Design Technology – Textiles
What should you do to improve your work in this subject?
Pupils need to manage their time very effectively. Successful pupils develop sound organisational skills ensuring that they meet all the work deadlines by handing in their work on time. Their work is always of a high standard.
When researching:
· Collect and select relevant information from a number of sources.
· Where possible collect and select research which is both primary and secondary in nature.
· Make clear your reason for choosing the particular research and always acknowledge the source using a bibliography.
When analysing products:
· Be critical but do not criticise. Try to put yourself in the mind of the designer who created that product and analyse why they made the choices they did.
· Use helpful acronyms like SATSUMA or ACCESS FM to provide you with prompts for areas that you might comment on.
When developing outline design criteria:
· Make sure your criteria relate directly to your research.
· Justify each criterion by explaining why it is important and how it may affect your designing.
· Use acronyms like SATSUMA or ACCESS FM to help you with developing a full list of design criteria.
When designing:
· Make sure you have a clear design strategy to help you as a starting point to creativity and innovation.
For example:
1. Using a mood board which contains many alternative ideas/materials/patterns.
2. Create a pattern development sheet as you did in year 8.
3. Carry out a shop survey to gain some inspiration for fabrics, colours, techniques used and experiment with some modifications.
4. Use appropriate technical language when annotating ideas.
· Annotate ideas with comments that relate to your outline design criteria. Comments about suitability to your target market, potential materials and potential construction methods.
· Show an awareness of social, moral and environmental issues in the designing and annotation of ideas. Consider sustainability and the product life cycle when choosing components and materials.
When modelling ideas:
· Make several quick models/prototypes to test ideas.
· Where possible use CAD to produce more complete prototypes.
When planning and making:
· Demonstrate a wide variety of skills during practical work.
· Use tools safely and skilfully.
· Plan your work independently to produce accurate and outcomes of a marketable quality.
· Work accurately and efficiently in terms of time, materials and components.
· Have knowledge of CAM – Computer Aided Manufacture and use as appropriate
· Use and evidence quality control checks throughout your practical work to maintain consistent quality.
When testing and evaluating:
· Compare your product to existing solutions.
· Use your outline design criteria to analyse the success of the product you have designed.
· Evaluate and test your product in situ and document appropriate comments. Identify a number of key weaknesses and suggest improvements.
Additional Enrichment Ideas
After you have completed all set work you should engage in activities to make you more successful. Below are some suggestions to help.
1. At home practise new techniques learnt at school. This will enable you to work more quickly and improve your organisation.
2. Start an ideas book where you stick in pictures of things which inspire you – pages from magazines, sketches, swatches of fabric, photographs etc. Anything which will inspire your design work.
3. Go clothes shopping to extend your knowledge of existing products and new product technology, look at how products are constructed, what fabric they are made from and how they are embellished. This will increase your knowledge of successful production methods.
4. Disassemble products to find out how they work, what they are made from and why specific materials were chosen. Take photos of the disassembled products and add notes that explain your findings. Make sure you don’t take apart anything that is still needed!
5. Practise sketching. Use templates from the back of the simplicity pattern envelopes, trace products which are difficult to draw. Practise your shading skills. This will give you more confidence and enable you to work independently when you are designing.
Books to read
Read textile books and magazines which show you how to make textile products eg Prima, Mollie Makes which is in the school library.
Useful Websites
www.isew.com
www.colouricious.com
www.simplicity.com
www.ehow.com
www.videojug
Watch
www.youtube.com - look at clips to find ideas on how to make textile products.
Places to Visit
Victoria and Albert Museum – there is History of costume exhibition and check the website as they often have really interesting exhibitions relating to Textiles.
Visit Craft shows and Textile exhibitions.
The Quilting Exhibition
NEC Birmingham in August.
The Clothes Show NEC December
The Knitting and Stitching Exhibition in London in October.
Design Technology – Textiles Year 9