MAKING A DECISION
- Jan 14, 2017
- 3 min read
WHAT I LEARNT
Before i came to Belgium I was very much decided to stay here just for the half of the semester and for the Spring one, I would have some internship... I chose HELMO university because I knew it will prepare me for my graduation year with the collection.
Therefore, I have decided at the beggining of the term to go to the second year, althought I was ment to go to the first year.
The ultimate decission for extending the stay came after I realised that it would be an incomplete experience, since the collection was part of the second semester. I also felt, I had still much to learn when it comes to sewing, French language, pattern developing, toile making etc.
In this post I would like to talk a bit about, how my skills developed in a first half of the term. So what did I actually learn?
THE SKILLS
Pattern cuttin
At the begginig I have found this course extremly tough mainly because all is taught in french but also because of the pace and high technicality. Every so often we would have an exam, as you can see on the picture, to create flat patern from the random picture given by our teacher. In this case we actually had to make this sleeve in 3D from calico. The grade was given according to how precise the measurements were towards the reality. So, you can imagine I was sweating blood... It was the most difficult exam I have had from this course. What I learnt from this course for sure is to be a little bit more independant and to create different tipes of collars and sleeves ( Raglan, The bat kimono sleeve, "kimono a gousset", "kimono paritel").
Sewing
One of the first atelier workshops was based about pockets, a technical jacket for women and a dress with lining inside and a collar. This was a great foundation for my following project where I could exercise all these new skills. The progress was already visible in my first project - The Chessboard.
(You can read about it more in my next post called The Real Life Inspiration. )
I have become better and more precise in sewing, confident in overall manufacturing of my design with a minimal help from my teachers.
Knitting & Waving
This was a very interesting course based with workshops where we got to learnt some of the basic knitting techniques. So eventually, I was abled to make a winter hat for myself. I am glad that I got to learn it because I might used this sill for my final collection in Uk but It was also very realxing.
Other workshops were based about creating a creative fabric with utilising different textures and materials. For this piece I chose very fluffy wool like a base and was waving it with the strips of plastic, metalic leather and some fabrics I had left after my previouse projects. I was more thinking to create something sustainable but still visually apealing.
French language
I have to tell that I have never had better french course as I had it here. It was more like a private class. Normally we were 5 but sometimes people missed the class, so, I was having the luxury of the private lessons with the native french teachers. Well, we had 2 main teachers and than students who were practising this way to become a teach. Which means, that for every Erasmus student there was always one Teacher ready to help. I started to understand and comunicate better and in a normal life situations it was easier for me to react.
After first semester I feel inspired, free, happy and ready to experiment with my design and I am diffinitelly more confident in pattern cutting , designing, making clothes and I am not a fraid to take a risk when it commes to designing.
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