Updates on Knitwear and Tailored Jacket

Soo...in knitwear, we're using knitting machines from the 1970s. The ones where you move your hand right to left while the yarn gets knitted. First time I used it, all my knitting was soo bad. 2nd time, I had awesome results even when I used the punch cards. Then when someone else started using the machine, their knitting got wrecked. Temperamental machines. At least, we're not doing any hand knitting.

Things I learned in knitting. In doing the toile, think in terms of rectangles. Don't force the fabric to work like woven fabrics because it won't do. Let the fabric drape as it wants. Learn what types of ply and yarns there are before buying any yarns. The last one is for me to remember since we'll be buying our yarns next week. I don't really like merino wool. I prefer yarns that are soft like cashmere. I'll have to watch my budget though. Note to self: do not waste wool.

For the tailored jacket. I finished my toile. I finished cutting my fabrics. Done with the fusing as well. Learned another valuable lesson: Think before cutting the fabric. Sigh. Not only did I cut the wrong side but I also ran out of fabric and Clegs doesn't sell the red wool I wanted anymore. A boink in the head for me.

Wasn't exactly a disaster since T, my teacher, told me to just use the reverse of the cut fabric. So, that's that. 

Oh, and must deal with the different shades of my wool. I burnt the wool on my back panels so T said we'll have to burn the other panels as well for consistency. But that's for when I've finished everything and would just be doing the final press. Sigh. Continue pad stitching...

Fabric Buying

Spent a lot buying fabrics. I already bought about a metre and a half of black Italian wool but I wasn't sure it would be enough. Also, there were patches where the wool was "damaged" in some way. Since it was a remnant of a private collection and it was being sold dirt cheap, literally, at AUD10.00 per metre, it wasn't a bad bargain. In the end, I got the remaining roll for AUD5.00.

But I was still worried it wouldn't be enough for my tailored jacket so I went with E, V and R to check out this wool place in Richmond. Talk about "Whoah!". The place had so much wool to choose from. And they allow students to purchase even though they were a wholesale business (from what I gathered). Anyway, I bought 3 metres of wool/cashmere (80% wool and 20% cashmere). I wanted the 97% cashmere/ 3% wool combination but at AUD89.00 per metre, it was way out of my budget. Sigh. 

I just love fabric places especially those with lovely natural fibre fabrics. They're just so great to be in. 

Done!

Yey! Presentation was yesterday. I liked the knitwear. They were so cool.

I didn't like mine. It was just not good enough for me. I'm hoping to do better in knitwear.

I did like my ad boards. They were the only ones I was proud of. heheheh

Here are some that I liked.

Some of the knits

Viviana's macrame swimwear

Ruki's lounging around the pool swimwear

Lingerie Project Update

It's 1:26 in the morning. I'm taking a break from  drawing since my hands were getting tired and stiff from all that drawing.

I finished sewing the garments, but I still need to do a bit of cleaning up. However, half of the requirement is done. Now, I just need to finish the range book. This should've been done loooong ago when I was still relaxed and didn't have much to do. Unfortunately, I was plain lazy and now am suffering the consequences.

For the past two weeks of what was supposed to be a school holiday, I, along with a small group have been going to school as early as 9 in the morning and leaving at 8.30 in the evening sewing, overlocking, babylocking, threading overlockers. By the second week, too many late nights have caught up with us and we started belting out old (Tom Jones old) songs just to amuse ourselves.

Seriously, too many late nights are not good for my skin. I easily get dark circles under my eyes and I tend to resemble a raccoon minus the fur. I don't have break outs yet but I'm not looking forward to having them. 

Okay, break over. Back to work.

Aaarrrrgggghhh

It's supposed to be a two-week break but there's no break for me and those who are still not done with the lingerie/swimwear project. After weeks of draping and correcting patterns, I have not yet perfected a single pattern. I tried to wing it by not doing a sample but that ended in disaster. Lesson learned: don't wing it.

After a private class with V, I think I'm on the right track. I hope to at least finish two things this week so I could concentrate on other things, dyeing for textiles and doing the catalogue for the designs.  Sigh. 

Tomorrow's another day in school. 

On to the next project

After the corset comes the jacket. I've finished the design and I'm liking it. Kind of. If I manage to make it good, I'd probably even enter it into the wool awards. Must look for red wool and red cashmere. 

For the lingerie project, I'm feeling a bit frustrated since I don't think I'm making headways in my bra pattern. Such a tiny thing but it just makes me scream. I've revised the patterns 6 times already and it's still nowhere near fitting as I want it to be. sigh.

Corsets! Corsets! Corsets!

We handed in our corsets today. I was glad to finish my mine, just the binding actually, at 12.45 in the morning. That gave me 5 hours of shut eye. My classmates weren't so fortunate. Due to the intricate designs they've made, some had to keep working at their corsets until past the due time which was at 2 in the afternoon. T, our lecturer, wasn't bothered by it. He was happy at the work done by the class and he was even complimented by M, the principal of the school. She said the works this year was much better than last year. Yey!

So here are the corsets. Forgot to bring my camera so had to do with my mobile phone.

My corset inner layer

My corset with outer layer

Eileen's corset. She stitched all those designs herself, to get the effect she saw at Clegs.

I think this is Kirsty's

Viviana's corset