Fashion Designer

NZ designer and Project runway designer Beth Claire travelled from Whitianga to work with a group of our budding designers. She came armed with a bag of essential designers tools for each chid with snips, an un-picker, a sketch pad, fabric, a zip, measuring tape and a model form for tracing.

Beth introduced the children to patterns and the children had to guess what her various patterns would make when assembled. Some of the patterns were really tricky to guess! We learned about darts and pleats and just how much fabric is needed to make a dress with pleats like our school dresses. Beth showed us some of her clothing and some of the girls got to model them for the group. One skirt was made up of the insides of computer keyboards that were sewn together in a Maori design to represent Mana. We also got to see photos of the designs on the catwalk models. They looked amazing!

For 10 minutes the children tried out designing their own outfits using the tracing paper and forms Beth had gifted each child. We got to share our designs and inspiration with each other. There were some really cool ideas and inspirations coming through in the sketches.

There was a quick introduction to overlocking fabric to stop edges fraying and a lesson on how to use the sewing machines and then it was down to work, with the children each whipping up their own cushion cover! Beth helped the children finish off their cushions zippers. They look GREAT!

A huge thank you to Beth for sharing her passion and talent with us. You have 7 new fans and supporters who love your designs. Thanks for helping us to develop our skills of design and try out using a sewing machine for the first time!