Claim to fame... Black Mirror

I haven't shared my exciting new job that I got myself over the summer yet... but I managed to get employed as a seamstress on a freelance basis for a lovely lady who has her own dressmaking & alterations company!

During the summer I had a few projects to work on, (more I will share later!) but this was the most recent one I took part in :) Over the course of about 3 days, a team of five ladies and myself worked long and hard with hundereds of metres of grey jersey to make 65 zip-up jackets. This was a huuge order for us, a small team in a cosy sewing room with only the use of 2 overlockers and 3 sewing machines... but we managed to finish with 6 minutes to spare, and to top it all off, the courier came to pick up the order 5 minutes early!

... piles of jackets, and that isn't even half of them!

But the most exciting bit was being told they were to feature on a channel 4 show at some point in the future.. and then see them on the trailer for next week's episode!

I'll be watching this Sunday just to witness them in action :)

So yes. That's my bit of excitement for this week, as I have a project deadline this friday which has been taking over my life. Will share soon!

x

'Marketing' my Freesize Collection

As part of the project, I chose to theoretically market my 'Collection' once I had made it. This meant making a brand name for myself, and attaching my collection alongside it, and putting marketing skills into practice. I created a scrap book of a few ideas and brainstorms & set about promoting the collection :)

Deciding on branding & typography for the logo...

Photos from a local fashion show organised by a Leanne Webb, a fellow fashion student on my course. It was filmed, so I printed some screen captions and included them along with the flyer for the event:

A few scrapbook pages explaining my photo shoot concept...

Experimenting with promotional business cards/flyers...

Turning the photo shoot into a lookbook! (I got this printed properly in a photo book to make it look abit more professional...)

Giving myself the brand name of Sewphie (using my name and hinting at my enjoyment of crafty things & making clothes) and experimenting with logos, typography etc...

Trying out a few business cards for the brand...

...and finally creating a 'webpage' (only for visual purposes!) for the Freesize Collection, so if it were to become a business, customers would have a way of keeping up to date with products:

Thats all on my second year work now!

I have many a project to post about still & the exciting things I got up to over the summer :)

x

Second Year Project: Photo shoot!

So here they are! The final photos showing the clothing from my little 'Freesize Collection' :)

To show the adjustable nature of the clothing & embracing the 'All Walks Beyond The Catwalk' concept and campaign, I decided to show my clothing on a variety of models- UK 6-8, 10-12 & 14-16.

Below is Jessica, as the 6-8 model:

...and Jo modeling as the size 10-12:

...and Aimee, modeling as the size 14-16 :)

I got each of them to try on each outfit, wear it their own way & adjust it to fit them the way they wanted!

and finally... the knitted trousers! They took me FOREVERR to knit (all done by hand mind) and also cost rather a lot due to certain wool being rather expensive!

The knitted trousers didn't necessarily turn out exactly the way I planned, but they were very warm and cosy and my models seemed to very much enjoy wearing them & said they were really comfy!

All photography Copyright belongs to Jon Ridley :)

What do you think?

:)

x

Second year project #2: Final Designs

Here's my final designs for my second year project :)

They're my presentation boards for my portfolio, so I've done the first as a concept board to just sum up the ideas and inspiration behind the clothes and the designs:

This design below consists of a 'Freesize' floaty top to be worn oversized and/or off the shoulder, tucked into the 'paper bag' waist hand knitted trousers, synched in at the waist with a belt. The top is made from fabric recycled from an old maxi skirt found in a charity shop (I always like reusing the fabric on old maxi skirts, cause you get a lot of fabric!), the wool is a chunky mottled brown, knitted with size 8 needles in a cable pattern running down the front and back centre of each leg. They are gathered in at the ankle and can be pushed up the leg if the wearer is shorter or pulled down if they are taller, with an elasticated cuff at the ankle. I also made the leather belt from scraps of dark brown leather, sewn together in a sort of patchwork :)

Having the belt and no set size on the waist of the trousers means that the waist can be adjusted to the wearer purely by loosening or tightening the belt, and gathering the waist to size.

I also included some scans of my knitting samples!

The second outfit is made up of 3 parts, the first being a gathered ballet-style skirt (made adjustable with a ribbon tie at the waist, allowing it to be made bigger or smaller depending on the wearer), an adjustable top with ribbon tie straps (with ribbon threaded through the front and back neckline to allow it to be loosened or tightened to accommodate any chest/bust size) and finally an overlay decorative top made from recycled vintage crochet doilies, fastened with ribbon ties at the side, again to allow it to fit the size of the wearer:

The last outfit is made up of a slouchy jersey t-shirt, also worn oversize and/or off the shoulder, and tucked into the trousers. The trousers/'cigarette pants' are meant to have a smart, tailored finish to balance out the slouchy fit of the top, and are made from a rusty orange colour wool.

The trousers have two long tabs that fold over each other at the front of the waist, with a series of 5 wooden buttons that run in a line underneath. This allows the wearer to wear the buttons on any setting they like to fit their waist size, either on the tightest/loosest setting or even in between.

This outfit also includes the slouchy loose knit cardigan made from recycled string (shown in the previous post!) with key-hole button holes and tiny little brass keys for the buttons!

Pictures of the photo shoot for this little collection will follow soon!

:)

x

Second year project #2: Sketchbook

So before I show you my final pieces from my second making project of my second year at uni, I thought I would post a few photos that I have taken of some pages of my sketchbook, to show the ideas, thoughts and inspiration behind it :)

I started out by looking at the 'Nostalgia Of Mud' Collection by Vivienne Westwood; 1983. I loved the colours used, and the baggy/oversized nature of the clothing. The collection itself was (I believe) inspired by a particular subculture from the 80's, where people would borrow clothes or get random things from charity shops (that wouldn't necessarily fit them) and wear them oversized, tied up with belts, tucked in or worn completely different from the original purpose of the clothes!

I also had huge inspiration from the campaign 'All Walks Beyond The Catwalk'- A campaign run by a group of people including Caryn Franklin (editor of ID magazine- she came and gave a lecture about the campaign at uni!) that encourages the diversity of models within the fashion industry, wishing to include a range of ages, sizes, heights, races and body types.

I really liked the idea of designing something other than the standard mannequin industry size 12 (although these mannequins are more of a UK 8) to include a wider range of women so that fashion could be inclusive instead of exclusive to a particular body type.

I then started experimenting with textures, textiles and re-using various things, including lace/crochet doileys...

...using cotton garden string to knit with...

...looking at how blankets could be used to make a garment...

...looking at an artist called Christien Meindertma who does beautiful things with oversize wool and giant knitting needles...

Then I tried my own version of giant knitting, using some sharpened cricket stumps (thanks to the workshop men at uni!) and made some 'giant wool' by knitting a a few metres on the knitting machine, and using it as the yarn. As tricky as it was to figure out, it actually turned out pretty well... but was waaay too time consuming to try and make a garment out of!

Then using some inspirational images, I tried to get a colour scheme going, with the use of antique/sepia tones, rust oranges, burgundys, browns and neutrals.

I found alot of these colours were present in old maps, so I experimented with some of them.

Going on from old maps & the reuse/recycle ethos of the Nostalgia of Mud collection, I started to look at junk, and in particular, junk shops. I found the random collections of items really interesting, and the colours and shapes that could be taken from the images.

Looking at more junk, this time particularly at lampshades & Mary Katrantzou

Then I looked at an artist called Joseph Cornell, who makes pieces of art from random items he finds lying around, and at junk shops/charity shops & makes interesting displays with them:

...made my own page of random 'junk' items

Going back to looking at shapes and designs of knitwear from the 80's

More knitting samples from cotton garden string...

And finally here are the rough designs that I came up with, including pictures of experimentation and the making process...

Loose knit baggy cardigan knitted completely from re-cycled cotton garden string:

(note: the button holes were keyholes and the buttons made from tiny rusty keys!)

Design of a baggy/off the shoulder top, with a necklace made from rusty keys which were found in a junk shop:

Design for a pair of hand knitted baggy trousers with a 'paper bag' waist, synched in with a belt. Also a few knitting/tension samples:

Experimenting with oversize jersey tops and the shape of the knitted trousers using jersey (as they were to be lined with jersey anyway!):

Tailored trousers/'cigarette pants' with an adjustable waistband that could be adjusted to fit the wearer:

Experimentation and design of a top and crochet doiley overlay that were both fully adjustable to fit the wearer- could be made bigger or smaller to fit:

So after all that research, I decided to design (see designs above) clothing that was fully adjustable and 'Freesize'- therefore taking the 'All Walks' campaign concept into consideration and making clothes that could be worn by a variety of sizes (UK 8-10, 12-14, 16-18). I also had set myself a specification that required the use of either organic/recycled fabrics and components. This was rather tricky to design for!

I'll be showing you the final designs and clothes in the next few posts....

:)

Hope you've had a good weekend!

x