Apparel design students at Iowa State aren’t cutting corners when it comes to their senior design projects, and many have started using out-of-the-way sources for fabric.

Some students have ordered silks online from Thailand. Others have taken long road trips in blustery winter weather. They’re all after the same thing: a quality piece of fabric.

The quality of the fabric the students use in their projects is important, because their designs are focused on appealing to a target market of fashion consumers, said Joneien Johnson, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production.

“Local fabric stores like JoAnn’s [Fabrics] or Hancock’s [Fabrics] in Des Moines only have synthetic fabrics that really look bad when you are using them for high-end designs,” she said. “In this course, we need to make our designs marketable to the people they are geared toward.”

Senior design projects are completed in Textiles and Clothing 495: Advanced Apparel Design, where students go through all of the steps, from the first drawn illustrations to making the final product. Students create at least three outfits to be entered into the textiles and clothing department’s annual spring fashion show.

Jean Parsons, assistant professor of textiles and clothing, said people who are currently working in the fashion industry come to Iowa State to judge students’ designs. A students design makes it into the fashion show only with judges’ approval.

“I think it helps students to see the big picture and helps them see how much work it really is to work in the fashion field,” she said.

Many aspects of students’ designs are taken into consideration — among them color choice, fabric choice, overall design, fit, construction and how appropriately it fits its target market.

Johnson said students need to go to great lengths to find quality fabrics that will make their designs marketable. They also need to take into consideration how the fabrics will look under the stage lights in the fashion show and how the fabrics will look on the models.

She said she has spent almost $400 so far on her materials.

“We’re not forced to buy expensive fabrics, just good quality ones — but usually good quality translates into expensive,” she said.

She ordered her fabrics online from Thai Silks, which offers more than 1,400 silk fabrics from China, Korea, Thailand and India. For her design, she plans to layer iridescent silk chiffon over other fabrics to create different types of colors.

“I had to buy 30 yards of fabric because my design involves so much layering,” she said. “That’s a lot of fabric.”

Ann Tribuno, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production, opted to travel to Minneapolis to visit a fabric warehouse and independent fabric stores instead of shopping online.

She bought six different fabrics, all but one of which were silk. At a cost of $10 to $20 a yard for her fabrics, she said she has spent nearly $500.

“You have to get quite a bit in case you mess up,” she said. “I haven’t even bought the lining yet, or the buttons, stuff like that.”

However, Parsons said they need to keep the prices in perspective for work such as this was important.

“If you think about the amount of money an art student spends on supplies, it’s pretty much the same. They’ll also have these pieces with them for the rest of their lives in their portfolio,” she said.