City and Guilds Fashion Level 1 – Week 7 & 8

The past two weeks on my course, I have been working on finalising my design for my skirt.  I knew I wanted a nautical star, but I didn’t know much more than that!  I experimented with different ways of making the star itself, by gluing pieces of fabric to paper:

Some different nautical stars

And I tried some different design ideas on Liz, but didn’t like any of them enough…

Liz tries some different skirts...but doesn't like any of them

I cut the stars out and pinned them onto either red or navy squares of fabric, to get a feel for how they would look against the coloured backgrounds.  It just so happened that I arranged them in a row, alternating red and navy, and I suddenly before my eyes was a design idea that I really liked.  Why just stick to one star?  (It would be difficult to choose my favourite in any case).  I think a patchwork-inspired row of stars along the bottom of my skirt is going to look great.  And I have decided that the majority of the skirt will be navy with red detailing, so that I can wear it with one of my many pairs of red shoes.  I just have to get it down on paper now!

Finally, a design idea I like!

Now, for the skirt style, I’m still thinking A-line.  I found a pattern I liked for an A-line skirt, and bought it along with these other patterns for only £1 each from the college!  I think they buy them in bulk and then sell them to students at a reduced rate.  I took advantage of the bargains and picked up some for myself and my daughter.

Pleased as I am with the patterns, it turns out I may not use the skirt pattern at all, as in week 8’s session, Debbie taught us how to make our own patterns for straight and A-line skirts!  As I am keen to do as well as possible on this course, I thought it would be fabulous if I could make my own pattern.  I also think it would be great to show our readers how to make their own straight or A-line skirt patterns, so in due course I will be posting a separate blog entry with instructions on how to do this.  I have made my pattern for the A-line skirt, and in next week’s session I shall be using it to make a toile, so once I have done this successfully I’ll post a tutorial.