My Tailor's Dummy

When i left work on Friday, my leaving present included a menswear tailor's dummy. I absolutely love it and can't wait to use it in my final year! At university there are stands for us to use however it'll be great for me to have one to use at home too.

It's got a metal stand and a black body cover, so it's looking pretty stylish. Especially in Nathan's superman costume so far that I made him that you can see in the photo below.

This gift will allow me to adjust patterns, fit toiles and garments and to display the finished product. It will also hopefully encourage me to start more personal projects.

Image from my phone (sorry for the poor quality!)

Superhero Costumes - Part 3

After making the specifications I could then begin to draw up the pattern for the Superman t-shirt. This is something I have learned to do since working for Cohen and Wilks and I think it will be really useful for my final year at university.

 Once I knew how wide the top would be then I made a small pattern for the Superman logo to be appliqued to the front. This was done by cutting out the outline shape in 3 layers of fabric - 2 yellow (to stop showthrough of the blue) and one layer of red. I then cut out the red part to give the logo and pinned this in place onto the yellow fabrics. I used a zig-zag stitch to completely secure the "S" in place.

I really love the effect of this as it looks smooth, and neat and I know there is no chance the fabric could fray or spoil. If I was to do this again however I would use an interlining just to stiffen the red fabric as little, as I found it did move as I stitched it.

 

I then placed the logo onto the front of the fabric and stitched this into place. Next I stitched the front and back together at the side seams and shoulder seams.

My next steps to complete this part of the costume is to finish the seam allowances, stitch in the sleeves, stitch the hem, cuffs and collar. and this part will be complete. I will put up a photo of Nathan wearing it once it has been completed.

All photos are from my camera.

Just a little something...

Well, it's been a while since I have written on here. I've been very busy over the past 6-7months doing my placement in QA at Cohen and Wilks. It has been an amazing experience so far and I am still learning so much from it. I have been working with Childrenswear, which is a new experience for me, and my role mainly consists of requesting tests on fabrics and components (so the garment will be safe) and measuring and checking garments for quality. I personally work with TU@Sainsbury's, Littlewoods, Dunnes and Peacocks as customers. Other customers Chen and Wilks supply to are M&S, Debenhams, Next, Mothercare, George, Tesco and John Lewis, as well as many others. I have worked and inspected garments for all these customers, which has shown me the differences in childrens clothing in the High Street. I have gained so much experience, more than I could imagine, since I started working there and I love my role as a QA, and although I don't get to make things, I am certainly considering working more in QA after university.

It'll be weird going back to university but I am looking forward to the work and projects I will be set in Final Year, even though it will be a HUGE amount of work. I've already started considering what I'll write about in my dissertation and what my designs and final collection could be based on. I think what I'm looking forward to most abotu going back to uni is the fact I'll be spending more time being creative again.

Well to end this post I thought I'd show you the suit jacket and trousers that I made for Nathan, which he wore to the Cohen and Wilks Staff Christmas Party.

Image taken from my camera. Thanks to Nathan Whitehouse for allowing me to use this photo of him.

Interview Technique

When I found out I had an interview with Cohen and Wilks in February, I wanted to do all I could in preparation for this. I didn't feel confident about my interview techniques, and I was feeling excited but also nervous. Cohen and Wilks is situated in Leeds and this was where I wanted to stay to complete my placement year, and many students have recommended the company from their past experience there.

In my design development module, we were advised that if we had time to produce an extra project for the company, showing how your skills can be related to them. This, to begin with sounded like a lot of work but I wanted to be remembered at this interview and this seemed the best way. I did a little bit of research into the company when I was applying for the placement, and found out they supply clothing to a number of high street stores. George at ASDA was one on the list and I decided to complete a childrenswear project for them, as I haven't got much experience in this sector of fashion.

I started by looking into George at ASDA as a company; their history, website and future products were just a few sections I wrote about. This was very interesting for me to look into and I felt more prepared for the interview just by doing this small amount of research.

Next I looked at their current products for girls and boys aged 4-12 years. This allowed me to see shapes, style, colour, print and fabrics and also enabled me to get a feel for the childrenswear sector so that I could analyse trends and predicted shapes to see how well they would work in a collection for George.

After this I researched childrenswear trends for Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 on WGSN and began to look at colours, shapes, moods and concepts of these trends. This was quite different to menswear and womenswear trends as they were less about the world around them but the experiences and lifestyles that you lose as an adult. The predicted shaped I looked into were coats and jackets, which incidentally is the area Cohen and Wilks provide the most garments in for chidrenswear.

Next was the creative part, and the most fun part for me, creating moods for both the boys and girls collections. The boys collection was called "Nostalgic Nature", which inspired the mood for my current Design Development project for Burton Menswear. And the girls collection was called "Favourite Fantasy". I then designed a page of jackets for each collection, and analysed them by hand after they were printed.

All this was completed on Illustrator, to show my skills in using this design package. As simple as this project looks, it was designed this way. Each decision in terms of layout, colour and font were all thought about carefully to display the right feel for the project and to provide clarity in my work.

I was told during my interview that this was a really good idea to do in preparation for the interview and is something I will probably aim to do as part of my research for future job interviews. It creates a good starting point for a conversation and also allows the company to see research and skills based purely on them. I would advise other designers to try this in their interviews, it will definitely make you stand out!

All images are of my own work; trend images are from wgsn.com; information about George and the current collections are from http://direct.asda.com/george/clothing/10,default,sc.html.

Fashion is so busy busy busy...

This term I have been so busy keeping up with work, deadlines, placement applications and interviews, while still trying to have some me time, just so I don't go crazy.

Firstly I'll start off with good news, I have been offered and I've accepted a Placement at Cohen & Wilks in Leeds, securing a job in Quality Assurance (QA), which I am really looking forward to. From July 2010 I will be starting my rather practical placement (this is what I love most in Fashion) and I will get a taste of what my future might hold for me.

Over the past term at university I have had a marketing project, a brand audit, a design project on sustainability and a Nonwovens project titled "FASHION: Decoratif". All of which have been interesting, exciting and a lot of hard work. You can look forward to seeing some examples of the things I've been doing over the past 8 weeks in the posts to come.