For this project, I chose to conduct my research on the origins of trench coats as this is one of my favourite genres of clothing. For my historical artifact, I sewed together a miniature version of a trench coat completed with a cloche hat and handbag out of felt. In my photoshoot, I continued the theme of clothing design by creating miniature trench coat pattern pieces and sketches on transfer paper to imitate the coat creation process. I struggled a bit with making my text legible on the transfer paper, so in this shoot my text is on black paper and the title font is in the style of the fashion magazine “Everyday” that ran in the 1920s. Here I worked with different shades of cream, brown and black to create a cohesive theme within the picture and give it a warm tone. In my research I chose to focus more on the history of the trench coat and what role it played in women’s fashion during the time on the side. While I was a bit concerned that the hat and handbag would be too much, I still enjoy the mood they help to create and set the scene back in time.
As a project, I would give myself a 7/10. I am very happy with the result of my miniature coat and I learned a lot while doing my research for the paragraph, but I also feel that this is not the best work I could have produced. The text did not correspond as well with the rest of scene as I would have liked and my work almost gets lost in all the brown tones I set in the background! While there are many things I would like to change looking back, I found this a fun project nonetheless and it has been quite a while since I have hand sewn anything so crafty in a long time.