Week 17: Vinyl Cut Screen Printing
This week in fashion we looked at the difference between small versions of our logos (buttons) and larger versions through screen printing. We used the vinyl cutter to cut out large negative stickers of each logo so we could use traditional screen printing techniques to put our logos on shirts, recycled clothing, and large pieces of fabric that will be later made into their own garments.
Week 16: Illustrator part II and Button Making
This week in Fashion we finished the logos we started making last week and took them to a new level in preparation for our potential DY Fashion pop-up shop. Once the participants mastered the basics of simplifying and combining found images, we learned how to rasterize them, import a button template, re-size our logos, and duplicate them to make as many buttons as we want.
Week 15: Feral Childe & Symbol Making
This week in fashion Moriah brought in some of her work from her clothing line, Feral Childe to share with the class. We talked about the beginnings of her company vs where they are now and touched on the branding cycle: idea -> personalization -> manufacturing. The second half of the class we began to talk about symbols and branding through learning how to turn found images into vectors in Adobe Illustrator.
Week 14: Frankenstein Mini Garments
This week in fashion we decided to review sewing machine basics with a fun mini garment activity. Each participant had to sew four surprise block pieces together to make whatever garment they could. After everyone was finished, we made construction paper dress forms, stuffed our mini garments, and watched a short film on how clothes are made in a factory.
Week 13: Finished Garments
This was our final week for working on the story map garments. Once the participants finished their garments we put them on the dress forms and took photos for their portfolios.
Weeks 11 & 12: Working on our Storytelling Garments
During these 2 weeks, we were able to do more work on our Storytelling Garments. The participants traced their unique patterns onto the large story maps and used the outlines as a guide for transferring their original drawings onto the flat, cutout patterns. At the end of the second class we had a feedback & troubleshooting session so that each participant knew what to work on for the next week.
Show ‘N’ Tell Sharing
We took a break from our regular Fashion program to share what we’ve been doing with friends, family, and the larger DreamYard community. Our fashionistas ran two different stations as a way for our guests to take part in the DreamYard fashion experience. The first station was the Photobooth where guests were styled in a le sac dress by one participant then had their photo taken by another participant with the IncrediBooth iPad app. The second station allowed guests to take a crash course in sewing with the machines and offered them the chance to make their own soft cell phone covers.
Week 9: Telling Our Stories
This week in Fashion we did personal story maps in prep for our final garment for the semester. Each participant was asked to draw a timeline with at least 5 major sections of their life. They were then asked to answer the following questions:
What is one thing you’ve learned from a family member that you think would be important to remember?
What is something irreplaceable?
What is a memory you’d always want to keep?
What is something about your character / personality that makes you proud?
and add them to their timeline. For each event on their timeline the participants drew a simple representational image and then transferred the images onto large dot paper.
Week 8: Our First Garment!
This was our last week on the Le Sac dress project. All of the participants pushed to finish sewing everything together and couldn’t wait to try on their creations!
Week 7: Where Would You Wear It?
This week, after taking some time out to work on our Le Sac dresses, we took a look at some of the places we go regularly and the clothes we would normally wear to each location or event. Once everyone had their charts, we turned back to The Uniform Project and the participants tried to design a garment (or an outfit) that they could wear as their uniform for at least an entire week.
