Textile/Garment Work

First Two Jackets

The two jackets pictured here are the first two garments I ever made and made them in my first semester of my degree. I wanted to start making things considering I was now at University for Clothing and Textiles, however I had no prior experience in creating a garment. I decided to go and talk to my mom who has had experience in making her own clothing and costumes and see if she would be able to help and give me some guidance, where she gave me some patterns to follow and helped me with certain steps that I did not know how to do. The result was me creating these two jackets, but more importantly I gained a lot of knowledge regarding basic clothing construction and the reading/following of patterns that helped me with later projects of my own, as well in future Human Ecology classes such as HECOL 254: Apparel Design and Construction Fundamentals.

Strip Flannel

This was my next project that I took on where I was inspired by similar looking shirts I had seen online. This project arose from a trip to the thrift store where I had bought a couple of flannel shirts that did not fit me how I wanted them to, however I wished to use them for something as I did not want to return them. My solution to this situation was to create this shirt from the flannels, as well as other old flannel shirts I did not wear anymore. The result was the first garment that I had made from repurposing older items, and I believe this influenced me to value concepts such as slow-fashion and sustainability. I also ended up using the leftover pieces of all of the shirts to make more of them and I was left with no waste. The other shirts I had made went to friends and family as Christmas presents, and seeing them wear something I created helped to give me more confidence in my abilities and start to view myself more as a creative.

Bandana Shirt

My next project was this shirt made from old bandanas, where again I was inspired by other shirts I had seen online. One of my mom's friends is a dance teacher who had purchased these red bandanas for a dance number, and did not need them afterwards, so she gave them to me as she knew that I was getting into making clothing. With the large number of bandanas I received, I figured that I could patch them together to create something bigger in scale. The result of this project was furthering my interest in repurposing old textiles, and on top of this, the specific placement and cutting of patterns to include all of these bandanas helped to furthering my skills in garment construction.

Scrap Carhartt Jacket

This is a jacket I made that came from the situation of having too much clothing lying around my house. My constant thrifting of clothing left me with a basement that was filled with clutter and in an effort to make space and get rid of some things, I decided to use some of this old clothing to make something new. At this point, this had been the most technical garment I had made, involving the complete taking-apart of old workwear, and being designed with my measurements rather than just going by a pattern. Again, this project helped to develop my skills in garment construction, as well as allowed me to recognize the value of planning ahead to ensure the work I am doing is exactly how it needs to be. Another big result of this project was that I actually sold this jacket to a friend of mine, and this really started to get me thinking that I could possibly turn my creative outlet into a profession.

HECOL 333 Felted Wool

For this project, we were instructed to create a square of felted wool through traditional techniques. Although only creating a small square of felted wool, this process involved many different steps and processes and was very time-consuming. The result of this project was further insight into how different textile materials are made, and the effort, labour, and time involved in these processes, allowing me to reflect on how long it might take to create something compared to how quickly the average consumer may purchase and dispose of a garment.

Patchwork Jacket

This project was made for a Halloween costume where I used different coloured scrap fabric to make a patchwork jacket. With my ability in garment construction being furthered through different projects and courses, I thought that it would be good challenge to make something for Halloween. Meticulous planning and techniques were involved in this creation, with the result of this outside of practicing and improving abilities, was that I had many different people inquire how I had made it. Many people offered the sentiment that I should start my own business and that if I had ever made something custom for someone, they would want to pay for it and support me. Again, this really had me thinking about a future profession within the fashion industry, specifically about starting my own business and what it would take.

HECOL 454 Surface Manipulations

This project was done in HECOL 454: Apparel Design and Product Development II. This project required us to create unique surface designs and techniques on three different fabric squares. For the square in the picture, I used leftover materials from earlier projects in the class and arranged them in a way that I found interesting. Although this project is little in comparison to some of the other things I had made previously, the freedom of this project allowed me to reflect on my own design aesthics and values that I had previously cultivated, such as reusing old materials, and actually incorporate them into a project for a course.

HECOL 354 Jacket

The last project I have in this section of my portfolio is jacket I made for HECOL 454: Apparel Design and Product Development II. This project required us to create sketches and technical drawings of our jacket, draft a pattern for it from scratch, and write up a detailed step-by-step garment production sequence. This was the most work I had ever done in the creation of a garment, and I believe that my previous endeavours in making my own clothing helped me greatly. I made my own version of a military jacket made from old military jackets and bags I had around my house. This project allowed me to reflect and challenge myself on what I had previously known; there were lots of steps, processes, and planning involved in creating a garment at this industry level that I did not have experience in, and through learning them I reflected on how I could start making my own garments to this more technical level.