And it begins

Today a big suitcase full of fabric and feathers arrived into the studio. I had no idea what was in store for us until the sewing began.

We had been given a small image for how the feathers should be sewn down and the skirt pattern pieces. My task was to help cut out the fabric and tack the edges of the pattern pieces, then to remove the paper and tack inside the piece as we had two layers of organza and this way they both would stay secure and not move.

We had to make a grid to work out where the feathers would go. This involved drawing a lot of dots, working out the distances and re working them out.

The dots had to be 4 by 4 cm apart, in the right direction.

Once this grid was done and correct I then had to lay the fabric over the top and use a silver pen to mark out the dots. This would be where we sew each bunch of feathers. 

There were four pattern pieces so I had to tack out the piece and secure it down then mark out the dots for each piece. 

Just an average day

Today was spent just generally helping out at the studio with customer tasks and in-between working on my own beading sample.

A customer asked us to fix her beaded cardigan which was missing some beads and others were very loose. I went through the bead room and looked to find any matching beads. I then had to unpick the lining of the cardigan before starting to re-secure the beads and sew extras to any bald spots.

     

I also helped do the placement of these napkins which were being used for a dinner party.  I just had to measure the distances and secure it ready to be placed onto the machine.

The rest of my time was spent working on my beading sample, I was given some gold work materials to play around with which I could use to create some different shapes and textures related to the sea theme.

Tidy Studio

As hand and lock had a reshuffle in staff we decided that the studio needed a sort out too. This not only will make things easier but will help any interns or new people who want to know where things are kept.

There is a room called the bead room filled to the roof with boxes of beads, not all these boxes are full however and this needed to be sorted too.

I was given the empty boxes and a lot of beads that were stored in the studio and my task was to sort them, rename the boxes and to tie some beads on the front of the box so they are easily recognisable.

  

 I also had a knotted pile of beads and sequins that didn't match any boxes and these had to be sorted. I was to re string the beads and sequins to a smaller length ready for tambour beading classes. Any bits that cant be used for tambour go into separate bags to be sold to customers.  

                                             

Busy day

Today was a quiet day for the studio however I was busy at work sewing my beading sample. I had a lot of beading ideas in my head and was able to sew them quickly and draw the others down so I could remember them for next time. 

I was still looking at texture so I wanted to use the beads and sequins differently, instead of sewing the sequins flat I put them into groups and sewed them onto their sides propping them up with some bugle beads. I really like how this came out as I tried to curve the sequins to give them movement or a resemblance of the sea. 

My next square I wanted it to have more freedom and movement. For the beads to fall naturally, I decided to bead this upside down so that the curve would be downwards when the right way up. I beaded loosely and used my lines as a rough guideline for my design. 

The last task of today was to get these dressing gowns ready for the machine embroidery. To keep all the items neat we kept the dressing gown tie in the bag with the correct names. 

Firstly I had to find the centre and place the names straight and equal onto the garment. Once I had measured it and was sure it was straight I then gently placed a few pins to hold it before being put onto the frame. 

This was a new font to use and digitizing it was different from others so there were a few gaps that I had to go over with the thread and fill in. This just made the font and writing a lot clearer to read and made it look finished.

A coat of arms

Two suits were given to us asking us to sew two badges onto the front pocket, I took this one and the other intern did the other suit. My badge was slightly more difficult as it wasn't just a simple shape, I had the top of the crown and the axe to secure down too. 

I could have sewn the suit onto the frame of in a hoop but I felt this would be awkward as my badge was of an odd shape. I just made sure that the badge was straight and in the centre before putting in a few pins to help hold it in place. 

 

I had to unpick the lining of the suit carefully working out where the badge would be sewn and how much space I would need. I didnt want to unpick any more than needed and I didnt want to damage the lining fabric by catching it when sewing the badge.  

This was the most interesting thing I had to sew a badge onto, a bowler hat. I had to first trim the badge and make sure it was all equal and even before finding the centre and pinning onto the hat. I decided to stitch over the original machine stitches so that my own could not be seen and this would make it look a lot neater. 

The hard part was finding where the needle would come up through the hat. I also wanted to keep the stitches on the inside small and neat. After using the thimble the needle became bent which made sewing the badge down a lot harder but I eventually finished. 

Lots more beading

Today I got the chance to finish off my first square of beading. The theme was around sea life and under water. So I looked at the colours and textures finding different beads that could look like coral.

I like my second square however I didn't want to fill the whole square with these beads. If this wasn't just a beading sample I would have sewn some french knots into the seed beads to add more texture and a different colour. 

I also helped trim the threads on some pieces, this being a felted portfolio bag for a company on the same street as us. I had to be careful as the threads had gotten caught up on the on the underside of the fabric. If I cut too much the threads from the front could all fray when caught or pulled. 

Errands

As always I get in early and today I was given a task before I even took my coat off. It was to deliver some important samples to red magazines photo shoot at Claridges urgently before 10am.

Once this was delivered I was back to sewing my sample for the new collection.

What im doing is using a bugle bead to make them stand upright then attach smaller seed beads which create the fluffy look. This technique took along time as the bugle beads were sometimes too small for the needle and I had to sort through them all.

I also took a journey to the Ritz to collect the Ritz magazine in which Hand and Lock was featured. I felt very out of place walking into the Ritz not in a suit!

The last place I had to go to was Sloane square to drop off a parcel. I had been here many times before so I roughly knew where I was going. I feel at the end of this internship I will know every part of London and be a tube expert. 

We also had these knickers that we had to embellish, they were all given models names, presumably for a photo shoot. I just had to trim the threads and neaten it up.