6.+Evaluation

__ Evaluation __ As I have now completed my pillow, it is now my turn to evaluate it. I will compare my end product with my design brief, rate what I think my pillow deserves out of 10 and compare it to my criteria to success. I will also talk about myself and talk about if I was a hard worker or not. I will discuss skills which I have learnt and how I can improve my pillow in the future.

 

**The Programming ** I have finally finished making my pillow and I believe that I did an incredible job. I had never used a sewing machine until I started doing textiles. My final result blew me away and it was better than what I had expected it to be. I think that my pillow resembled my final design and replicated it perfectly. Though, there were some things that I wasn’t completely happy about and would have liked to redo, but sadly due to time and materials, I wasn’t able to redo it. The thing that I think I could have done better would have to be my beading. I was so conscious about securing the beds really tight so they wouldn’t move or fall off, but then after a while I started to realize that from pulling the thread so tight the beads didn’t stay in line and started to become slightly curvy. I think that the beads look fine as they can still come into a straight line but I think that there is always room for improvement on my beading. One thing that changed from my final design to my finished design was my choice of beads due to budget and time. I have still used Swarovski crystal beads, but I originally wanted cube beads. Sadly the cost was very expensive and over budget and if I was able to get them cheaper, they wouldn’t arrive in Sydney in time as I was going to buy them over the internet. Instead I got Swarovski crystal roundels which are slightly different to normal beads. I paid $10.99 for 100 beads which is a very good price for Swarovski crystal beads. I am happy with these beads that I purchased, though there was a slight change to what I though it would be like originally. One thing that I am extremely happy with would have to be my appliqué leaves and then my hand embroidery stem stitch joining them all together. It came out even better than I expected and I am proud of it. I also love the hand embroidered leaf on the back and the hand made flowers as they give the pillow a real cute touch and make the pillow have character. When I go back and look at my design brief, the main things that I get out of it is that I have to have 2 techniques on my pillow, my budget is $30 and that I am open to doing anything that I want to do on my pillow. I believe that I fulfilled all of these requirements. I used more than two techniques on my pillow. I successfully used appliqué, handmade flowers, hand embroidery and beading. I thought that these techniques went really well with the pillow and I was very happy with the final result of each technique. I successfully kept my budget under $30. Below are the costs of the materials used: All together I spent $25.75. *Some of the prices weren’t the full prices as I didn’t use all of the product (e.g. I only used a quarter of the stuffing that I purchased and of the 100 Swarovski Crystal Roundels that I purchase I only used about 85 of them. ) I thought that my pillow ticked all my boxes and it is better than I had originally expected. Therefore, I definitely reached my goals and exceeded them in some aspects. I focused on colour, quality, comfort and making a pillow that I would like. I personally believe that I accomplished all of these goals, for instance, when I was the thinking about comfort I realized while I was designing it, that having beads wouldn't be very comfortable to lie on so I decided to leave the back soft and without anything that is uncomfortable. The purpose of this is that you can turn the pillow over to lie on it. Also when I was thinking about quality, I only purchased good products that were reliable. For instance I purchased Swarovski beads over normal beads and I went to numerous places to find the most comfortable stuffing. When I look back to my criteria to success, my main points were that to keep my budget under $30, finish my pillow by the deadline, to keep photos of most steps of me putting my pillow together, relate the pillow to my bedroom, to use textile materials and to use at least 2 textile techniques. I believe that I accomplished all of these things as I only spent $25.75, I finished my pillow in time, I kept photos of the production process, it works well with my quilt cover, and I used more than two textile techniques. I believe I have done everything on my criteria for success. In my opinion my project turned out extremely well and it looks like a professional did it. I think it looks sophisticated and stylish. I would give my pillow a 10/10 as I was extremely happy with it and whenever I see it I can't believe that I actually produced it from scratch. I have asked and shown many of my family members what they thought of my pillow. Believe it or not, one of my cousins that didn't know I made it said "Where did you buy it from?". They all said very positive comments and said that it look like a professional produced it. This is why I gave it a 10/10.
 * Purple Fabric - $4.00
 * Purple Cotton - $2.00
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">White Felt - $1.50
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">White Ribbon - $1.00
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Black Ribbon – 75 c
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Swarovski Crystal Rondells - $9.50
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Swarovski Crystal Bicones - $6.00
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Stuffing - $1.00

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**<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">The Process ** <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">As I was making my pillow I was very conscious of the design process and going through it step by step. I gradually made it through all of the steps and I took time to sit down and explore my design process. I put a lot of time and effort into making sure that I completed everything and through that it actually helped me to making the right decisions and making a good final choice of what my pillow would look like. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I completed all the stages of the design process and even added some more information to each stage. I completed the observation and critical analysis and all the way to the final stage of the evaluation. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Through doing this design process, it was slightly complicated at some stages and I did make a couple of minor mistakes. Sometimes I would start to do something and then later find out that I was completely wrong. None of my mistakes really were that bad but if, when I start the design process again for food technology I would definitely read things a lot more and finish things with a fine tip making sure that I completed things better. Next time I will elaborate on some things better and have more detailed responses. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">For the design process I would give myself a 9/10. I think that I worked well and did things really well, though I think that I could still improve on some aspects of the design. With my research and investigation, I should have taken it to the extra mile and talked about where it would go in my bedroom and take photos of the environment it would be in.



**<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Yourself ** <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Generally I think that I worked well in this project but there are some aspects that I would change if I did textiles again. I believe that through my hard work and all the time that I put into the pillow, it made my pillow end up as well as it is. My pillow is better than I ever expected and I think that is a result of my high standards that I put on myself and the constant work that I put into it. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I truly believe that I am a hard worker as I put in so much effort at home and spent some very late nights on making my pillow, so that it would be of a high quality. I think that if you asked my mum, she would most definitely say that I put days of effort into my pillow as she saw me all the time working on it. I was also a hard worker in terms of that I made sure that I did things slowly and very well. People may say that a hard worker is someone who does things fast and good but for me, to be a hard worker is someone who spends all the time they need on their work and in the end produce something that is worthy of selling. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">One thing that I think I could definitely improve on would be making the most of class time. In class I did things but I didn't always use my time effectively. I personally work better at home as I am used to my environment and not have 20 girls in the same room talking. I like doing stuff at home as it is quiet and I can do stuff effectively as I am not being interrupted and know where everything is. Though, I think that I have to grow out of this as class time at school is valuable and there are teachers there to help me and guide me when needed. Also as I move into higher grades I will be getting more homework so I won't always be able to do extra work at home as I will have to focus on other subjects. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Another thing that I think that I could improve on would be my organization. I was always prepared for class but I think that I should have a better plan of when to be doing things, so I wouldn’t always be doing things just before they are due. The next time that I do a design and technology project I will have to be more organized so I don't have so much pressure on myself and then my mum wouldn't be so worried about me finishing my pillow and portfolio. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I would give myself an 8/10 as I performed well in most aspects but there were still some things that I have to work on. Next time I think I have to work just that bit better to gain those extra 2 points in organization and using class time effectively. Though, overall I think I was a hard worker who made a great pillow that many people have given very good comments about. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Making this pillow has been very fun and I think that I have done an incredible job. I have had some highs and lows while making this pillow, but that is all a part of creating something from scratch for the first time. I have really enjoyed textiles this semester and I am definitely thinking about choosing textiles as an elective for Year 9 2012.

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