New Project

For my new project I am going to continue to manipulate fabric in a similar way to my last project with folds and repetition of lines. However I am not going to be looking at making fitted clothing and am going to focus on making adorning items that hang from the body. I am going to explore variations of my previous samples considering different scale and materials.

Fabric Choices

I had ordered some fabric samples from a fabric supplier. From these samples I will be able to tell which fabric I'd like best for my final garment. I've particularly looked at heavy weighted fabric as I found from working with both medium and heavy calico and medium pillow cotton that the heavy calico worked best to hold the folded form. I have looked at cotton satin heavy, viscose satin heavy, drill cotton satin, viscose cotton rib and cambric cotton heavy for white fabrics and drill cotton, cotton satin duchesse, domette cotton and coutil viscose satin (cotton backed) for black fabrics.

I was considering either the satin cotton heavy or the drill cotton. In the end I chose the satin cotton as even though there wasn't a great difference between the two I was rather fond of the feel of the fabric as it was much smoother than the drill. As there was not black satin cotton I chose the black drill cotton. I think they would be okay together as the density is very similar. I could have dyed some of the satin cotton heavy black but it would take longer to prepare and uncertain whether it would dye properly. I couldn't risk it going wrong, so it was much easier to buy black material than to prepare it myself.

I wanted to use a cotton based lining fabric as I didn't like the synthetic lining fabric I used for my samples. I did some research and found that silesia cotton is commonly used for lining.

I've ordered 3m of satin cotton heavy, 1m of black drill cotton and 2m of silesia cotton.

Hems, Seams and Zips Workshop

Today me and two others had a workshop in some of the basics of pattern drafting and garment making. We focused on hems, seams and zips. I found this workshop to be incredibly informative and what I learnt will inform the making process of my final piece. We explored a range of different seams, two types of zips and button holes. I created a range of samples for my technical diary.

Tutorial: Lisa Porch

I had an amazing tutorial with Lisa Porch today. I've completely changed some of my ideas for my works. We both weren't feeling the blue was working on my samples and worked out that it was because it was really bright and took away from the texture. She described it that to really enphasize the texture you need to limit the colour. So from looking at my source images of architecture it seemed obvious to use both Black and white tones. Also she suggested a better way for me to add the colour parts. Instead of printing the colour onto the white, I could piece the coloured parts in like patch work. This would be much easier than trying to get a perfect print and wasting a lot of fabric if it were to go wrong.

Colour Trend Spring '14

Now that I know I would like two colours in garment I've been looking at currrent trends of colour for spring 2014. I have done some research and found that Pantone was a reliable source for advisers of season's colour trends.

I think I'm most interested in the white with placid blue additions or placid blue with violet tulip. I wanted to keep my colours pale and pastel as I think too strong a colour would distract or take away from the form. 

I have been in the workshop for the last two days learning how to dye fabrics. I've been playing with the concentration of dyes in order get a match closest to placid blue. 

Adding Colour

I've been exploring the addition of colour to my samples. I am mostly interested in my sprouting fold samples, so I have chosen to experiment with colour on these. I have considered adding colour to the whole fold to stand out from the rest of the adorning item, colour on the outside leaving the inside of the fold blank and colour on the inside of the fold leaving the outside blank. I think the addition of another colour is really interesting and adds another layer of texture, picking out the form in the fabric. I was most impressed with how the colour on the inside turned out. I liked how from some perspectives you can't see the colour but also see the colour reflect on the white fabric, almost like a glow. I quite like this addition to my work that it changed from the different angles in which you look at it. I believe its the same with the form too, that the way it looks can be changed from the angle you are facing it. I only screen printed these with a stencil so the print quality is quite poor. For the real thing I would have a screen exposed to get a perfect print of colour.

Sprout Waves

I have arranged to half of each sprout oppositely in three channels to make a wave with the folds. I flipped round some sprouts and moved them over to be diagonally crossing in the same direction. I find this piece rather interesting but I don't see it on the body, I do however could see it with multiples of folds and as a wall piece or framed. I may reconsider with it on the body but with not as many, possibly just a chain of two waves.