A look inside RPA’s Fashion and Textiles class

Students in Qristy Kurtz’s Fashion and Textiles class are receiving a hands-on education about the fashion and design industry through projects, guest speakers, field trips, sewing and much more.  

Students have three main projects in the class: they learn how to create a mood board, a fashion design illustration, and starting in a week they will begin making a flat pattern of their design to fit their unique measurements. 

This week they’re hitting the road to visit JoAnn Fabrics to learn about commercial patterns and to select swatches for their designs. 

For a class next week, they will host guest speaker, Tiffany Beers, a famous designer who worked with Nike on auto-lacing shoes among other projects.

Other activities in the class have included sewing machine seam sample practice, textile identification, silhouette identification and mark-making exercises. Later on, they will also have a draping demo and practice on professional-grade dress form mannequins. 

Next Semester, Kurtz will teach a Fashion Construction class and some students may have the chance to sew their designs.