BA2A: week 4

Tuesday

This morning I worked on my colour board and my concept board, I had been really unsure about which way I was going to with the colour palette for my collection, I couldn’t decide between a greyscale, oranges and reds or different shades of plum, I created 3 different colour boards today and my favourite was the grey scale one, I used the colours of the ash and smoke from a volcano to inspire my colour palette and I think that it is the best option for me especially when I look through my sketchbook, but before I decide fully I will wait until all of my fabric samples to arrive so that I can see which fabrics go best together.
Today was also my last technical session working on the half jacket, I really enjoyed today seeing how it came together.
I also worked on my design development today, I have found this a really stressful process as I haven’t been able to draw exactly what is in my mind onto the paper, they just don’t end up how I want them which has been really difficult for me and has also started to really knock my confidence, I will keep working on it as I know practice makes perfect.

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Wednesday

​Today we had a visit from Ciment Pleaters ltd, this was really interesting and it showed a lot of different techniques that could be achieved by pleating, many of which I had never know where even possible, I think that It something that I might want to explore next year, even though I don’t think I am going to use it this year it was really helpful to see what can be achieved as well as get an idea of cost.

We also had a visit from Whaley's as well, this was also helpful to see a few of their new fabrics that they have on offer, I already have samples of most of their fabrics but It was good to see their new ones, especially as I haven’t found the exact fabrics I want to use yet for my 2 piece outfit, I know I want a Melton wool or something very similar for the jacket to give it that military feel, but for the bottom half I am still unsure, I am also trying to think of cost as my favourite Melton wool at the moment is £65 per metre, which I CAN’T afford!!!!! So its back the drawing board at the moment, I found a few from Whaley's that look good but I will need to think a bit more and perhaps wait until I have made my toile so that I can be sure that the fabric will work.

I also did a little bit more design development today, I have been finding it really hard to design at the moment but its only because every time I draw it doesn’t look like how it is in my head which is a bit disheartening but I am going to keep going to hopefully improve!
I removed my fabric from the rust dyeing process today and on some pieces it has come out looking really good, I will wait until my tutorial on Friday before I carry on any further with this. If I am given the go head with this process then I will go to the seaside to see if I can find any rusty metal that might have been washed up onto the shore, this will help everything to link together as I will have been using the sea for rust which links to my theme of the navy.

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Thursday

In the technical session today we started to make the shorts, I found this quite confusing to start with but once they began to look like shorts I found it okay to get on with, I am looking forward to the next session so that I can learn how to complete a fly.
Today I began pattern cutting, I was exploring the pattern magic technique of the interlocking wave (the title is quite fitting I thought), I found this quite confusing but I think I might have cracked it, I will continue to work on it tomorrow, but it felt like a step in the right direction as I think I will be using it in my final design.
I also set my rust dyeing, I am really pleased with the end result I think that it will work really well for a lining, I would like to sample it on a different material to see if it has a better result, or just to see how the technique works on different materials.
As another sample today I completed a pocket, it has two different pockets in one, I got the idea from my research of the royal navy uniform as one of the decorative features looked like two pockets, it wasn’t two but it looked that way, I decided to try a patch pocket with a flap but also a welt pocket into the patch pocket, I was really pleased with this as It worked first time and it looked exactly how I had imagined it, tomorrow I will play around on the mannequin exploring placement of the pocket.

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Friday

Todays tutorial went really well and gave me lots of ideas to think about, It was suggested that I explore my colour scheme a bit more to have a few more variations of shades, I will continue to explore my colours until I have the perfect colour palette that works with my collection.
When thinking about the other items in my collection I haven’t decided about what I want to do but after today it was suggested that I should think about dresses, shirts, wide trousers and oversized plackets and pockets, I will begin to explore these ideas over the next few days.
The tutorial made me think of ideas that I hadn’t thought of yet which was really helpful and allowed me to further my development.

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Saturday

Today I went to Norwich castle to view the Naval Uniforms that they have in their new Armistice exhibition, it was really good to see the items on display after struggling for so long to be able to find any original garments.