Busy busy!

First of all I would like to thank Amanda (check her out at) Amandasays for nominating me for the Sisterhood of World bloggers feel so happy to see my fellow bloggers following my blog. At least I know someone actually reads my blog!! Thank you Amanda, loved reading your post and getting to know you more especially learning the amount of charities you are involved in makes me realise I need to support and do more charity work myself! I will answer and repost your questions when I have time.

Ok so I have finally decided on the music to use for the fashion show! Well with help obviously. Chosen the tune named “Schooldays” described as “Zany retro instruments create an uplifting world of fun and excitement, featuring handclaps and upbeat drums” it was found from the “kids” section on the PurplePlanet website. The description already fits well with my concept; a happy, fun and colourful mood.

I have been working on my final pieces and the finishing touches always seem the longest to do. I’ve had to unpick and redo parts so many times, cannot believe I spent all day just to a put in a zip and finishing hems of last week. A bit of a perfectionist so I HAVE to make sure my stitching is on point! But on the good side I have been able to practise using the cover stitch and binding machines. Practise makes perfect.

Cover machine

Rchan

Music...

Times flying by and things are getting pulled together for the end of year fashion show. I’ve been asked to find some music for my collection and nothing from YouTube is allowed. Not sure the reason why not, but it could be licensing purposes.

Since young I have never been bothered about music, if someone asked me a question about any song or singer, even classic singers/songs I will never be able to answer. Some people say music inspires them and they cant live without music or travel without music, but for me? I can drive 4 hours silently…

Sometimes I even feel embarrassed for not knowing a famous song or a singer, my family thinks I’m weird but if I’m not interested then I’m not interested. I grew up and hung around different groups of friends who liked different types of music for example dance, pop, rock, indie, hip hop, rap, k-pop and the list goes on. So I never decided what music I liked and surprisingly my boyfriend is exactly the same, he’s not bothered about music either and I thought it was so unique to find someone the same as me.

So anyway finding music for the fashion show was a little hard, first of all where to look? I asked my brother since he does filming and he often needs sound and music in his videos. He told me to look into Royalty free music, as these are unlicensed music that can be used, and of I went punching “royalty free music” into Google. I landed on a few websites but most of them I had to pay until I came across purple planet.  Now I couldn’t decide which is best to use for the show so I asked my sister to help and we decided on cattle drive, its quite upbeat but it’s a cowboy tune. Anyway I gave it a shot, not having a clue if it’s good or not and it was a definite no. Good job I asked my tutor to check! So I’ve chosen a few now and will decide which one to go with tomorrow.

Will update on which one I will be using soon…

Goodnight world xx

Rchan

Exciting times...

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I became a first time homeowner. It’s been quite exciting getting everything sorted from decorating, choosing our carpets and furniture. We’ve kept with clean simple colours so that if we were to sell or rent in the future it would still look modern and easy to redecorate. Since I’ve been busy sorting things out so that its ready for us to move in I haven’t had time to work on my garments, instead I have been working on my sketchbook to update all the samples and toiles I had been doing and some fabric research/testing.

I have been playing around with fabrics because I think that as a pattern cutter I need to learn how to use different types of fabrics from stretch to non stretch and fine to strong textures, because for example if I drafted a pattern that will work with a stretch fabric it wouldn’t work on a non stretch or it would fit differently.

Here are some fabric sourcing I did today, very random pieces because I’m feeling a variety of different types of fabric within my collection.

Rachael x

Progress Update...

Hihi I keep forgetting to post my progress on here so here is a quick update on some of my collection pieces.

The minion outfit

This is the pink canvas pinafore toile I started of messing about with. Here I have re-toiled it and I wasn’t sure about the back as it hung lose and I wanted a waistband so that it could fit some skorts (aka a skirt at the front but actual shorts on the inside). I draped a simple and plain back bodice piece to the back (as shown in first image). I still liked the pleated effect over the neckline so I used this yellow net to create the pleat around the neck area; this created a nice big oval shape. At first I felt like this was a really good idea as it represented the minion shape very well but as a whole outfit together I feel like it as just an oversized cape hanging over the shoulders.

Using the jumpsuit pattern I sampled up a cropped t-shirt to complete the outfit. It is a very simple and loose t-shirt, which is good for completing the outfit, as it will go underneath the pinafore dress, but I feel like I still need to do something to it and make it more interesting. I decided that I will use the original pleated back piece from the pink canvas as I think this new back piece isn’t very creative and different enough.

                                             

I did pattern draft and toile the skort but I will probably use this in a different outfit.

                                             

Agnes outfit

Inspired by Agnes’s ballet dress. I first started draping on the mannequin using a non-stretch fabric I started of creating a leotard without realising that this needs to be in a stretch material to be able to get in and out of, with it being fitted and no fastening. I then re-toiled it with a stretch jersey, which did not work out very well as it became loose after a bit of pulling and stretching.  I decided that I did not want to create a dress fit for sports use or ballet dancing. So I used the patterns from the original non-stretch toile and re-toiled adding darts and a waistband so that I could add the skirt piece to the waistband and a zip on the back to get in and out of the dress. I feel like this dress has progressed really fast and worked out well.

 This is another quick toile; I will be using the exact fabric as this for the final. I intend to keep these shorts simple, as I will be having a long t-shirt covering them.