SC Rosey here! Recently you may have seen a picture on Facebook of a dress that I had made during my work placement and you all seemed to love it, so we thought we’d share a little bit more about some of my personal work particularly about my university graduate collection!

I created my graduate collection in 2018 as part of my fashion degree at Edinburgh college of art. A graduate collection is your final hand in for a fashion degree and in the UK it consists of 6 full looks, this is then shown at your universities final year show and then sometimes at Graduate Fashion Week in London! Much more fun than a dissertation!

My graduate collection was unexpectedly personal to me and I’m not surprised I’m working at Sew Confident now as I focused massively on personal style, comfort and practicality (it may not look practical but you didn’t see the others. . . . )

So here’s a little breakdown of my graduate collection journey and embarking on a massive sewing mission! 

Starting with inspirations! We spend a lot of time on instagram these days trawling through outfits and designers and streetstyle, it’s one huge online art gallery so I was always searching instagram for inspiration, but most of it came from more homely comforts, such as warm fires, soft carpets, and traditional interiors! 

All these pictures and scraps of fabric and random pieces from here and there then had to be transformed into textiles and shapes in order to start looking less like junk and more like clothes! It’s all about experimentation!

Then it’s time to toile! If you’ve been on our pattern class you’ll know just how important it is to toile! We would spend months toiling and it’s actually a part of the design process! 

Finally it was time for the final production of our collection which was a HUGE  task! Starting with base layers such as knitted polo necks and cigarette leg trousers, I then built statement pieces over the top! My collection was all about layering so each look comprised of an average of 4 garments. 

After all that you then get to sit back and admire your work! I wasn’t overwhelmed with my collection, but I did love my first look, it comprised of a printed shortsleeved suit with vast flowing over skirt. It was all printed with the same image in different scales onto ex-raf parachutes. I loved printing the fabric, it very much hid the materials past life and the idea of recycling didn’t define the look!

Now my sewing is a looot more practical but all the same themes are there, layering, comfort, oversized clothing. So I love when sew confident sewistas bring a challenge to classes, it really gives you a chance to get those creative juices flowing!