THE TRUTH ABOUT STUDYING FASHION AT UNIVERSITY

Before heading off to uni I was frantically on the internet trying to find peoples experiences about University to try and calm my nerves for the next 3 years ahead of me.  After searching youtube and blogs in an attempt to 'prepare' myself; I resulted in failure not finding anyone who spoke out about their time at uni, leaving me in slightly more worry than first thought.  Being a recent graduate from studying Fashion Design at uni, I decided to share my experiences with you, in an attempt , that if your reading this and are about to fly the nest and go uni, then hopefully, this may give you an insight into studying fashion or a creative course, or life at university in general.

Firstly, I would like to mention that everyone's experience at university is different, obviously depending on what course they do, what uni they go to and who they are as a person.  I think that it is an incredible personal achievement getting accepted into university that is often overlooked by many people, as it is not only a huge step in their life but also a journey that often involves their family and friends around them too.

I've decided to sub-categorise some important topics that I want to chat so that I ensure I try and cover as much as possible, but allows you guys to jumps to certain topics in case I bore you all.

Work Load:

Going from school to university is undeniably a huge jump, from moving away from home to making new friends, let alone the increase in independent learning to the significant increase in workload.  As a bit of background knowledge for you all, I live in Kent and decided to go to University in Bournemouth at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).  I decided to go straight out of school after studying my A-levels at 6th form at my secondary school, where I was 18 at the time of starting university.  On my first day, I'm not going to lie but I was very nervous as literally had no idea what to expect.  All I knew is that I was about to walk into a studio along with 60-odd other people and listen to a short brief that was supposed to prepare us for the upcoming 3 years.  After a day of introductory talks, we were straight in there with the beginning of two projects running simultaneously at the same time.  Throughout my entire 3 years at university, we were constantly working on two projects at the same time, run by 2 different leaders and both with completely different ways of working as well both projects being completely different to one another.  These projects lasted a term at a time which roughly was about a 3 month period.  My timetable meant that w were scheduled in uni everyday with one day off in 1st and 2nd year, which in addition were long uni days - 9am-5pm.  To me, at first I wasn't too shocked by the timetable as was very similar to school for me, but in comparison to flatmates and my friends at other unis who were doing different courses having 2 hours in uni on one day was classed as a long day for them!!!  Come final year we were doing 14+ hour days at uni- having to get to uni at 7am as soon as the studios opened to ensure you got a table you liked (that sounds stupid in itself but i'll explain after) and leaving uni when the studios closed and we would literally be kicked out by security and 9pm.  Occasionally we would go over to the neighbouring university to use their library so we could continue doing sketchbook work till midnight when that closed.

*tables.... so everyday we were allocated a studio to work in and often there were not enough tables per student - to have one each.  And in addition every night you stored your work under the tables (often many boxes and bags worth of stuff) so the agg - some may call it lazy, but the agg of having to "relocate every day and move all your stuff wasn't worth it.  In addition, in our studios, friendship groups form and you obviously wanted to be on a table near your mates so the results were waking up early to essentially claim your table.*

Stress:

Work only increased as the years went on which as a result stress levels increased too.   The amount of work constantly required is definitely a struggle at times due to quick turnarounds and tutors forever asking/suggesting for new ideas/designs/research.  I fully believe that if you choose to do a creative course then yes the workload is a lot to deal with at times, however the result at the end is worth it 10 times over, and the more effort you put in the more you will get out of it.  Being truthful it is incredibly tricky at times to keep cool with the amount of work you have to do, and I'm not gonna lie and say I dealt with it fine cause come 3rd year I was having daily breakdowns along with my mates but you just know by that point that the end in sight and you just have to get on with it.  It even got to the point of making a cry chart just to keep some light on the fact that we were so stressed, we had to laugh cause the real fact is if we didn't laugh we would just carry on crying hahaha.  Keeping focused and setting up a good routine for yourself definitely helps.

Friends:

Some of my best friends now are the ones that I met at university.  I was incredibly lucky that when I moved into halls, I lived with 7 other girls and at first worry there was gonna be a lot of bitchiness but thank god there wasn't.  We all clicked instantly and got on very well.  My coursemates are also incredible.  Meeting them on the first day of uni and staying together for as long as I can imagine, these girls honestly made my uni experience and the laughs we had at uni were some of my favourite memories to date.  Having a great friendship group around you truly made my uni experience and massively helped through difficult times, knowing that they are there to listen and support you know matter what.

Post-Graduating:

After graduating 4 months ago now, well, not much has changed in my life.  With the 'promises' that as soon as we leave we will be invited to numerous interviews and will most likely get our foot in the industry in the hope that we all swiftly move to London and live together.  Oh, how we were wrong.  To date, I have applied for approximately 60 jobs in the fashion industry, and have not received a single phone call or email regarding the job about a single one.  Yes, I have received the standard apologetic email about not being successful but not being a slight bit successful in one is truly disheartening.  And not only me but the majority of my friends too.  Thankfully I have a part-time job at the moment, however, I would like to work in London soon.  In addition, fashion pay is not appealing.  Little do they mention at uni that you will work for free or low-pay in the industry.  Many brands offer "jobs" - aka an internship where you cut out fabric all day, scan piles of paper, and go fabric sourcing for unpaid or if you're lucky you'll get lunch pay.  In addition, if you're not living in London then London rent or transport is needed and how are you meant to fund that. Hence why I'm probably not receiving jobs due to being too poor to work for free yet 'under experienced' to get the job, ugh.  Anyway thankfully, for the time being, I still have the motivation to eventually work in the industry, as for now, I want to work on building this blog to discuss topics like this as well as trends and brands.

If this was of any help or you have a question to ask, comment below!

Bron
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10 AFFORDABLE FAUX FUR COATS FOR AW18

1. PrettyLittleThing Cropped Faux Fur Bubble Coat in Red: £55.00  2. Pull & Bear Faux Shearling Biker Jacket in Grey: £49.99  3. H&M Short Pile Coat in Light Beige: £59.99  4. Zara Faux Shearling Bomber Jacket in Pink/ Lilac: £69.99   5. Zara Reversible Bomber Jacket in Dark Khaki: £69.99  6. Zara Soft Faux Fur Coat in Burgandy: £69.99 7. Topshop Faux Fur Coat in Pink: £69.00 8. Boohoo Revere CollarFaux Fur Coat in Grey: £45.00 9. Monki Teddy Trucker Jacket in Navy: £65.00 10. Bershka Faux Shearling Jacket in Stone: £49.99

Faux Fur Coats are my absolute fave in Autumn and Winter and whenever searching for a new coat I always seem to naturally gravitate towards them.  I currently have about 3 faux fur coats, which to me is no way near enough but my mum has other ideas about my coat closet, oops.  Anyway, its finally autumn here and winter is on its way which means one thing.... a new coat is due.  So naturally, I took to the internet to find myself a new coat which will disguise me to look like a fluffy teddy or a new exotic bird.  I am loving the pale pinks and berry shades at the moment with the faux furs as well as the shearling style furs & fabrics.  I would have to say my favourites out of these top 10 picks are number 4 which is this gorgeous dusty brown-pink fluffy bomber style jacket with an oversized collar and elastic hem, but am loving number 9 - the gorgeous dark navy teddy trucker jacket from Monki.  With all of the coats being under £70, I think they are all an absolute steal and are bound to keep you warm this Autumn/Winter!!

Let me know what your favourites are and where you love to buy your Winter coats!!

Bronwyn
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I'M BACK... AND BETTER??

Long time no see...

If you are new here then hi and if you are returning then hi too.  My name is Bronwyn, and I am 21 years old currently living in Kent.  I started this blog wayyyy back in 2013 but neglected it a lot over my time at university and was pretty much way too busy with my coursework I simply had no time to spare, let alone blog.

After spending potentially the best 3 years of my life at uni, and having a fun-filled summer spent travelling around Bali and holiday-ing as much as I can possibly can, I am now a very poor and currently very bored graduate who can't get a job in the fashion but wants to keep up with the ever-growing and changing industry.

At 21 years old I know I don't particularly have the most knowledge on life that I can share with you, however, I would love to share anything that I do know with others, including my adventures, style, travel and lifestyle experience and tips.  I am incredibly keen to travel as much as I can within the next few years and love reading and seeing other bloggers travel guides and best tips, as well as getting inspired from all cultures and style around the world.  Like I mentioned, I am no means an expert in any of these fields but I am certainly passionate about them and love talking about it all.

Thanks for reading and stay posted for more,


Bron
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LIVE PROJECT : COS #23

FRIDAY 19th May :

FASHION SHOW DAY!!! The show was held at the Pavillion in Bournemouth Town Centre.  I watched the show twice and felt incredibly proud to have my work within the show.  With my coa being the first outfit, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and joy seeing your hard work be displayed in that way.  It makes me incredibly excited and motivated for next year (my final year at university) and cannot wait to see what next year has in store for me.  Below are some pictures I managed to get of the collection (not the best quality - sorry!!)

LIVE PROJECT : COS #22

MONDAY 15th - THURSDAY 18th May:

This week was all about preparation for the AUB fashion show on Friday 19th.  Our whole year's COS collection was being part of the show and was the opening collection, therefore a lot needed to be organised and ready before the end of the week.  Over the weekend I had gone into town and already collected items that our menswear outfits needed, for example we needed a few extra shoes, as we were borrowing a few mens shoes from our tutor, and a few scarves too.  On the Monday morning, I showed these to the unit leader; Penny , and as she was pleased to see that our group had already thought a lot about the styling of the collection she decided to make me 'styling co-ordinator' for the entire collection (21 outfits!!!) This consisted of 5 menswear outfits, 14 womenswear outfits and 2 kids outfits.

To start off I lined up the entire collection, using the pictures taken on Fridays session, where Ian had also previously numbered these in the order that he wanted the collection to come out on the catwalk. He had also made brief notes of the styling that he wanted to see in the collection, which gave me a rough guideline of what to get and find for the collection.  I set off to town with Penny and fellow class mate; Sakara to find and buy as much of the shoes and styling accessories as possible.  We roughly knew that we wanted a few extra white converse style sneakers, some red heels and stilettos for the women's wear outfits as well as some pinky/nude women's shoes to tie in the pink in the menswear collection.  Primark pretty much had most of the shoes that we wanted; the white sneakers and orange-y red heels that we were primarily looking for.  We then decided to head to H&M and Zara but neither of these shops had any thing suitable, apart from a scarf that we picked up in H&M which had the pinky/nude colours in it as well as the navy blue which featured in one womenswear collection.  New Look was our next shop and after contemplating for 10/20 minutes on whether or not to get the high heels and flats we decided to buy them as they were the closest match to the colour swatches we took with us and were reasonably priced for the budget we had.  We also briefly looked for accessories such as jewellery, however we couldn't find any that we liked, nor that was within the colour scheme of the collection.  For the accessories and shoes the idea was to slowly bring in the red colour that was featured at the end of the collection, and introduce this through the accessories.

When we returned to university we lined up the shoes again but under the images of the outfit that they were going to be paired with.  This gave us a good idea of how well they linked to each outfit, and if it ran smoothly throughout the collection of menswear into womenswear.

In order to introduce the red into the collection a bit earlier on (in the menswear outfits) we decided to paint (using specialist fabric dye paint from the university dye room) and spray paint a few of the shoes too.

This took a few days to organise the shoes and accessories as it was only really Sakara that helped me do this, when it should of an effort made by the entire year, which was a bit annoying at times, however I am proud of the outcome and really enjoyed the styling experience and role that i was given.

On Wednesday I made dresser sheets for the entire collection, including the mens and women's.  This consisted of me taking pictures of every outfit in the collection, and writing brief descriptions of how the dressers should dress the models.  By making dresser sheets it allows the dressers the knowledge of our vision as well as how each garment should be worn and how it should look.  Below are examples...

After dresser sheets were completed I had to bag up each outfit, with the correct shoes, accessories and dresser sheet and place these all on a rail in the order that they went in.  This rail was passed onto the first years so that they could place each outfit on a model number -ready for the show on Friday.

On Thursday I needed to finish off my coat by making a few alterations that had been made aware of in the styling session with Ian on the previous Friday.  These didn't take long to complete and made the garment appear much nicer when on the model. 

LIVE PROJECT : COS #21

FRIDAY 12th :

In the morning we finalised our collection garments, making sure they were steamed, threads all cut, and garments hemmed.  The following evening I had bought hangers that were all the same; so that not only the tutors could help notice what garments were a part of what collection but also to help with continuity throughout the collection too. During the morning, we also all completed all of our spec sheets with our final technical drawings on them, our descriptions, fabric swatches and trim details.  We printed these all off too so that we could place them in the group folder; A3 with clear sheet wallets. We plan to hand these in as a group, as it will contain the details about our collection.

At 1pm we had our styling session with Ian (course leader), as well as Jodie, Penny and Alena (unit leaders). We dressed up all of our outfits on male models that we had 'sourced' from around university campus as well as some being group members friends.  We went into the studio with our mood board of styling ideas, as well as samples of what we would like to style the models with.  The outfits changed throughout the session, in order to see what garments look best with each other and what compliments the other outfits.  We arranged the order of the outfits as well, so that the colours sat well together but also so that all together it looked like a real collection.

We deliberated about accessories and footwear, and decided that we would complete the collection with white converse style shoes, a few scarves (as can be seen in the above image), as well as vintage rounded glasses on a few of the models.  We also agreed that we should make a drawstring style bag out of left over fabrics or potentially leather to tie in with the underlying sporty-aesthetic we wanted to achieve.  Even though all the garments didn't make the final line-up, I am very happy with how it looks together and think it suitably fits with the COS brief and brand aesthetic.  After the male models go on the catwalk the unisex outfit (on the female) will follow, and then so will another female model who wears our teen trousers and another groups womenswear top. This will help blend the male collection into the female collections creating a link between the two.

LIVE PROJECT : COS #20

MONDAY 8th - THURSDAY 11th MAY :

Due to this being our final week of the project at uni, the weeks activities have consisted of making.  As a group we spilt up the outfits and garments to every member of the group so we all knew what we needed to make, who we needed to work/collaborate with, and what needed to be brought in order for the garments to be made; for examples; binding, fabrics and fastening details/parts.  Being the group leader I delegated these areas in accordance to my knowledge of peoples strengths and confidence per garment.  In particular I decided that Sophie (for example) had worked hard on her development of her draped shirt patterns and therefore decided to ask her to make all versions of the shirt and in return give her trousers to someone who's top she was making, thus making it as fair as possible.

I decided that I would make my coat, and trousers and when available help with other group members struggles and difficulties.  At the beginning of the week I focused on my coat.  On my toile I didn't do  a sample of my in seam pocket so therefore I done this first so that when it came to the real fabric I would be confident with what i'm doing.

 

Where I adjusted the collar on my toile and never made a final toile, the pattern seemed a little off on the garment so I plan to adjust this next week with guidance as many tutors had meetings and visits this week.  After I had finished the coat I moved onto my trousers, which were made out of a navy blue stretch jersey...

During the course of making my garments I helped out with other peoples as well, and vice versa.  I think that our group has worked together very well and the majority of us came in every day this week (even on non-timetabled days) which has been very appreciated by myself as the team co-ordinator but aslo from the other group members.  It allowed us to work together and get the tasks done quickly.  In addition, there have been digital tasks that members of the group have done, such as the line plan (Alice) - and she has done a very good job which I fully appreciate as I know it is a tedious and precise job.

LIVE PROJECT : COS #19

WEDNESDAY 3rd - FRIDAY 5th MAY :

This is the penultimate week before hand-in, so there has been a few changes and alterations made regarding our collection; due to time left, toile development and collection fluidity.  In the week I found that it has been very stressful and worrying (my own opinion) as with this being the 'final' week before we start making. It did worry me at times that we are running out of time to suddenly change the collection as well as discard of some garments and potentially make and add in new garments too.  Individually, I have had discussions with my tutors about the collection, as well as group discussions and talks, where we spoke about final fabric choices, the efficiency with in our collection and final outfit decisions.

Firstly, we discussed trousers.  As a group we spoke about how we feel that in the collection we have too many trouser variations, as there are 6 different trousers for 7 models.  However, after consideration we concluded that my trousers, alice trousers and leona's trousers all have front and back seams so they all link together well. Sophie's trousers are in a more 'jeans' style - with the typical 5 pocket detail; and therefore they look good within the collection.  We also agreed that these should stay as when we spoke to the head of menswear in university; Ian, he explained that typically male consumers are 'creatures of habit' and will usually buy clothes for functionality over style.  Therefore, it was decided that due to COS specific aesthetic, style and consumer, that we would keep Sophie's trousers in the collection too.  After our 'attempt' of refining the collection, we went back on ourselves, as Sarah had made her final trousers for the teenager (in the knitted fabric), however they turned out too oversized and large, and in fact they fitted an adult.  Due these trousers fitting really nicely on the model, we decided to keep these in the menswear collection too, and to remake them again in a smaller size for the teenager- so they appear like a "mini me" for the teen from the adult.  As we seemed to of failed to 'refine' in style, we agreed to definitely refine in fabrics.  We all agreed that we had too many fabrics within the collection and not a clear colour palette or colour story.  Therefore we became analytic and cut out fabrics that a few group members liked, and thus would of liked to use however for the critical refinement we narrowed down our fabrics.  Below is the updated fabric board.

The fabrics that are being used for trousers

The fabrics that are being used for tops, coats and jackets

All fabrics that are being used

In these 'meetings' we discussed what I mentioned in the previous blog post  about the excitement and positive feedback we received from COS about sophie's top.  We agreed that by making a few of these in different styles that it would help link the collection together.  all together we confirmed that in the collection we should have Sophie's style top (picture 1), one in all stripe shirting fabric to give a more formal look, and also a polo top version in jersey, to add the casual and relaxed sports vibes that we initially wanted to be included.

In addition to this decision, we also decided to remove Alice's coat from the collection (see illustration below for reminding), as there were several design choices that were made to it, all of which Alice wasn't 100% on as after these alterations the coat wouldn't of looked like the initially drawing and idea Alice had pictured to make.  Instead we opted for an oversized jumper/sweatshirt style to be made in the knitted fabric - again tying in the garment with other pieces made of the same fabric.  

And finally, as a group we made the decision that the shirt Faye is creating, is to make a 'short' version (usual shirt length -hips) and a longer style (mid thigh).  This would allow for another member of the group to have the other style, but also by having to classic shirts we felt this would be suitable for the COS customer and we can envision that this is something that they would buy as a staple wardrobe garment.

As these decisions and discussions took the majority of the morning, in the afternoon; myself, Sophie and Faye created a lay plan and cut out our fabric that we are using on our garments.  The Modaris lay plan that we created was roughly 6 metres in length and had an efficiency of 85%.

- LAYPLAN IMAGE INSERT -

LIVE PROJECT : COS #18

TUESDAY 2nd MAY :

Today we got our feedback from the COS team, and also comments from our tutors; Penny and Alena.  Overall, we gained lots of positive feedback and opinions from both sides- many of which commented on the exciting silhouettes and experiments which used the furniture styling to create draped shapes, within a menswear collection.  This was really pleasing to hear as the 'drape factor' was a key point at the beginning of the project that as a group we said we would like to experiment in menswear high-end high-street fashion.  It was also appreciated by the COS team that we had shown our thoughts as well as the importance to us of our finishes at an early stage of the design process. One comment said that we should potentially consider "editing the collection further to make it more cohesive and stronger".  This was a key comment that we took into consideration and discussed in today's session.

Firstly, we started with our created pin board where all our designs are individually placed as well as our line up, mood board, customer profile and fabric swatches.  We decided that due to the high enthusiasm COS had with the draped chair experiments that we should incorporate this idea/style feature into another 1 or 2 of our outfits.  As it was planned for my outfit to have a relatively basic salmon crepe shirt underneath the coat- that it would be more draped-influenced if I used the same pattern that Sophie has created for her shirt, for me to have as well.  We spoke that it would be interesting to play around with the shirt fabrics as well as each fabric would have a different outcome and influence on the drape/silhouette created.  For example if Sophie uses the pink/salmon crepe for the lower part of the shirt with a sturdier/ more structured upper fabric- the drape will appear more fluid; and how a crisp white cotton shirting fabric would create a different effect to Sophie's statement shirt. We discussed fabric choices for my 'shirt'....

Binding was another issue we discussed as a group due to the fact that we was all in agreement that we wanted to bind our seams.  This idea first originated from that when we previewed the COS 10 collection we really liked the look that binding created on the finished garments, and wanted to replicate ours to fit in with the high standard of COS clothing.  However, ideally we would like to use self-made binding; by creating our own and using the same fabric for the binding as we would for the same garment.  But after thought, we realised this probably wouldn't be the most efficient way due to cutting the binding on the bias, thus causing disruptions in our lay plans, and therefore not being efficient in fabric usage.  So, in this case we plan to source pre-made binding; colour matching it to the appropriate fabrics and using this method instead.

In the afternoon, I finished making all my alterations on the coat (which I started on Friday.) I decided against re-toiling the coat, as only small measurement alterations were made, and I felt in order to save myself time, money and fabric usage I would re-make the coat on Modaris 3d only.

Top left clockwise : front panel (left and right), side panel/back panel with arm hole, sleeve pattern piece, pocket bag, lower tail of front panel (attach before cut out fabric- detached as pattern piece too wide for paper printing), flap facing.

After I was happy with how the alterations looked, and fitted on the 3D digital model, I then placed in the fabric I plan to use to the coat digital toile.  This fabric choice has again changed since I spoke about it in my previous blog post, as we concluded today that by using double layer of the knit for the flaps it would be too bulky, therefore we changed to this fabric...

I also added in top stitching detail (shown above) onto where I might use it.  It will help the seam details stand out as this will be interesting to showcase this feature due to the fact that I have moved a the 'typical' seams and removed many as well.

LIVE PROJECT : COS #17

Wednesday26th, Thursday 27th and Friday 28th April:

I had the Wednesday and Thursday off uni as I wasn't timetabled in, however I was very productive at home instead as I knew there wouldn't of been a lot of table space or free sewing machines available on uni campus.  I cut out my coat toile in medium weight calico, and stitched it together creating the shell of the coat. 

- IMAGE OF COAT PRE-ALTERATIONS -

On the Friday when I returned to university, as a group we had a toile review with two of our tutors; Jodie and Alena.  We went through the group progress, showing them what we had already toiled and what was to be completed.  Firstly, I showed my trousers to them which were both agreed that they were ready to be made, which was pleasing to hear.  I then showed my coat toile displaying it on Charlie (a team member but also our model).  A few areas were discussed that I needed to alter/adapt, such as...

 - The collar that was grown onto the front flap wasn't the correct shape on the first toile and laid too flat against the neck.  Therefore, I cut into the collar at multiple parts and opened up these slashes (pinning spare calico scraps behind to hold into place.)  This added length, opened up the collar and made the CB correct - before it was slanted out of shape.  I then will add 2cm seam allowance to the CB of the collar too, and digitise this into the Lectra system.

-The sleeve hem was too wide so I will alter this by making it 10cm smaller. The sleeve was also too long in length due to lowering the shoulder/sleeve head, and therefore I plan to take off 5cm off the hem line which still allows for 2cm turn up (7cm 'taken off' in total).

- I need to lower the under arm seam and thus reshape the arm hole and sleeve head. This was because the coat was a little tight on the shoulder area and little movement could be made with the arms due to this.

Another alteration that was made to our attention is to be consistent in the lengths of our garments.  For example, as our outfits walk down the catwalk we want each garment to look part of a collection, and therefore continuity is key.  Leona's poncho is made quite long and so is my coat so it was pointed out that we should make both garments similar in length so that it is made clear this length in outwear is a trend that we believe will be in Autumn/Winter 2018.  

After the alterations were noted, we double checked the fabric and in fact realised it was not how we remembered it to be.  It is in fact a dark grey knit which has been bonded to a black lightweight cotton to give it the soft appearance and feel of a jersey like fabric.  We analysed whether or not this was a suitable fabric choice due to wanting my garment to be a coat and an outerwear piece.  We draped the fabric onto Charlie - placing the knit down so the front flap would reveal the right side. However, we thought this fabric could still work, and if I got rid of the storm flap, and put a facing on the flap it would make the garment become a sort of cardigan jacket type of clothing piece.  Due to the construction and weight of the fabric we also thought it wouldn't be suitable to bind the edges (like I wanted to) but instead overlock the seams.

LIVE PROJECT : COS #16

TUESDAY 25th APRIL :

As my trousers were successful, I decided to move onto my coat re-toile.  Over Easter break, I made my initial toile using the pattern I made just before I went home for two weeks.  Here some pictures of that toile...

I wasn't happy with the fit of the coat, as I imagined it to be more oversized and 'relaxed style', therefore when I made my pattern adjustments I just didn't quite emphasise the nature of the coat how I desired it to be.  However, by making this initial toile made me realise this and it then became easier to adjust the adaptations I wanted to make.

I decided that I wanted to drop the sleeve seam, however as I do not have a side seam this became a struggle; as the arm hole is literally just a hole in the pattern piece but once seam allowance is added it disrupts the circle (see image of pattern piece below.)

To do this it what easier for me to unpick and cut up half of the initial toile as I could the physically see the new pattern pieces and digitise these into Lectra.  I then also wanted a one piece sleeve instead of a two piece sleeve - and wanted the seam to be on the top of the arm so that it aligns with the shoulder seam.  I widened the sleeve width as well as it seems a little tight to start with, and especially as it is a coat it needs to be bigger so the wearer can wear it with other clothing underneath (such as shirts, knitwear etc.)

I lengthened the jacket too, and made it wider so appeared more oversized. I have also re-adjusted the centre front and thus extended it so that the front flaps/lapels will be bigger in size.  In addition to this i grew on a piece to the front of the jacket to act as a collar so that the lapel continues slightly around to the back of the neck.  As I will have two in-seam pockets (one either side of the jacket on the diagonal seam), I created a pocket bag which I will use on my second toile when inputting the pockets to the coat.

Using Marker Manager, I created a lay plan for my pattern to be printed out but also created a lay plan for fabric so that I could see what would approximately be my efficiency.

As the efficiency is only 85% and I ideally wanted it to be higher I may adjust some of the shapes of my pattern pieces so that they slot together better; for example; I could adjust the shape of the point on the storm flap so that it sits more together when placed above the side bodice piece on the lay plan.    I created a 3D toile of my coat too before printing it off as it helped me see what the adjustments would look like, but to also help me make any last minute adjustments here and there.  

LIVE PROJECT : COS #15

MONDAY 24th APRIL:

First thing on Monday morning, I printed off my trouser pattern pieces, so that I could complete my (hopefully final) trouser toile.  After all the adjustments and panelling differences I made I was positive that this toile would fit correctly, and aesthetically look the way I envisioned.  Using a medium weight calico, I cut out all the pattern pieces and stitched these together.  I decided that I wanted two welt pockets on the back of the trousers.  I followed an existing sample pattern that I had for welt pockets and stitched accordingly.  I made the opening of the pocket 15cm wide, with a pocket bag that was approximately 15cm deep as well.  However when I tried the final toile on the model, I asked his opinion on the pockets and I was advised to make the pocket bag a little deeper, so I digitised in the pocket pattern pieces and amended to the feedback given.

On my final trousers, I will also add top stitching to the seams, binding to the inside seams, and drawstring in the waistband with eyelet holes.