This highly practical module aims to equip you with a foundation of technical skills in fashion through a combination of workshops and independent study. It will introduce you to a wide range of materials, media and equipment that will underpin your future studies and industry experience. Skills relating to the technical working environment will be identified and considered, and you will develop practical abilities across a wide range of equipment and tools.

The module will develop your knowledge and understanding of fabric properties, pattern cutting and garment construction. Becoming increasingly familiar with how garments are assembled will further enhance your design work, as you will know where and how to position seams to ensure garments fit the body properly, and how fabrics can be manipulated to achieve the desired garment style and shape. You will be able to make connections between the learning that takes place in this module and the Fashion in Context module that runs in parallel, and this will help you to recognise how fashion design has developed over time and across market sectors.

The activities you undertake throughout the module will build a portfolio of technical work demonstrating your skills in pattern cutting and garment construction, through traditional and digital methods, not necessarily in the form of finished products. This will be supported by an increasing glossary of technical language and subject terminology, and an awareness of fibres and fabric properties. You will support this work with an ongoing detailed technical notebook that documents each process through sketches, samples and annotations. This will serve as an aide memoire on which you will be able to reflect when revisiting methods in the future.

1. Demonstrate your acquisition of a range of traditional and digital skills using technical equipment and processes associated with the fashion industry.
Learning

2. Select and use appropriate materials, equipment and processes in order to organise and implement realistic and achievable solutions for the fashion industry
Application

3. Creatively identify, evaluate and record solutions utilising developed skills and knowledge in order to solve problems related to design, pattern and garment manufacture
Problem solving

You will develop technical skills through workshops (by both tutors and technical staff) that will include demonstrations and practical learning, These workshops will be complemented by group discussions and individual learning. Your Module Handbook will include a week-by-week summary of activities.

As such, the learning strategies will include, but are not limited to:
• Demonstrations of traditional and digital processes
• Studio workshops, including pattern cutting, garment sampling and exploration of materials.
• Short practical problem solving activities
• Guidance on how to compile a technical notebook
• Tutor-led discussions and group critiques
• Time-management planning

Specialist industrial sewing and pattern cutting equipment
University Library
Word-processing facilities
Internet
Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment will support this module where relevant.

Online resources
https://www.businessoffashion.com/education/fashion-az
http://www.fashionserviceshongkong.com/

ALDRICH, W. (2015) Metric Pattern Cutting for women’s wear. 6th Ed. Somerset: Wiley
FISCHER, A. (2015) Sewing for Fashion Designers. London: Lawrence King
HALLETT, C. and JOHNSTON, A. (2014) Fabric for Fashion: The Swatch Book. 2nd Ed. London: Lawrence King
SCHNEIDER, R. (2013) Adobe for Fashion: Illustrator CS6. London: Lulu.com

Assessment 1: Technical Notebook (20%) (Learning outcomes 1 & 2)
An annotated and illustrated technical notebook recording equipment and step by step instructions on technical processes undertaken in pattern cutting and garment manufacture.

Assessment 2: Fabric Report (10%) (Learning outcomes 1, 2 & 3)
A fabric report demonstrating fabric knowledge, through identifying fabric type, fabric characteristics and appropriate garment types for a range of fabric samples.

Assessment 3: Sample Folder (70%) (Learning outcomes 1, 2 & 3)
A sample folder demonstrating ability to apply a range of technical skills and processes in pattern cutting and garment manufacture.