Academic Diaries- Year 1 – Post 4

Hey there.

What’s up guys?

Guys, I am just thinking that I should tell you every subject in a different post so that you can easily understand each subject and not get puzzled. Let’s get started then.

Firstly, I’ll tell you on subject surface ornamentation. It is an embroidery subject basically.

 

As I have discussed only basic stitches in my last post. After that, I learned applique work. What is the applique work? Applique work is a type of patchwork. In this, a small piece of fabric is sewn on the larger fabric. There are two types of applique. These are positive applique and negative applique. Positive applique and negative applique both have two types, one is finished edge and second is raw edge applique. In positive and negative applique there is one difference only. In positive applique small fabric is sewn on the top of the large fabric and in negative applique small fabric is sewn under the large fabric.

After the applique work, I learned about the quilt. In quilting, a layer of foam is stitched in between two layers of fabric. And then it gets stitched horizontally and vertically in a fine way. Our quilt is ready.

Smocking is one of my favorite embroideries.  For smocking, I’ll make another post so that I can explain the techniques which are used in smocking. For the moment we move forward.

Next, I learned about lacework. I learned about two types of lacework which were categorized in boundary lace and second is insertion lace. Boundary lace is that in which we sew lace on the boundaries of fabric and insertion lace is the lace in which lace is sewed in between for joining the two fabrics.

I’ll continue the embroideries in my coming posts.

Till then, bye. Have a nice day.

Academic Diaries – Year 1 – Post 3

Hello everyone. Happy friendship day to all my wonderful friends. I am here with my new post in academic diaries. So let’s get started.

In elements of design, we learned about shapes and silhouettes. There are three types of shapes – geometrical, naturals and abstract. Geometrical shapes are those shapes which occupy space, natural shapes are found in nature but they also can be man-made shapes and abstract shapes are simple versions of natural shapes. A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. There are six types of silhouettes – Bell, A-line, hourglass, tube, box, and back fullness. The picture below is a silhouette.

 

In surface ornamentation, we continued with basic stitches. The teacher taught us 26-27 stitches. These stitches were not very easy. They were time-consuming and they need practice also. I made a satin stitched flower for my portfolio.

In Indian art and appreciation, we did research on western Indian states- Gujarat. Gujarat is famous for its culture and craftwork. Navratri is one of the famous festivals. Navratri is celebrated for 10 days and the Garba is a popular dance of Gujarat. The main outfit which Gujarati men wear is chorno and kediyu. The women wear chaniyo and choli. There is mostly mirror work on the dresses. This is the picture of the traditional Gujarati dress.

In Illustration, with stippling process, I made footwears for practice and also for the portfolio. After stippling, we learned etching process. Etching was the process of doing gradation with crisscross.  For next class mam asked us to buy Staedtler colors.

In Garment construction class, we learned basic seams. We learned that there are nine types of seams and those are a plain seam, top stitched seam, lapped seam, French seam, mock French seam, welt seam, slot seam, bound seam, and counter seam.

In pattern making class we learned how to make the pattern of A-line frock. We will use this pattern in our next project knock off.

In textiles, we learned about natural cellulosic fibers. In natural cellulosic fibers, we studied about production processing, properties, uses. We studied about cotton, kapok, coir, flax, jute, hemp, etc. (natural cellulosic fibers).

In Basics of fashion class, we learned about intangibles of fashion. It means why fashion changes. We learned that there are three factors that bring changes in fashion. These were acceptance, change, adoption.

This is what I had learned that week in college. I hope you got to learn some jargons related to the fashion world in today’s post.

Academic Diaries – Year 1 – Post 2

Hello readers,

I am back with the second post in Academic diaries. Sorry for the long gap between posts. My exams will be starting soon and there is a lot of work to complete. I am currently equipped with that. Let’s get started.

In the subject, elements of design, we learned about lines. We learned about different types of lines, their names, and their psychological effects. Then we had to do the same with the dots also. I clicked the images of lines and wrote the expressions that we feel when we see these lines.

We created compositions with lines. We cut a paper in dress shape and then put the paper dress on lines and from that we created designs for garments. In surface ornamentation class, we learned about basic stitches. These are running stitch, even stitch, uneven stitch, back stitch, half back stitch. These stitches were done with anchor thread and needle. But these stitches were easy for me because I already knew about basic stitches. In Indian art and appreciation, we had to do research work on ancient Indian civilization and make a presentation on our research. That week, in illustration, I learned pencil shading (gradation) and stippling. Stippling means marking a surface with numerous dots. I spent a full day to complete stippling because it was very time-consuming. Just imagine how dotting a paper would be? We did pencil shading horizontally, vertically, Diagonally with pencils of different types.

In garment construction class, we had to do practice sewing machine on paper but I already knew how a sewing machine works. Thanks to my mother for teaching me that. I found no difficulties in it. In pattern making class, we learned how to make a bodice block for 2-3 years old baby with full measurements. From that bodice block, we had to make dresses for baby. In textiles, we had to collect different types of fabric swatches (swatch means a small piece of a cloth and fabric means cloth) and cut them in 6*6 inch size. We learned about fibers; yarns (Thread. In fashion terminology, it is said fibers or yarns). Fibers can be divided into two parts- natural fibers and man-made fibers. Some things were related to chemistry also.

In basics of fashion, I learned fashion terminology. As a fashion designer, we should know the fashion terminologies. Some of the fashion terminologies are:-

1. Style: – styles come and go in terms of acceptance
2. Design: – design is a specific version of style
3. Taste: – refers to an individual’s choice what to wear or not to wear on an occasion
4. Fad fashion: – this fashion comes and go in a single season
5. Ford fashion: – fashion that sells in great quantities

We learned about Fashion looks, accessories, fashion looks, fashion trends and fashion season. There is two main season (spring/summer and autumn/winter).

That’s a brief of what I learned in college in next week. Hope you also got to learn some new terms and their meanings. Below are the images of my work that I had mentioned above.

 

Happy reading… 🙂

Academic Diaries – Year 1 – Post 1

Hello guys!

I was thinking about it for a while that I should create different series for the different type of posts. Like above Academic Diaries series for posts around my studies, academic activities. In this way, it would be much easier for you guys to relate the posts with each other and not to get confused. In fact, I was thinking about making another series where I can show you some tutorials of things that we learn in college. Though that’s a talk of later but for time being let’s start with Academic Diaries.

After orientation class, we had 2 months holidays. After the holidays, I came to Chandigarh on 15th of august. Next day, I went to the class where I met my friends. It was good to see those faces after 2 months. Then class teachers came and asked us how our holidays were?

We all were divided into sections. But I was not happy because all of my friends were in section A and I was in section B, so, I went to the admin section and got my section changed. Then mam came and told us our timetable. Mam also told us what things we need to bring. We had to buy ivory sheets and bond sheets. Ivory sheets are hard and thick but Bond sheets are normal plain white sheets.

We have total 11 subjects in the first year. These are Garment construction, Indian Art and Appreciation, Fashion Figure and Drawing, Textiles, Basics of Fashion, Pattern making, Surface ornamentation (Embroidery), Computer, English and Management. I want to share what we were supposed to do in the above subjects and the equipment, things that we needed for the subjects.

In garment constructing class, we were told about machine kit. A machine kit usually includes things like a needle, needle clamp, bobbin, bobbin case, spool, thread. In pattern making class, we were told about pattern making tools and equipment. For pattern making, we needed a working surface, paper, pencils, and pins, measuring tape, fabric scissor, tracing wheel, tailor chalk, french curves, one-fourth and one-fifth scale. For embroidery class, we needed anchor thread (thick and generally anchor thread are made with 6 yarns and used for embroidery), also needles, scissor, khaddar casement (fabric of khaddar), wooden frame (it is of circular shape and used to tighten the fabric for embroidery). With khaddar casement, we were supposed to make samples of size 10 by 12 inches. In Indian art and appreciation, we do mainly research work on Indian states. Firstly, we did research work on Kashmir. In the research work, we did research on the lifestyle of Kashmir, food, living, dance, art and craft, culture, festivals, and dresses. And after doing the research work made a presentation on it. India is such a diverse country that every state has its own culture. It was a good experience to study the culture of a different state.

In basics of fashion, we learned the basic terms related to fashion. Terms like Haute-couture (it involves expensive material and intensive labour. It is usually made on order i.e., customize for a certain client), Pret-a-porter (these are ready to wear clothing’s and made in standard size), Avant-garde (clothings which are made by experimental or innovative ideas and methods. In daily life we can’t wear it).

Illustration class was of my interest. We bought a pencil kit for illustration. In this kit, there are seven pencils – 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b(Here, B stand for blackness). We did lots of practice on pressure lines. After this practice, shading became easy for us. In fashion foundation class, mam told us about elements of design. There were seven elements of design. These were dots, line, shape, texture, color, value, and pattern. We were supposed to click the images of dots and take the printouts of the pics. We had to write our expressions that we feel on seeing the dots. We usually express ourselves from dots. In textile, firstly we got to know about the history of textiles. Textile has traditionally meant, “A woven fabric”. We learned about fibers, yarns or fabrics.

This was what I learned in the first week of college. Below are some images of my work. See you soon…