SHIFT

As I sit here just an hour before this project is due, I think of how typical this is of me to be leaving the most important things until last. I love to think of the bigger picture, the vision, the final ‘wow’ factor. But when it comes to the nitty gritty, the paperwork, the writing and the ‘extra bits’, I generally let myself down.

This project has been amazing in the sense that it has made me aware of the style of designer I am, and more broadly, the way I approach a task. My bigger picture view tends to lead to over-ambitiousness, and I become a bit of a monster to those close to me in trying to get things done (it’s the Shaper coming out in me…! It’s true, I’m evil!). I have been working around the clock to get this project finished, and granted I have had the most sleep I’ve ever had before a Design Studio project has been due (3 hours, a record!). But still, my general view on the final result is, I could have done more.  I wonder why this is, as at the end of the day I’m not a perfectionist and I cut a lot of corners, so maybe it’s the guilt of cutting those corners rearing their ugly head.

Aside from this, I have learnt a lot about myself in terms of how I approach a task. When I first heard this brief, I was overwhelmed at the open-endedness of it – I work well within constraints, and was stumped as to what I was going to do. Subconsciously, I created my own constraints, which limited my fabric choice, my pattern construction, and hence, my designs. I rarely am able to get anything done if I don’t have some set of ‘rules’ even if self-imposed, as the scope of possibilities is way too big for my tiny mind to handle. I love to problem solve, I love a good puzzle, and I love conceptual thinking, and giving myself constraints really allows me to push my creativity and push myself in directions I never thought I would/could go, and to make garments I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.

I have been pondering the question ‘What do I care about?’ for days now, and it’s such a massive area of thought, that I don’t know where to begin. Of course, my incredibly supportive family, friends and boyfriend, but that’s granted. I’m not particularly interested in money past the point of eating and being housed (I mean sure, we’d all love more, but it could never pass the importance of my loved ones). The environment, it’s obvious, particularly for a sustainability brief, but in the last five weeks I have really begun to change my though, literally Shift my values. I have attempted in this project to reduce my waste to nil – I didn’t quite make it, but I have a scrap bag that I have kept all my scraps in, and it’s about 100 grams, so I really did try to minimize my impact. In my day to day life, I have been so much more aware of the waste I am responsible for, and have tried to reduce it as much as possible. Being in fashion also makes me feel guilty for the amount of clothing waste there is. I know in the future I’m going to be a lot wearier about my fabric usage, the types of fabrics I use, and the amount of toiling that I do. In this project, I didn’t toile at all, which was a conscious choice, as I couldn’t imagine wasting that many metres of calico or other fabric for something that I would never use again. I don’t want to add to my calico toile pile that I can’t bear to throw away. But lastly, and most importantly, I care about people. I get very affected by the stories of hardship and poverty that are all around us. By the same token, I am very inspired by the people who actually make positive things happen by doing something about it. I am inspired by people who are proactively doing something to improve the quality of life for so many who are less fortunate. I think that we are in such a privileged position, that we owe it to society to also try to help in any small way.

In retrospect, I’m glad I’ve left my design philosophy until the end. Looking back at my process and research, I’ve had a long time to reflect on what’s important to me as a person and a designer, and how SHIFT has affected my way of thinking. This project has been incredible in opening my eyes to who I am, and what I care about. Things I have never quantified before.

The end.

Let me get my coat…

A collection by Ana Diaz exploring multi-purpose use items to invoke thought on the memory of belongings, and sustainable living through fashion and clothing. All original items used were second hand and recycled, with minimal waste involved.

Let me get my coat… the instruction manual. Make do and Mend!

Let me get my coat… the meaning behind the room

This project has allowed me to explore several aspects of my design philosophy, both personally and ethically.

Exploring my values and what is important to me as a designer and a person has been an incredibly beneficial and inspiring process, and one I hope I’ve used to its maximum potential.

The thought process behind my wearable room stems back to my concern and interest of the social impact of war on people and communities, explored conceptually. What if you had to flee your home in a hurry? What belongings would you take with you? Which ones hold the greatest memories? Is it the photo album, or the irreplaceable token that is worth nothing to anyone but you? It’s a hard question to have to face, and the idea of your memories being your clothes is something that intrigues me, as after all, they are only ‘things’. These things however, have seen you through stages of your life that you will associate with forever. It’s purely an installation idea, but I also like to think that it gets people thinking of the actual several uses you can get from items that you would otherwise discard, and to generally think outside the box with what you might think is trash. The post WWII rationing period is also a big inspiration, as their ‘Make-do-and-mend’ campaign determined much of the aesthetic of my work. The reality of being discouraged to buy new (a foreign concept in todays consumerist society), and to make do with what resources are available. Perhaps we should take a new look at this concept and apply it to our every day lives.

Anyway, enjoy  Let me get my coat… the grand finale!

xo

Great, here we go again

So I have had the brilliant idea of doing my step-by-step plan in the style of the make-do-and-mend campaign from the 50’s. This is good, because it’ll be a great way to present my step by step plan in a different way. But this is also very, very bad as it lessens my chances for sleep in the next two days, and now that I’ve had the idea, I wont’ be able to rest til it’s done…… d’oh.

a few more random thoughts

The more I think about how I work, the more I have found that the actual ‘installation’ or presentation of a body of work is a lot more important to me than the details (as much as I want the details to be amazing, it just doesn’t seem to be my thing). This might be a caffeine-fueled ramble, but the process and meaning behind a body of work is more important to me than the final finishes and perfections. I get really frustrated by having to have ‘perfect’ sewing, and a perfectly lined pattern etc etc, because these things seem pointless to me. What’s important to me is whether the final product does what you wanted it to do, and how you got to that point.

Maybe I can explain it with an analogy – when I was little, I started a colouring-in book with the best intentions. I was going to stay IN all the lines, the colours would be perfect, and there would be no felt-pen blotching (equal pressure and line). I would start my first picture, do well for about, say, ten minutes, then get really sick of the picture I was working on and want to start a new one. I would start getting super slack with my picture, but no matter how hard I have ever tried, I’ve NEVER been able to colour inside the lines. Eventually I would give up on the picture, or do it half assed so it didn’t take as long. My boyfriend on the other hand, used to cry when he was little if he went out of the lines. I think I should get him to do all the pretty little detailing for me

Anywho, things have changed slightly in the way that now I must finish what my original vision was at whatever cost. Currently that cost is lack of fun and sleep, but whatever, it’s nearly finished. I have found with whatever successful work I’ve produced over the last two years, I’ve had an overall vision of what I want the end product to look like. I’ve always improved and altered along the way, but I always have a general idea of what I want the final thing to be.

Design selection for me has always been the most creative time for me rather than the actual making, but because we had no design selection this semester, this whole process has been so creative and hands on in actual ‘making’. I’ve loved it, it’s been amazing and awesome, and I haven’t felt so inspired in my whole degree. I think sometimes Design Selection sucks all the life and creative energy out of me, so when I make, I’m almost resentful that I still have to do work after all of that!!

Anyway, just a few random thoughts….

Lampshade Hat

I had a fight with the glue gun with this little project. The glue gun won, and I now have three big welts on my fingers!! My Saturday night keeps getting better!

Haha but I need to stop being such a killjoy, and show you pretty pics of how it turned out. I used scraps from all the other pieces I did (floral fabric and doilies), as well as an extra thing I found which was this weird knit with cool coloured lace on it. I love my colour theme. So granny! It’s the best.

Cutting corners

So, when I made the shorts and top from the previous post, I cut some corners… thinking I was just ‘experimenting’, I didn’t overlock all edges, I did some very dodgy sewing, and generally didn’t make a very acceptable garment/s. I went to sleep feeling verrrryyy guilty that night…. so the next morning, of course, I had to unpick everything and resew it again, PROPERLY. I’m glad I did, even though it set me back half a day. At least I feel a lot better for it.

Here are some final pics of what I’ve done with this part of the project:

Let me tell you, those buttons and loops on the shorts and top (mostly shorts) were not my forte. Very very frustrating and next time I have to do them, I am DEFINITELY delegating to someone more patient than myself.

Shorts and Top seat cover

Sigh. I am super tired and not in the mood to do much blogging so most of this will be pictures. Ironic, because that’s the WORST part of blogging, uploading those bloody pictures!

Anyway, with the offcuts of the end of the curtain snap dress from the previous post, I had been thinking a long time about making a seat cover. I wasn’t sure if I’d get the time, and realistically, I shouldn’t even have tried (because I wouldn’t be up at 11.30 on a Saturday night blogging the hours away with still 234902348 things to do). Anyway my over-ambitiousness got the better of me, so I went for it! That, and I was feeling like *making* rather than doing boring step by step instructions (which, might I add, I’ll blog about later).

So I started with a cute little crop top. This is the first time I used a pattern for this whole exercise so far!

That was one offcut, but I still had one more… So came the shorts. The top wasn’t quite finished but I planned to do some buttons and put elastic in the bottom the next day.

I had a big conundrum with the shorts and amount of fabric I had left, as I wanted to have a consistent pattern all around. This did not make for a very sustainable lay plan, and also just didn’t work no matter how hard I tried!!

In the end, I had to compromise with this to, so decided to settle with having a consistent pattern on the front, and a different one on the back. The back was all floral, but the front was floral with white (pic) – I wanted the whole short to be like this but it was impossible. Oh well it worked out in the end.

Also, as a part of the seat cover decoration, I made a frill for the back of the top. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough fabric to make an all-around frill, which really made me sad!! BUT, in retrospect, not many chairs have chair cover valance’s that go all the way around, usually only on the back. I used the wonderful snap buttons again (genius invention) to make this removeable.

Snap Dress

So the next garment to be completed is the floral snap curtain dress…. I really love this dress in the end, I think it’ll be the first piece I wear out and about.

I’ve been draping these curtains for weeks and weeks and had yet to do anything to it. There was a bit more of that, and umming and ahhing…

umm? ahhh?

So, finally I started by using the offcut I originally took off the top of the curtain (where the curtain rod originally went through) to make a drawstring and a drawstring casing. I decided to make it a bit interesting that I would do it in an inverted ‘V’ shape, extending out of centre front. I had decided to do this from the get-go but was just pondering a lot (as usual) about it, and not doing a whole lot. It ended up looking better than I expected, and I LOVED it!!

At this stage I was going to just use normal buttons to close the sleeves and leave them as draped wing style sleeves (as seen in the pic). I started playing around with the fabric and was really interested with some of the shapes that came about. I started wondering how I could get all of these shapes, and played around with using some snap buttons. This proved to be reaaaaallly effective, as I could get a few different effects with the snap buttons, ones that I wouldn’t have thought of before too!

Yay! I’m really happy… the possibilities with the snap buttons are endless (more endless than the photo’s show haha).

Anyway that’s it for the snap dress, I just have to add some drawstrings to tie the curtain to the curtain rod. Always something else to be done!