Tag Archives: FIT

Sustainability Awareness Week – Patagonia Worn Wear

FIT’s Sustainability Awareness Week Quick Summary

Here at FIT we dedicate a week every semester to the sustainability of our industry with the sustainability council and club leading the way for events and panel discussions.

I stopped by the Patagonia Worn Wear pop-up to learn a little more about what they do and their journey. Their FIT setup consisted of three sewing machines (one industrial brother machine and two home machines), sewers tools, and a big box of trims and notions. The repair technicians mended several different types of damages such as broken zippers and buttons, busted seams, and patching holes. Patagonia owns the largest repair facility in the US located in Reno, Nevada, which is even more astounding when you realize that they only repair Patagonia products.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear wagon

The Worn Wear team even consisted of an FIT alumn, a TDM (Textiles Development and Marketing) graduate, who is with the materials innovation team at Patagonia. She spoke with me about the Patagonia branch “Tin Shed” which is a corporate venture capitalist fund they use to invest in environmentally and socially responsible start-up companies which they use to further their corporate mission!

What aspects of sustainability are you interested in?

I Made a Jacket!

Front opening of my jacket.

For my final project in MG 312 – Manufacturing II Process Analysis, I made a lined, full zip, corduroy jacket with two front welt pockets. This was a very involved process as we started from scratch. We took our bodies measurements and made a “body fit” pattern. This was so that we knew exactly what our measurements were so that we always had a place to start from if we wanted to start over. Just getting my body fit pattern just right was difficult. I had little experience in making any type of garment, so it took a few iterations to get my body fit just right.

The lining and facing of my jacket. We also put a brand and size combo label, and a wash label in.

Once I nailed that, I started patterning the silhouette of my jacket. I sized up my body fit in every direction and started working on prototypes of my final garment. I particularly struggled with patterning my sleeve. This was the first sleeve that I have ever made. Most of the textbook resources that we had in the class were dedicated to women’s wear, so there wasn’t a huge selection of menswear guidance. Even so, some of the textbooks were hard for me to understand with my limited experience, so in the end, I made my sleeve based solely on intuition – it didn’t turn out half bad. It took me roughly 6 failed sleeves to get it sized just right – I still can’t believe pattern makers can make things like sleeves correctly on their first try.

The sleeve in the welt pocket of my jacket.

The blue corduroy and black lining that I used in my final garment were provided by my professor Linda Cohen (she’s the absolute best professor at FIT). I had to lay the corduroy in a specific way to make sure that the nap of the fabric was matching, but once I had everything cut and fused, it was time to start sewing. Sewing isn’t particularly complicated but it is definitely time-consuming to get quality seams. It also takes some amount of technical skill to operate the machinery well. It took me the entirety of a week to make my final garment. From finalizing my patterns, cutting my fabric, fusing my fabric, and sewing, I spent roughly 85% of a week in the labs. There was a point where I hadn’t eaten in 27 hours because I stayed up working for so long.

Back of my jacket.

On the last day of class, everyone presented their final garments and told us about their journey through the process. Everyone did an amazing job with their garments, no exceptions. Students made things such as denim jackets, tunics, suit vests, joggers, leather blazers, fur collars, robes, dresses, and even blouses. Once the presentations were over, even our professor told us that we had raised the bar for this project, which was an extremely rewarding thing to hear. This is the last class that I’ll be having with professor Linda Cohen and I can’t explain how thankful I am to have had her for the last two semesters. This class brought all of my fellow classmates together like no class has done before, and I am also thankful for that. Now I’ll have a jacket to wear for Winter that I made!

Front opening with the collar up.

Production Management Semester 4 Review

Alright everyone, now this is a pretty big deal. When you finish your 4th semester, you will be graduating with your AAS. This went by extremely fast for me and shows just how much you have to pay attention and savor the moment, because time really does fly by.

MG 252 – Product Data Management

This class is focuses on identifying all the different types of information in a business environment, where this information comes from, and where it then is directed. Students familiarize themselves with key business documents such as NDAs, project workflows, and 26 other documents, and create samples for their personal use. Final project is breaking down all the data for a sample product and presenting this information.

IC 297 – AAS Internship C: Career Exploration

This course is taken at the same time that you are placed in your Spring credited internship. The main goal of this course is to help students identify their desired career path and to start working towards it through their current internship. Students share personal experiences with their internships to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the opportunities in the industry.

EN 321 – Strategies of Business Communication

Students learn proper business communication etiquette and use this to create job search documents, reports, memos, and customer service documents.

MA 213 – Quantitative Methods

This is a required math class that is fairly basic. Linear algebra is the main focus of this class, with some focus on interest, used to calculate things such as loans. Students create a report using this interest math to calculate what their financial situations would be if they took out loans.

Production Management Semester 1 Review

The Production Management major is a complex multifaceted program that can branch off and lead to many different job types in the industry. This can make it hard to understand what your time here at FIT could look like, so I’m going to start going over the courses in the major semester by semester and review and elaborate on them.

 

Semester 1 – Very rudimentary and foundational to your general understanding of basic fashion industry structure and procedures.

MG 108 – Apparel and Home Textile Products Manufacturing

This was my first ever class at FIT. I came into this school not knowing anything about businesses or how they are structured, or how the fashion industry even operates. This class taught me about all the different processes involved in the making of products and who is responsible for them. We also talked about one of the most important pieces of information in the production industry, a tech. pack, which is a detailing of what the product is made of and how to make it.

TS 115/TS 015 – Textiles for Production Management

Again, I didn’t know anything about apparel coming into FIT. This class gave me the foundational understanding of the different types of fabrics and how they are all made. We learned about the difference between woven and knit fabrics, the different types of each category, and we even got to see the machinery used to make these fabrics in person in the textile labs. We also learned about all the different types of fibers and materials that make up the fabric and the qualities of them. One of the coolest parts about this class was when we tested different fabrics in our textile lab to see if they would meet industry standards. FIT has a fully equipped textile testing lab with machinery that tests things from the strength, to the color fastness, and even the flammability of the fabric.

MG 153 – Excel for Business

This class helps students build one of the most commonly used skills in the production industry, Microsoft Excel. I use Excel every day at work to analyze and identify key information for our team, and this class helped me feel comfortable in taking responsibilities like this on. Professors use textbook and online material for students to reference in their homework and projects to help build relevant and comprehensive practice. You’ll learn how to format files, discover all sorts of formulas, and even learn about Pivot Tables. Excel has since become one of my favorite programs for organizing pretty much any type of information. It isn’t just for numbers, though it excels in that field. (I’m sorry I just had to). 

Which class would you be most excited for in your first semester at FIT?

Florence, Italy at Your Hands!

HELLO FELLOW TIGERS!!

My name is Maria, I have started my 4th semester in FIT. However, I started classes a little far away from campus. Where? In Florence, Italy! Now you may ask “what is she doing over there?” Well let me explain….

At FIT there are many options for studying abroad, it all depends on the major you are studying. As a fashion design student one of my options was to study in the “the cradle of the renaissance”, that is Florence, Italy. And so I chose this option for my second year of AAS.

You cannot imagine how excited I was to start my journey abroad. In the month of August (2018) I had my bags all packed and ready for what was coming. I heard great stories about my classmates’ experiences abroad and was ready to start my own.

Our host in Florence is Polimoda fashion institute right in the historic center. The main campus itself is a gem, with frescoed ceilings and walls, it sure takes you back in time. The design lab in Scandicci has everything you need for the realization of projects. Since the program admits a certain number of students, professors are by your side to assist you.

In the following blogs I will be going in deeper into my experiences during the last and this upcoming semester.

Ciao, Maria

A view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

Florence, Italy: A view from Piazzale Michelangelo