I've been working on this project since January now, and one of the best decisions I've made yet was to go to evening class. Not just any old class: the CALAT course in Pattern Cutting and Design.
Now I was a little sceptical that this might be a gentle extension of the dressmaking classes that I went on last year at my local fabric shop, and that they wouldn't be anything like the St Martins course that I really had my eye on, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The course has challenged me in so many directions: from asking me to keep track of current fashions to researching their Victorian roots, to developing my own designs from them and learning how to translate them onto fabric. It's even highlighted problems in fashion design that I may have maths answers to: a lot of work on creativity and analogy translates well into fashion design, and much of the maths of surfaces and optimised curves on them can be put to use in developing shapes that fit onto the human form (and specifically onto the convex curves all over the average woman). It's wonderful... and now I'm going to eat supper and get on with my pattern-cutting homework.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Sunday 7 March 2010
Projects
And so to projects for this year. So far, the completed sewing projects have been:
* Finish skirt (purple, tweed, mini) and shirt (relaxed, white needlecord)
* The kilt challenge from Sara - make something from an old kilt... the answer was a fitted tartan dress
* A skirt that fits F (nile green linen weave)
On the boards are:
* A cream herringbone wool jacket (to test the riding jacket pattern that I adapted) - I might nick some black gaberdine for its collar and pockets.
* A blue tweed jacket (same shape as above) with soft brown leather collar.
* A black classic Italian dress a la early Garbo - princess line, 3/4 sleeves, demure, using the gabardine I've been saving for something special
* A leather laptop bag, using the most beautiful 3mm buffalo hide from Le Prevo.
* Another shirt.
* Another junkshop challenge - fabric as yet to be determined.
On the design front, I've started the excellent pattern cutting and design class at Calat in Croydon. Much recommended, and excellent fun, all for £80.
* Finish skirt (purple, tweed, mini) and shirt (relaxed, white needlecord)
* The kilt challenge from Sara - make something from an old kilt... the answer was a fitted tartan dress
* A skirt that fits F (nile green linen weave)
On the boards are:
* A cream herringbone wool jacket (to test the riding jacket pattern that I adapted) - I might nick some black gaberdine for its collar and pockets.
* A blue tweed jacket (same shape as above) with soft brown leather collar.
* A black classic Italian dress a la early Garbo - princess line, 3/4 sleeves, demure, using the gabardine I've been saving for something special
* A leather laptop bag, using the most beautiful 3mm buffalo hide from Le Prevo.
* Another shirt.
* Another junkshop challenge - fabric as yet to be determined.
On the design front, I've started the excellent pattern cutting and design class at Calat in Croydon. Much recommended, and excellent fun, all for £80.
Thursday 4 March 2010
Welcome
Another year, another blog. And this year it's all about fashion. Having spent literally decades playing with sewing machines and patterns, I'm finally taking the plunge towards making my interest in the intersect between fashion and algorithms official. Watch this space...
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