Evaluation

During this project, I spent too much time researching and although that research is essential and extremely important, I need to make sure that in future projects I manage my time a lot better. To do this I could have a time table with completion dates that is unique to myself and something I can understand and follow easily, that way I will be able to complete all work.

The dresses themselves, I am actually really happy with how they turned out, especially the black one. I think it has the right amount of material to make it look floaty but not too much that it looks bulky and unattractive. I also think that the finishing touched to both of them made them look a lot more professional. To add more unique qualities to both dresses I could have added a print of dyed them, but unfortunately I ran out of time due to being off poorly.

Even though I did a lot of research considering fabric, If i was to change anything about my dresses it would be this factor as using so much material for this dress meant that it was really heavy and it being made from jersey made it even heavier, next time I will use cotton, even though it doesn't drape as easy, I know I will be able to create some amazing textures, formations and shapes from it, without it being too heavy to actually wear.

I found this project really interesting and I feel like i have learnt a lot and gained many new skills that i can take forward and use in other projects. Making small samples as toiles is a great way of not wasting a lot of fabric and playing around with shapes really inspired me when it came to making the larger scaled dresses.

Overall I find it hard how the way Julian Roberts makes his zero waste pattern cut garments is actually saving fabric (however I know there is a lot more to the meaning behind sustainable fashion) The way I copied Julian Roberts theory made me actually use a lot more fabric than I would have for any other dress I have made, about 3 meters. If I was to do this project again I would focus more on how Holly Mcquillan uses this theory to make her garments as fitting them all together (pattern pieces) seems a lot more efficient.
 

Garment Manufacture

double top stitch

welt pocket

zip

bias binding 

overlocking

top stitching 

shearing elastic

open seam

Finishing Touches

The making of DRESS TWO

Learning from my mistakes with the first dress i decided to create this dress with a lot less fabric, which runs with the theme of sustainability.I used the same layout plan, but obviously the random line was different, giving me a different shape to work with and drape around the human form. I absolutely adore how this one came out and think my sewing on this one was a lot more accurate.I think the sash at the back gives it an ethnic feel, which to me starts to tell a story, I am going to finish this of with some biased binding in a contrasting to colour to hide any raw edges and make it even more unique.

The making of DRESS ONE

This is my first dress, after a lot of research I decided that jersey would be best for this style of dress. I laid my pattern that i had created out on the fabric and chalked round it, i then created a random line all the way around and cut this shape out.

I then over locked the shoulder seams and side seams so that I could put it on a mannequin and start to drape my fabric, remembering all the techniques I had learnt from my samples.

I added beads and safety pins to give it a thrown together feel about it and think it turned out well, however if I was to create it again I would be careful with the amount of fabric I cut out to use as this to me looks a bit bulky in places. I think it looks best from the side as it flows better, but from this I can take forward the ideas I now have to make my other dresses better.

MAKING THE PATTERN

1. Take dress block (top) and draw round it.

2. To take the dart out of the pattern cut down the dart itself and tape both sides of the dart together. This will make the pattern 3D, you now need to cut from the bottom to the dark, to make it 2D again, once you have done this, you have taken the dart out of the pattern.

Samples of shape work

Here is some more sample work, this let me experiment with the different shapes and formations I could create with the fabric. I used calico and cut triangles, squares and circles and then cut into those and sewed them up in different ways to create different shapes to what they started. I loved this experiment and feel it really helped me gain more knowledge of what i could make out of such simple shapes. It also gave me lots of ideas of how i could drape my dresses around the human body to create an attractive stand out part of the garment, whether that be the top or bottom. I would like to carry this on and try and create a whole garment in this way as i think it is really eye catching to look at. My favourite example I made was the corset looking top, as I loved the texture it added and think that its amazing to look at.

Design Development

Here are some design developments I have drawn to give me ideas of how I would like my final dresses to look, however I wont be able to create them to look exactly like this as the lay plan I have chosen requires me to draw a random line, which will never be the same twice, this is something I love about this layplan as this means that the dress will be 100% unique. My favourite design is the very bottom left design as I want one of my dresses to be tight to the top half of the body yet flow around the bottom. 

Here I have shown how I could add some sort of print onto my garments, I could even dye my fabric so that again it is even more unique. 

Samples

Here are some pictures of some experiments I did with small pieces of SCRAP fabric (as this is sustainable) I wanted to research what layplans worked best and what the best material was to use to get the looks Julian Roberts does with his garments. 

Firstly I created a top, this was a mistake as I didn't cut enough fabric, but as Julian Roberts e-book says, there are no mistakes and I actually really like how this turned out. I didn't waste the circle I cut out either and used it as a decorative accessory. If i was to do this full scale I think I could create the twist a lot better, to make it a feature.  

The second experiment I did was to see if other fabrics worked. I found a piece of wool scrap fabric and decided to work with that. I do like the shapes that I created but it was hard to make the dress look like it was just a massive bulky mess and I think this on a larger scale would only look worse. Thick materials wont be something I consider when buying my fabric for my final dresses after this experiment, I will use either jersey or cotton.

The final sample I did was my favourite as the way I had cut the pattern gave me a lot of material to play with and drape over the manequin and even though at first I was worried this would look too bulky and not attractive on the eye, it actually turned out better as I could plait and twist the fabric to draw the eyes to different parts of the body/dress. I cant wait to use this layplan to create my larger scale dresses. I think that now I have found a layplan I like I will stick to this for all three dresses and change the way i drape the left over fabric to make them unique. 

Below is an image of the layplan that I will be using and following to create my larger scale dresses, this is also the one I used on the sample dress above. 

MORE RESEARCH

Here are some photos of my additional sketch book that I am doing along side this blog to document my work, included on these pages are some more research of the designers I have previously spoke about (Julian roberts and Mark Liu) You can also see a sketch I did of a design idea I have for a skirt using Julian Roberts theory that everything is right. I also played around with scrap fabrics to create different knots and shapes which I think look a lot like the Julian Roberts designs, as it is all about draping and how the fabric falls and folds, 

Mark Liu

Mark Liu is an eco-fashion designer and wants to change the way people waste fabric, approximately 15% of fabric is wasted in the manufacture of a typical garment, when a pattern is cut out, the leftover scraps are usually considered useless, but Mark Liu creates zero waste patterns that fit the smaller components of his clothes among the larger ones like a puzzle so every bit of scrap fabric is used. I think that this is a really clever and un-wasteful way of creating garments, his work is also featured in the book 'sustainable fashion; why now?' 

Holly McQuillan

Holly Mcquillan lectures for a fashion university design program at a university in New Zealand, her work and lectures focus on sustainable design. since completing her masters of design, her work has focused on exploring the possibilities of zero waste garment design. Her work has featured in exhibitions and in books. she has also worked with other zero waste designers such as Timo Rissanen and Julian Roberts. I really like her work and I think shes extremely clever how she uses every last piece of fabric to create such incredible and intricate garments.