Half way through the project

Innovative cut – making the garment
I am now just over half way through my innovative cut project, and I am really enjoying it. There is so much freedom and experimentation that it really suits the way that I like to work.
I have come up with some really good, solid ideas quite early on, which will give me enough time to develop them and then continue with the strongest idea.
I have chosen three fabrics for my final garment, but I am not sure yet of how I am going to choose the combination of what goes with what. I am not sure whether to have just two fabrics to give contrast or to add a third fabric and add dimension, but then I do not want to over complicate things and I don’t want it to look too much and take away from the shape and structure of the piece.
I decided to use quite unusual fabrics; I think they work well with the main theme of new future. I have chosen shiny, reflective and metallic materials and also a clear plastic. To add stiffness to the fabrics I am going to sew a piece of collar stiffener to each pattern piece to help make the garment keep its structure.
I had a really good idea of using foam within a garment to create shape and volume, in my samples and experiment it worked really well, but I think that it is too much of a challenge to work out the dimensions and fabric allowances with the short time I have left for the project. I don’t want to start something and then end up rushing to get it finished and then not being pleased with the final outcome.
Today I learnt how to use some new technology. I made a half scale pattern for my final garment, and used a digitizer to put the pieces into the computer and then blow the pattern up to full scale. It worked really well, and is a really professional way to create a pattern, and I think that I will use this in the future now that I know how to use it.
The only problem is, because my pattern is not a standard name or shape, it did not recognise some of the names that I have put in for my pattern pieces, so some have come out without the piece name on, and now I have to figure out which piece is which. This is really difficult because they are all so similar, in shape and size, so before I make my garment I am going to test each layer in calico to make sure that the right pieces are being sewn together.