Voltesa

When I got presented with "A Place Called Home" theme I already knew that I wanted to include my home country Albania. Albania has such an old and traditional culture which is worth researching it more. Firstly, I wanted to create a 3D model room since I don't have one here in London. My second idea was to create a traditional Albanian garment but mixed with modern street style. I was a little bit nervous about the second idea since I had never sewn before but my tutors encouraged me that I could learn the basics and make it.

I started researching about traditional Albanian costumes since I did not know what to actually do. Albanian costumes are filled with gold details, threads, gold beads, and also floral details. Albanians used to wear waistcoats as their most detailed and traditional part of the costume. So I came with the idea to create a waistcoat but not that traditional. I created pages of planing process on my sketchbook. I created a small sample just to create an idea how the process was. Then I started making a bigger sized waistcoat which it was a very good thing, because I got used to the process. Then I had to thing about the fabrics and the details that I would add on my sketchbook. I found the fabrics exactly as I wanted them. Also I wanted to add the new techniques that we had learned during the course so I used screen printing on my main fabric and then heat transfer on my second one. The sewing process was straight forward because I already had learned it. But even then I faced a little accident since my machine needle broke twice - once because I had placed the pins on the fabric wrong and secondly because I needed a thicker needle for my main fabric.

I was very pleased with my final result. The most important thing is that I have learned a lot of new things that I did not know before. This is what I appreciate the most. I also learned that I need to challenge myself more and not believe in the things that I can actually do.