All Over, Red Rover!

Thoroughly exhaustimicated at the end of term.  I promise you I worked harder for this quaint little TAFE course, than I ever did to earn a degree! To finish the course we have a College Parade, which is a bit like a graduation ceremony, but with more chandeliers and bling.  Although I was thinking "Don't trip!" and "Stand that collar up!" and the like, it's still quite satisfying to see your garments being tromped down the catwalk by a bunch of Amazonian women.  

Sorry I don't have photos from the parade, but here's the outfits I made on some of our lovely students.  Thanks to Lynette Rees for the great shots.StasiIvyAnn

Technical drawings, fabric swatches and toiles!

Hand drawn sketch in ink and conte crayonWorking from my mood board (see previous blog entry!) I hand draw sketches of what I'm going to make. 

For more clarity, these can also be translated into a technical drawing on a computer drawing program.Technical drawing in Adobe Illustrator

Patterns are drawn up by hand and a toile or test garment pieced together.  At college, we have rolls and rolls of fabric oddments to cobble toiles together.  At home, I like to pick up cheap fabric from op shops for testing patterns.  It can be a bit of an eyesore, but it's great for trialling. Here's a snap taken in our college studio...

Test garment made of scrap fabrics!

Love collecting fabric swatches from stores until I make my mind up!But you can relax, the final garment will be made in lovely ice-cream coloured silks and organzas.  Can't wait!

Promostyl-influenced mood board

Ever wondered why "all-look-same" when you go shopping for clothes?  Blame it on the trend forecasters!  At college, we use a French company called Promostyl who for an exhorbitant fee will send you a big folder full of the next big things.  They boil down a fashion season into a dozen concepts and even provide colour palettes so that textile manufacturers can start producing fabrics in the "it" colours for Summer 2013.

Here's my mood board from which I'll draw up some design developments, draft patterns, make toiles and sew up a collection.  All by June.  Wish me luck!

Photo Shoot!

Thank you to the lovely Emily and her mum, Margo for taking these lovely shots of one of my college projects. 

Emily is a student who entered a modelling competition and did very well, even taking out Miss Congeniality (the best award!)

For some more images from the shoot take a look at Burda Style here.

From mood board to final design!

Here's my mood board inspired by some beautiful lampshades from industrial designer Tord Boontje.

It prompted a series of design developments.  One of which was made up on a half scale mannequin.  Then there was the pattern making and experimenting with constructing a pinata of an underskirt in boning and mesh.  Then the 40 white leaves were glued in place and Ta Da!  It all looks so easy when some gorgeous young thing like Emily is wearing the final result!