Hello,
This weeks blog post takes us to my second year of A-levels (A2-level) where we were set the brief of trying to solve a problem using textiles.
This was a hard brief as I had never made anything with the intention of trying to solve an issue, everything I had made was just to make them, they didn't have an important purpose like this. As we were all quite stuck on what we could do, we were given the example of products used to highlight sustainability and recycling, by reusing products such as plastic bags to make a dress. Sustainability is a huge issue within the textiles industry but for me, not many people are going to be wearing plastic bag dresses. I want to create a product that really could be used to help solve a problem.
After much deliberation, I decided to go with a personal problem that a lot of other people are affected by. My own brief and topic was to create a textiles garment with the intention of saving single-parent families money. I come from a single parent family so, I can understand the struggle of my mum having to bring up me and my brother with no financial help. Since this was a problem for me (which I must admit I don't see it as a problem I love my single parent family and I wouldn't change it) I decided that I wanted to make a garment to help single-parent families or any family that has to be on a budget.
The first thing that came to mind when I thought about families saving money with textiles was hand-me-downs. I know that nowadays there is a stigma about this and many people look down on it. But I wanted to create a product that was capable of being passed down but has a cool design so that it didn't have this hand-me-down connotation. I liked the idea of creating a jacket that could be reused (meaning that I tackle a bit of recycling too) because even if there are a few years between your children, you can get away with having your coat/jacket a bit bigger. Therefore lasting longer till your children grow into it, meaning saving more money. I had the question of what if your children are opposite sex. I wanted to make a jacket that everyone could wear because I know that when we were younger my brother would have refused to wear on of my pink jackets. Therefore I decided to create a reversible jacket, which had a side for girls and a side for boys. Which meant parents could save more money since the jacket could be swapped around to suit any child.
After designing lots of different jacket styles and themes (which can be seen below). I decided to go with a cape style jacket, as it was fashionable at the time and could be easily reversed, meaning it was child-friendly, due to it not having sleeves to mess about with, pulling inside out. To complement the cape style I decided that the girl's side would have a little red riding hood theme, due to the fact that the red cape is similar to what she wore. For the boy's side, I chose to add an attachable cape, because to many young boys cape means superheroes not a style of jacket. This also added a fun element to the jacket. I chose to have the boy's side Superman themed as the colour scheme would go well with the girl's side as they both feature red.
Below are some images of how I made this reversible unisex child's jacket. For confidentiality reasons, I have chosen to not feature images of the children modelling my garment. And I, unfortunately, don't have the jacket to be able to take pictures of it on my mannequin, as my teacher's son fell in love with it so they got to keep it.
Next week is the start of my university journey where I studied textile design. I just wanted to ask if anyone would like a blog post on how/why I went to uni, my advice/tips for uni. Or would you prefer for my blog to stick to textiles only? Please get in touch, as any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for reading
Love Karmann Jean
Mood board and research of single-parent family struggles. (Since I don't have any of this work, I apologise for these old photos, in the portfolio sleeves, it's all I had to use. Sorry)
Primary research: questionnaire to single parents.
Product analysis of reversible clothing already on the market (i did for more but I had too many images that I needed to cut a lot out).
I chose to do a disassembly of a child's reversible jacket so that I could understand the construction a bit more.
Initial children's theme ideas.
Design 1: Superman cape with a red side for girls.
Construction development for design 1.
Improvements made to construction development of design 1.
Design 2: very similar to design 1 but with sleeves and a red riding hood theme for the girls.
Construction development for design 2.
Design 3: hoodie with batwings being a superhero cape and ladybird wings.
Construction development for design 3.
Design 4: blue and red hoodie with an attachable superhero cape.
Design 5: coat with toggle fastenings.
Design 6: navy quilted waterproof one side and orange fleece the other side.
Development of logo techniques.
Final design.
Toile development.
Manufacturing specification.
Pattern pieces.
Cutting out my pattern pieces.
Figuring out armholes.
Getting ready to cut the fabric to allow pockets.
Finished pockets.
Superman logo (sticka).
Machine embroidery.
Machine embroidery of RRH (red riding hood).
Preparing the Superman cape.
Attachable cape with velcro.
Armholes attached together.
Preparing the hood.
Hood attached, it is a red hood both sides as it will blend in with the red cape on the boy's side.
Ready to sew the hem of the jacket.
Final product: little red riding hood front (my A-level revision notes in the background).
Final product: little red riding hood back.
Final product: Superman front.
Final product: Superman back.
Record of making.
Record of making.
Record of making.
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