Design Project: Jacquard and Intarsia Patterns

This fall semester I took a portfolio class. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, and I'm really happy with the outcome. We had a variety of projects that I will share, but one of my favorites to work on was this print design project. It was just not like anything I'd ever done before, and that made it exciting!

I settled on a rather weird color palate. Somehow I got really into orange, and just went with it! I decided to build the project around a cut-and-sew hoodie I had made last year, which was out of this awesome geometric double-knit jacquard (pictured below). With that to work from, I did jacquard and intarsia patterns only, with bold geometrics. It was a cool challenge to do knit-only patterns, because it meant limited colors (due to potential cost of multi-color jacquards, which would be astronomical if they were produced) and limitation in shapes (due to the structure of knit fabric). Below is my color palate, the original hoodie, and then a few of my prints photoshopped onto clothing I had made.

Another thing I enjoyed was that I got to play with multiple color combinations and offerings. I made about forty different combinations of colors and prints, hung them all up, and then narrowed them down in a very difficult decision-making process.

All of my croquis are drawn in Adobe Illustrator and colored and shaded in Photoshop. Prints were made in Illustrator. I can't find my absolute up-to-date JPEG files, actually; they are supposed to have slightly pixelated prints (to imitate a knitted chart), and a sweater texture overlay like the first photo. Oops!

The triangle sweater above is my absolute favorite, and I'm actually going to knit something very similar for my senior collection! I'm so stoked to see it come to life.

Kohl's Flash Mob + Life Lately

During my internship, some of my fellow interns planned a flashmob for a Friday afternoon at the corporate headquarters. How awesome is this?? It was so much fun to watch... and this video really makes me miss work and this summer. That was the best part about working there: the people were wonderful and fun and it made work an absolute joy!

So I have started my fall classes. Some are exciting, some are not. But it always gives me a rush to know that I get to do what I love and this is actually my homework. I get to sit and sketch and look up inspiration (Pinterest = homework! What?!) and put together color palates and play with fabric swatches. As much work as my major can be, it is so incredible fulfilling.

I've been revisiting old projects for my Portfolio Development class, and it's really invigorating to re-work projects from my sophomore year. I bought some new supplies, including pastels -- which I haven't worked with since elementary school -- and I'm loving the creative freedom. I really enjoy working in Illustrator and drawing in CAD, but it is so exciting to get messy and color by hand.

This is just a quick sketch, and it is by no means very good, but it's a good example of the kind of fun I've been having with charcoal and pastels. To say I'm stoked about this semester would be an understatement!

Dress Design

Oh dear. I missed a day! And I was doing so well. Well, kind of okay, that is. Truth is, I totally blanked on it until I hauled myself up into bed (which is a loft, by the way), and by then I was too exhausted to get back down, put together content, and post something. I'm a little disappointed in myself, but here's to doing better!



This isn't much to offer, but it's a little something I worked on this evening... the dress I'm making for our fashion show here at school!



Heart cutouts, full skirt, capped sleeves, pleating detail at hem and sleeves, and made out of...



...silk! I'm going to hand paint it a peachy-cream color. It's a simple design, I know, but I wanted to make something I could handle with classes and all, and I figure a good portion of the detail will be in the fabric and the coloring. I hope it comes together just as I've envisioned it!

Sketches

I am not an artist. Not in the typical sense of the word, at least. I've always been better with what you can work with in your hands than creating something out of thin air--in other words, I've never been able to draw very well. You only get better with practice, but for a long time, I didn't even like practicing because I was never able to make anything look like it did in my head, and since I could do it with fabric, why even bother putting it on paper first?

But I had to sketch for an assignment for class (and it was only be the beginning of such assignments, I know). We were supposed to choose five design sections (I chose dresses, skirts, coats, sweaters, and necklines), and then choose elements from each section (sundresses, cocktail dresses, tube skirts, bubble skirts, peacoats, sweater dresses, aran sweaters, cowls, one-shouldered, etc.), roughly sketch a design for every element from each section, do polished sketches of one garment in each section, and then put together a final look combining some of the polished sketches. In all, it came to 20-something sketches.

Because there was a lot of prep-work involved (putting together inspiration pages of photos and such) & I had massive amounts of other homework, and (let's be honest and get to the real reason) because I'm such a procrastinator, I put the actually designing off til the last minute. The night before it was due, I stayed up all night, listening to music and sketching and putting together swatch cards, eating french silk pie at 3AM for caffeine, and really enjoying the process. The most difficult part of it was, surprisingly, the actually designing. Some things were really easy for me to design, and for other categories I'd spend ages staring at the paper before I got ideas. Maybe if I hadn't left if off til the end it wouldn't have been so hard? I had never had to sit down and design so much, and such a range, all at once. So it was tough.

But worth it. I like what I put together, and I think the experience was really good for me. I've definitely gotten better since then, as I've been sketching almost every day of break so far. (Practice really does help!) I think I'm doing a better job of making the clothing less 2-dimensional, and my girls look better--and have different poses, haha. So, with all of that said, here are some quick photos I snapped before I turned it in. Some of these designs are good, some aren't. Some are innovative, and others are decidedly less so...









This was one of my favorites. I was kicking myself at the time for choosing an Aran sweater as a category, thinking, "how am I going to design--and then draw!--knitting??" But I love how it turned out and absolutely would wear it.



& the final look:



One of these days I'll scan my more recent sketches. I've been doing the technical flats along with the fashion sketches, & I'm much better at those--and my brain understands them better!

Want to Hear Something Dorky?

...I not only plan my outfits in advance, but I draw them out.



My sketches at this point are little more than chicken scratches, I know, but it's just fun. I'll get better eventually. My brother made fun of me when he saw that I put "optional" beside some items--he's like, "Isn't it all optional?" Haha.

I'm at a friend's house in North Dakota for Easter weekend. It's so nice to relax a bit, with only some studying to do. My class on Thursday was canceled, and of course I took yesterday (Good Friday) off, so it's a super long weekend. It's sunny and beautiful, so I think a walk (and perhaps outfit photos) is on the agenda!

What are you doing for Easter?