Preparation week

The moment I stepped foot into the design building, that feeling of pure excitement just washed all over me. I was internally cheering and doing flips of returning back to class. Hopefully this hyper mood sticks with me throughout the semester and the stress and anxiety of assessments doesn’t kick in anytime soon.

I had an amazing two days just chilling at uni and getting my work sorted. I love to pace out my work rather than rush it all. The first day I spent it drawing up my pattern blocks. This semester it looks like we are making trousers. Had fun trying to see if they would fit me, luckily it will fit except for the height which is the case with me for practically every pair of pants anyway. We make a basic set of pattern blocks and each week we learn to vary them so we are aware of the different styles or variations applicable to the garment such as adding darts, moving certain aspects of the garment etc. It’s probably the most technical part of fashion that I can think of besides all the other research components and the creative thinking. In the end, what you learn makes putting together garments much easier.

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On the second day, I attended a short meet and greet session where we met our teacher and also heard about her experiences and her work. It truly was an amazing experience and the stories she told us as well as the insight into her work just really put things into perspective when it comes to being in the mind of a designer. It showed me how we all interpret things in different ways and how the products of our visions end up being amazing creations. It was great to chat to her and to know that its ok if you haven’t figured out your style yet. It’s a question I constantly am asked and I feel that I am still trying to find myself and what my style is. I have some sort of idea but I keep going off on a tangent.

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I guess these two days of preparation really made me feel that not only was I back to what I felt most comfortable with but it also opened my eyes to the possibilities that fashion design has to offer. I guess it broke down the fears that I had been experiencing as well as lifting the weight off my shoulders that I had been feeling because of my confusion as to whether or not I fit in or if I had made the right choice.

I am looking forward to this semester and what it has to offer. I can’t wait to challenge myself and to gain some more experience and insight into my own journey of design. I feel that as I more forward, I grow and learn more and am able to push my creativity further in many ways.

Dina xoxo

Excitement is in the air

Excitement is in the air or maybe its just me who is excited. Next week I begin a new adventure with the second semester of my fashion design course. I have already had a look at the unit outlines and the assessment tasks and the inner geek in me is jumping up and down with excitement of the challenges that lay ahead.

I guess many of you are rolling your eyes at the thought of going back to uni. I, on the other hand are not, yeah I am a nerd, go figure.

I guess the excitement for me is to do with the challenges we undertake to get somewhere and achieve something. The journey is always tough but the end result is always worth it. I say this from experience. I have gone to university for quite a long time, and no, I wasn’t stuck in the same degree or something. I actually have studied a number of things and honestly it is my curiosity to learn more about the world around me and what it has to offer has probably been the factor behind why I just seem to be at uni all the time. But in the case of design, the real reason for my return to the world of study is honestly because I am so passionate about design and it has been a dream for me, that I just want to finally be able to achieve that dream of mine and pursue this avenue.

So with the beginning of semester coming up, I am already getting myself ready for what is to come. I need to create a design studio for myself at home because with the amount of paper, thread, fabric and cuttings of god knows what, I most definitely need my own mini factory at home. I think the look on many mothers faces of the aftermath of the little disaster zones we create from our projects is why having a mini studio at home sounds like a good plan and a zone for us to get creative.

Tomorrow I am heading off to uni to start my preparations for the semester. I can’t wait to spend a few hours cutting up pattern blocks and cutting out fabric samples of whatever it is that we will be making. Hopefully my phone wont have a heart attack or two and die on me which it has been doing lately so I can capture these moments for you all and give you an inside scoop to my fashion design world.

Oh and I almost completely forgot to update you all here on my blog. I did end up collecting my fashion box top from uni. I tried it on when I got home and it fit. Probably the most exciting part really to know that everything we are making will fit me. I am looking forward to wearing this in the summer time. This chilly winter we are having in Sydney is definitely not the weather for this gorgeous top.

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So I wonder what surprises I will have install for you all when it comes to fabricating garments. I can’t wait to get started and show these to you all. Guess we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what these will be. See you all then.

Dina xoxo

Fragmented

Fragmented. What is fragmented? Fragmented is one of my projects that I am so proud of. As I had mentioned earlier, we had been undertaking an architectonic project. This project involves investigating an architect or a work of architecture and using this to then create a series of 5 skirts. These skirts are not merely a carbon copy of the architecture of the architects work but are somewhat derived from them. I chose the late Zaha Hadid and her architectural work is just amazing beyond words. She really is an inspiration for myself. Seeing a Muslim and a Female being recognised as number 1 in her field, is truly an inspiration for women regardless if you are Muslim or not.

So being inspired by her work, I chosen to then look beyond her designs and see my own way of viewing things around me that I could transform into skirt designs. I loved how the hijab drapes and folds around our heads and falls upon our shoulders in various shapes creating a sculpture on its own. I found that the flower in the way it layers in its different shapes and sizes is merely amazing to see. I took elements of geometry, geometric shapes and Islamic geometric designs/shapes can be abstracted to great unique shapes and designs. This are just a few things that were the back story to my work.

Using all of this, I then put my head down to come up with a series of thumbnail sketches of my skirt, out of 60 sketches I had to narrow this down to my final 5 designs. These designs are just the beginning of our final product. We had to then finalise this into a lookbook which is a book that contains a design, a short description of it and our fabric choices. Here is a link to my Behance Portfolio where you will find my finalised lookbook: Dina Mohamed Fragmented Lookbook.

Here are my final sketches in both pencil and in colour of my final 5 skirts. As well as a quick look at my lookbook. These 5 skirts are: ‘Petal’, ‘Desert’, ‘Pixie’, ‘Ruffle’ and ‘Honeycomb’.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuPRdAjYim/?taken-by=dina.designs&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuPhb1DLIc/?taken-by=dina.designs&hl=en

Now to achieve these skirts, we had to learn to manipulate fabric that would be a sample of our finalised product. I enjoyed this too much. I created a few different samples and each one was different from the next. I hand dyed all these fabrics myself. I chose to use silk, silk cotton and cotton voile as my 3 main fabrics, each giving a different shade of colour as well as a different touch with its texture and designs. I used rosehip petals, coffee, black tea, green tea, brown onion and Spanish onion to dye these fabrics. This collection is all about keeping it natural as best as possible. The colours were amazing. Even though I left them in the dye bath for 15mins, it is truly spectacular looking at the results. I know that if they were left longer in the dye bath, they would have achieved vastly different results than what you see here.

Spanish Onion

Green Tea

Rosehip

Black Tea

Brown Onion

Coffee

Some of the fabrics using a technique called shirring in which I would sew lines in a way that created puffs and shapes within the fabric as the stitches are sewn in. Another technique I used was a series of mosaic designs from patching together pieces to using binding to add in a mosaic print to folding the fabric into a variety of shapes. Gathering and draping are similar to shirring but have a different result as you only sew where you gather or create drapes in the fabric. A final manipulation I used was acetone print transfer where I used images of a variety of buildings with prominent geometric designs and transferred these images onto the fabric with acetone. These series of photos capture a brief example of these fabric samples.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuPtvIDA06/?taken-by=dina.designs&hl=en

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I hope when I do get to collect this work of mine that I will give you all a clearer view of the designs and you will see the details of these designs at a better quality.

Since completing this project, I actually have been dreaming about putting them into actual skirts and I would love to have a go and put something together even if it is just 1 of the 5 skirt designs. It would be amazing to create a final masterpiece. I know that it will be nothing like my initial sketches and designs but hopefully close enough to see highlighting the collection.

Let me know what your thoughts are about this collection and what do you think is your favourite or would like to see in production.

Dina xoxo

 

Time for another update

It’s time for another update. Now that I am on a break before the next semester begins, I thought I’d share with you the finished product of one of my tasks. Last time, I had the opportunity to show you a glimpse at a flared skirt and box top that I have created in my patternmaking and construction class. I actually had a great time with this sewing experience because I could see the progress of my sewing skills and this has definitely been reflected in the quality of the garment too.

This is the fashion box top that we created in class. Now my box top didn’t actually start off like the finished product. I had originally chose a floral print cotton fabric but after cutting out the pattern, I felt that the fabric choice suited a completely different garment. So again I was on the hunt for new fabric and viola, I found this light grey print cotton fabric and I was super excited that this was now the top I wanted to put together.

Some of you may think that this would have taken a day or so to put together but since we only have about 2 hours a week of sewing class, it actually is a longer process. Nevertheless, at the end, no matter how long it took to put together, it was well worth it. While I am going to cut the sewing experience short, this is the final product that I created. Apologies for the photo backgrounds, but this was taken in the sewing room and the quality of lighting wasn’t so great at the time. The back of the top has 5 shell buttons on it, which after searching for a variety of buttons, choosing between grey, white and the shell, I think it has given the top a much more chic feel in comparison to an ordinary everyday wear top.

Box Top Front

Box Top Back

Honestly I actually cannot wait to collect this top when we head back next semester because this will most likely be on my summer list of clothes that I will be wearing. I am already picturing myself wearing this. What I think I am most grateful for is that everything that we will be creating during the duration of the course will actually be in my size which definitely changes the way you select and interpret the designs as well as fabric choices.

Now I did have another project that I am going to share with you all. This will be posted in my next post, so be on the look out for it. In the meantime, I am leaving you with this cute chic top.

Dina xoxo

Design has got me thinking

For the past month or so, I feel like I have completely hibernated from the world, only to surface here or there whether for an occasion or just for some air. I’ve been so busy with a major project that feels like it’s not only taken everything out of me but also made me question myself so much in my journey of design. As you all know I am currently learning about fashion and textile design, it’s been a major learning curve for me and I have achieved so much in such a short time, yet this architectonic project that we were assigned, seemed like the biggest task I have encountered so far had me thinking whether or not I really am in the right design field.

So what is architectonic? Well to explain it as briefly as possible, it is basically using architecture to create fashion and in our case it was using architecture to create skirts. Throughout this project, we were asked to choose either an architect or piece of architecture to which we would then create a collection of 5 skirts. Now I had chosen Zaha Hadid and her work is just amazing. Her work is honestly beyond anything I could explain. Google her and you will know exactly what I mean. In selecting her as my architect, I used her techniques to assist in my own designs. And this is where I began questioning myself.

I love design and I love what I am doing but it just made me question my whole design journey. I think for myself, the design journey has been a major roller coaster and I have probably tried everything I can think of in design and I no longer know if I am in the right field or not. Back when I was in high school, I studied a few art and design subjects like visual arts, visual design: graphics, technical drawing and design and technology to name a few. Basically I had experienced a few fields all different in every way. As time went on and I journeyed through university, I took up a few design subjects in industrial design, I had a go at graphic design and even tried interior design and textile design whilst I was studying and working as a school teacher. Now fast forward to this year where I was accepted into Architecture as well as the Fashion & Textiles course that I am currently studying, initially I was torn between the two choices but the circumstances didn’t seem to travel into the Architecture pathway and I began the journey of the later.

I have been on this journey since the semester began and I have learnt so much and how different the way we think as designers and all thoughts of just formal dresses and wedding dresses were thrown out the window. I honestly enjoy being creative and being an individual in pushing further my thoughts and ideas and seeing the journey of the design thinking process that I undertake. I have mixed feelings about illustration during my journey. In my mind, I feel that I am drawing alright but I worry that my sketches are just too basic in comparison to others or not what the teacher is after. I feel that I need to sit and just keep practicing and just remind myself that it’s ok if its not 100% perfect and that at least I tried and its still a learning process. When it comes to sewing, I am honestly amazed at where I started and where I am now. I hardly knew anything and I was so afraid of using a sewing machine and overlocker. Now I not so scared of the overlocker, but I can confidently say that I have triumphed in my use of the sewing machine and with time and patience, I am sure to continue to sew amazing garments.

So this is my journey so far but where does this fall with the whole questioning myself part that I spoke earlier. Well, I feel sometimes that I am not cut out to do fashion and maybe I should of taken architecture instead. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I don’t like what I am doing or anything, I just feel that I am not sure if I entirely fit where I am. I guess this architectonic project just got me thinking, probably because of the different buildings and their beauty. It got me seeing how beautiful the intricate details can be placed in a building and how aesthetically pleasing they can be to look at. Just so much raced in my mind. It got me thinking, instead of making garments of clothes, I’d be making models of structures which would eventually become buildings. I would be there for the journey from the drawing board right to construction seeing it form right before my eyes. Yet if you think about it, I think fashion is the same way. I guess the blue print is the initial sketches, the model would be the pattern blocks and the final building or structure would end up as the garment.

I feel like I have just questioned myself so much in this project and tossed between whether I am in the right place or should I have taken the other path. Sometimes I wonder did I deserve to be in this course or not, or am I really good enough to be here or not. I guess this is all part of the learning process and maybe I am just so anxious about my work because if I didn’t gain the confidence to finally create this blog and to show my work to the world, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here sharing this with you and sharing my work and you would have never known about my love of drawing.

I guess in time, I will probably know where I sit with all of this and in the meantime, I am going to just continue to focus on where I am now and where I will be from here.

Dina xoxo

Eid ul-Fitr

Today marks the first day of Eid ul-Fitr, otherwise known also as the Eid of the Feast. Sometimes we refer this eid as the small eid. Eid ul-Fitr celebrated by Muslims around the globe to mark the end of Ramadan, a month in which we fast from sunrise to sunset. I would like to wish you all a very happy and blessed Eid celebration and that may the peace and blessings of Allah swt be showered upon you all.

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Happy Eid everyone!

Dina xoxo