29 December 2008

Today I made the bag in my aunt’s place with her and her tailor. Her tailor guided me throughout the process so I won’t make any mistake. It took a pretty long time just to do this because I had to record it to my notes and also my camera, so the time spent on pausing took a pretty much time.

The difficulties that I found were that when I tried the sewing machine and sometimes the thread stuck and I need to cut it, also when I sew more than I supposed to be, then the tailor showed me the way to undo the stitches which was to just pull out the stitches and sew it again. Mostly I did it step by step, carefully, and slowly, just to ensure that I won’t make any mistake.

This activity leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectation that I need to do a create stage in order to have the product and to fulfill the design cycle.

I can do differently by asking someone else to take a picture of me the whole time so I don’t need to pause every time I do a single step.

The Process
First garment: white; quilted pattern.


Second garment: blue-jeans; pattern.

The chains.


Steps:
1. Make an outline from carton 33cm x 39 cm, cut it. Put it on the first garment and make an outline from the carton and make it double, and then cut it. Do the same step with the second garment.


2. For each garment: from the two sides (length), the upside of the garment facing the other upside of the garment (because there are double) and sew it along the side (0.5cm for the border), and the border will be pressed and sew it along the line (do this step with the other lenght). After that, sew the width and sew each corner so the corner will look like triangle shape, and then cut it (each side).



(With the other garment too).


3. Put the second garment to the first garment (from the hole of the first garment) with the inside of the garment facing each other (the first and the second garment). Sew the upper circle that becomes the mouth of the bag, so both of the garments will attach to each other.



4. Sew the width of the second garment and sew each corner so the corner will look like triangle shape, and then cut it (each side).


5. To make it neater, sew the upper side of the first garment along the side of the mouth of the bag (with a kind of clipper tool for garments to make the direction of the line neat and straight), and do it twice (with the width of 2cm).




6. Make an outline on the carton for the holes (for where the chains will go through), considering the width of the mouth of the bag also (so it is balance). Use the tool to make it becomes hole and use it with hammer to make a hole), place it on the garment and make it twice (for each side) so there will be four holes.


7. Attach the ring to the hole and place its closer from the opposite side; do this step for four times (because there are four holes). This requires the tool to fastened the ring with its closer.


8. Put the chains through the holes of the bag (with the tool to make chain opens; open and close the chain with this tool). Put the chain from the second garment first (according to the design).



The Product
Formal

Casual (non-formal)

25 December 2008

Today I designed my bag with the help of my aunt. We designed the bag that is not too difficult for me to make but still proportional. For the casual design, the chain rope could be adjusted to short or long and therefore for the formal design, the chain rope fills the empty plain color by filling the sides of it and it brings the classy sense. Beside that, my aunt helped me with which parts that I need to sew, the size of the garment needed, to hole (for the chain rope to pass through), and a bit of part of the casual design that has the garment from the formal design (this is because I combine the two designs in one).

The difficulty that I found was that to imagine how the bag would look like later if it is made. My aunt helped me with using a demonstration using her own bag. This way, I understand and could imagine clearly how the bag would look like later on.

This leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectation that I need to pass though the design step in order to make the product (the design cycle).

The Designs

Motif 1: formal

Motif 2: casual (non-formal)

Chain Rope

The Hole (for the chain rope to go through)

End Result: Motif 1 (formal)

End Result: Casual (non-formal)

Every side reduced by 2cm for the space of the stitches

23 December 2008

Today I searched for garments and materials needed in Tanah Abang with my aunt. I went from my house at 2 in the afternoon and it took around 1 hour just to get there because of traffic jam. It was so exhausting but I finally made it. We headed down to the store where my aunt usually buys garments for her bags. The store has a lot of garments and luckily there are some small portions of many garment selections that attached to the wall as the sample. I saw many good garments but eventually I need to search the specific garment which I planned to have for my bag.

I found the quilted pattern with many colors (one design only) such as black, white, crème, broken white, brown, and dark brown. I analyze one by one and I thought that white was the best and I was so lucky that white was the only color available for that type of garment. I bought 2m x 2m of that garment, just in case that I make a mistake when I sew my bag later on. This cost Rp 34, 500,-.

For my other design, I chose the jeans garment because it has a pattern, casual, and unique. This is just a right and a perfect design for teenager style. I bought 2m x 2m of that garment, just in case that I make a mistake when I sew my bag later on. This cost Rp 30, 000,-.

For the chain rope, I went to the other store because that store where I bought the garments doesn’t have the chain rope. In the other store, they have range of chains that have good qualities and unique designs. There were two colors which were silver and gold, both have many designs. When I analyze and matched it with the color of the garments, I consider that gold would be better because the silver one just doesn’t stand out the design of the garment. I analyze again the designs of the gold chains and the most complex one which has unique embosses on it would be the best and matched the most with my garments. Apparently, this chain is the most expensive among the other chains (no wonder that this is the best chain when I analyzed it just a moment before I asked about the price of it). I took 2 meters of it, just in case that I make a mistake when I sew my bag later on. This cost Rp 28, 400,-.

The difficulty that I found during this hunting is to search for the right garment that I’ll use for my bag later. Because there were so many selections so it was a little bit difficult to choose. But finally when I tried to stick to the professionalism term, I chose the right garments for my bag. These garments have a sense of professionalism and it stands out because it looks expensive but actually it is not really that expensive.

I can do differently by also hunting the garments in other places such as in Bogor, Mangga Dua, etc. But my aunt said that the garments and materials provided in Tanah Abang and in Mangga Dua are the same (so when the stock in one of those places is empty, then in the other place is also empty too). So maybe Bogor would be a good destination for another alternative to search for more garments.