City and Guilds Fashion Level 1 – Week 3

Since the last lesson, I’ve been working more on my colour theory, using watercolours for a change.  I did examples of shades, tints, complementary colours, different textural effects, and colour associations (i.e. yellow plus violet = Cadbury’s Twirl!).  I’ve also made a start on putting things in folders, and ordered a fabric sample pack from Leah at Sewbox – perfect for my fabric samples folder!

At the beginning of the course, we were given the theme of ‘sea side’ or ‘beach’ as a focus for our finished garment embellishment.  I had a think about all the options, and found I was drawn to three or four ideas: mermaids, light houses, beach huts and stripes.

I have to attribute my light house penchant to Joules, who a couple of years ago made a beautiful summer wrap dress with light houses printed on the bottom.  I always loved that dress!

Joules Lighthouse dress

As for beach huts, I attribute that to Radley’s Taunton range.  I love the patchwork effect, the repeated pattern, and the way that shape becomes more important than detail.

Radley Taunton Purse

I’m not sure what drew me to mermaids, other than their beauty, but the problem with mermaids is that I don’t want to end up with a skirt that looks as though it should be worn by a six year old.  Debbie suggested going down the mermaid tattoo route, and I really like that idea, so I’m going to look into it a little more.  And stripes, well, you just have to have them on a seaside-themed skirt.  It’s the law.

So, we spent the lesson working on our mood boards.  My first question: what is a mood board?  And the answer is: inspiration.  A mood board is a collection of ideas based on the theme, which you use as a starting point for your eventual design.  It can contain images, fabric swatches, drawings, cuttings from magazines… basically anything which inspires you.  I didn’t get very far with mine, as I still need to collect more images (particularly of mermaids and mermaid tattoos!).  I’ll be working on it over the week at home, so I’ll be sure to post a photo when it’s done.

Next week: Fashion drawing!