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.