Tutorial with Mel

I had my first tutorial this morning with Mel for the beginning thoughts where I shall be leading this project. Mel confirmed my thoughts of starting this project by learning to pattern draft on the top area of the body and then continue my exploration by working through the pattern magic books. In addition I need to find different ways of fixing a fabric form and to test a huge range of fabric so I know for sure that it will hold when I make a piece. I can also work on learning new folding patterns to help me create my own folding variations.

Paper Manipulation Research

As I know that I want to continue with a similar subject I revisited my previous 50 images to find related sources to the work that I'm going to be undertaking. Today I visited the library to search through the paper craft books to find some examples of artists that use continuous folding techniques to form shapes or items for the body. Artists like Richard Sweeney, Andrea Russo and Polly Verity are good examples of impressive folding patterns. I still have to research fashion designers for existing clothing displaying signs folds and linear lines. I know that Issey Miyeke is a good example of this as he uses the same process as me to creating folds and fixing them with heat.

Richard Sweeney

Andrea Russo

Polly Verity

A New Year, A New Project

This term I would like to continue on from my previous work to advance in my interest of fabric manipulation with folding and stitching and applying it to the body, making wearable pieces.

Over the summer I have looked at how I could improve and fix any issues I had. On my final piece I had problems keeping the folded structures strong and crisp. I have learnt that the fabric I was using was not suitable for the process I was undertaking and fabric manipulation works better with stitch as a fixative than with shibori techniques, especially when there is a weight to it.

Looking at the work of Alexa Liss I found that I could continue using my folding patterns but when applying it to the body I keep its form by stitching it to a base fabric, like a bodice. From this I knew that I would need to teach myself how to pattern draft to be able to make clothing and to better understand the shape of the body. While looking for books on pattern drafting I came across a series of pattern books called Pattern Magic that specializes on pattern drafting clothes with unusual shapes and forms added to them.

Alexa Liss

Constructing The Final Piece

My skirt and arm pieces are tube shaped to go around the arms and waist. I worked out that I'd be making my pieces in panels and stitching them together to make the wrap. I constructed my arm pieces and skirt in a similar process. I started by constructing the panels of fold and tucks separately. Before I could start putting them together I had to stitch lines of yellow down the folded pieces. Once I had all the components ready I had to begin putting it together. I pinned the folds into place and stitched them into a long line. When all together I used the over locker to finish the edge. My biggest concern was at this point where I wasn't sure how they were going to fix to the body. For the skirt I was thinking of just stitching the top to a long band of elastic but I thought it would look a bit naff. It was suggested that I make it fitted with a strip of fabric up the top and buttons to fix but I thought that was complicated to apply my folds to a straight edge at the top. It did inspire my idea to have a tube like fabric strip that would be fixed to the top with the folds out flat but in the tube I would have my band of elastic which would pull my folds back into their form. This was a great idea as the elactic in the band would scrunch the fabric tube into lines that I looked at previously with my stitching with elastic thread I did earlier in the project. For the arm bands however I stuck to using straight off elastic but I stitched on the inside to the lines in the folds so that the stitching wouldn't flatten out the folds. Once I had all the panels together and the fixing elastic in place I stitched the ends together to make the tubes and finishing the pieces.

I really like how my arm bands turned out and they are probably my favorite out the two pieces. I was a little let down by the look of my skirt at the end as through the process of making the folds didn't really hold in too well and lost some of their strength. That is probably a material problem or that the weight of the fabric was too much to hold. I know now for next time that I'd need to test out different fabrics in larger samples to see their strength.

Final Piece Idea Generating

I've been trying to figure out what to make using my folded forms. I know I want me make something wearable but I need to work out what it is, where it's going to be and how will it sit. I've been trying to draw some things but the best way to do it is to use my samples to place them upon a body form to see how they work. I've also used a bigger sheet of a paper form to test more outrageous ideas. The difference between the paper and fabric is that the paper is more strict to it's form and doesn't have as much give to moving. So I know that the fabric won't sit into some of the lovely structures that the paper produces. I have decided from playing with the shapes to make a skirt and arm bands both incorporating the tuck lines along with the folds.

Over Locker Sampling

Thinking of my final piece, I need to find a way of finishing the edges of the fabric to stop it from fraying. I was suggested to  try using an over locker or to run a zig-zag stitch down the edge. The zig-zag stitch is what they used before the over locker was made. The over locker was specifically made for finishing the edging of fabric. It uses two needles with the input of four different threads that make the stitching. As your stitching the machine is also able to cut off the edge of the fabric before it's stitched that allows the edge to be straight. I had a go at trying out some different ways of putting the fabric through. You can use the over locker to join the edges of two layered fabrics. I tried different folding of the fabric as well as the straight edge. From looking at the edge of a t-shirt I tried a folding that would hide the stitching on the inside and a folded edge. After sampling these I tried them again on silk to see how they would be changed on the fabric I'm using or handled differently as silk can be a bit slippery. After I found that the silk was successful I tried the over locker on a folded piece to see how it would effect the folds. A straight stitch worked fine and kept the folds in the fabric but the folded stitch stretched out the fabric getting rid of the folds. I also tried over locking a square and folded it afterwards to see if I can still form the stitched edge.

Tutorial: Simon

My tutorial with Simon today was really good. I showed him my samples with colour additions and stitch and evaluated the better working ones. I talked about my thoughts of displaying and looking at mannequins. I now need to focus on refining my samples in final ideas and making mock up. I can start by making some mock ups in paper to start planning my finished piece