Year 8 Textiles

Topic:  ‘Festivals’ – Bucket Hats

Year Group: Year 8

Focus: 1. Manufacturing skills

2. Core designing skills
3. Different types of fabric weaves
4. E-textiles

What we will be learning

• Students will design and make a bucket hat to be worn at a festival of their choice.
• Students will research the festival, create a mood board and decide on a colour scheme and design for their hat.
• Students learn how to join materials together to create a seam. They will learn how to achieve a good quality finish on a wearable product by using a lining. They will select the appropriate decorative techniques to add texture, shape and colour to their hat and learn how to use electronics in textiles by sewing a simple switch circuit, with colour changing LEDs.
• The theory element of this project covers the different types of fabric weaves (plain weave and twill weave), electronic systems and seam finishes.

Why is this important? Where does this link to future/past learning?

• The skills in this project build on the core manufacturing skills taught in Year 7. They advance their skills of handling different materials and using the sewing machines to manufacture on a wearable product.
• This project considers a client’s wants and needs, with a clear focus on aesthetic appeal and quality of finish.
• Students will build on their knowledge of embroidery and applique to make decisions on how to decorate their hat to suit the festival of their choice.

How will this topic be assessed? Formative and summative

• Formative assessment and feedback happen each lesson through teacher questioning and advice on work in progress and completed. Students also have broad targets in their sketchbook that act as a scaffold for them to reflect on their work and generate their own personalised action plan for improvement in their learning. These targets are linked to “DIRT” activities aimed at building independence and metacognitive skills within the students.
• Summative assessment happens in three stages. Students manufacturing skills will be assessed through comparative judgement and rank order of projects which accounts for 40% of the overall mark.
• Students design skills will be assessed through comparative judgement and rank order of sketchbooks which accounts for 35% of overall mark.
• Students theory knowledge will be assessed through a theory “quest” which covers 25% of the overall mark.

What make a strong piece of work in this topic, and what can I do to stretch myself in this topic?

• A strong piece of work is creative, unique and uses a variety of processes and techniques that have been carefully chosen to demonstrate a functional and aesthetically pleasing product to be worn at a festival.
• The final product has a quality of finish achieved. This will be because quality control checks were used successfully throughout all stages of manufacture.
• The student’s sketchbook displays a rich variety of creative potential solutions. It also clearly documents the design process with initial ideas refined to final outcomes.
• In order to stretch themselves in this project students should consider different solutions to adding in the LEDs, unique design features and the use of CAM to embellish the product.