A Taste of the Future (Fashion Making course at Central Saint Martins)

1. Central Saint Martins Granary Square

2. Entrance to CSM

3. Inside CSM / Mannequins

4. More mannequins

5. The team! (I'm on the far right with the flower headband)

6. Notes I made

7. Pattern instructions I made

I feel like I have somewhat neglected my blog recently, but for good reason. This past week I have been travelling up to London to attend a one-week Making Fashion course at Central Saint Martins, which meant getting up at 6am every morning and arriving home at about 6pm, ready to fall asleep straight away, I have to say, it's been an exhausting week!

I must admit, of all the things I'm going to miss about that week, getting the train is not one of them. I don't travel by train often, let alone on my own, so at first I was a little nervous that I'd end up in Scotland or someplace other than London. By the second day I'd got the hang of the train times, except I really hate delays! I was late a couple of times that week, partly because it was the week before the Olympics, and partly because of cable theft. I can't believe how stressed out it made me, especially when one day the train I was supposed to catch which was usually made up of 12 carriages had been reduced to 4! It wasn't pleasant being so squashed every morning and evening, and you sort of feel guilty when you get the last seat, all the standing people kind of glare at you. The worst thing was coming home each day, I would nod off on the train and nearly missed my stop once, I'd do everything I could to stay awake, but I'd just be so tired. 

My first day there made me feel like the new girl at school, saying quiet hello's to the other people in the group and awkwardly asking where they were from, how old they were, the usually stuff. Turns out our group was made up of people from all over the world, which made for some interesting conversations and everyone was super friendly. 

The idea of the course was to learn about patterns for clothing, and how to manipulate them to made different shapes and cuts. We worked on patterns for bodices, skirts and sleeves, learning some really useful skills that I didn't even realise I needed, but I'm glad I did the course. When I booked it, I thought we would be making and designing clothes everyday so this course ended up being something a bit different, but not in a bad way. We were also encouraged to make a sketchbook full of all the things we learnt, making miniature patterns to show the stages accompanied by instructions. The book could be something I present with my portfolio when applying to an art foundation course, it'll give me a certain 'edge'. 

I also found it useful that we got to speak to some students studying different parts of fashion. I was most drawn to fashion with print because it incorporates illustration and drawing into fashion design, and I can never find the prints that I want on fabric, so this course sounds ideal! Fashion Design Marketing also seems like a great course, we got to look through some of the magazines the students had produced, and I fell in love with the photos and style of one particular magazine. It was full of quotes about happiness, and photos of floaty summer dresses, pastel coloured balloons, teacups and roses. It was just a gorgeous magazine!

Looking back, I had an incredible week. The weather was beautiful that week, my new friends and I would eat lunch outside, watching the awesome water fountains in the ground. The Olympic flame came by on Thursday but I missed it because it came at 6:30 in the morning, but it was still exciting to see the stage being set up. And even though the week left me sort of skint (train tickets, equipment, lunch), I felt a certain independence about travelling on my own, navigating my way around London and meeting new people. I loved being surrounded by people who had the same interests as me, and getting a possible taste of my future (even though I'm still not 100% sure on what I want to do) and seeing how confident and cool the students were. I'm so happy with my new set of skills, I feel like I can make anything now and can't wait to go back to CSM!