Drape to Create

Today was very interesting as we had a draping workshop with Robin Kerr, a design lecturer. We had to drape on mannequins using calico. He gave us some words such as volume, linear and organic; from these words we had to interpret  our own understanding of the word by draping on the stand.

I really enjoyed this exercise as it gave me a chance to be creative in a three dimensional way instead of making two dimensional  patterns then sewing them together to see how they would look. Another advantage from draping that I could see how my garment might look on the human body instantly and this gave me the chance to change parts that I thought  would not work. After draping on the stand I could extract parts that I really liked and begin to sketch out different garments using that section.

From this class, I decided  to continue to use this method of design and see what other silhouettes I could come up with to incorporate into my design work. This time I plan to drape  using a male mannequin to see what I can come up with. I might use jersey as the main fabric to drape instead of calico as this will help me understand the movement of a knit fabric.

One idea to Another

Have you ever had something on your mind that you thought would work and you hoped it would because you had become so attached to that ONE idea but as you go and try it out you realise that it won’t work and if you STILL want to continue with it, it’s going to take a lot of time(time that you didn’t plan on using for this idea) and a lot of effort (effort that you planned to use for another idea)?

Well this was the dilemma I was facing on Thursday. As I have started to develop the pattern for my suit I started to focus on the material, colour and print that I wanted to use. After a lot of thought I decided that I wanted a rusty type look that was inspired by the wall in this image.

First I tried dyeing on a wool fabric(specifically meant for dyeing) and I kind of liked the sample but it still was not the exact image I had in my head. So I sat down with the dye technician, David, (who is amazing) and he said that I won’t be able to accomplish this effect from dyeing. But as I am Delores and once I set my mind on something I will find a way to complete it. We started going through different methods that I could use to hopefully attain my desired look.

Method 1: Try digital printing as this could give me the exact image I wanted (getting all excited). We went over to speak to the digital print technician. She said it would be possible but I had to find a better quality of the image.

Strike one, the image came from a book so that was the best quality. I got my image online and once I zoomed in, the quality was really bad.

 Strike two, even if I decided to use digital printing there was no wool fabric to paint on. At that moment I began laughing  inside to stop myself from panicking. The only fabric choice that I could use if I became really desperate in case every other method did not work, was a satin and cotton mix fabric. I stood there thinking who would buy a satin and cotton mix fabric tailored suit?  Unimpressed, I asked what was the next option?

Method 2: to use a reactive dye and hand paint the pattern that I wanted on to the wool fabric. This sounded difficult and it was something  I was willing to try because I was not letting go of this idea.

After speaking to the other dye technician, we mixed my desired colours and started to paint away. As I had never done this before, my first three attempts looked like my 1 year old Goddaughter grabbed a paint brush and uncontrollably painted them . They were horrible.  But with the reassuring words of David, the dye technician, encouraging me and telling me that I will get better, it’s just a matter of me getting used to doing this and becoming more confident. I continued and started to get a bit better. I came up with two more samples which aren’t great but they look better than the first three.

I am going to continue experimenting with this technique and hopefully it might work out in my favour  Ii not I might have to give it up and move on to the next!

Here are a Few of the samples that I did, none of the came out the way I wanted!

Attack of Social Media

Since I started this MA I have done so many things I said I would never do, and from the way things are looking, the list will only continue to grow( shakes one’s head).

Today jewellery designer Maddy Moaxson (ex- MA student) came to give us a talk about how she started her business. This was very interesting for me as that is what I aspire to do one day soon and per usual the dreaded topic of social media had to come up. She spoke about the pros of social media sites such as twitter, instagram and pinterest. Oh yeah Facebook got a quick mention too ( we all know that’s kind of dying down now). I do agree with the points she made and as the world develops social media (I hate to say this ) will only grow stronger as we have become a people of technology (maybe this faze might die down, we never know). It is a quick and easy way to get yourself heard, seen and most of all your in control of how you present your brand and yourself (sometimes) which is another pro.

I think the reason I’m not really a fan of creating multiple social networks is because I hate to put myself out there unnecessarily, and keeping up with everything could be quite difficult but sadly I know I am going to have to join the ‘media gang’. Plus I already know I’m going to look like a sell-out to all my friends and family as I’ve always been rather vocal about this topic (laughing out loud, I can just see their smug ‘I told you so’ faces). Oh well some things have just got to be done and social media is one of them.

When I comes to small independent labels I really respect them as I have seen how hard it can be doing most (practically all) of the work yourself and if lucky might get some interns that know what they are doing and help you out. It is really hard work starting a label but the reward at the end is far greater .

Can’t wait for this journey one day!
Here is a link to Maddy's website hope you enjoy and buy:
http://www.moxhamstore.com

Focus and Direction

WHAT A FEELING, DUN DUN DUN, WHAT A FEELING! (singing out loud to one’s self) I think from the song I am singing you can tell I’m in a good mood.

Today I met up with Maria for her 3-D surgery session (that’s just a fancy way of saying pattern cutting advice). She really helped me out with my project. I showed her what my project was about and where I was trying to take it. She understood me straight away (Thank God!) and suggested books and designers that I should have a look at. She went to her office to bring me half the library (okay maybe a bit of an exaggeration on my part, more like 6 or 7 books) for me to have a look through and photocopy pages that I liked. She gave me the sense of direction I needed when it came to my tailored pieces and about styling, models and photo-shoot.

I have always been interested in tailoring even in the 1^st year of my BA course when I was doing women’s wear. So it was only right that I continue to develop my knowledge and skills in that area. So far, for part of my collection, I am looking to hopefully mix traditional tailoring i.e. Savile Row, modern tailoring i.e. Ozwald Boateng (love his colours). Even though I will be drawing inspiration from these designers I will be adding my own flavour and mix to these traditional pieces (tap dancing out of sheer excitement).

So after seeing Maria I went away feeling renewed and refreshed about my ideas and what research I had to do to give it ‘some legs to stand on’ because I couldn’t just make it up as I go along (sounds ridiculous but I’ve done it before). I have chosen two fabrics that I think could work with my designs but it all depends if they respond to the dye I plan to use.

So off I go to research and experiment. We also decided that I will pattern cut and make up a pair of trousers that I want to kick start off with.

I really want to get  most of my patterns and toiles made up because it helps me put together fabrics and colours easily when pairing what garments should go together.

Things are looking up for me. I always work better when I have a focus and direction.

Dip And Sponge

Slowly things are pulling together for my project. After the Christmas holiday, I really thought about what I wanted and what I needed to be done to achieve these goals.

On Wednesday I had a dye session with David, the dye technician. I was going to dye some knitted sampled pieces that I plan to use as part of my final collection.

I used the dylon dye (as they are really good for wool fabrics), mixed with salt and water; heated them in the pans and began to dye away. Since I didn’t want my whole knitted fabric dyed, I dipped some fabric in the dye and sponged on the colour where I wanted it.

Even though I didn’t get the right colours (mixing dye colours can be such an art at times)I got the effect that I wanted because I had knitted an image and chose to use black, light grey and off white yarns, the dye colours really showed up on the sample. It also gave the image a 3-d effect which I loved (it’s so weird I am getting excited just writing about this, how sad!) Finally something is going right. So once I finished adding the dye on I waited for the samples to dry, then took them to the dye technician to steam them.

The next day I collected the samples and took them home to be washed, hoping and praying the colours will stay (please Jesus). But the annoying thing, once the samples were out the washing machine most of the colours had washed off and only light traces of colour could be seen on some parts. This didn’t discourage me, it just made me realise that I might have to find a different method to dyeing this fabric.

For my final piece I have decided to use one wool yarn and two cotton yarns, hopefully when the sample is washed the wool yarn will felt a bit giving the sample some form of texture. Also the dyes might respond better to these yarns. If all does not go to plan, I might end up using the reactive dyes to paint on the sample.

But overall I feel good about my project and no matter how many hurdles I might have to jump over, whether they’re  big or small, I know my final collection will be BANGING!

*Electric slides out the room*

Hre are a few images:

Less is More

When things don’t go your way it can be so annoying and at times frustrating .But as I am writing this,  I am happy that my devore  samples did not work because it showed me I had to develop further and taught me that your first idea is not always the best idea.

Using the prints that I had designed to do my jacquard knit with, I thought that they could look really interesting if I used them in a devore  jumper. I made the screen ( with some help of course, this was my first time) and assumed it would be smart to do small samples just to see what I might be working with. BAD IDEA! While creating the screen I realised that my images were too small but I went ahead anyway and did the ‘small’ samples. I chose to dye the sampled fabric before devore-ing it. This was so I could see the devore pattern clearer once it was finished.

I did not like the end results on my samples because the prints that I had chosen resembled African prints and also within the prints there was too much going on.

Now that I look back, I think maybe block patterns or some sort of pattern that is very simple but yet effective will look better as a devore print for my knit.

In this part of my project, Less is More!

I did a few more sample using simpler shapes and this is how they came out.

They all still need more work!

Rough and Textured

For my collection I wanted some parts to look distressed and rough. My original prints were too refined so I have tried adding another layer on top of them where they now look more textured and a bit more rough. I plan to try out a few of them as a jacquard to see how they look.

Here are a few: