My week in photos.

In the rare moments that I haven't been up to my elbows in bras and knickers there has still been lots going on. I had my weekly coffee date with my momma, we spend it catching up on each others sewing like were little old ladies! I think we are going to be having dinner soon with a girl we used to foster nearly 12 years ago, as we have got back in contact. I'm really looking forward to it but also quite nervous, 12 years is a long time and she was in the first year of school when she left us, so there is literally a life time of catching up to do.

 

My darling bought his first grown up toy this week. She is called Harriet (after the missing girl from Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and I'm having orange envy hard! He was so scarily happy when he bought it over and gave little hiccup such a fright when he turned it on in my little court yard! We had a lovely evening together on Thursday, went out for a few drinks to wind down after the long day, cooked dinner and watched Daughters Of Darkness while cuddled up in bed.

Tomorrow we are having dinner out but neither of us can make a decision on where! Any suggestions of vegan friendly restaurants in Leicester would be greatly appreciated! 

 

I added some of my previous work to my wall as motivation. I'm really avoiding doing my sketchbook work (as usual) because I don't think I'm a strong drawer. It's so frustrating because I want to show that I know what direction I'm taking things, that I understand the processes but I just can't seem to portray it how I like on paper! 

 

 

 

While I was trying to fix my printer I got the feeling I was being watched and managed to snap a quick photo of the accused. Oh I love my little night fury ever so.

 

 

The best thing that has happened to me, in possibly the last year, was that Toby treated me to a showing of Drive at the Phoenix Arts center. Drive is my all time favourite modern movie and I missed it when it was first shown. A few months ago BBC did a re-score of the soundtrack, it was okay. Nothing exciting and definitely changed the entire feel of the film, getting rid of the heavy neon 80s vibe and using tracks that just didn't flow with the otherwise almost silent movie really hit a nerve with me and I'm SO happy that we saw the original score. It sounds really pathetic but I got a little emotional at the start! 

Toby has got some serious boyfriend points from this one.

Parisian Project- Take Two

This week has been a slightly mad one. It's the first week of the Easter holidays so I've had no classes = A LOT of time to myself. I swear by Wednesday I had lost all social skills. Thanks to my lovely mom I've been able to order my velvet power, which needs to arrive soon so I can get my final set done and dusted. 

Below is my revised final design, flocked in purple rather than grey as it was a test piece. I played around a lot with adhesives, acrylic, nail varnish, puffy paint and found that plain old acrylic worked best. Stressful work though because I need to work very quickly and accurately before the paint dries and the flock won't stick- cue 3 hours of dabbing on paint with a toothpick!

I think it came out really nicely though and will look really effective on the bra and knickers, complementing the design.

  

 

Below is a toile of my bra in the final chosen fabric. I'm so gutted that the side cup got a ladder, proof that this fabric is so delicate and difficult to work with. I'm going to draw up another one looking at re-placing my darts because I think there is too much excess fabric at the center front, it may look different when worn though, my current mannequin isn't any particular shape really and it's quite frustrating! I cannot wait for my contour mannequin to arrive, I bought it about 4 months ago when the university was making an order and they were sent back as they arrived without covers! 

 

 

I decided to go with a lightweight silk fabric, most commonly used for lining a garment. You can't see in the photo but teamed with the mesh gives it an almost leather effect, which I'm very much a fan of! Obviously this garment isn't finished, I need to wait until the contour shop is open after Easter for the hook and eye and some sliders for the neckline.

Art Inspo- Sophia Rapata

Lately I've become one of those stays up til 3am girls. Tonight is no different. My mind has been so full of ideas and things to be added to my monstrous to-do list that I'm finding it very difficult to sleep. It does sometimes have it's perks though...

I would never have stumbled across the adorably creepy works by Sophia Rapata otherwise. Some of this work may be a little bit disturbing to some, but I watch and dream images like this most nights (not in a bad way!) I think it's beautiful artwork and I'd love to own some one day. It reminds me of Insidious slightly, and The Babadook, shapes and images you only see in the shadows and are never sure if its just you mind playing tricks on you. 

Home Inspo- Urban Outfitters.

 

Now I'm not normally a big Urban Outfitters fan, I think a lot of the products are badly made and their garments have a higher mark up than the exact same brand that also sells on ASOS. That makes me very grumpy. That being said, I stumbled across their Instagram account yesterday and proceed to then spend the next half an hour glued to my phone looking at what I can only describe as interior porn.  

Some of these images I'm using for reference are styled using UO products, some are inspo pieces from peoples houses (like the one above that I am in love with). Whenever I move house I become obsessed with pinterest and IG, looking an home ideas and ways to style, simple storage used creatively and plants, so many plants! I've always dreamed of living in a house turned jungle and hopefully now I'm dating someone who actually knows how to care for plants this can become a reality!

 

 

 

 

I've been trying to come up with cleaver and easy access storage ideas for my sewing room, I need to be able to see what I have easily, keep my elastic and trims neat and untangled, everything needs to be very organized. Right now it's an organized mess, I know where everything is (roughly) but once I'm making the room ends up covered in bits and pieces, my bed becomes my pattern cutting station, my floor becomes my bin and the cat becomes my worst enemy with thinking the elastic I'm using means play time. 

If you have any cleaver and stylish storage ideas or ways of staying organized please get in touch!

Parisian Mood board.

A quick little mood board to show the initial inspiration for my Paris project. I may come back and re-work it, or make another one to show more of the direction I'm taking it.

Gym to Swim Concept.

My final project of the year is a 'Dragons Den' style groupwork project. We have to find a gap in the market and develop a design concept to later be presented to several faculty members of the university. Scary stuff. The winning group has the opportunity to be featured in a lingerie magazine which is incredible to competition is high! 

My groups idea is gym clothing that can be transferable to swimwear. Think fashion forward body suits, flattering workout shorts and mis-matched tops that are both supportive and stylish. I know that activewear has undergone a massive update in the last few years but we have been looking into some pretty rad ideas from several brands and developing their idea further. 

I've initially been put in charge of researching and developing a colour pallet, and a website. Hence the activity of this blog lately! For now here is a quick mood board I made to give a slight indication of the brand idea we are hoping to develop.

Parisian Chic- Take One

One of my final projects for this year is called Parisian Chic. Most of the girls got to travel to Paris for a few days (I didn't go due to work and cat-momma duties) and we have to base our first design to construction project based on something in Paris that inspired us. As I didn't go I decided to look at Iron Railings, developing that idea into a final pattern to go onto fabric and create my design. 

This week has been my first week into the construction side of this project, the heat is on now! 

Above is a little look into some initial design ideas for my final garment. We were briefed that we need to construct a bra, knicker and suspender set. Using methods and techniques that we have been taught throughout this year.

Now we have began making our garments my life has become a hectic bra related mess, well, more so than normal that is! I've spent the last week utilizing ever spare moment on developing my garment patterns, I want to do as much as I can from scratch to show that I've been practicing what's been taught.

My sketchbook work is mostly looking into a pattern development, taking inspiration from my initial idea of Iron railing but making it fashion forward. I've also looked into mirror imaging and incorporated that into what will (hopefully) be my final design, which is below. My aim is to use velvet powder and flock the patten onto powernet, I was going to use the help of the textiles department but the studio will be closed for 3 weeks over Easter so I have to come up with a way of doing this by hand. I may need to simplify my design...

 

My first toile (rough copy) was finished today, I need to steal a friend for half an hour or so to have a fitting. The garment fits just fine on a mannequin but how it fits on the body is another story. Please excuse the fabric, this is a test piece to see if I need to make any alterations to my design and this delightful striped polyester was the closest thing I had to the fabric I want to use for my final garment. Think satin black with the same black mesh shown with the design above printed on. 

I still have to toile up my suspender belt, something that has been tormenting me for days, I can't mentally figure out how to best approach what I want to do! 

As I mentioned this is an ongoing project, I'll keep updating with the development process. If anyone has any ideas or tips I'd love to hear them!