"Make Do and Mend" Group Task (29th September 2010)

Today i was placed in a group with 3 other girls our task was to work as a team and "Make do and Mend" an outfit by recreating it in a different way or making something from scratch using pieces of  materials or choosing a piece of clothing and recreating it in a different way. We started off thinking what we wanted to create by quickly sketching out little ideas of what we wanted to try and create even though we had a limited amount of materials and clothing, which really didn't work together as they clashed too much.

We came to a conclusion as a team to use a pair of black shorts to create a kind of shawl or jacket. We cut straight down the crotch of the shorts to the waistband so the shorts could be sleeves which brought the idea of the jacket together. Our first intention was to create a military styled jacket but after trying out different ideas such as pleating and trying to make the sleeves puffy, we felt it wasn’t going any where as we didn’t have much to fit in with a military styled jacket.

By using a piece of thin satin fabric we began draping it at the front and back to create a boob tube evening/going out dress to match with the jacket. Once we were happy with it we took it off the mannequin and began to hand sew it carefully together. After the dress had been sewn it was placed back onto the mannequin with the jacket. In order to finish off the dress we attached a suede boot, which was cut up and placed at the back of the dress. Six strips of fabric were tied to the show lace holes to create straps for the dress and left hanging to create interesting detail onto the dress, which brought it together more.

We made a range of different sized ruffles using different types of fabrics in black and dark grey which worked well with the jacket.

Front View

This is the finished outfit we created as a group, i think it worked really well considering the amount of time and limited materials we had in order to create an evening dress with a jacket to bring it together.

Back View

Close up of ruffles on the jacket

As we wanted to create an edgy, girly outfit we covered the front of the jacket and the neck with ruffles we made as a group out of different types of black/grey fabric

As you can see this is a close up of the straps on the dress. In order to craete these straps i cut out six thin strips (three on each side), which were attached to the back and brought to the front. 
 

In order to create this detailed piece on the back of the dress we cut up an old suede boot and attached it carefully onto the dress. We used thin strips of fabric which were tied to the lace hole's in order to create straps for the dress, which worked really well and brought the whole concept on the outfit together.

Side View

By working in a group i've learned its more harder as everyone has different ideas and concepts of how to approach things as well as different styles and tastes. I felt by working in a group its not as stressful as working on your own creating a garment as you have help from people you rely on working in.a group. I'm happy with the final outcome we got at the end as i felt we had achieved our goal of creating a great outfit. I would see this garment being sold in an expensive chic boutique as it's not something you would really see on the highstreet.