basilwb

[basilwb]

25/5/23

Evaluation

Throughout this module, I have learnt many things to do with fashion design and the Navy and it has broadened my idea of narratives, as in the beginning of this project I was struggling to decide what I wanted to do and chose pirates. I later decided to change this because it would’ve been easier for me to relate this to someone I know, and could do much more research on rather than something fictional.

Some of the skills I have learnt during this project like using the eyelet machine, and the industrial machines will be useful when I start my course next year and throughout my time at BCU and onward.

For my final outcome, I think that I could have tried to use time better and think about time management more as I ended up having to rush my final garment slightly. I think if I did this, my garment would look much better and much more professional, however I do still really enjoy how it had come out and developed over the past few weeks.

[basilwb]

25/5/23

These are the sketchbook pages I had done the other day. They clearly show my narrative of my dad in the Navy. I have also added things like my mark making and design drawings with fabric to make these pages more interesting. The final page shows what the garment was before I had edited it too work in real life and I think there is a clear correlation between the real-life garment and the one on the page as the original design of the front can still be seen even though it is a more abstract version of it.

However, I do wish that I had chosen a different garment to make as I think that the garment inspired by the water crashing around the boat would have been really interesting. It was designed to be the shape of the top of the boat, and it was to be used in the colour palette of the ocean.

[basilwb]

25/5/23

This is my finished garment I have used boning to create more stiff parts to the dress I have also used eyelet’s so that I could do the corset detail which is the way to get in and out of this garment.

I had run into a few problems once I had sewn my lining to my outer fabric as some of the pieces were the wrong way round. I’m not necessarily sure how this happened but I ended up liking how it looked and going with it. It is not what I expected, but I prefer it because the lining on the front can be seen from the curly bit at the top, and I think that it helps to make the garment more cohesive. My favourite part about the garment is the corset detail on the side of the dress. I think it adds an interesting touch to a garment and it adds something different to the overall idea of the dress.

If I was to do this again I would use sublimation printing of the photos my dad had given me but because of when he gave them to me this would have been impossible to do.

[basilwb]

24/5/23

Working on my sketchbook and adding the images from my last post of my dad from his time in the Navy the sketchbook pages now clearly show my narrative and also my heritage as although I couldn’t contact my brother throughout this project he is also in the Navy on deployment at the moment. I was hoping to collect more contemporary images from his time in the Navy from the last five years to see the change that has happened with uniform and different ships.

[basilwb]

19/5/23

These are some primary research images from my dad from his time surveying in the Royal Navy. Most of these images are from the 90s when he joined the Navy. This is the man from the interview that I did a few weeks ago. 

I have used most of these images in my sketchbook to help show my narrative of my dad in the Navy throughout this project. These are some really interesting images of the boats he’s worked on him in uniform and professional photos taken of the crew there is also a personal photo of when his ship was coming down from a large wave and had crashed back into the water.

[basilwb]

18/5/23

After finishing cutting my pattern pieces last lesson, I have started to cut out my fabric and my lining.  I ran into problems with this when my lining turned out to be slightly more stretchy than my outside fabric. Therefore, I used more pins to secure the lining to the paper that I did for the outside fabric. Even with this measure, the lining was still cut out wrong and didn’t exactly Lie flat on the outer fabric.

Cutting out the fabric, which is probably my least favourite part so far as it was really hard to follow the curves that I had created in my pattern pieces.

[basilwb]

16/5/23

During this session, I was inducted onto the industrial sewing machine and the overlooking machine. When putting two pieces of fabric together, there is usually a 1.5 cm or a 1 cm seem allowance The same allowance is marked on the machine to show where the fabric should be sat. I had to relearn how to thread a sewing machine as it’s done differently to the  sewing machines in the embroidery room. The industrial sewing machines are a lot faster and more sensitive at the pedal than the other sewing machines, I have found this to make things quite difficult as I’m not used to the speed. 

For the overlooking machine as a student, I shouldn’t need to ever thread that machine as the technicians are the only people that are allowed to do that. I really enjoyed using the overlooking machine as it always gave a clean edge to the piece of fabric. I was using and stopped threats from pulling once It had been attached

[basilwb]

11/5/23

During the session, I was using the pieces of paper on the mannequin from the last lesson to create my pattern pieces for my garment. I have three rather large pan pieces that will need to be lined and sewn together to create my final garment.

In addition to this, I had to do an extra centimetre around the perimeter of each piece for seam allowance and also find my centre back and centre front on each piece, so that I knew what would go where once I had cut the fabric. 

[basilwb]

9/5/23

During this lesson, I was developing my final garment with paper the transformation can be seen from the top image all the way down to the bottom image. It had developed into a more fitted more interesting garment. The original shape of the garment was a sailors hat. This in fact relates to my narrative strongly as captains would wear them on navy vessels. In addition to this rather than having a zip close, I have decided to use a corset style close as this will relate back to the amount of rope that is used on navy ships.

I am extremely happy with how this turned out and this will be the garment that I make, from now, there will only be minor adjustments to the fit and how the garment  is put together .

[basilwb]

27/4/23

While doing sketchbook work last night I was  thinking about the placement of each piece and how each thing relates to my narrative.  I think there is a clear understanding of what my narrative is through my sketchbook pages so far. 

My favourite page, so far is the one just above this text as I think the proportions show an interesting view on the work and I think that those images clearly relate to the design drawing I did. If I could change this, I would add a sample of some fabric that I had printed onto to add something more interesting to this sketchbook page.

[basilwb]

25/4/23

Doing these designs I was trying to make them much more avant-garde, I think I was successful in this. Lots of these images are inspired by the shape of a navy boat, is can be seen especially in the last design drawing where for that one I had decided to chop up the navy ship into key shapes and used them to aid my design.

My favourite designs from these would be the top right one which uses the shape of the front of a ship 4 times, I also like the bottom left as it uses elements of that previous one on the top and then has a more square harsh skirt. Another one of my favourites is bottom right design as for this one I gave myself the task of using all of the shapes from the drawing I did of a navy ship, the only shape I dint use was the antenna at the highest point of the ship.

[basilwb]

29/4/23

during this session I decided that I needed to find some samples so that I would have an idea of the types of fabric I could use once I've decided on my final design. From rummaging through the fabric bin in the print workshop I found these 2 pieces of fabric one of them a sheer light weight fabric with a splatter print on it and the other a light cotton fabric with a similar splatter print on it.

when I looked at these it reminded me of a reference image I had taken when I was at the beach, especially because of the splatter design and the colours of disperse dye that was used, it added a very beachy feel to the samples witch relates to my narrative as the navy uses the sea as its main form of transport with ships and submarines.

[basilwb]

18/4/23

During this lesson, I spent the majority of the day working on the mannequin with paper, so that I could start to understand how I would want the garments look in real life as in drawings, you can slightly forget about how fabric actually moves also doing this gives me an idea of how my garments will look in real life making me think about all angles of the garment and not just the front.

I think this was especially successful as after my first couple, I was really getting into the swing of it and understanding the shapes I needed to cut out to get the desired effect. Specifically, for the symmetrical design, I was cutting out shapes that looked like the side of a boat relating this to my theme and creating shapes like this in a more avant-garde way successfully following on from my previous worry that I was designing garments that had already been seen.

For the final design at the bottom of the set of pictures, all I did was removed the paper the one above it from the mannequin and change the position of each piece, so that one is also made from the shape of the boat, however, it looks extremely different and much more interesting. I also added to that design the what is supposed to be rope as a design feature as a rope is often used on ships and and navy.

[basilwb]

1/4/23

I was looking at some costumes that the 70s band ABBA used to wear and I thought that there could’ve been some sort of military inspiration especially with the black and maroon outfit. As on the shoulders of the black jacket. There are silver epaulets which are definitely used in the navy in addition to this the boots, although healed look as though they are tough enough and comfortable enough to be used in a military setting.

The blue and purple outfit also shows military inspiration with the silver epaulets again and also the flared bottom trousers which are used to be worn by sailors and were turned into a fashion trend in the 70s.

I will look to these outfits to understand how a military style can be changed and adapted to be softer and more colourful four more casual clothing as I think if these outfits were slightly toned down with less metallic and bright colours, they could be seen now in shops and on runways.

[basilwb]

29/3/23

These are more design drawings I had done I had also coloured these in so that I could see clearly what the garment might look like, I do still think I am drawing garments that I have already been seen, however, I can see the switch happening in the bottom left design, the top of this photo is supposed to represent a boat through its shape and although I’m not a fan of this design, I’m glad I can see the progression happening.

There is also obvious narrative inspiration for these looks with the anchor, motif  being used in two of the design drawings, as well as the shoulder, square in the bottom right, which is commonly worn by navy sailors.

[basilwb]

28/3/23

For my initial design drawings, I was looking at these three images above. They were the main inspiration for these 6 looks. I think this can be seen, especially in the epaulet dress which was one of the first drawings I did. There are a few others that also show a clear inspiration. However, I think that these garments are too mainstream and can already be seen in shops and on runways for future designs, I will take elements of these and change them into something that has never been seen before taking on a more Avant-garde approach to this theme.

[basilwb]

21/3/23

During this lesson, I did some mark making using shapes of boats and the colour scheme of some photos I had found online. I quite enjoy the colour scheme of the white green and blue as this relates to my topic because it was seen in many parts of nature surrounding the Navy like the sea and the colour of the boats which are usually grey, In addition to this the uniforms are of course navy.

I also looked at an older version of a navy boat, which had the idea of a sailboat with lots of sales, and generally a more majestic feel as that was what Britain was trying to convey during that time, this would be around the 1700s before steam boats.