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Description:

What's on the runways in 2020? Wide disco collars, chic trench coats, and layered skirts in simmering neons, crochet knits, and faux leather. Do you study the pages of Glamour, Vogue, Marie Claire, and wish to be involved in the world of trendy fashion? Perhaps you follow fashion influencers on Instagram. Or, do you enjoy the satisfaction of making things yourself, your way? If so, this class is for you. Each week this course will cover three parallel tracks: the history of fashion, fashion design, and sewing, with the first hour of each class being lessons and design work and the second hour dedicated to application and sewing.

Fashion trends are often cyclical, and elements of style are reimagined every few decades. Students will seek inspiration for new designs and style remixes by learning about the history of fashion in eastern and western cultures for the last century. Second semester, students will examine fashion trends by decade from the 1970s through the 2000s. The class will also highlight the work of influential designers such as Charles Frederick Worth, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Valentino, Kenzo Takada, Prada, and others. This semester will cover chapters 4 and 5 in the textbook.

With inspiration from historical design trends, students will learn how to create fashion renderings, from initial concepts through a chic, coordinated collection. Second semester, students' design work will focus on creating a collection and sharing those designs through a collection story board. The class will also culminate with presentation of designs and a discussion of related careers including fashion design, art, graphic design, advertising, merchandising, costuming, manufacturing, retail work or virtual style influencer.)

In this class, students will also learn to sew clothing as way of sharing- and wearing- fashions that they have designed. Second semester, students will continue to learn more advanced sewing skills including further work with patterns, modifying patterns, math used in sewing, and drafting their own patterns for their unique fashion designs. The artists will learn about pleats versus gathering and finishing edges/hems. Second semester's projects will include making a scarf, a circle skirt, and a simple blouse. (Alternate projects will be offered for male students.)

Students who practice at home will find that their sewing skills are refined and perfected more quickly. However, due to the complexity of constructing wearable, functional pieces of clothing, students should understand that by the end of the year, their sewn items will be more basic than the complex designs they render in the fashion design portion of the class. It takes years of practice before designers can create the complete, detailed collection that they have designed!

Topics in this Series: Style Studio: Fashion Design and Sewing I (Semester 1), Style Studio: Fashion Design and Sewing I (Semester 2). Students continuing from first semester receive priority pre-registration for second semester.

Prerequisites: If a student wishes to enroll in the 2nd semester of this class without having taken first semester, he/she should plan to schedule an individual, 2-hour "sewing machine basics" session with the instructor ($130) to cover some of the sewing principles needed for class.

Levels: There will be different levels of the sewing instruction: a basic pattern for those new to the craft and a more complex version of the same project for those with more advanced sewing knowledge. Interested students with advanced sewing skills may take the course and sew their own projects during the second hour. These students would be asked to review their projects with the instructor in advance.

Workload: Students should expect to spend 1-2 hours per week outside of class on reading assignments and completing or practicing the sewing skill/step covered in class.

Assignments: Projects and readings will be given out in class and will also be communicated via email.

Assessments: Individual feedback is given in class. Formal assessments will not be given.

Textbook: Students should purchase Fundamentals of Fashion Design, 3rd Edition, by Richard Sorger and Jenny Udale (ISBN# 978-1474270007) before the first class. Additional information will be distributed as handouts in class.

Equipment/Fabric: Students must bring to class each week:

A portable sewing machine with bobbins. If you are purchasing a new sewing machine for the class, a Singer Heavy Duty Sewing Machine, 4400 series, model is recommended. These can be purchased from Amazon or Joann Fabrics for $160-$180. Students who are bringing a pre-owed or loaned sewing machine are expected to have the machine professionally serviced before the start of class.

The sewing machine owner's manual

An extension cord

Fabric for class assignments. A list of needed fabric and sewing patterns will be sent out the first day of class, with the recommended quantity, type, and deadlines.

Lab/Supply Fee: A class fee of $45.00 is due payable to the instructor on the first day of class for a project box, including a sewing kit (with 1 pack of sewing machine needles, thread, and hand sewing essentials), sketchpad, folder, tracing paper, colored pencils, eraser. The supply fee also includes the shared cost and use of a lightbox for tracing. The cost of photocopied class documents is included in the course fee.

What to Bring: Instructor-furnished sewing kit, art supplies, sewing machine, bobbins, owner's manual, extension cord, fabric, and images/sample photos, swatches, and other assigned materials.

Credit: Homeschool families may wish to count this course as a component (partial) credit in Fine Arts or Career Education for purposes of a high school transcript.