I'd stop in and let you all know what's coming up!
Love, Elizabeth

Tags: portfolio | presentation | footwear | elephants | inspiration | knitting | knitwear | summer internships | fashion

GreyElk

The third garment I made for my apparel construction class this semester was a shirt.  My instructor felt that the shirt was the most difficult project of the semester.  I had a little experience making shirts and none making pants, so I had more difficulty with the pants.  I think the hardest part of making a shirt isn’t the actual sewing, it is understanding what to do.  I already knew how to make a shirt, so as my classmates struggled to figure out how to make plackets, collars, cuffs, and all the other odd bits I was able to concentrate on getting everything made well.

I think I did a very good job with this shirt.  It is far from perfect, but I see consistent improvement with every shirt I make.  I had a lot of trouble with sleeve plackets and cuffs on previous shirts, but now those two seem easy.  My collar stands are getting better, but they still need a lot of work.

Unlike the previous two projects for my class, this one did not require a fit muslin.  We did a tissue fit instead.

The torso fit well, and my pattern had neck sizes marked in inches, so those two areas presented no problems.  I thought I would have to lengthen the sleeves, but after pinning my pattern to me my instructor said the sleeve length was good.  I should have lengthened them.  The sleeves on my first shirt were too short and I did not have enough fabric to make new ones.  I was ahead of schedule, so instead of making giant cuffs I made a new shirt.

I need an unbleached muslin shirt for my fashion industry class.  My plan was to make that shirt after I finished the broadcloth one for apparel construction, but after I gave up on the broadcloth shirt I decided to use the same shirt for both classes.  I used a heavyweight muslin that looks quite nice for apparel. 

I am not sure where the idea came from, but at some point I found myself thinking that as much as I liked my natural color shirt I would like it even more tie-dyed.  Once an idea gets lodged in my head I cannot shake it.  The local stores did not have a great selection of dyes, but I think the colors I chose work well together.  I am almost done with an undyed shirt for fashion industry.

Every year the apparel design instructors at my school meet with industry representatives to evaluate the program.  The most recent feedback they received was that Stout graduates are skilled in the technical areas of apparel design but have difficulty with presentation, communication, and technical writing.  The department will try to work on those areas.  Most classes will now require students to make some form of presentation.  Instead of a final exam for apparel construction, we had to make portfolio pages and present them to the class.

I never made a portfolio page before, I do not know how to use the software usually used for portfolio pages, and there was only one brief lesson in class about how to make a portfolio.  My pages for this class did not have to be up to professional standards; the purpose of this assignment was to introduce us to portfolios and presentations.  I included photos of the shirt, samples of fabric and notions, and flat drawings of the shirt and some of its more difficult parts.  I think my instructor was pleased with my portfolio.  Tomorrow I get it back and find out what I did wrong.

Tags: shirt | tie-dye | portfolio | muslin | cuffs | collar

Whisper

After many months, my website is finally up and running. It took a fair amount of time and effort, not least in learning Dreamweaver in the first place. We had a series of lectures on it, but in my usual learning attitude I skipped 90% of them, and instead spent the first 2 weeks of the term studying the program intensively through tutorials and online guides until I got the gist independantly. It's not the most efficient way of working, and it often puts me in an awkward situation in terms of interacting with tutors, but it seems to be the way that I work for better or worse.

At the moment it's primarily commission orientated, which isn't brilliant. I need to spend some time over the next few months gradually shifting the focus from commissions to potential employers of the more traditional sort. But I think it's a very good start.

www.needlemage.com

Check it out! :) Feedback is much appreciated.

Tags: website design | online presence | jobseeking | portfolio