Creating My Top Toile

My top is a croped vest top with a hood. I used the jersey dress pattern block cut it off at the waist shortened the shoulders by 5cms and lengthened the arm holes to 15cms.

My initial made up toile in jersey

After this I decided to lengthen the armholes and the split by a further 5cms each.

The hood was quite simple and straight forward a rounded off rectangle shape with a diagnal edge.

After making a hood I decided to add another 1cm for more cover.

Finished toile

London!

I went to London with fellow classmates Sam, Kayleigh and Emily to do several shop reports and see many exhibitions. We were only there for two days so had to make the most of it! Camden had loads of relevant shops for my shop report and projects. One was an Indian fabric sop which had loads of patchwork fabric! I bought a pillow case to bring back and because its patchwork for my FMP and Indian is perfect for the Miss Newcastle project.

The Pillowcase I bought

My favourite exhibition though its not really relevant to any of the work I’m doing was 'The Enchanted Palace' exhibition its running right through till January 2012 so everyone has plenty of time to go and see it! The exhibition takes you on a quest to discover 7 princesses whom lived at the palace when they were still alive. Each room tells a tale and has clues to who that princess is. It was all very cynical and quite twisted but I loved it! Shame that it was the only part of the palace open to the public at the time as i was hoping to see the Princess Diana dresses collection. I learnt quite a lot from going to see this definitely worth while going if you are reading this! 

Unfortunately I could'nt take any photographs so I've had to search the internet for some and here they are.

Princess Diana dress in the room of 'The Dancing Princesses' She wore this to dinner at Buckingham Palace.

Princess Margrets Tiara she wore to her wedding. This display is also in the 'Dancing Princesses' room next to Dianas dress. I'm not 100% sure why they would be in a room titled as that.

A view of the room

Another room was Queen Victorias bedroom where she woke up at the age of 18 to find out she was to be Queen of England

The Gallery Of Dancing Shaddows. This room featured all seven princesses

The Diana portrait with two workers from a local theatre company.

A display from the room of sorrows featuring Princess Mary

A collection of leaflets, brochures and guides I collected whilst there.

Patch It Up!

Ive decided to look into patchwork and use elements to create my capsule collection. It can be done in several ways. The traditional way of squares or random sized pieces zig-zag stitched together straight stitched or feather stitched.

Section of a patchwork dress from the 1960s.

A later on cardigan from 1982

Alternative loud twist 'crazy' patchwork outfit

Catwalk Collection

Alexander Burke in a modern sheer patchwork dress

Pam Hogg

I stumbled upon this rock chick singer/fashion designer whilst looking into 90s patchwork. Looking more into her i discovered she has supported Debbie Harry (Blondie) in 1993 and designed for many famous people such as Kylie Minogue for her 'Two Hearts' video. Her catsuits were also very popular during 2008. Her website is under new construction at the minute however theres information on her on vogue.co.uk and style.com. I love her quirky use of colours and fabrics.

Making my Trouser Toile

As you can see the chiffon leg lies well the material gives it the right shape and volume I was hoping for. Especially adding a cuff on the bottom.

After making one leg out of the chiffon I needed to create the other but didnt have enough chiffon left so had to use callico. It is only to see what the crotch and waist lies like. The tape above shows where the band will be.

I made up an elasticated band and attached that. Now I can see what my pants will look like. After this I realised I needed to lengthen the top again but crop the bottom so I added 12cm to the top and took 5cm off the bottom.

The Beginging of Pattern Cutting

My first paper pattern is to be my trousers. I used the basic pattern block and took 5cm off the top and then another 6cm for the band. I then widened each leg by 40cm by cutting and spreading 2 20cm sections.

I then made the band pattern piece 100cm long and 12cm deep then added seam allowances.

To see if it will work well in a sheer floaty fabric I decided to make one leg out of some spare chiffon.

Initial Capsule Collection Changes

After choosing my capsule collection and drawing it up in flats and illustrations for CAD. I had a change of plan after developing the materials I was going to use for the garments. I chose two definite outfits to make and a third if I get time. After debating over fabrics and colours I went back to my design development and chose a different playsuit to put into the collection as it has both dress and playsuit elements. I swapped over the hooded top for the boobtube to go with my trousers. At this moment I’m still debating on colours and fabrics but as it stands I’m going to make the pants from blue patchwork fabric and have the hooded top either matching with a blue satin lining or a red coloured jersey.

AD 205 Final Major Development

For this I’ve decided to focus on Beachwear but NOT swimwear. I started off by doing pages of thumbnails focusing on dresses, shorts, kaftans, playsuits, boobtubes’ and trousers. From all of this I decided upon an initial capsule collection pages of dresses, playsuits and trouser outfits. the trousers start off to be harem but after much debate I am going to change them to more of a fitted palazzo style with volume and bottom cuff.
Below are my development sheets showing colour which I done in watercolour.