the art of amelioration: October 2011

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Final Reflection continued....

The other thing I was happy about was that the brief actually tried to address a social need. So often fashion only deals with the superficial - addressing a need or function is not even considered. According to Australian Government Stats:

Australia has the highest skin cancer incidence rate in the world¹.
Australians are four times more likely to develop a skin cancer than any other form of cancer².
Approximately two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70³.

Melanoma

While melanoma is the least common type of skin cancer, it is the most life threatening form of skin cancer. In 2007, there were 10,342 new cases of melanoma, making it overall the fourth most common form of cancer in Australia⁶.
Total deaths from melanoma were 1,279⁶.
Melanoma is also one of the most common cancers affecting youth in Australia⁴.

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC)

NMSC are the most common cancers diagnosed in Australia, with approximately 430,000 new cases estimated to have been diagnosed in 2008⁵.
Of these 430,000 NMSC cases, an estimated 296,000 were Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) cases, and an estimated 138,000 were Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases. It should be noted however, that NMSC is not reportable by law to cancer registries, like other cancers including melanoma, therefore the true incidence of BCC and SCC is not known⁴.
In 2007, there were 448 reported deaths from NMSC⁶.
¹ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (2004). Cancer in Australia 2001. AIHW cat. no. CAN 23. Canberra, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
² Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (AACR) (2008). Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008. AIHW cat. no. CAN 32. Canberra, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
³ Staples M., et. al. (2006). Non-melanoma skin cancer in Australia: the 2002 national survey and trends since 1985. Medical Journal of Australia 2006; 184: 6-10.
⁴ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (2008). Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008. AIHW cat. no. CAN 32.
⁵ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Cancer Australia. Non-melanoma skin cancer: general practice consultations, hospitalisation and mortality. Cat no. CAN 39. September 2008.
⁶ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2010). Cancer in Australia: an overview 2010. AIHW cat no. 56.

Thes facts say it all- we are all going to be affected by skin cancer, be it directly or indirectly. This task has made me further reconsider my attitude to sun worship. While i have always been fairly careful in the sun I now avoid UVA exposure (not sitting in a sunny spot behind glass like i use to), as well as, direct sunlight.

I'm glad we did this task.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Final Reflection

Overall, I really enjoyed the stretchwear unit. Having the smaller class size was fantastic and the subject was very practical- which I liked. I think the skills i have learnt are invaluable and while i'm not willing to throw out knits all together i will be incorporating strtch into my collection next year.

The brief was challenging and appropriate- we should be wearing very different clothing than what we do in the sun. Sportwear is a great choice because it can be highly technical depending upon the sport. I love that the design process has to take into account effect on performance- maybe i should think that way with casul wear too? I'm not sure if my designs would be enough to convince people to cover up entirely but at least it's a start

The only regret i have is that we didn't get to do swimwear. Swimwear is such a hude chunk of the Australian market there's a good chance a good number of us may end up working for one of the swimwear brands. It would have been great to have some commercial and creative example pieces in my portfolio.

That said, overall I think the unit was great. I'm very glad i didn't go overseas as i feel my skills have doubled in the last three months. Grace and Gillian were great teachers and both have a great skill and knowledge base to draw on.

Week Twelve to Thirteen: Finally fabric arrived!!!

Got to sew my final garments together!!

The leotard can together without a hitch!!

The vest, however, was another story.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

When I bound the overlay hem there was too much roll in the front (making it look like she had saggy breasts) and not enough to fix the kink in the back. I went through various tries but eventually decided to do a twin needle topstitch that DOESn't catch all the layers. Instead ill kep the layers in place with a tack of straight stitch in the twin needle line.

Week Eleven and Twelve: Printing Portfolio

Having done some research I have narrowed my printers done to three:

UQ Print on Demand

Can do hard cover printing but needs a long time to do and is not cheap ($90-120)

Snap Printing

Great setup, lots of paper and binding options and fast trun around. Staff couldn't give a rats **** about the job though. I was unsure that I had set the document up correctly and the staff said - we print what we get as it comes. If the set up is wrong you pay for the reprint-

Varsity Graphic

Very helpful and friendly staff. Were happy to look to see I had set it up right and they had fast turn arounds. only down side is they had limited binding options- so i couldn't get the saddle stitch i wanted. Price was good too ($60)

Week Eleven: STILL WAITING FOR FABRIC

My fabric from Eemerald Dreams still hasn't arrived!! Rang and rang and they will deliever it tomorrow. Thank goodness! I hate leaving things late!! grrr!

Anyways, seeing as I can't sew I was reading the paper only to find 3 articles (same paper, same day) about skin cancer and UV radiation!

The sydney morning herald obviously needed some science content! So the ozone hole is getting bigger but the good news (or bad depending how you look at it) is that there may be a melanoma gene which we could test for in the future and therefore those who have it could be checked more regularly for them.

The first article outlines that:

AUSTRALIAN scientists have helped discover five genetic faults that together increase the risk of melanoma by almost 60 per cent.
These are the first genetic mutations linked to the most lethal skin cancer that are not related to hair, skin or eye colour.
The discovery supports the need for a genetic test to diagnose people who have an increased risk of developing melanoma.
Scientists are hopeful drug therapies that target the gene faults will be available in 10 years.
One study, led by researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, compared the genomes of more than 2000 Australians with melanoma with more than 4000 people without it.
They found people with a variation in two genetic regions on chromosome one had about a 30 per cent greater risk of developing melanoma compared with people without the variations.
A British study, published with the Australian research in the journal Nature Genetics, has uncovered a further three genetic regions that increase the risk of developing the skin cancer.
People who carried both copies of all three gene faults had a one-in-46 chance of developing melanoma, scientists from the University of Leeds found.

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And once i read that i could have a faulty gene.... read find this picture..... a mammoth hole in the ozone layer that is going to have me absorbing UVC rays as well.... great...according to the article:

THE Antarctic ozone hole, yawning open longer than usual, is topping out this year as one of the larger holes ever recorded.
Instead of following the usual pattern of hitting a maximum, then declining, the hole has stayed near its peak for weeks, even rising again last week, according to measurements made by NASA.
The US space agency's OMI satellite captured a maximum of 26 million square kilometres on September 12, but showed it rising again in recent days as ozone-depleted air repeatedly brushed the far south of South America. Larger than in the previous two years, it was still short of the record 2006 hole measured by NASA at 27 million square kilometres - the size of North America.
It was persisting under the influence of particularly strong prevailing winds in the upper atmosphere, the CSIRO's Paul Fraser said yesterday.
Dr Fraser confirmed trends still indicated recovery of Earth's ozone layer, while uneven, was continuing, with man-made ozone-depleting chemicals now about 15 per cent below their peak in the atmosphere.
''Year to year variability in the weather can effect the scale of the ozone hole significantly,'' Dr Fraser said.
The UN's Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion report concluded that the Antarctic hole drove changes in surface winds over southern hemisphere mid and high latitudes, and was linked to warming of the Southern Ocean.
It said as a result of the phase-out of ozone depleting substances, the ozone layer outside the polar regions should recover to pre-1980 levels some time before mid-century.

Oh well, if i don't die of melanoma by mid-century at least i'll live to see the ozone hole recover....

Week Ten: Waiting for Fabric

I have ordered my print fabric but I'm waiting for it to arrive. The guys at Emerald Dreams have definately recieved it......

My fabric from Stretchtex arrived very quickly. I order the black liquid titainium fabric and Gillian is giving me her stretch black mesh (also Stretchtex) she has at home. This week I cut out all my black lycra and mesh panels and sew up my tights.

Week Nine, Ten and Eleven: Design Classes

Coming up with how i wanted to set up my portfolio was difficult. I wanted to run with the Art Deco theme so I looked at
Art deco Motifs:

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Art Deco Colour Schemes:

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and Art Deco Fonts:

http://matouenpeluche.typepad.com/.a/6a00e554e97d5c8834011570700fed970b-800wi


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I decided on a font called Ritzy for the headings and Quicksand for the body. I would use circles in Art deco colours for decoration and the same purple background I used on the cards. Using the Ritzy font as a guide I took to Illustrator and created a new colourful font for titles:

The layout and what to include was also hard. I could fit more with A4 horizontal presentation- design it like a flip book with binding on the longest edge. I looked for inspiration online for layout. Smashing magazine had a number of great layouts but it was mainly for web.

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I really liked the landscape layout and the fact that there is a brief explaination and big bright pictures. I will work with this as a guide.

For what to include I looked at what other fashion students were including:

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Instead of including lots of bits-and-pieces outfits i would rather show an employer my design process using one garment range. This will better showcase my skills and where my ideas came from. I also want to include my styling, illustration and feature articles.

Week Nine: Sample Review

Each of the garments needed further resolving and Gillian was extremely helpful...

TIGHTS:

Fit- The fit of the tights through the leg was great, the style lines ran where i wanted them to. The fit at the waist was not great. My pattern i used as a block gathers into a covered elastic waistband. I don't particularly like the look of it- i want a clean finish instead. Gillian suggested two options:
1. Gather down the CF seam to (a) create a better fit around the waist, (b) drop the waist height and (c) repeat gather in the jackect
2. Modify the pattern to drop the waistline and create more fit by altering front and back seams and use an elsticated binding.

Sewing- We decided against twin needle topstitching a border to the mesh panels. While it would hold the seams away from the mesh, there was not real way follow the curves accurately using the machine we have. It was also decided that the CB seam on two of the panels were to be eliminated by cutting on the fold. The multiple seams on a curved panel were difficult to line up
.

LEOTARD:

FIT: The fit of the garment was good. The fit on the sleeve was a bit looser than i had expected but that makes it more UV resistant anyway. The leg hole line was more flattering on a real human (me) than on the dummy but Gillian was happy with it.

SEWING: Neckline and armholes ro be finished with binding. The side panels have a sharp corner turn that was difficult to sew flat and cleanly using an overlocker. To eliminate the problem the verticle styleline was lengthened to the leg line - creating a side panel under the mesh side panel. It would also mean another panel on which i can use my printed fabric.

VEST:

FIT: The armholes were way too saggy. I had twin needle topstitched them. Gillian suggested binding them to draw them up closer to the body. The other main fit concern was the overlay at the back. When I sewed up the hem the mahines, due to the extra layers of folded fabric, caused the hemline to stretch and buckle. You can see it in this photo:

Gillian suggested binding to fix the problem. I also thought lining the hood would also make it look a lot better. Seeing the seam in the hood i think cheapens it.

Week Eight: The Vest

The vest was probably the most interesting piece because it was a loose fitting garment in a stretch fabric and therefore, nothing would be hidden when it was worn (unlike the other pieces that stretch into place).

I took the unfitted jacket block, lowered the neckline and armholes (3cm) and marked out the panel lines. Cut them up and added seams. I then used the blocks again to create the free flowing overlays by marking out the style lines - slashing and spreading the front and adding a box pleat at centre back (this would later be my undoing!!)

I had never made ahood before and i never thought there would be so many ways to make it. I started with Armstrong but his 'simple' hood required 20 separate measurements and a degree in applied geometry to get a hood. So I turned to Aldrich instead. Good old Winnie had a mush easier approach:

I sewed it all up and this is what I got:

It was riddled with faults! No! Will talk to Gillian next week....

Week Seven and Eight: Design Class

The last two week we have been looking at logos, fonts and business cards.

For my label font I ended up chosing Quicksand- its clean, well rounded and stylish- what I would want my label to be.

Unsucessfully I toyed with having a plain black front with just my name on it with a colourful back with my melanocyte print and details on the back.

Instead, I found an art deco motif that i love in a picture of an old piece of clothing. I loved illustrator to trace and rework it to make an interesting motif: I played around with various layouts and came up with two that I liked (Front#1, Back then Front#2):

I chose a purple background because I love the colour. C:75 M:100 Y:0 K:72 gives a really deep,rich purple which i think I will use on my portfolio.

Week Seven: Creating the Leotard

This weeks project was to create a leotard toile. First off I traced the paper pattern:

Once traced I marked out the style lines for the side panels and traced out the gathered overlay area:

For the gathered overlay, I slashed a spread by approx 2x and added seam allowacnces to give:

PROBLEM SOLVING: creating one side panel piece.

When i cut out my side panel pieces i couldn't just joined them together- there was definately fit within the side seam and the curves didn't line up without leaving gaps. So I called in the expert. Gillian showed me how in a few steps the fit can be transfered into the style lines from the side seams.

Firstly, trace the two pieces with side seams together. Then, using a careful eye, transfer the curves of the side seam to the straight style lines trying the eliminate the negative space caused by the two curves coming together. Gillian explained that when strteched on the body, the style lines will straighten out.

With a little sewing this is what I came up with:

Week Five and Six: Design Class

Over the last two weeks we've been learning the basics of InDesign. Cas has been amazingly helpful (and enthusiastic!) and I wish we have had this classes in the first semester of first year. This knowledge of InDesign would have made every presentation I have given much stronger and would have definately helped when we were trying to create a brand/logo for our presentations to David Bush.

In the last two weeks we've learnt about BLEED and SLUG, KERNING (spacing between letters), Importing images and illustrations and the importance of PACKAGING file correctly, CMYK colour values and their importantance when printing, PRINTERS MARKS, PAGE NUMBERING, EXPORTING to pdf, how to put FILL TEXT into a document, how to set up a document, where of the net to find: FONTS, INSPIRATION and IDEAS.

Its been so, so, so helpful! Finally, I can make something look semi-professional!

Week Six- Starting on the patterns.

This was the look chosen by the panel to create. I had wanted to do look #2 but they suggested i do this one because it meets the sunsafe brief a bit better. This leaves me to do the patterns of three pieces a leotard, tights and vest. All have mesh panels and I want to add panels with my print to inject a bit of colour.

Finding a Starting Point.....

I felt that using the swimsuit block QUT had provided as a starting point would require a fair amount of work to get the armhole, sleeve and neckline fit correct (and that's before even thinking about stlylines, panels and finishings!). So I decided to start with a long sleeved leotard block by Kwik Sew:

While I was at Spotlight picking up the leotard pattern I also saw this little gem (see below). Picked it up in case it proves helpful for the leggings:

This week I decided to make the toile for the leggings. My plan of action was in three easy steps:

STEP ONE: Cut out block in toile fabric and sew together.

STEP TWO: Mark style lines where thin mesh panels will go.

STEP THREE: Cut along those style lines to create the basis for the paper pattern pieces. Tranfer pattern shapes to paper and allow room for the width of the mesh panels and seam allowances (0.6cm)

What I came up with was this:

I experimented with top stitching along the borders of the mesh panels but the curves and the fact the machine foot can't be raised without cutting the thread off makes doing that neatly very difficult. Will talk to Gillian about this at design review.