Haiku About The Blues

A haiku about this past week:

Long nights in the lab

Trying to enjoy it all

Because this is it.

I have to keep reminding myself that I need to be excited about all the work for my collection. This isn't just another project! It really hasn't hit me that I will be done after this semester. Honestly, I'm kind of sad that my time at Kendall is ending. There's a reason that I chose to stay here my senior year and not go to FIT. Kendall has a very special place in my heart and I have developed greatly on a personal and professional level over the last four years. I've made such close friends and have learned a lot about myself. During my freshman year, I was extremely shy and had a hard time socializing with people I was unfamiliar with. While this is still the case in some situations, and it takes me a little while to open up to others, I have grown leaps and bounds when it comes to socializing. I just feel more comfortable around people. Maybe this doesn't seem like it's related to my capstone but it is. With my theme being self portraiture, I am trying to convey a message of transitioning. When I journaled about where I felt I was last August, I felt like this year was about transition. I am transitioning into a career, out of college (and maybe out of school forever...we'll see), but with transition/change comes growth. I plan to have each look from my collection become more and more colorful and vibrant to represent the growth I have made during college, but also as a reminder to myself that I will continue to grow. I won't lie, I'm a little nervous about what my life will be like post-college. I know that this comes from not knowing exactly where I will find work, but I have to keep reminding myself that I will find something and I will be okay. This battle between the anxiousness about the unknown, and the logic that is trusting I will find my way through this transition is represented in a contrast between the use of straight, linear, inorganic elements combined with very organic, amoebic shapes and lines. 

I am still painting on my garments, but plan to play around with trim on top of where I paint as a way to "paint" with trim. The tools I have to use as a fashion designer are much different than those of a painter, so I am merging the two worlds by using media from both industries. Van Gogh's paintings have this indescribable quality to them, where I feel like I get to know him when I look at his self portraits. The hard part about taking inspiration from his self portraits is that it is difficult to express exactly why his self portraits connect with me. Right now, I just hope that when you look at my collection you feel like you get to know a part of me. Whether or not you can verbalize what it is about me that you learn. 

As a formal update on my collection, I have really been thinking more conceptually the last two weeks. I've also been chugging along in the physical realm, and have completed my patterns and prototype for my second look. I will be working in the lab all of spring break to get ahead on my looks, and hopefully get an additional two done during that week. I'm excited about what is all to come. 

-Maria

Week Five

Ensemble 2 prototype in the works!

Critics & More Prototyping

This past week has been filled with lots of patterning! I began patterning for the first men's look that will include a jacket with a breathable thermal lining along with the second woman's look of the collection. 
As I approach this next week, I will be sewing another prototype for the woman's look along with patterning a pair of men's shorts to match the jacket.

I reached out to a few industry professional's to find someone to review my collection at the end of the semester. Both of them said yes! The Oddest, from Grand Rapids, will be reviewing my collection, along with another brand, from Detroit, known as SMPLFD. I am very eager to hear what they'll have to say about my work!

Week 6 😶

Hiiya,

Patterns are done for ensemble 2! I was close to being done with the prototype, but I ended up wanting to start a new one. I'm feeling more confident on this one. During this process I wanted to already have my 3rd and 4th ensemble patterned, and ready to go. Making it happen day by day. 🙂🙏🏽

More Sample Work on week Four...Five? oh Who Knows Anymore

Well despite being terrible at keeping up will blog posts I have been toiling away and more collection related fun. We had our first critique and we are fully on our way in making look 2! I spent most of last class period making a lovely sample of a powerful pair of wide legged button front pants. I'll be working on patterning the sleeve to the top that goes with this ensemble and then in full swing with sample making. I'm so stoked to see how the full look turns out but for now take a look at my progress from last class period.

Week Foivee 🙃 1st ensemble done!!!

The first ensemble's due date came up super fast. One out of eight outfits is completed! So happy the way my customed print came out. It's nice and flowy for this specific dress.

I also had my model try on the dress, and it fits perfectly! It was nice to see the dress on something else rather then the dress form.

My next task is to sew the next prototype for my second look, and hopefully starting to pattern for the third and the fifth look. 😁😁😁🙏🏽🙏🏽

Week Five and I'm still alive

Turned in look one yesterday! Let me tell you, this week was a roller coaster from beginning to end. I made adjustments to my patterns after reviewing the prototype and began to transfer the final patterns on to a heavier cardstock paper. Then it was time to finally cut out the fabric. (Plus I finally had a chance to lay out the lights and see what they looked like!)

Cutting out the shirt wasn't too bad. Apart from the fact that the fabric couldn't still, I had a pretty successful time with it. On the other hand, the shorts turned out to be a real nightmare starting off with the fact that the fabric I planned to use was one that I had purchased in China. And only had two meters of. And it's going to be used in two different looks. And I have no way to just go out and purchase more. FUN TIMES.

Thankfully, I got everything cut out no problem. The problem came later when I started to sew the binding on to the edges of my fabric. Due to how loosely the fabric was woven, the stitching was pulling out loose fibres and the entire binding was falling off.

One stressful and sleepless night later. I figured out that if I FrayChecked the entire piece that it locked the stray fibres in place and prevented the binding from pulling them out and falling off. Unfortunately, this added another tedious step to my process, but in the end, it was worth it to not have the garment completely fall apart.

For the shirt...I'm still waiting on the rest of my lights to arrive in the mail, so the shirt isn't all together just quite yet. They should be arriving any day, though, so it should be finished soon.

In other news! The enamel pins that I have been working on to go with my collection got etched this week! It took several hours for them to etch properly but they came out so well! Once the emulsion has dissolved off I will cut them out and start the enamelling process.

Copper sheet metal before emulsion and etching.

Developing the emulsion before etching.

Thanks for reading and remember to keep checking back for new updates every week.

Salut!

Look One is Done!

This week I finished making the first ensemble for my collection. Even though I created a prototype before working with my final fabric, there were still some challenges that I encountered. For my prototype, I was using fabric that I had leftover from past projects , so the overall fit and the way the fabric of my prototype sewed was completely different than my final fabric. In some aspects, this was good since my leggings in my final fabric ended up fitting much better than my prototype. In other ways, it was tricky, especially with the grey mesh I picked out for my shirt was a little bit on the slippery side. 
Another challenge I encountered while making this look, was creating an appliqué. I've never made one before and was worried it could potentially look homemade. After some playing around with shapes and fabrics, I perfected it. 

I am very happy with the way this overall look turned out --- now onto look number two!

 

Week What?!?

It is week five and with all the snow days and due dates, I'm all turned around. Yesterday we finished and presented our first ensembles which went really well and I'm proud of everyone, their looks are amazing and I just know that this is going to be a great show come spring! My look is a full outfit, with a top, a bottom, and a long floor length jacket. I finished the top and the pant, although the jacket was only partly done because I ran out of fabric 😐. BUT one of the girls in my class came through for me and miraculously had the same exact fabric that she wasn't using which should be enough for me to finish the look 🙌🙌.  Also I was able to get the feedback that I needed for the jacket, there were some buttons that I got from our China trip last semester that I somehow forgotten about 😑, but these buttons are absolutely perfect for this jacket. Unfortunately, I had already drafted the jacket for a zipper insert but not for buttons so my lovely classmates gave me some options that I can use to make my jacket work for them, so although I ran out of fabric there is still a lot more that I need to add to the jacket to make it capstone worthy. There is another little design detail about the jacket which I think you guys will love so keep looking out for more progress pics because there is soo much more to come!

Here is a sneak peak of my first look!
Stay Tuned for much more!

* Peep the green in this photo (the jacket)... What do you think?

Let's Gogh

Turned in the first look for my collection today! I spent almost all day, every day in the sewing lab this past week. I patterned my look, made a test, re-patterned my look, made another test...not to mention, I re-patterned my slopers before I did anything with my first look. For those who don't know, a sloper is the foundational pattern that is fitted to the form. I have always thought of it as exactly the 2-dimensional paper version of the 3-dimensional dress form that we work with. I can use this as a foundation for my designs by adjusting features of the slopers to create my looks.

I finally created the final edition of my look and I am really happy with how it turned out! It seems as though this collection is a living, breathing thing because it seems to evolve as I work with it. I adjusted the length of my dress in this look and added some trim to the top for functionality.


To keep you on the edge of your seat, here's a peak at the hand painting that I did on my dress! As you know, the initial idea for Self-Portraiture originated after seeing the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I wanted to channel his distinct mark-making into this abstract print I painted.

Week Four

Ensemble 1 done!!!

Now onto prototyping my second look!

Samples are Happening!

Hey All,
These last few weeks have been crazy. Despite the massive snow storms and wild weather we are still well on our way. I've been working on pattern drafting more and have also have a sample garment made for my first ensemble. Mid-semester stress is definitely setting in and naps are few and far between bu the progress is incredible rewarding. Stay tuned for more sneak peaks of Vagabond; a collection inspired by vikings and strong femininity.

Hand bags, titles, and pins. Oh my!

I have big news!

I finally have a title for my collection!!

I've been struggling for the longest time trying to decide on what I was going to call my senior collection. I wanted something that related to my capstone but had a good ring to it. It probably doesn't help that I am the worst at deciding on names for things.

At my wit's end, I decided to look up obscure words for things that are hard to identify and came across the word:

"Zenosyne (noun): The sense that time appears to be moving faster and faster--especially as one grows older--speeding towards the inevitable conclusion that will arrive unexpectedly soon."

I loved the word and the fact that I could, in a sense, connect it back to my capstone concept. However, it wasn't quite what I wanted, so I decided to change the 'E' at the end to a 'C' and turn the word into sync. I kinda liked it and it had a catchy sound to it.

So I then went on to do a general google search of the word Zeno (as I do with most names I decide to use, just to make sure something significant isn't already using the name), and the only thing that came up was information about this guy: Zeno of Elea, a pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher.

I realized with much excitement that I had unintentionally stumbled across the perfect name that reflected my concept. Zeno -- the name of the ancient philosopher -- reflected the past aspect of my collection, and Sync -- and modern technological term -- reflected the futuristic aspect of my collection.

So without further ado, I present to you:

In other news, in another one of my classes, I'm working on making some accessories to go with my capstone. The plan is to make an eye-shaped handbag with my EL lights, a pair of earrings with the EL lights, and a series of enamel pins that I hope to sell alongside my collection.

Templates for enamel pins.

Testing out the enamel.

The colours of enamel that I'm going to use.

Thanks for reading and remember to keep checking back for new updates every week.

Salut!

Week 4 / Late Start 😲

Having a late start today was great, I definitely took advantage, and started to sew my first outfit in class.

I finally have all of my fabric. My custom fabric turned out great. (I step out on faith, and didn't get a sample of the fabric first.) After making my first outfit the custom fabric is almost gone 😲. Guess what I have to reorder?!!?    👀 #expensive

I also started cutting out muslin pieces for my second look. That should be ready soon.


 

 

Week Three

Week three!! Here is a look at my finalized design board and a look at the prototype of my collection. I still need to make a few minor adjustments and finish patterning my sleeves but all in all, it is coming along.

With A Little Help From My Friends

Do you ever hit a creative block in the middle of a big project? 

That's rhetorical because I'm positive many of you have. The fall semester of this year we all began to come up with our concepts for our collections and finalize the designs we planned on making this spring semester. I really do love my concept for this collection but felt a huge creative block when it came to transforming my ideas into clothing designs. My ideas were about 60% there.

The original ideas are now evolving and transforming, and are coming to life. With the help from feedback given by my classmates and teachers, I think each design has more interesting details
(which is what I felt was lacking). 

With all this being said, I have worked through a lot of ideas and with a little help from my friends I am getting there! Having friends/classmates available at my disposal at all times to give feedback is something I am trying not to take for granted. After four years of being around each other, it's safe to say we're comfortable giving constructive criticism when needed. This week I will be in the sewing lab from dusk until dawn finishing up the sample for my first look and actually constructing it. I'm writing this on a Wednesday, and my hope is that I will finish up my sample by tomorrow so I have the rest of this week and early next week to complete the actual look. Here's a peek at some original sketches that I either didn't choose to be a part of the collection, or have chosen but altered in some way. 

To The Weft, To The Weft

Wow.

Never in my life have I had an entire week of school called off because of the weather! While it was nice at first, I started to go crazy by the end of it and also began to worry about my inability to work on my collection from home. The school re-opened yesterday and now I'm back in the game!

I began to prototype my first ensemble for the collection last week and have finally finished up the first draft of the prototype tonight. I already know what I'll need to adjust, and will probably make another prototype just to be sure that everything is perfect before I cut into my $25 a yard silk...

Another note of progress this week is that I picked up some yarn at Joann's yesterday! It was finally nice enough out that I could make the trek out to Alpine (usually a 10-15 minute drive), and I think MANY other people thought the same thing. I sat in traffic for a solid hour and a half. Hour. And. A. Half. I don't know that I can say it was worth it, really, but I came back triumphantly with 2 1/2 yards of linen, and three skeins of yarn. Conveniently enough, my favorite Salvation Army is right by the Joann's on Alpine... so I also triumphantly returned home with two new sweaters and a t-shirt!

The yarn is for a few bags and accessories that I plan on weaving throughout the semester that are intended to coincide with my collection. I just want to have fun with the bags and experiment with different materials to weave with. If you aren't picturing what I mean by weaving, yes I mean weaving on an old school loom. I have a small one (approximately 12 inches by 16 inches) that I bought to make decorative weavings with. My theme of Self Portraiture and the tools artists use to express themselves relates to the art of weaving, because weaving is the very foundation on which everything else is built in apparel. Weaving is the original method used to make fabric so it feels right to pay homage to the archaic practice in a modern, artistic way. I feel like one of the tools a fashion designer can use to express themselves in their designs is by weaving their own fabric. While it isn't realistic for me to weave my own clothing within the given timeline, I thought it was doable to make accessories out of weavings!

Attached is a picture of the first prototype of one of the shirts I'm making for my collection. I need to adjust a couple things and make it out of a lighter fabric for my second test, because my final fabric is about a quarter of the weight of the fabric I used in the first prototype.

I hope you all made it through the polar vortex safely and as warm as possible! If you're reading this from a state that isn't around the Midwest region, then consider yourself blessed that you did not have to experience -25 degree weather!





For those who want clarification on the title, it is a weaving pun. Google Irreplaceable by Beyonce, and also what "weft" means. Who says fashion designers can't make jokes ;)

Snowmageddon

This week was nuts.

I've had multiple snow days before, but never A WHOLE WEEK. It snowed the entire time and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever let up. Needless to say, by the time the weather cleared there was a good couple feet of snow.

School finally reopened on the weekend which was a huge relief considering most of us had left all of our patterning and sewing supplies in our lockers. Once the roads near my house were cleared I headed into school to get some work done. 

I was able to get the fabrics for my first prototype all cut out and sewn together despite the major setback with all the snow days.

Thanks for reading and remember to keep checking back for new updates every week.

Salut!

Week 3 SNOWed by real fast❄☃️

 

 First time in history, or as of I can remember; KCAD had a week worth of snow❄days back to back. I have classes Mon-Thurs, I basically had an extra *snow vaca break* to get things done! Guess what? I didn't really....but it's getting there, these snow days confused me. Doing assignments backwards is different (pretending I had classes on the snow days before the due dates.) Still didnt work lol. 24 hours in a day goes by way too fast for splitting up portions of assignments to do in one day. Minus sleep, I would have all the time in the world to get everything done in a day. 😉

I have my first prototype done, after that I started on my second ensemble; patterning, and finished it. Take a peek.😁