On the up and over that hump!!

So this blog has been neglected for sometime now.  Mostly as I haven't wanted to pollute cyberspace with my frustrations and pessimistic thoughts.

So a very brief over of what has been happening since I last blogged.

Tedious changes were made to my pattern pieces to make the garment fit better. 

I started on my final garment nutting out problems as I went along.  Finally Finished!!

Problems addressed were;

Where the bust cup would sit?

Sewing my straps into place.

Because of the bandage like straps wrapping around the body I have found it essential to adjust them and pin them & then stay stitch them into position on  the mannequin. 

I am really pleased with the out come. Had I not constructed the swimsuit in this manner I believe the straps would not have molded into shape as well and there was the potential problem of the straps been sewn on straight instead on the curve.

Prior to this week I have been totally uninspired or enthused about drawing.  Problems with my garment construction have been my only focus in the last few weeks. I was finding it hard to focus on any other elements to my assignment.

My capsule designs are coming into my head thick and fast now that my garment is completed. I am now drawing clear decisive designs.

For my capsule collection I want all pieces to be interchange and able to be worn all together. Tying in my layer and interweaving concept for my swimsuit.

So far I have 8 strong individual looks which can then be layered and interchanged to make multiple looks.

I have experimented with layering as many as six individual garments into one look and am excited to see how many looks I can achieve for 6 outfits!!

Colour has always played a big part of my design aesthetic along with prints that clash. (print clashes is one of my most favoured looks.) I am still undecided if I want to throw some colour around or keep it very monochromatic. 

Who am I kidding - It will most likely be bright!! I'm sure the designs will still translate it boring grey and black ;) 

Happy days!!

Model Images

Here are some photos of the model wearing the swimsuit.

Still need to reslove the bust piece. For the fitting I had to sew in a scrap of fabric so she could model it.

Loviing the postive and negatives spaces created on the two sides and back.

Where am I

So Today was D-day for our toile. 

We were able to try our garment on a live model.

There is a lot of pattern tweaking still needed to be done. After trying it on the model almost every single piece was re-positioned and pinned.  I will have to redraw every pattern piece. 

16 pieces in total, that will be a good half day worth of work. Not even remotely interested in starting that today. I think i need to start it with a fresh mind.

This afternoon I'm going to focus my energy on my capsule collection. So far I have spent the afternoon reading through Grazia magazine, napping, blogging and tracing figure illustrations for my final drawings...

Tomorrow might bring more inspiration...

Here are a few things I've been working on....

CAD tech drawings for my final swimsuit. Front & back view.

Background image designed in Photoshop.

Image for fabric print.

For my capsule collection I want to include printed garments.  

The above images will be used in a print series.

They have also inspired my colour palate.

More on that tomorrow...

Toile Two & D-day is looming

The back piece of my swimsuit has come together pretty quickly and easily, as planned.  I have only made one adjustment to the design which is to weave the right strap under over and under again as when is was on the dummy the strap was pulling away from the body with the curve of the bottom.

I really love the back part of this swimsuit more than front at the moment. I think it has a lot to do with it not being over designed.  I am kinda wishing I could just have the front of my swimsuit to be a simple straight forward to allow the back to be the feature of my garment.

Hmmm...  Perhaps all I really need to do is refine and maybe even simplify the front just a little. To my two fans feed back is good.  Tell me what you think.

So I still have to work out how to cover up that boob... Hmmm. I have left this til last. The left strap is not draping right. I'm thinking I need the cut the piece so the grainline runs diagonally.

I'm also not happy with the amount of flesh showing in the middle. 

Things to work on...

Patience is not my Virtue

Gillian our mentor has been giving lots of pearlers in our class. And it wasn't until Monday evening around 6pm that I began to see what she was on about.

I was having very strong doubts about my ability and design and was very tempted to throw it out and start the process all over agin with a design I knew to be technically easier. Frustrated and agitated by this overwhelming feeling of failure before I was even halfway, I proclaimed my detest to Gillian... And her words were something along these lines...

"Of course it's ugly it just pieces of fabric right now... Wait until it all comes together and then you will see."

Well... she was right!

I am more than thrilled with the out come.

I have something that looks almost there. Still a work in progress.

Here are the changes so far...

Puzzle me this

Here is a an out-line of the pattern. 

I have found this very useful when I need to work out which piece goes where.

Over ten pattern pieces just for the front of the garment alone! 

Ekkk. 

Layout the pattern pieces.

Not sure where to start with the assembly...

Cutting out the fabric.

When designing my original swimsuit I was thinking about having the fabric bands attached to a nude lycra base. My plans was for this to make the construction of the garment easier and for a more modest swimsuit.

But I kept having bad visions of figure skating costumes and hated the idea that my swimsuit could be confused with a figure skating outfit.

So now scrapping  the base fabric of the garment the swimsuit will require more thought into how each piece will hold it's shape.  I will also have to rely heavily on my sewing skills. 

Hopefully I can achieve the look I am after. My understanding of stretch cotton lycra is very elementary. I am not sure if the design I have chosen is far more challenging and technical than my abilities. 

So for now  I am pushing through by focusing of the hardest part of my design and this is the front of the garment, as the fit need to be perfect so the bust is not exposed.