Reflection on Research

I have really enjoyed working on this project and i feel that the research section was a great part of getting myself hooked to the project. I really do love books and history and learning new things, and when a project or an essay enables me to really go for it in the library and spend days looking though books then I'm hooked to the project. It has been the same with this project. 

I am pleased that I decided to create a time line of the 19th century as it allowed me to really look at the costumes, rather than going oh that dress is pretty like many women do now days. I needed to look at  at the cut of the dresses and how they fall around the body. This was interesting because after writing the time line I decided to see how much information really went in and begun to play guess the year of this dress down to the last 5 years. I was actually very successful and really pleased that my time line idea had worked at keep the information in my mind. 

I found it interesting that when I tried to contact The gallery of English Costume to try and find an image or some more information on the dress I am working on that they denied having any images and stated that I should just look on there website which only said the same as what was in the book I had. 

However in Ashelford, J. (2008). there was an image of the back of a gorgeous velvet late 1890s costume, but as the image was not very good I sent a email to the small national trust museum where it is held for some more images or information about the dress and they replied sending me these fabulous photographs.

This was great to get such detailed images sent to me so that I can work from them for my final design.

Please do look though my work book for more research. 

Work Plan Reflection

Please see bellow the changes that where made to my work plan due to various situations, most of which are stated within my evaluations. 

All the boxes in red are the week that I did the work in the end rather than the purple planned work.

I believe that I worked on this project as hard as I could, throughout this project I spent many late nights at University working till 9pm about two to three nights a week. I feel that I have does the most work I possibly can and feel really sad that my work plan got changed around so much and that I fell behind for a while.

I have definitely benefited from having a work plan, in this basic format though, as unfortunately I got confused by my detailed work plan.

Refection on Design Two

Unfortunately the design I chose from the Norah Waugh Book 'The Cut of Woman's Clothes' does not have any reference to where it is from. This meant that I did not know from what year or place the image came from.

After looking through my research i soon learnt that the garment was fashionable at around 1895. 


I liked needing to research for this design rather than just copying a pattern from Arnold, J and feel that I have learnt a lot more for it. 


After draping the skirt of this costume I realised that I had placed pleats all around the centre back and darts down the side seams and wondered how I can make the skirt possible to get in and out. I first thought about the seam but this is down the side front and right in front of the eye. 


I thought about any other way of allowing the skirt to get on and off with out needing to add another seam as I loved the way it all draped. 


I then realized that maybe I could place the opening and placket just one side of the centre back underneath a box pleat that could then be poppered across. 


However this idea looked a lot more clear in my mind and I had a great problem trying to organised a way of doing it. Finally I worked out the best way of putting the placket inside a box pleat. 


This made me really happy and feel like such an achievement because I had worked out how to do it without any help. 

If I was making this garment as a finished piece in top fabric I would place a few bones in both the blouse and the jacket seam allowance. 


I feel I have learnt a lot from this design and hope to put it all to good use next year.

Reflection on Deisgn One

I have enjoyed working on this design and was happy with my decision to create this design first, it helped me get into the mind frame and helped me practise my cutting on the stand skills before I started on a challenging piece.

A problem that occurred was that I could not get the darts on the front panel to meet up correctly this was because I forgot to mark placement lines as well as the bust and waist line on the draping pattern. This meant that when the draping was taken off the mannequin and cut up that it became very hard to meet each piece back up the same way. This is something I have learnt from and will remember the problems it caused, meaning that I will not do this again. 

There ended up being quite a lot of problems with the draping and pattern for the decoration on the front of the bodice. After researching the technique of creating this decoration I undertook what I needed to do, but the problem was creating the base to work on top of. 

Below is an image of the piece I managed to drape using the pattern I created. 

The idea is to then machine strips of bias cut fabric onto of this panel to create the pleated look seen in the line drawing.  I have created a sample of this which can be seen within my workbook.

I feel that I have learnt a lot from this project and learnt from areas that I have done wrong for this design to hopefully not do the same in the next design. 

I found it really useful looking back over my research when draping the bodice because I was very unsure as to how the dress should sit on the shoulder because the line drawing of the design has very low shoulders and does not really show how the dress would be warn. I decided to look in the painting sections of the library to find this kind of information.

If I was to create this garment in top fabric then I would place a few bones in the seam allowance to keep the structure straight. I would also consider putting a waistband in the bodice to hold the dress in place.

I am really happy with the outcome of this design. I feel that my cutting on the stand techniques have improved and I am happy with the cut and shapes of the bodice pieces as well as the darts. I found the darts quite challenging to allow them to sit flat but create the elegant curved darts seen on the line drawing. These curved darts will give the elision of a smaller waist.

Fabric Sourcing

I went around London looking for potential fabrics that could be used for both design one and design two. I found a lot of different varieties and colours for the top fabric for design two. I chose some black, red and gold/brown silks for potential fabrics for the jacket and the skirt. The choice would then be left to the designer as to which he prefers. 

I also found lots of different samples for the black muslin that could be used for the blouse and the black velvet that would be used for the lapels and cuffs. I decided to by some of this to use within my toile to create the look with different weights of fabric. 

However, I had great trouble looking for a silk and cashmere blend fabric. Every shop I went into looked at me like i was mad! I did find some samples of different potential fabrics that could be similar to the colour description but does not have the fibre content required. 

I wrote to the museum where design ones original dress is but unfortunately they refused to give me any images of the garment. This did not help me with looking for fabrics.

I did however find some great samples for cottons both plain and glazed for the lining of design one as well as some gorgeous lace that could be added to the chemise underneath the dress. 

Please see my work book for all the samples found in London.

Reflection on Tutorial

After talking to my tutor I decided that it would be a good idea to also make a garment for the National Theatre Hire Department as this will give me the chance to make a garment to a very high standard that is required to last.

Making a garment for the National Theatre Hire Department means that this project can be split up into two sections. The first learning about the techniques and skills needed to cut different shapes. I feel that this is very important for me because the project will help me to become more comfortable and confident at cutting different shapes and styles of costumes, while the second half of my project will help me become a more technically accurate maker. 

I think that working on the Hire Department garment will be really good for my portfolio as I mainly did a supervising project on my last unit and did not make a full costume. I am really looking forward to learn how to make a pair of breeches as this will be something new for me to learn.