Creative Technical Studio 2- Project 1: Less is More Hoodie
Ginger Lau
Design rules are many and varied. Following them irreverently can provide a great deal of interest and an overall look, feel, and style that is both unique and personal. As a creator, I work in an unorthodox way. That being said, it does not mean that rules are necessarily being broken, but rather my endeavor to challenge the limitations of creative elements.
This “less is more” project, allowed me to try new skills and techniques that I have never experienced before as a designer. I have never worked with knits prior to this project nor have I ever applied the “zero-waste” method to my garments. I have also never used the serger or super lock machine during my time sewing here thus making this assignment all the more exciting and fun. We started off this project by doing research on hoodies and how it is constructed, as well as grabbing images for inspiration. From there, we came up with three potential ideas for our final garment by sketching flats of our designs and eventually narrowing it down to our desired one. As a designer who is very selective with their color choices, I tend to lean more towards neutral tones as well as greys, whites, and blacks. I narrowed down my ten swatches to a grey and a beige, both with similar weights and stretch, and ended up siding with the beige.
For this particular project, the construction of the garment was not the most challenging step in the making of this hoodie, but rather the execution of the pattern pieces and how I could position them in a formation that would avoid waste. Fortunately, I was able to come up with a layout that allowed me to create 90% of what I had originally envisioned in my sketch of my initial hoodie. After figuring out how to construct my zero waste garment, the sewing process went fairly smooth. My double sided zipper was initially thirty-six inches which is six inches too long when placed on the front of my garment, so on top of not wasting any fabric, I was able to use the six inches I had cut off from my zipper and applied it as an opening for my pocket. All in all, this project strengthened my skills as a designer and allowed me to learn many new things that I have never tried before as a creator and artist.
