Evaluation

The theme for my FMP was focused on Typical Britain throughout eras, for my FMP I wanted to study something that I had a large interest in and that would keep my ideas flowing throughout the project, when writing the project proposal and creating mind maps for the project I realised that studying Britain throughout eras was such a large scale topic I had to narrow it down a little and I finally decided to focus mainly on Britain throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s this meant I had lots more time to focus and give all of my attention to these eras, I had also decided quite a bit in advance that I wanted to study British fashion and how this changed throughout the years.

I visited several places to gather primary research, my first stop was Manchester, I attended Manchester fashion week which was an amazing experience and I shall definitely be attending a fashion week again very soon, before doing this I did some research and found out every designer that would be featured in the show was going to be a British designer which was a huge bonus as I could see what fashion is current and compare it with the eras I have chosen to study. I also visited Bettys Tea Rooms in Harrogate which was also a brilliant experience, as I felt once I stepped inside of the tea room I had been transported into another era, I gathered lots of imagery from this visit which I used in my sketch book and developed drawings from these photos. I also collected lots of secondary research from Pinterest, and books I am extremely happy with the amount of both primary and secondary research I collected.

I developed my research by creating mood boards with imagery I had found from websites like Pinterest, I had decided I wanted to create three mood boards which is what I did, I created one based on Typical British things, one on British icons and one on British eras. When doing this I wanted to make sure that every image I chose had got an element of pattern as this was going to make the development process a lot easier for myself, I also had told myself I was going to stay away from the union jack as I felt it was very predictable and has been reproduced far too much, so I wanted to convey Britain in a different way. I created visual and development sheets which all looked pretty similar as after creating one visual sheet I had already pretty much decided what my print was going to look like, this made the development process a lot easier when designing my pattern.

When developing I wanted to make sure the print I created was bold, fashionable and reflected my theme extremely well, I didn’t want to create anything that was too colourful as that doesn’t really fit in with my style as I believe colours can look in-expensive and childlike, I wanted my design and colours to be classic, bold but subtle at the same time. I got a lot of influence from fashion week looking at current trends and patterns and the colours the designers had used in their creations, I had this in my mind when doing the whole design process.

I personally don’t feel I have had any constraints during this project as I feel it has gone quite well as a whole, I have a very good family around me and they have helped out with anything I have needed throughout most of the project. From the start I predicted time management may be a problem as all of the other projects during second year textiles have been extended which therefore meant there would be less time spent on FMP, the time constraints didn’t become a problem until the experimentation and sampling process began as I didn’t have long on this part of the design cycle, however I am pleased with what I have managed to create in the time I was given.

As previously mentioned I have been pretty lucky throughout FMP as I haven’t really suffered with any large problems that have needed solving, when creating my tracing for my screen print I had to decide what was going to go where, once I had drawn my design out I then had to spit it up into different sections as I wanted to use different colours for different sections of my design, once this was done I could then confidently colour in the sections of my screens that would be colour/black. I had four screens but as I only had a small A3 design that is able to repeat 360 degrees when exposing the screens I was able to have two tracings on one screen, this was a good idea as it meant I wasn’t taking up many screens for a small design but was a little tedious when I was having to wait for screens to dry before I could print the second, third or fourth part of the design.

The experimentation process is probably my favourite stage of the design cycle, and this time I was even more excited, as I had now decided I was going to create a 1960’s mini/shift dress to display my print on this meant I had to create a toile, a practice of creating the garment before making the actual thing, this meant I had a chance of pattern cutting, using the sewing machine and over locker. I really enjoyed this process as fashion is very important to me so when I had finally created my toile although it wasn’t perfect and needs a few little tweaks I was proud of it as I had created it myself from scratch. I then went on to sampling on fabrics, I had to consider what fabrics were going to display my pattern well and what fabrics would look well when worn as a garment, I sampled with a variation of fabric but my favourite was white cotton, the fabric displayed every colour I had used very well and looked clean and crisp with my design displayed on it. I also created weaves and knits, which I also printed onto, however this didn’t work well at all as the design looked distorted and very unclear.

I am very happy with what I have produced and honestly don’t think I would change anything, apart from if I had a lot more time I think I would make something a little bit more adventurous than a simple mini/shift dress and maybe create a few more little bits to accompany the dress for example a few bow ties for a menswear design.  Other than that I am very happy with what I have produced.

The biggest artist of inspiration for my FMP has been Burberry, as these are a British design company who have been around years that have always had a classic, simplicity style that looks typically British with a touch of heritage in some of the collections Burberry have produced throughout the years, this is where I got the idea of creating something simple and classic with a hint of Britain.

From the beginning of the project I had pretty much known what I had wanted to create, I wanted to make a shift dress purely to display my pattern but this made sense as the shift dress came about in the 1960’s and is when I believe set fashion off, I also wanted to create bunting to accompany my dress and sheet work in the exhibition to give an effect of a typical British garden party.

The main processes I have used in this project have been printing, sewing, free machining and weaving. I also tried out wet felting and needle felting as I wanted to create tea cups and buns for a English tea party setting but once I had experimented with this I realised it wasn’t for me and didn’t fit in with what I wanted my style to look like at all.

I feel I used my time very well as I had a clear idea throughout the project of what I was going to do on certain days using my time management plan.

I feel I have also used my blog to the best of my ability and I can honestly admit I am slightly addicted to blogging, it is such a good help for documenting work as when I have been writing other things throughout FMP I have been able to refer back to my blog to see what I have done on certain days. I feel blogging is more of a hobby for me rather than a chore and I shall definitely continue once FMP is over.

I am extremely happy with how everything has gone during FMP and I can honestly say I have put everything into this project all of my time and effort has gone into it although parts have been stressful it has definitely been worth it. My strengths in this project have been printing and sewing/free machining and I feel I have stretched myself when doing  these process.

Everything mentioned on my proposal I have done which I am very happy and proud with doing this I feel I have benefited myself with the amount of work load I have given myself.

Throughout FMP I have handled my time well via blogging, using my time management plan. I have been quite stressed throughout and some days I wasn’t worth talking to as I some days I was pretty moody as the project was getting on top of me, but once I had sorted myself out and got on top of the work load I was fine and back to my normal self, I am very happy I managed to get everything complete for deadline day and I now have further time to just focus on my dress, print, bunting and exhibiton.