Week NINE?!

Monday: Felt like today was pretty pointless to be honest. The work I did, I might as well have done at home. Couldn't do any work for the presentation as I couldn't find a working printer anywhereee and I didn't really want to have to do the work on computer. I know I'm being a bit grumbley, but I wanted to do it my own way and couldn't, so I was in a bit of a sulk today.
Wednesday: Lesson in illustrator, good job I've kept up with all my work, we've got a deadline next week! We weren't actually told any sooner than this (which would have been nice) so it was a bit of a shock. I think I'm up to date with everything luckily, but I'm probably going to go through it all and make some improvements on the pieces I'm going to submit.
Thursday: I was notttt looking forward to today. Pattern cutting is not my strongest point, and we were attempting making a whole shirt pattern alone today. I was worried, to say the least. Saying that, I think it actually turned out ok in the end. I think I understood where I was going all the way through, until I'd finished the pattern and had to walk around the pieces and my collar was about 2cm bigger than it was supposed to be! I couldn't figure out what I'd done, so needed a bit of help understanding, but I figured it out and (after two attempts!) managed to get a perfectly fitting pattern. I'm actually quite surprised at how much I've learnt in the past three months.
Friday: Today we continued with our shorts. I really enjoy our construction lessons, even if I end up spending half the time unpicking! I feel like the mistakes I make are silly little ones, that I shouldn't be doing anymore, and yet I just keep doing it! Luckily, I must be pretty speedy because I spent most of the day catching up, but by the end of it I was one of the first finished. I'm really impressed with my shorts, but I feel like I need to put a popper or a hook and eye above the fly-zip because it looks as though if the shorts were being worn, that the top would pull away slightly and not look straight. I might consider this after being marked though, as I would rather submit it in the way that we made it in class.

Week Eightttt.

Monday: We started off the lesson spliting groups, our half worked on some working drawings. We've already done a few for our pattern cutting unit, but this time we looked at some ready-drawn working drawings to see what things you could do wrong in a drawing that would have effect if you were to send a drawing off for production. It's amazing how much can be interpretted wrongly! The next part of the lesson involved charcol... which I'm not overally fond of. We had some fabric scraps that we had to draw from, trying to get the right texture. I don't think it started off to great but I definately improved, I really like the drawings I ended up with.
Tuesday: Catchup session today, for all our IT stuff! I didn't have too much to catch up on, as I've pretty much kept up with the IT stuff, but I did have a few questions. I did, however have a lot of my blog to sort out, I can safely say I am now all caught up!

Wednesday: Illustration - blending objects together to end up with a gradient between a number of objects. I made a mistake trying to blend a couple of separate objects together - I just ended up with a huge mess! We also had a go at making shapes into 3D objects, which I didn't really understand for a while but now that I get it, I think it's a really handy tool to use! I also had a bit of spare time at the end of the lesson and tired using a bunch of these techniques to come up with a random design, which I think has come out really funky!
Thursday: Pattern cutting, this time collars! Our last demonstration, which scares me a bit as next week we're making a patter for a shirt, all by ourselves! But I feel as though I've learnt a lot so (hopefully!) I'll be alright with it, I thought the collars went quite well, but I completely messed one up and had to re-draw it a few times... I had a headache by the end of the day!

Week SEVEN.

Monday: Today we continued with the Melting Pot project. To start off with we learnt to draw models. To be honest, I'm not that great with proportions... and it really shows in the first stages of my drawing, but as the morning went on, I picked up a bit and I actually think what I ended up with was alright. I know I need to expand on what I've done, but I think with a bit of practice I will do really well with these drawings. The rest of the day I concentrated more on the project itself and tried to do a bit more researching. I have now found a few designers, who I hadn't heard of before which I think will be really relevent with theme for this project.
Tuesday: In this session we concentrated on our presentation skills. In a few weeks we need to have produced a presentation on one of the fashion capitals so we spen the lesson playing around with different techniques you can use in powerpoint. I started up creating a presentation on Vivienne Westwood. I tried to be really technical with it, I didn't want it to be too boring, but I think I tried too hard 'cause I didn't have many slides finished by the end of the lesson!
Wednesday: Peclers presentation today! Peclers is a fashion forecasting company in Paris, we had someone come in and tell all of the fashion students about the way they look forward to the future and predict what are going to be big trends over the next year. In the presentations there were 'stories' which involved different themes for trends. Each story started out with an explanation of what the trend would acheive, what colours, what accesories would be used, how the trend was influenced etc. I felt like I learnt quite a lot about how to look forward at trends.
Thursday: Between the last time I had construction and this lesson I had to join the facing pieces together, finish the invisible zip and sew the side seems of my skirt together. In this lesson, our aim was to attatch the facing to the skirt and put in a hem. Annoyingly, I didn't catch the hem properly and had to unpick and overlock it all over again, which I didn't have time to finish in this lesson. Once we'd done the skirt, we started a pair of shorts. We were given the pieces already cut out so we didn't need a pattern at all, we jumped straight in with a fly-zip. After the invisible-zip on the skirt, I wasn't as worried about this zip and I just decided to go along with it.
Friday: Catchup day, managed to finish the skirt! I am really pleased with my skirt, it functions all very well and looks just great! It's a shame I used red thread on it, but I know it's easier to see.

Week Sixxx,

Monday: Got a new project brief today: Melting Pot. It's based on different cultures, mixing some together. At the moment, I like the idea of mosaics. I'm looking into Roman and Greek fashion trends, new and old, and what is on the catwalks at the moment which could relate to my idea. In the lesson we also had a look at some artworks which could relate. I didn't find any that particularly related to Roman or Greek fashion, but I did find one which was beautiful and I think I can still work it into my project.
Tuesday: In illustrator we chose a trainer and had to trace around it with the pen tool. When we had a full tracing we had to experiment how to change the colours of the trainer. I tried a few with colours from the colour palette, but I also used a few images that I got from the internet and made some swatches which used colour and patterns. I really enjoyed this task and I think it'll come in handy in the future.
Wednesday: Continued working on logos and advertisement from previous lesson. I'm not sure I really like this task, I don't really know how to make an advertisement and it's not really interesting me anymore. However, I am happy with how the piece of work has ended up so far and though I know there are things I could do to make it better, I am happy with how it looks.
Thursday: In pattern cutting we learnt to make an ordinary sleeve piece into a puffy sleeve, by adding more fabric into the shoulder and cuff. If I were to make the sleeve, it would involve a lot of gathering. I think this would be really good to add onto a garment that is fairly plain, and add a bit of oomph. We also learnt how to put button holes onto a garment. There's no guessing about it, there are numbers involved, and unfortunately for me, I'm no good with maths! All I remember is that it's something to do with pi... good job I have my book to use as a reference!
Friday: Back to construction, we got our a-line skirt pattern out and started making it. For this skirt we have to put in an invisible zip, which was the task we worked hard on in this lesson. I'm not really a fan of zips... don't know what it is, I'm just scared of them. I'm actually really pleased with how well my zip came out though, which I think has made me more confident now. In this lesson we also worked on some stuff about interfacing. I've used interfacing before, but I never knew how many types there were! I've definately learnt a lot more about what types you use for what and where...

Weeeeek Five!

Monday: A day out in London! I really enjoyed this day, partly because I was a bit closer to home, but mostly because it was something I'd never got to do before. We started off in Shepard's Bush, looking in a few of the little fabric shops there, and gathering a few samples. We saw all sorts of fabrics in these stores as none of them were specialist stores. The fabrics were also fairly cheap fabrics, some of them really nice though! We then moved onto Oxford Street. Amazingly enough we managed to stay out of all the lovely stores and stuck to the fabric stores! We were supposed to be in groups, but me and Celia stuck as a two as it was much easier to go around the stores and ask for fabrics. I think we managed to get around most of the fabric stores. Some of the people were really helpful and we saw a lot of amazing fabrics. Unfortunately, a lot of them were quite expensive, but I will definately be bearing these stores in mind for future designing.
Tuesday: We had a look at designing flats in illustrator in this lesson. I followed well and I understand how to draw half a garment, reflect them and join them together, so I will find it easy to do this in the future. Jamie also gave us a template for some stitching techniques and zips etc. When we made our t-shirt we had to put binding along the neckline and the stitching along the hems, which at first I struggled with, but I now know where I went wrong with it and I've sorted out my problem!
Wednesday: Today we were asked to design a logo for a store, trace around a design and start to work these into an magazine advertisement. I managed to do a basic, but effective logo, and start my design, but not get any further.
Thursday: Finally a chance to carry on with construction! We continued with the bodice we were making, adding the binding to the neckline and attatching the sleeves to the armholes. I got this finished and I am so pleased with it. Ok, so it's not the best thing I've ever made, but I'm really pleased that I've managed to sucessfully make one! First garment I've made in a while, yayyy!
Friday: A catch-up session today, I mainly worked on my seams that we did in our first construction lesson. Looking back, I did a pretty poor job, so I figured there was definately room for improvement! I am pleased with how they've come out now, even though I did have to do a few of them more than once!

Week Four!!!

Monday: Continued with the black & white themed project, I don't think my end garment came out exactly how I expected it to, I had to change it a bit. I think it came out alright, but there are definately things I would improve. I've done most of the sketchbook for this project but there are still things that I want to add to it.
Tuesday: Using illustrator we made a set of suits (card playing suits!) to practice our techniques and experiment with some new ones. I tried making a couple of the suits look really cool, but I don't think I've got the hang of illustrator enough 'cause mine don't look nearly as good as I'd planned them to!
Wednesday: More illustrator, this time we made a clock. Something pretty simple, but we used different techniques to come out with the end result. We also were shown how to change the format of our images so that they are easy to upload into our blogs.
Thursday: A day of pattern cutting, not really my favorite day of the week. This time we learnt about different types of darts. I now know how to remove a dart, how to move a dart from one place to another place and how to put in a new dart! I'm sure knowing that is going to come in handy in the future! Today we also found out about London Fashion Week, which is an exciting topic. To make sure things are fair we pulled names out of a hat, and I was one of them! It's going to be a fantastic opportunity and I am really looking forward to it.
Friday: Another day of pattern cutting, this time we worked on skirts. Our next garment to make is an a-line skirt, which we made a pattern for in this lesson. We used the technique of removing darts for this task and luckily I remembered what to do. We also learnt how to make a circle skirt, which was really easy. I got really confused when we were shown about a 1/4 circle, a 1/2 circle and a full circle skirt, but I think it was just too much learning for one day!

Fashion Show!

On the 18th October, a company named LMP Models held a Charity Fashion Show at the Cumberland Hotel on Bournemouth seafront. There were a few names selected to go and help out at this Fashion Show, and I happened to be lucky enough to be pulled out of the hat.

I was quite nervous about doing this show, as I'd never done anything like it before and I was scared that I'd do something really wrong, like dress someone up in the wrong clothes! But at the same time, I was really excited, as it was something completely different to what I've done before.

When I got there, nobody really had anything to do. All the models were practicing their walks, there were people moving chairs out into the main room, people setting up tables in the VIP area for drinks and such, and we were all sitting about waiting to be told what to do. There were the odd few jobs, but for quite a while, we just watched everyone going about doing what they were meant to be doing.

As soon as the VIPs were arriving, we were sent backstage to where all the clothes were being kept, before having to rush with all the clothes into the main backstage room. It was amazing being in there with all those clothes, getting to look at all the gorgeous styles that the models got to wear! We all raided the rails, to see what was there, someone got to wear Vivienne Westwood shoes! And a gold leather Armani jacket! Oooh there was so much excitement going around the room. We were also with all the models, while they were having their hair and make-up re-done, some of them chatted to us, which was nice. They seemed quite friendly. Unfortunately, a lot of them were eating baguettes and I didn't bring anything for dinner!

Time came when we actually had to start doing stuff. The 'Shop' that I was helping out with was called Vixen, and until the show had started, I didn't have anything that I needed to do yet, but one of the groups had to get their models dressed straight away, so they were changing in the tiny room, it was so cool to see what actually happens backstage, all the debating as to whether they should wear the jacket or not, or what way to have the necklace, with the pendant at the front, or at the back...

When it was our time to shine, we had models flying at us to get changed, from one shops clothes, into ours. Some of the girls were wearing really tight boots and we had to get them into pairs of tights and someone had cuts on their knees so we needed different tights and the clasps on the necklaces were so awkward and the shoes didn't fit someone and a bag went missing... and that sentence goes without breathing, because that is literally how it felt in that ten minutes while we were dressing our clothes on the models.

We all helped out on the last scene, the bridal couture, as there were all these corsets to tie up and loads of layers to keep the dresses poofy and there were loads of us who rushed over to help them out.

And then it was over. It was crazy how fast it went. Afterwards there was an auction, which we watched for a bit, then an after party that we went to, but there weren't a lot of people there so we went to another bar for a few drinks, then back home.

I definately enjoyed myself, I had a lot of fun and would love to do more of these shows. I felt like I settled into it fine and understood what was required to keep it running smoothly and I feel good knowing that we all did a good job.

Week Threeeee...

Monday: First time I've been late. Only by a few minutes, but I did miss the first things that were said to the class, which left me slightly confused. We have a project to do, based on structures. The design has to be created in black and white shades, using whichever materials we like. I didn't really know where to go with it, so I sketched down a few ideas and looked at some online photos to get a bit of inspiration. A lot of people had jumped into the making of their design straight away, which left me feeling a little lost, but I guess everyone does things in their own time. Once I'd actually figured out what I wanted to do, I jumped straight in, now I'm about halfway there with the design and I'm really excited about what the end product is going to be. Well, if it works out right. I'm using plastic for part of my idea and I'm not really sure about how it's going to work. It was really handy to have the tutors around all the time, 'cause I had someone to ask about the trouble I was having. I also liked that we were all together as a group, because it meant I had the chance to talk to some of the people in group B, which doesn't happen often!
Wednesday: Got lost on the way to Illustrator... found the room, then turned out to be the normal room, how confusing :s nevertheless, it was a good lesson. We had to make a load of weather symbols, which was pretty good. I'm happy with out they turned out. I'm still not very good at using the pen, I just can't figure out how to make curved edges properly for some reason! We also learnt how to write on the outside, or inside an object, I'll be using that tool for future moodboards!
Thursday: Using the paper pattern that we were working on a couple of lessons back, we made our bodice toile. I was quite worried at first, as I didn't want to mess it up with squiggly lines but I used a better machine this week, which I got along with nicely so I'll be sticking with that one from now on :] I did manage to end up with two right arms, rather than a left and a right, so I had to unpick quite a bit, but I still managed to catch up to everyone else by the end of the lesson.

Week Two!

Monday: We've had an entire day to make a moodboard. Over the past week we had to choose a topic and research and gather materials for the topic, ready to make it. I think that mine came out alright in the end, but it's unfinished! I had a bit of a brain-wave halfway though and what I wanted to do involved stuff at home, so as soon as I've finished it, I'll upload the end photo.

Tuesday: So, we've had a lesson in Photoshop now. I've used it before, but a lot of the time I do things by accident, think it's cool, and not understand what on Earth it was I'd done to achieve that end product.

I took loads of notes, and asked lots of annoying questions, so this time I might remember!

I don't think this moodboard is actually that great, but I think that by the end of the course, I'll be able to look back and see how much I've improved. Hopefully!

Wednesday: Today we had a lesson on Illustrator. I don't think I find this as interesting as Photoshop, but it's something I'd like to learn and get into a bit more. I don't feel like I really followed the lesson properly, I still came out with the drawing we were meant to do, but I'm not sure I'll remember it very well. It was a shame that there wasn't a big screen that we could look at as Steve did the demonstrations because I couldn't really see what he was doing on the small screen.

Thursday: Moreee pattern cutting! This time, we didn't start out with paper patterns, we had cotton calico that we had to mould to the manequin's body to make our bodice shape. I've never made a pattern in this way, but I think I quite like the method. We then had to turn the fabric pattern into a paper pattern, which wasn't very exciting, but it's something you've gotta do! I'm looking forward to actually making the pattern into a proper bodice.

Week one, the real start.

Honestly, this week has been much better than the previous.
Monday started off, jumping straight into mood boards. I've had a go at some simple mood boards before, so I feel like I do know what I'm meant to be doing. We were given five keywords which we could choose one of to base our mood boards on, I feel like I've chosen quite a hard one. I've been doing some research in the library and gathering samples of other medias which I intend to use on my mood board.
Tuesday was our introduction to the Macs. I've never really used Macs so I was quite happy to be shown through some of the simple things. We got shown how to sort out our blogs, which was handy as I've never written a blog before, so I'm going to have fun experimenting.
Thursday was our first lesson using the industrial machines. I've only ever used the general machines you can buy and use at home, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out, they're really fast. I'm not very good with straight lines... gimme something with a curve and I'm sorted! The overlocker isn't something new to me, I've used them before and so I know how to use them. The steam irons were also something new to me, not too hard to use, but really quite scary! We had to make a bunch of seam samples, most of which I've had a shot at before, but we did learn some different techniques. I'm definately going to have to re-do a few of them though...
Friday we got to start making a pattern. I did make a pattern from scratch once, a long time ago. It wasn't very good at all, but still worked out alright when I made the garment. There are so many things you have to check as we went along, I definately need to write a list of notes so I don't forget!
Not only was this week busy getting set off on the fashion-related stuff, but it was also Freshers' week. It was a bit annoying that most of the nights had the same music, it's better to have a bit of a variety, but I still had a good time. The foam party was great, I'd never been to one before so I didn't know what to expect but it was pretty good. The bar crawl was the best, I was on green team, we must have screamed: 'Who are we?! GREEN ARMY!!!' about a billion times. It was great to see so many people in so many places, I really enjoyed it. Not the bad hangover that I suffered the following day though!

My induction week at AUCB

My first week at AUCB

At the end of the first week I decided I'd had an exciting, but boring week. A lot of what we had to do was based on introductions.

It was scary to have actually started university, but I was quite pleased to have got myself this far so I didn't let being scared affect me.
As you can expect, there were lots of people telling us what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to go etc, which took up most of the first week and so we didn't actually manage to do much relating to the course, which was unfortunate.
We did at one point watch a video of a catwalk show which featured last years course collections. This really excited me because it showed me what sorts of things I could be achieving over the next year. I don't think I would mind too much if I didn't get any of my garments onto the catwalk in the first year, but it'd be a pretty great achievement if I did!
We also found out about how when London Fashion Week comes along, we may get the chance to help out. Apparently it's pretty hardcore, you've gotta be up at like, 4am and it's really busy and stuff, but it would be so amazing if I actually got to have a go at it!
On Thursday, we went on an outing to the beach. We weren't really told what we were doing, so none of us really knew what to expect, so when we drove for ages to get to Shell Bay, where we then walked for what felt like forever to get to a cafe, to another cafe, then to a pub, we were all a bit miffed. I guess it was good in a way, 'cause we all bonded over the complaining!
Overall, not the best first week, but we start properly next week and all the freshers events are happening so I'm sure it'll be a much better week all round.