I graduated from my fashion degree! :)

There have been a severe lack of posts on my blog lately, and that's because I've been a very busy girl! I finished my university degree and had the fashion show featuring my final collection, then I had to move all my things back home and prepare for my graduation! I found out just over a week ago that I graduate with a 2:1 from Norwich University College of the Arts and on Tuesday I joined all my friends and family in celebrating our graduation together! :)

Me and the fashion girls who have all been through blood, sweat and tears together over the last three years! I'm so proud of us all, I can't wait to meet up again soon and I'm gonna miss them all so much! You literally get so close with people being in the same studio together day in and day out, love you my rats and goats! :)

My dad, my sister, me and my mum :) we were literally so lucky with the weather on Tuesday, we graduated at 10am (so we were up at 6am getting ready, collecting our gowns and getting professional photos by 8.30am!) and the sun was shining for us! We had a little bit of rain around lunchtime but then the sun came out again for the afternoon! 

Me and my lovely boyfriend Joe :) we've been together five and a half years, but 5 of those have been spent at different universities and in different towns so I'm super happy to be going back home so that we can eventually be together properly! Love you loads Joe!

Two of the loveliest boys I've ever met! We were part of the Oak Street originals and I'm sure I'll get to see them over the Summer :)

Amy has been the only one who has been through my uni experience in the exact same way that I have. We've lived together and been on the same course as each other for the past three years and I literally could not have done it without her. All the stress has been worth it though and I love you my little Essex babe, excited for all the fun things planned this Summer! :)

My best friend Courtney, me and my little sister Liv. So excited to be moving back home so that I can be right near these guys, I've missed them so much these past 3 years! There are gonna be so many fun things coming up this Summer with these two and I can't wait! :)

I swear that the blonder my hair gets, the more me and my sister look like twinnies!

Getting to meet and shake hands with John Hurt was one of the highlights of the day. (He might be better known as Ollivander from Harry Potter to you guys..."The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.") He is the Chancellor of our university and he was so lovely! :)

Thanks for reading :)
I'll definitely be putting up another post once I've got sent the professional photos, and got the higher quality images from my boyfriend including ones with my housemates :)

Love Dani :)

x

Catch-up on the last few weeks, and my finished final collection! :)

I'm baaaack! :) After many weeks of scheduled blog posts and guest blog posts from some lovely ladies, I'm finally back on my own blog and ready to get back into blogging on a weekly/every other day occurecnce! I've missed it so much, but I've had some of the busiest/worst/best few months of my life.

I've loved and hated working with printed fabrics this term. I created this print and had it digitally printed onto silk satin to make some linings for my garments and also a shirt for my collection. It's not the cheapest fabric, and having to line up the prints to get them matching is not easy, but I love the way it looks! This has pretty much been my view for the past few months - walking to and from uni. This and the inside of the studio or my bedroom.

I've really enjoyed working with delicate fabrics such as tulle, organza and lace this term. Even though they've been a right ball ache to get right, and they move out of place ALL THE TIME, I love how they look! I'm definitely gonna continue to make for myself after uni, I'm so excited to go fabric shopping and it being for me and not for my collection or uni work!

Some of the places I used the printed silk satin - in this unfinished shirt and in the lining of my shorter cape :)

A sneak peak of a photoshoot I did for my final collection. I will do a full blog post of the final images sometime soon, I'm so happy with how they came out! The photographer is amazing and the model was stunning :)

My little sister (pictured), my mum, my dad, my boyfriend and my best friend came up to visit me to see my end of year Final Collection show which was so lovely! Unfortunately it was two days before my final deadline so I couldn't really spend too much time with them as I had to go back home and get on with work! The two days later though, I got all my work completed, labelled and handed in!

Here is a sneak preview of my final collection from the show. I will also be doing a full blog post on the full collection and hopefully some more close-up photographs (I'm waiting to get some photos back from the photographers!)

Thanks for reading :)

So that's it now, uni is finally over and after Graduate Fashion Week it's the Summer!
Are you finishing university forever this term too?

Love Dani :)

x

Sunday summary #7 - A bit about being a fashion design student and my final collection :)

I thought I should probably do a blog post at some point about my final year at university so far and my final collection, seen as it's the only thing I seem to be doing nowadays! If you didn't already know, I study Fashion Design at university and I'm in my final year. From now until May, I shall be finishing my six outfit final collection, which is both super fun and super scary at the same time! Some outfits will only contain one or two garments, but some will contain three or four plus accessories so there is a lot to think about

Sketchbook work has been the bane of my life for the past three years. I have a totally love/hate relationship with sketchbooks though, I find them tedious to do but once I look back at them I actually love them! They're good for working through your projects from start to end and developing ideas though :)

I really need to invest in a proper mannequin after uni, these ones are so good as they have lines already on them for bust point, centre front etc. I'm literally working on a mannequin 24/7 nowadays too, which is really fun but stressful when the mannequins are slightly bigger than the actual model so you need to change all the sizes again!

This was an initial line-up idea for my final collection. It has been a lot more refined now and has changed loads, but I still like to look back to this and see what some of my original designs were.  My initial ideas came from India and jellyfish, not that you can see that much in these designs either, but everything moves and develops so quickly!

Pinterest quotes have been keeping me going! I go through stages of using Pinterest and at the moment I like to go on once a day for some daily pinning and lots of inspirational quotes! You can follow me here if you also have a Pinterest, but be warned I post alot ;)

I've had fun this term experimenting with textiles and other ways to design which I hadn't done before. Even just setting up an overhead projector and projecting your chosen image onto a mannequin can inspire some new ideas!

Here are some of my initial print ideas, some are more literal and some have been kaleidoscoped (if that's a word) to make them a repeat pattern and a bit more interesting. I'm still not 100% which style I like the best yet, but I do think I should only have one or the other, as the non-repeat one looks a lot more organic.

I spent a good few days creating this curved collar but I'm really happy with how it has turned out. I'm going to have a printed version of this shirt somewhere in my collection for definite as I love it, and I need to have some simplistic garments in my collection to balance out the smocking and embroidery.

Lastly, I have been experimenting with smocking different materials and draping it onto the stand. I love how this experiment has turned out, and it would look great as a top on it's own, or simply as a neck-piece. I've always loved the look of smocking techniques and the ruffles goes back to my initial research when I was looking at jellyfish tentacles.

I've literally been backwards and forwards to London sourcing fabric so many times in recent times, which is rather annoying when my hometown is 30 minutes from London and my uni town is over two hours away! But I've been enjoying choosing my final fabrics and experimenting in them, even if it is burning a hole in my pocket! I've also come across so many gorgeous fabrics that I want to make clothes in for myself when I finish uni - How gorgeous are these tartans?!

Pattern cutting day in and day out has also become a part of my daily routine. I recently invested in a pair of fabric scissors which nearly cost me £100... but they're so worth it as they feel like I'm cutting through air, and they'll last me a lifetime! My little floral apple pin holder is from my boyfriend's nanny and I love it!

I love treating myself to a fashion magazine or two at the weekend while I do some sketchbook and watch some Breaking Bad! You definitely have to chill out a bit at the weekends otherwise you'll literally go crazy.

Here is a preview of my first outfit in final fabrics. I'm sure everything will change loads as I go on, but I'm loving the high-waisted trousers so far and just need to decide on my final print :)

And last but not least, here is my favourite image to describe the past few months of my life. It literally is all fun and games until the bobbin runs out haha! There is nothing worse than sewing a garment and the bobbin running out halfway through, athough I've had it before where it ran out before I even started, and I didn't realise until I'd finished that seam... that was very annoying!

Thanks for reading :)
I hope you enjoyed a little insight into my life and a slightly different Sunday summary!

I will be updating my blog with more final collection posts as I continue my journey :)

And you can follow my instagram @floraldanielle for daily updates!

Love Dani :)

x

My first year at university.

I am just about to go back to Norwich for my second year at university. The first year and summer has literally gone so quickly! I'm super excited to go back to see my friends again, but I'm not so excited about uni 5 days a week and working 2 days a week, but it's what's gotta be done! I've only had my blog a few months now, and that's been during summer, so I thought I'd compile a post of a few of my favourite photographs from my first year at university, and I thought it might let you guys get to know me a little bit better!

These first few photos are of the 5 girls I lived with during my first year at university. They were all so lovely and lots of fun to live with! These photos were taken during freshers week, and a very fun freshers week it was. It wasn't as crazy as some of the bigger unis, but it was good for getting to know each other, dressing up and drinking loads of cheap drinks!

These photos were also from Freshers week,and the theme was 'Shipwrecked.' It was fun dressing up as a Baywatch girl, but if they do the same theme this year I wanna be a sailor haha! :)

This photo was from Halloween, as if you hadn't already guessed ;). I went as a 'dead Snow White'. We all ended up very drunk and scary looking because we had white contact lenses in haha.

Christmas was really fun in the house, decorating four levels of staircases and the Christmas tree and communal area :)

This was a 'famous TV and film stars' and I went as Frenchy from Grease :)

I celebrated my 21st birthday during my first year of uni, but I've written a longer post about it before which you can read here :)

If you're off to your first year of university, I am very jealous of you and you're gonna have lots of fun! I can't wait to get back to my little uni room and see my housemates again :)

Thanks for reading

Love Dani

x