Monday 8th March= Had uni this morning and I made up the pattern for my poncho. I made it on the stand which was alright, I made it up as I went along, I think it will be ok though when I construct it. I started pinning the pattern on the fabric but had to leave early as I had the dentist.

Tuesday 9th= IT in the morning with Jamie I have now finally caught up with my blog! I am very pleased with myself. I hope it is ok and written how it is meant to be. I have written it like I did for the journal I had to write for the Foundation course I was on last year, which I was told I had written very well.

Wednesday 10th= Buying and Merchandising we did "Managing a Range" to fit a Company's or Brand's Requirements. I found this a bit repetitive to what we did last week so I was a bit bored. I drafted some of the essay that we are writing for the Buying and Merchandising side of the course. I think it is coming along really well, I am doing it on New Look and in particular the store I work in in Poole I am finding it quite interesting writing on my place of work, it is giving me a better understanding of how things are and why are done in certain ways.

Thursday 11th= Private study day. I cut out the rest of the pattern for my dress and poncho. I also wrote up the essay for buying and merchandising that I have written so far.

Friday 12th= I made up my dress and poncho and put them on the mannequin to see how they fit. I like how the dress fits although it is a bit baggier than I first hoped it would be. The poncho is tighter than I would have liked it to be, especially on the shoulders. I am going to make another poncho that is bigger around the sholders.

Monday 1st March= Private study day so did more to my sketch book, did an entire page on buttons! It is my favourite page so far!

Tuesday 2nd= IT with Jamie, wrote more of my blog I have nearly caught up now, I am on January 2010!

Wednesday 3rd= Buying and Merchandising. We did Range building and The Principles of "Options and True Choice of Points of Difference". I found this interesting going through the thought process of a buyer when looking at how they choose what to have in their collection and whats colours and styles to have it in etc.

Thursday 4th= Started making the pattern to my design for my Manifesto project, it actually went ok! I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would and I did it all by hand! I can't help but feel proud of myself! I completed the pattern for my dress all I need to now is make the pattern for the poncho and cut it all out and make it.

Friday 5th= Private study day. I started making samples of the applique that I shall have on the dress in the jersey fabric that I shall be using to make the dress.

Monday 22nd February= Presented my mini collection to Karen Pat, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As I had 2 favourite designs we decided to combine the two, taking my favourite bits from each design to make a better one. Karen advised me on what fabric to use aswell as I wasn't too sure what to use.

Tuesday 23rd= I wrote some of my blog in IT today as I have been abit behind in it, it's not that I don't like writing it, I'm just not really a computer person and don't go on one that often, only in class really when we are using one to work. I used to always write it in IT but haven't had the time lately as we have been creating working sketches and presenting our presentations.

Wednesday 24th= Buying and Merchandising on "Work Routines-The reality of a buying floor". I'll be honest, I found it a bit boring today. The idea of it all doesn't interest me and he didn't sell it to me. We handed in our maths tests, I found it so hard, even with the questions being explained to me by two people who are very good at maths I didn't really understand. There were 20 questions in total and I did 18 of them, the 2 I didn't do, even my helpers didn't understand. The questions I did do, were explained to me using different numbers to what the question was asking so I wasn't cheating and having them done for me, it was my own work and calculations, I just needed to be poked in the right direction to work them out.

Thursday 25th= I wrote my evaluation for Lectra and handed my project in. The deadline isn't until tomorrow but my work is completly finished so I handed it in. I have never been early or anytihng in my life so this feels like a major achievement!

Friday 26th= Private study day, I did sketchbook work for Manifesto. I love doing sketchbook work.

Monday 15th February= Had design with Karen. We each presented our 3 fashion illustrations of our designs. Karen liked how I had added minimal colour to create a 3 dimensional look to my illustrations showing the surface and texture of the garments. I was pleased with them. I found it interesting to look at everyone elses to see how they had drawn theirs, I shall take some ideas from others to improve my illustrations.

Tuesday 16th= Presented Australia Fashion Week presentation, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be although I didn't enjoy the exprerience. The group looked bored aswell which wasn't a good sign. For future presentations I shall try and make it more interesting by making the pages more attractive to look at as they were white backgrounds with images on the top.

Wednesday 17th= I was meant to have a Buying and Merchandisng lecture but there was a confusion about rooms and I ended up going home and doing sketchbook work for my Manifesto project instead of going to the lecture. I read the chapters of John's book that we were to read though so I caught up, it was about "Supplier Sourcing; Garment Technology and Quality Control".

Thurday 18th= Private study day, I did sketchbook work for my Manifesto.

Friday 19th= I finished making my t-shirt! It was all done by braeak time aswell which feels like an amazing achievement for me. After break I re-did some of my samples from the workshop now that I am more confident on the machines with jersey I knew I could improve them, so i did.

Monday 8th February= Had design with Karen and she showed us the difference between a fashion drawing and a fashion illustration. She then showed us how to draw a fashion illustration. I found this really interesting and helpful. We each had to pick an image from a magazine and copy it into a fashion illustration. After we did this Karen showed us how to add surface and texture to the picture using different medias and how to add colour. I really enjoyed this exercise and in the end I prefered my picture to the origional! For next weeks session we have to draw 3 of our own designs in illustration form with texture and colour. I am going to enjoy this homework!

Tuesday 9th= We had IT with Jamie and we worked on our illustration skills with making working sketches for our Lectra project. I still need a lot of practise with drawing on illustration, I'm good at adding colour though!

Wednesday 10th= Buying and Merchandising lecture, we looked at Fashion Research and "Researching with a range plan" I found this to be quite obvious and common sence but I suppose some people wouldn't think of it. We were given a maths paper at the end of the lesson to have done by next lesson, it looks really hard. I think I shall be asking for some help!

Thursdsay 11th= Had a jersey workshop this morning so that we knew what to do when it came to make our jersey t-shirts. I found it really easy! I thought I was going to find it hard as I have worked with jersey before and found it very frustrating as it kept stretching but it was fine today, I think it is because I was usining the correct machine and thread whereas I sewed it by hand last time. I finished all of the samples today, which I am really pleased with.

Friday 12th= Printed off my t-shirt pattern on the plotter which we had a bit of difficulty with as it didn't like something about my pattern. Both Pat and Jody had a look to see what it was and it took them a little while to work out why it wasn't printing. I don't know what it was but it was well pasased my limited knowledge to work it out! We got it printed in the end, and I got straight to work with getting started with the construction of my t-shirt. I had half of it complete by the end of the day which I am pleased with after my slow start.

Wednesday 3rd February= I had Buying and Merchandising, we learnt about Defining and Understanding Seasnons and "The Promotional Calender" I didn't realsie the fashion industry had so many seasons!
Thursday 4th= Made my t-shirt pattern in Lectra ready to be printed out on the plotter which I shall be doing next week. We used Modaris to make it compatible with the plotter, the screen looked really confusing but I picked up what you put where quite quickly which was a pleasant surprise.
Friday 5th= I had a private study day today so I worked on my Manifesto project, it is now starting to feel like I am getting somewhere with after my hic-cup with Alana a few weeks ago.

Thursday 28th January= We had Lectra, which I am starting to get used to now. I can't believe how much quicker it is to do pattern cutting on the computer than by hand! I think this is partly the reason that i enjoy it, if it was such a long process on the computer as well I probably wouldn't like it.
Monday 1st February= Had design in the afternoon, Allana looked through my work and said she didnt understand what I was doing and said that someone else was also doing a project on clocks. She told me to look at speed camera, which looks and records things in slow motion, such as a person walking down the stairs, you would see every single piece of movement however big or small. It does make you think about what you are doing and how you do it. I went off to the library to research more indepth into it, I already knew abit from a previous movement project. I spent all afternoon and evening researching it and concluded that it didn't inspire me to design fashion, I could make a lovelly textile wall hanging, but I was getting no inspiration for fashion. So I decided to go against what Allana advised me but decided to compromise and look at just one clock, as she had also said I had to many images of different clocks. I am going to look at just one very pretty, delicate pocket watch that is very old. Ihe intrecate detailing that is on the front of the watch is beautiful and I can take a lot of inspiration for print designs that I can use on my garment.
Tuesday 2nd= Split groups again, had design first thing and told Allana what I had decided to do, she wasnt too happy with me but liked the pocket watch I had chosen to look at. I ripped out the pages in my sketchbook that I had already done and started again. I drew a the front of the pocket watch which took me allday as it is so delicatly detailed, it looks really good now though, I carried on drawing it in Jamie's IT lesson, in between finishing my working sketch for Lectra, I put it onto a page with a grid that has all of the information about the garment that the pattern cutter will need.