Positives of lockdown

Whilst lockdown brought some challenges, there were also some benefits, which I reflect on here.

Following announcements from the University in March, all classes were switched to online only. As no one fully realised the scale of the problem at first, there wasn't much time to think about what items we'd need from the studio in order to be able to complete our work. Whilst this was unfortunate, I enjoyed the challenges this brought about and the resourcefulness this prompted within me.

My first challenge was lack of materials. Initially, no businesses were open that weren't deemed essential, and this included fabric shops. Moreover, my plan to use the University's knitting machines had to be shelved for now. Luckily I have at home my own (domestic) knitting machine. I hadn't used this in around 10 years, so it was good to familiarise myself with it once again. Making my own fabric on it gave me more control over several elements, such as the width of the stripes, which I could vary whilst maintaining the same colour scheme. I also had greater freedom over the types of shapes I could make: the 'snakes' I made on my knitting machine would not have been possible on an industrial machine. I could also make only as much fabric as I needed at any one time, which was great for reducing waste.

Working more closely with the knitting machine also helped me to clarify that I do want to work with knit for my final major project. I've enjoyed the possibilities you get with using a stretch fabric, and having the opportunity to alter those properties (as in the quilted example above).

The second issue I came across was not having a mannequin arm to use to drape the sleeve for the knitted piece (I had previously been using the ones in the University studio). I decided to attempt to make my own arm, and came across this pattern online, from a website called Cloning Couture: https://cloningcouture.com/2017/03/10/make-a-custom-flexible-dressform-arm/

I tried it out and found it to be a success, but really I needed a male mannequin arm, so I set about adapting the pattern. This involved researching standard arm lengths and arm widths for a standard size 38". This in itself was quite illuminating, as these figures altered depending on the country of origin. I chose the measurements that most closely matched my mannequin and made the necessary changes to the pattern pieces.

Seeing those pattern pieces side by side, the first thing that struck me was that the main difference in length was in the forearm, not the whole thing as you might imagine. As I've been going through this module I've been gathering the kinds of questions I want to start asking when it comes to my research module and final major project. Seeing body differences like this is really helpful as it gives me a starting point.

The second thing I noticed was the shape of the armhole:

The ladies pattern is on top and the male is on the bottom. Again, I had assumed I'd be dealing with the same thing but just a larger version, but I found that on the male dress form, the armhole is more spherical than oval. This must make a difference to fit when it comes to men buying dresses designed for women.

Here are the two arms side by side.

Had lockdown not happened, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to study these differences and wouldn't have these specific research questions, so I am grateful for that.

I have also made my own half scale mannequin, using a pattern by the costumer Ruth Watkin http://ruth-watkin.squarespace.com :

For both the half scale mannequin and the mannequin arms, I used only materials which I already had in the house. The mannequin above was made from a leftover remnant I had previously made a shirt from, backed with leftover canvas and stuffed with fabric scraps.

The pattern pieces for the arms were also small enough to be taken from leftovers, and again filled with a mixture of toy stuffing leftover from the Comme des Garçons piece and fabric scraps. Something I mentioned from the last module was how Drag was often made (or at least designed to look like it had been made) with whatever was available at the time. I appreciated the chance to use up my leftovers in an environmentally friendly way, and at gaining an insight to these resourceful practises.

I'm pleased with how the mannequin turned out. But again, it has advantages beyond its obvious pattern making uses. Just the act of making and stuffing this has forced me to look at where a man carries weight on his body and how he differs from a woman, and what that then means when it comes to dressmaking. I'm looking forward to combining all the questions I have with all that I have learned, and taking that forward into the next term.