Tips and Advice for the Year Ahead (1 Viewer)

[IceCreamMonster]

Hi everyone,
I'm completing my HSC next year so I was wandering if you guys can give me some tips and advice for my Major Textile Project/Folio. Like what you suggest such as what I should look out for, what shop sells great fabric, which technique is highly recommended, What I should be careful of when buying this.../making this..., What the markers are looking for, What took more time, which focus area is highly recommended etc ^^ Basically anything

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks

 

[Nerdygirl]

Hey IceCreamMonster.
I've got plenty of advice for you, some things that I wouldhave loved someone to tell me when I statred my major.

Firstly with Focus area it does not matter what you chooseas long as you play to your own strengths and make something that is going tostand out from the crowd either by making it really well or by pushing theboundaries of what you are making. Too make what you know, if you know you area brilliant dress maker choose costume or apparel where your technicality willbe appreciated or if you are a textile artist, quiltmaker or really creative choose textile arts and create something unique again this will be most appreciated here

Next key tip get started early on both folio and projectFor the folio my teacher made us have one section completedper term in draft form that way it didnt seem so much at the end and in draftform its easy to make adjustments if things change. The folio can be quite timeconsuming if done well marker will appreaciate good presentation if it doesn'tget in the way. Make sure your aware of the new rule that font can be a minimumsize of 12 times new roman or its equivalent. If this rule was in for us half my folio would have been ignored cause mine went down to size 9 to get my info in.

OK now to the MTP itself.
My favorite fabric shop was the local cash and carry. Inours we have four huge isles of fabric spotlight and other providers can't selland there are plenty of hidden gems for really great prices, even organzas andtuells for half their usuall price. Even if a fabric is the wrong colour see ifyou can dye it (another technique) some of my MTP was made of curtain fabric which they were desperate to get rid of but when I dyed it it was perfect

Spotlight is also good if your a VIP and have one close.

As for techniques there are none in particular markers are looking for but there are still some hints here. Choose an innovative technique of some form either use fabrics in a new or unexpected way or use new textile materials such as solvy, tyveck, microfibre, water soluable thread ect. Innovations are a clear part of the marking criteria. Creativity in techniques can go a long way try revamping old techniques or having your own take on something very common by altering it or how it is used, for me this was essential one example of this was my use of chenilling, usually its an old quilting technique but I revamped it by adding fleecy and organza in the layers and cutting it in the other direction to make a realistic fern. Bascially a technique is only as good as how well its done, you could have the most complicated technique but if its not done it well the markers will question whyyou even bothered when something more simple and done better would have been more effective.

My biggest point with the MTP is to make it stand out.Imagine you are the marker for a moment and self analyse, this can be the bestway to find marks. Get someone else to check everything twice over for spelling errors, seam quality ect for me even after my teacher checked for the thridtime she still found spelling errors and they got corrected before marking.

One final thing in case my tips seem a bit long winded makesure you have fun and love what you make so when it goes to marking all you will want is to have back again.
Textiles is a great subject and a journey in itself never give up even when it seems hopeless because sometimes the greatest thingshappen just when you're at you lowest.

Hope this was usefull and I still have plenty more advice to give so if you want any more feel free to message me or post more threads on here cause I'll keep an eye out next year too.
Good luck for your HSC

 

[IceCreamMonster]

WOW!!! That's a lot of tips!! more than I expected ^^ Thank you so much for taking the time to write it! -cyberhugs-

hmmmm... I was wandering...
Did you know exactly what you wanted to do? I know what I want but haven't started cause my teacher decided to put in a "constructing a short" project in for my classmates in my class who needed to build their skills and up till now I haven't started on anything. Should that be alarming?
and... Is there books, workshops or tools out there that can be beneficial to the project?
OH! If you do have more advice and have the time to write it please do share

Once again thank you so much for responding ^^

And for those who are reading, if you can give advice please do!

 

[Nerdygirl]

Hello again.
With my major I pretty much knew exactly what I was going to be making for me the choice was very simple as I've always been a quilter and for our year 11 final assesment it was a mini major, half the folio with a project similar to what we wanted to make and I make a Japanese landscape quilt and scored full marks so I used that as a base idea for designing my major.

Don't be worried about not starting yet but make sure you work over the holidays to make up for it, this is a great time to just spend days on your major with no class interuptions. Have you got any ideas as to what you are making?
By now I would say to have some trials of techniques done and have a basic design in your head but the design doesnt have to be final, mine changed 3 times before it was finished with elements being edited the whole way.

For books I would recomend the course textbook mine was the Nelson cengage learning textiles and design preliminary and HSC by Christine Castle and Lynda Peters. It was great not only for the theory course but has good MTP tips and techniques.
As for courses if you live in sydney or close enough to, the TEA (people who run texstyle) run workshops on the MTP with the exhibition included but you or your teacher will need to book in advance to get in.

If you let me know any ideas you have I can make my help a bit more specfic to where ever your heading with your MTP though my specialty is in Textile art I have friends who did extremely well in costume. Don't be worried about not starting yet my friend who also got in to texstyle was only experimenting with sun dyes at this stage, the very begining of her project.

Your very welcome for all the thanks and it gives me a chance to use what I have to help other people and not waste all those resources still locked up in my head.

 

[IceCreamMonster]

Welcome back haha ^^
Well I already have my base designs set (like the structure of it. eg: silhouette, sleeve type, length etc) but I need to build on top of it (like know the kind of decorations to put on the dress) so yea...
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll have a look for those book and I'll definitely inform my teacher about the workshop!
I am thinking of apparel/costume ....Was your friend's costume very complicated? I heard in apparel you have to have extremely high proficiency since it's a really popular focus area eeek! so yea my ideas are falling in between costume and apparel haha

Once again thank you for taking the time to write this up ^^ your information is very helpful and reassuring

 

[Nerdygirl]

Hello again.
With my friends costumes what made them do so well is not so much that they were complicated but they were unique. One friend made an Electra costume which had 4 pieces that were all functional and still looked amazing and another friend (not sure if hers was costume or textile art) made a dress advertising tourism to vineyards with the main techinality being contained in the dress shell the rest was all aesthetics.

With both costume and apparel functionality is something you have to look at very highly, make sure it does what you say it can. Also if you choose apparel I would consider if you can making it able to be machine washed not drycleaned so this will add marks for the thought that has to go into making it wash safe. Too don't worry about the popularity of the focus area because a lot of the time along with the good projects they also recieve a number of very bad ones which in a more popular focus area makes you look better.

Your inspiration may also be a guide to help you confirm your focus area so look at what inspired you and think does it relate more to being performed and for use on one of occasions or does it relate more to something that can be worn day to day as a fashion item that is more practical.

Congrats on having done what you have the next step is experimenting and then if possible start production during the holidays to give you a bit of a head start that will save a lot of stress later in the year.

I have included the URL of the workshop advertisement that way you can see if it would be suitable and if you go on just the TEA . com part you can find a gallery of texstyle works for more inspiration
http://www.teansw.com.au/TEA Info/TEA info images/2012/Texstyle_2011_Student_Program.pdf.

Thank you for your thanks again just very happy to be helping

 

[Emma Maree]

Another thing to remember is time management. I know it sounds like your teacher goes on about it all the time but IT IS THE KEY to doing a good HSC MTP. Work on your folio and your prac constantly throughout the year. The January holidays are excellent and a great time to do lots of work, particulary if you know what you are going to make. For example, my textiles major for 2011 was a a skirt covered in fabric flowers. In the holidays though I hadnt really decided whether to do it on a skirt or dress or how I was going to arrange it. So, in the January holidays I just made heaps and heaps on flowers that could then be placed on later however I wanted it. In year 12 there are times when you have a billion assignments due, exams so you really need to be motivated throughout the entitre year getting as much done as you can, both of your prac and folio. Luckily for me I did this. At our school out HSC trials were at the same time that our major work was due. This is a very stressful period and I dont know how I could of done it if I hadnt done all that work constantly thorughout the year.

Just dont be the one staying up all for the week of it due date trying to get it done. Goodluck this year!!!!!

 

[IceCreamMonster]

Thank you so much for commenting again Nerdygirl ^^ It means so much to me that you're taking the time to write this out
Thanks for the machine washable tip I will make sure to think of that when I do my major

Hi Emma Maree! Thank you for your Tip!!! I will definitely make sure I start on my major this holiday and get as much done as I can

As always, if anyone is reading this thread, please don't hesitate to post I would love to hear what you have to say

 

[IceCreamMonster]

Bump!!!

 

[frankie95]

Thankyou so much for these tips!

 

[thinkbows]

For me the first term was a bludge, I didnt do anything because I already knew what I wanted to do but I never got around to buying the fabric until the summer holidays. Big mistake.
Know what you want to do, buy the fabric/pattern talk to your teacher about it all first and have a plan of what fabric needs to be bought and how much. For some stupid reason the lady talked me into getting 9 meters of fabric for a dress that i used max 3 meters on and it was expensive fabric. Anyway by term one this year I think i procrastinated for a bit longer but come the due date I regretted that all so much, I spent 3 days with no sleep before it was due till working on it trying to get it finished (it was only little things but it was difficult) so start now and just make sure you have a handle on everything and a plan of what you need to do (set an early deadline) I was also trying to complete my art major as well so I was short on time anyway.
I did push my folio aside and I did want needed to be done and though id make it look good later. Bad decision, I ran out of time so half my folio was really well presented and the other half looks like crap even though I have all the information and you dont get marked on presentation i was still pretty disappointed in it.
Remember that the major project and the folio are worth the same so do equal work on both because the folio is sooo draining and hard work.
Major projects are usually due near trials so the pressure is on to get it done/study if you work hard throughout the year then it will be so much more easier. With my major I hit so many difficult situations and wanted to give up but just leave it for a day or so and come back to it.
My Major:
http://i48.tinypic.com/4hqyjp.png
Good luck with your majors

 

[strawberryswing]

I had two major works this year, and I can definitely say that textiles took up 3/4 of my time.
I was fairly organised throughout the year, but I chose to make a dress completely from scratch so I came across a lot of problems I did not see beforehand, which then affected the time it took to make. I came across the majority of my problems just before the project was due, things like, how to put the zip in, how to sew the lining to the garment, how to cover certain areas of stitching.
Most of these things seem simple enough, but when my garment was mostly together, these things were incredibly difficult.
The folio is also incredibly time consuming. Presenting it generally takes as much time (or more) than typing up the information. Do about one section each term. DO NOT LEAVE IT TILL THE LAST WEEK. pleeassee.. for your own sanity.
So my advice would be:
- Pay attention to what has been said previously. especially about time management!!
- think carefully about what you are making and the materials you are going to use
- depending on what you choose to do, textiles can take a hefty toll on your bank account. keep this in mind when planning what you want to do if you are low on money. (the skirt alone in my project was $200)
- if you can, attend workshops. I went to one on embroidery and other embellishment techniques and what i learnt there made up the majority of my embellishments.
- the point above about setting an early deadline is an excellent point. My teacher set this for my class and it allowed our works to be looked over for any errors before they were sent away.
- most of all: Enjoy it! If you don't enjoy what you are doing, it is going to be a lot harder to keep motivated. my design changed a few times as well throughout the year, but i would avoid making major changes late july-august 2013.
hope this advice helped a little.
Good luck

 

[madradoddy]

everyone else has covered most of it- the only thing I'd add is to make sure the environment you are sewing in is clean, tidy at all times. I find that trying to sew in mess stresses me and I only stuff things up.
Also, makes sure you buy extra of everything, ribbons, fabric- because accidents happen, people in class can spill dyes or food (that's what happened to my friend)

 

[mypillow]

Hello Friends,

Very nice tips and advice provide by you all and suggest us. this is useful to all.

 

[builderr]

Hi,

Yes I want to be a textile art designer and I am currently doing the internship in the Elan Linen Australia, quilt covers department http://www.elanlinen.com.au/quilt-covers and doing the bachelors in textile designing. Hope after completion will get the job and my craze of textile designing will bring fruits for all.