The Fashion Design Toolkit Book Internship
with Professor Tracy Jennings & Bloomsbury Publishing
In this video, I demonstrate to the viewer how I completed Project 2 and commenced Project 3 of this internship.
Brief
For this internship, I worked with the Dominican University Fashion Design Professor named Tracy Jennings. She is the author of the book called The Fashion Design Toolkit, published by Bloomsbury Publishings in August 2022. This book aims to enrich intermediate-level fashion designers with pattern-making and design techniques to expand their garment construction creativity. My role in this book was to complete garments, fashion illustrations, and technical flat illustrations to be used as examples of the techniques discussed in the book. The examples are for the readers to easily follow or find inspiration.
Due to COVID-19, this internship was done remotely from home. Professor Jennings and I had meetings via Zoom video call every other Wednesday at 8:15 pm. During our video meetings, Professor Jennings and I kept communication through emails to keep track of projects.
August 5, 2020 - November 4, 2020 120 Hours
Objectives: Fashion Designer and Illustrator
In summary of my internship, I made a fully colored fashion illustration of a red dress with pleats, sewed an 'Easy-Fit' Dress, a pant technical flat illustration (front and back), front technical flat illustration of an asymmetrical draped dress, two different kinds of Twist and Slash t-shirts, and a fully colored fashion illustration that contained origami/folding detailing. These projects helped me practice my fashion designer skill sets, taught me the importance of having an eye for detail, tested my creative mind with simplicity to achieve teachable projects for the book, and expanded my knowledge of techniques that I was not aware of.
Project 1
Fashion Illustration of Dress with Side-Dart Gathering
This fashion illustration is a wine red dress that has a side-dart gathering. Professor Jennings made a top that incorporates a side-dart gathering, and she asked me to illustrate a dress that resembles the same idea. To add more interest to the modern market, I illustrated the dress above the knee, added chunky chain earrings, and a chunky-chained handbag to pull the outfit together. This drawing is intended to be used in the 'gathering' technique section of the book.
This project allowed me to practice illustrating a garment and successfully illustrate what the client has envisioned.
Project 2
Sewed the Easy-Fit Dress
The Easy-Fit dress is designed by Professor Jennings. She wrote the complete steps to do this Easy-Fit Dress, which I had to follow to construct an example of this dress for the book. This dress is going to be used as an example of the 'Zero-Waste' technique. This design aims to use the whole yardage of the fabric to reduce waste of fabric, yet making the design appealing to wear.
This project allowed me to practice my construction skills by following the construction steps. Instead of serging the seams, I french seamed the seams to practice and have a cleaner inner construction.
Project 3
Technical Flat Illustration of Original Designed Pants
Professor Jennings liked the pants I designed for my Senior Collection called Xenomorph AM. Specifically, she liked the Look 4 pants in my Xenomorph AM collection. So, this project was to make the front and back technical flat illustration of the pants. A change had to be made, which is to remove the pockets. I used Adobe Illustrator to make these technical flats.
I enjoy illustrating, by-hand and on adobe programs, so in these kinds of projects I like to add detail to incorporate a semi-realistic look.
Project 4
Technical Flat Illustration of Asymmetrical Draped Dress
Project 4 consists of making a front-view technical flat of an asymmetrical draped dress that was designed by Professor Jennings for her book. She initiated with the desired silhouette of this dress, and I completed the flat by adding more shadows and creases to implicate dimension to the dress and the direction of the drape.
Making technical flats is one of my favorite parts of fashion illustration because it allows me to examine and critically think of how a garment will be constructed and finished. Overall, this project allowed me to further practice my technical flat skill and keep me up to date with the adobe program.
Project 5
Twist and Slash T-shirt: Braided Cinched Waist
This project involves cutting a knit garment and making twists with those cut straps. For this project, I had to experiment before creating the final Braided Cinched Waist Twist and Slash. After finalizing my design, I had to write step-by-step on how I created this for the reader to follow and recreate. The steps below are steps I wrote for this project, and I took pictures to follow those steps, which are to the left of this text box.
Professor Jennings allowed me to have creative freedom as long as it can be easily replicable by the reader, which brought me joy to learn this new technique.
Steps
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Face the back of the t-shirt upwards.
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Fold only the back of the t-shirt horizontally in half. This fold should be near the waistline.
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On the horizontal fold, make a vertical ¾” long cut on each side, 1.5” away from both side seams.
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Start from the left cut made in step 3, and ½” away from this cut make a vertical 2” long cut. Repeatedly, make vertical cuts ½” away from each other. Stop once you are ½” away from the last right ¾” long cut that was done in step 3.
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Unfold the t-shirt and stretch the cuts horizontally.
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Take the first top strip and pull it underneath the next cut strip. (This step will make the first twist to your t-shirt slashes.)
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Hold the strip and pull it underneath the next strap. While creating these twists, pull the t-shirt from the top and sides to create a tight twist. Use elbows and hands to pull the t-shirt while making twists.
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Once the last strip has been twisted, cut the last strip in half, and tie the ends close to the edge of the twisted edges.
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Now that the first row is completed, start on the first strip that is close to the tied ends. Hold the strip and pull it underneath the next strap. Continue the twists until reaching to the last strip of the opposite side that was started on. Cut the last strip in half, and tie the ends close to the edge of the twisted edges.
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Repeat step 9 three times going back and forth with the twists. In the end, there should be 10 rows of twists that are close together to look like a braid.
Experiments
Project 6
Twist and Slash T-shirt: Two Diamond Cuts in the Back
Professor Jennings asked for a second design of Twist and Slash. For the second Twist and Slash, I got inspired by the twists I learned throughout the different experiments. For this design, I made two diamond-shaped slits with one row of twists throughout the slits. Also, I wrote down the steps for this Twist and Slash design for the book, which can be found below. The step-by-step pictures are placed on the left side of this text box. I did this design in two different sized t-shirts. The teal is a size medium, and the olive green is a size extra large.
Steps
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Face the back of the t-shirt upwards. Fold the back vertically in half. Make sure the neck-shoulder points match, and make sure the side seams are aligned with each other.
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With a chalk, mark a dash 8” vertically down from the neck hem on the folded crease (Point 0).
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Unfold to have the back of the t-shirt flat upwards. Make a mark 4” below the left neck-shoulder point (Point A1). Make another mark 17” straight down from Point A1 (Point A2). Make a mark 6” away to the left of Point 0 (Point A3).
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Now, make a mark 4” below the right neck-shoulder point (Point B1). Make another mark 17” straight down from Point B1 (Point B2). Make a mark 6” away to the right of Point 0 (Point B3).
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Turn the t-shirt horizontally to the left. Grab the left neck-shoulder point, and horizontally straight, with the other hand, grab the bottom hem. Fold in half by these points. Make sure to only catch the backside of the t-shirt.
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Face the fold towards you, and make sure to have the side where the sleeve and side seam are viewable. Flatten the fold, and make sure that there is no fabric between the fold.
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Start by cutting a vertical ¾” slit on Point A1 that is on the fold. Gradually make the slits longer until getting to Point A3, and these slits should be ½” apart from each other.
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Once making the longest slit on Point A3, continue by gradually making shorter ½” apart slits until getting to Point A2.
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Unfold and turn the t-shirt horizontally to the right. Grab the right neck-shoulder point, and horizontally straight, with the other hand, grab the bottom hem. Fold in half by these points. Make sure to only catch the backside of the t-shirt. Face the fold towards you, and make sure to have the side where the sleeve and side seam are viewable. Flatten the fold, and make sure that there is no fabric between the fold. Start by cutting a vertical ¾” slit on Point B1 that is on the fold. Gradually make the slits longer until getting to Point B3, and these slits should be ½” apart from each other. Once making the longest slit on Point B3, continue by gradually making shorter ½” apart slits until getting to Point B2. Unfold and turn the t-shirt vertically upwards. Stretch the strips horizontally to loosen them.
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Now that there are two diamond-shaped cut slits at the back of the t-shirt, start with the top slit of the left diamond shape. Take the first top strip and pull it underneath the next cut strip. (This step will make the first twist to your t-shirt slashes.) Hold the strip and pull it underneath the next strip. While creating these twists, pull the t-shirt from the top and sides to create a tight twist. Use elbows and hands to pull the t-shirt while making twists. Once the last strip has been twisted, cut the last strip in half, and tie the ends close to the edge of the twisted edges. Then, tie both ends together. The last tie should be done inside the shirt, so the knots should not be visible on the right-side of the t-shirt.
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On the right diamond shape, start with the top strip, and pull it underneath the next cut strip. Hold the strip and pull it underneath the next strip. While creating these twists, pull the t-shirt from the top and sides to create a tight twist. Use elbows and hands to pull the t-shirt while making twists. Once the last strip has been twisted, cut the last strip in half, and tie the ends close to the edge of the twisted edges. Then, tie both ends together. The last tie should be done inside the shirt, so the knots should not be visible on the right-side of the t-shirt.
Project 7
Fashion Illustration of Original Designed Origami Dress
This fashion illustration was the last project I worked on for The 20 Essential Techniques book. Professor Jennings asked me to do a garment that incorporates origami in a simple manner that a reader could easily replicate or get inspired through the design. Before I finalized the origami dress, I had to experiment with different kinds of simple origami folds. After I selected the best origami folds, I sketched multiple dresses with those origami folds. After eliminating and improving some designs, I presented 13 final looks to Professor Jennings. She expressed her favorite ones and asked to combine two designs. After finalizing the design, the last thing to do is to fully color the final fashion illustration.
Experiments
Rough Sketches
