I’ve had such a lovely day today!

I finally did my photoshoot for my project Macro World, Black & White, which is now coming to an end. It feel so good and rewarding to achieve and compete my first assignment. There’s lots of things I probably wouldn’t have done but I’ve learnt from it all and that’s all that matters. I feel as though I’ve grown a lot as a designer,  I can’t wait to grow and achieve more. It’s such a rewarding and amazing feeling seeing your idea from a little illustration come to life. There’s something really special about that feeling which makes all my hard work pay off and fills me with excitement.

I am so lucky and grateful to be supported by my amazing friend Simi Das who modelled my dress for me beautifully today.  She was such a joy to work with and I had lots of fun, I really appreciated the time she gave to me and I hope we can team up again for future projects.

We went for a walk and found a little clearing in the forest which felt perfect for the shoot. 

 

 

 

My dress for my Macro World, Black and White project is finally finished!!! It has taken me a lot longer than it should’ve done. I’ve just been so busy with coursework and other things but it’s done now and I’m really happy! Yayyyyy!

There are improvements that can be done for sure and there are also things that I wouldn’t do if I had to make it again but it’s all learning experience at the end of the day and I’m happy I’ve got it the out the way.

I will be doing a photoshoot of the dress this weekend so you can see it in all its glory, can’t wait. ;P

 

So to run along side my other project ‘Macro World Black and White’ which is nearly complete, I’ve started a new collaborative project with other students from Art and Design. I will be working with them and communicating ideas over the Christmas period and will then have to do a presentation of what we have come up with two weeks after we return from the holidays.

As a group we have been given a client to work for; ours is the brand Supreme. We also have a theme to work with which is ‘Light’.

Today I got assigned to my group and met everyone I’ll be working with for the next couple of weeks. We just had a little chat, getting to know each others characters and styles and then showed each other around our different departments. I’m working with two other people from my fashion course, three others from products design and one other from textiles.

Some of my project mates who are from product design even gave me a little demo on how to mould foam and a quick overview of the equipment. I actually really enjoyed listening and having an insight on what everyone is doing and has to say about their experience at uni so far.

I’m really looking forward to delving into this project and seeing what we can create and come up with using all of our different skill sets.

So after a couple more hours of painting the TEXIFLOCK E-FF glue onto my over skirt I then left it to dry for a couple of hours before heat pressing the foiling onto it.

I really do love the process of foiling and find it really satisfying. Sadly I didn’t have enough time to foil my entire skirt today but got half of it done and will proceed on it tomorrow.

Just to give you a little catch up one what’s going on, for those of you that don’t know I’m making a dress based off of architecture and has a grungy, gothic dark fairy tale twist to it.

I went for a walk around the lovely city of Bristol and I came across this beautiful gothic church. I ventured inside and was really inspired by the patterns and lines on the ceiling.  I thought to myself, ‘ these patterns are perfect for my dress, I’d like to use that in my print design’.

So that’s what I did, I took inspiration from the ceiling of the church and painted it onto my over skirt with TEXIFLOCK E-FF glue to do foiling (If you don’t know what foiling is you can look back at one of my previous blogs were I explain the process).

Painting free hand took me a really…really long time, like 5 hours long time, and I still need to finish off a little bit tomorrow. Do you ever have those times when you have a great idea and start doing it then halfway think to yourself why the hell did I start this, this is going to take me forever? But you’ve gone too far to give up so you just have to power on through. I had one of those moments but it’s all chill now, I got there in the end. 🙂

With the process of the foiling I’m at the stage where I need to wait for the glue to dry so I can heat press the foiling on top which I will do tomorrow. I’m super excited to see everything come together and see my hard work pay off.

Production has been quite slow this week as I’ve been ill. But today I’ve managed to start working on my official toil for my project ‘Macro world, Black & White’.

It’s exciting to get started but I think I’ve been procrastinating too much and have wasted a lot of time. I’ve been getting frustrated with the fit of my garment but it seems to have come together a bit at the end of the day.

I’m not going to hold back next week! I’m just going to let rip and get on with letting my creativity flow. Hopefully I’ll have a finished garment to show 😬.

So during this week I had another induction in the printing textile room, where we had the chance to do some screen printing and foiling.

I’ve done quite lot of screen printing in my time and it is a method that I like to use. I had a lot of fun playing around and feeling confident in what I was doing.

This is the first time I’ve ever done foiling, I was so excited to do this as it has been something I’ve always wanted to try. The method in which you create this effect is much like screen printing but afterwards you would then put your print under a heat press with the foiling layered over the top so it will transfer into your material. It was a very exciting and satisfying process and I’ve decided I’m going to use this method of foiling within my final piece Macro world -Back & White.

 

This week has come in like a whirlwind and has been super stressful! I’m really starting to feel the pressure of all the work load I’ve got to do and apparently I’ve started making this new face which looks like I’m going to either cry or kill someone.. (Don’t worry I’m vegan, I wouldn’t kill a soul so you’re safe ;P ).

So for those of you keeping up to date with what I’m doing for my project ‘Macro World-Black & White’, you will know that I’m basing it on architecture. I’ve decided this ascetic will be shown within the textile of my fabric not the silhouette of the dress ( so by textile I mean print, stitch, embroidery, etc, on the fabric). As an overall look I also want my dress to come across quite soft and elegant with a dark, grunge fairytale twist.

I’m still figuring out what print/textile/manipulation process I’m going to use for on my fabric, so I’ve been currently exploring and developing different methods working.

I think this is one of the hardest part of the project, piecing everything together before you set yourself on your path. I’m actually starting to really look forward to the outcome of this…

 

Yay everything is handed in! That was pretty stressful…

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing pattern cutting workshops, which led us onto making a toil of a dress with one sleeve, in calico to demonstrate that we know how to construct a garment from our patterns. We will also be marked on the neatness of our sewing.

To start with I felt pretty confident with this task as I’ve made a few dresses in my time. But everything and I mean everything seemed to go wrong and at one point I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to complete it in time!

The back of my dress went missing so I had to make it again. I had problems with an over-locker machine which cut away at my hem but didn’t stitch it properly… So once again I had to redo lots of what I’d already done! By this point I did actually consider setting it on fire….

But I did it! It’s handed in, it’s alright… ish. But the main thing is it’s handed in and I never have to see it again 😀

Oh this has been so much fun! I love getting mucky, experimenting with different dyes, paints and inks.

So today we got an induction on where all the textile printing facilities are and got to mess around a bit in the studio. This all goes towards the making off that dress I was telling you about “Macro world, Black & White”, in which I’m currently designing. The main fabric of this dress has to be made out of felt and we are allowed 20% of another material of our choosing.

I’m thinking of going with something cheer and light to give a nice delicate contrast with the felt as it can be quite a bulky, stiff fabric. However, in this workshop I’ve experimented with numerous samples of different materials just to see how they turn out broadening my mind to other possibilities.

I’m really happy with how some of my samples have come out, so much so that I may use some of these methods within my final piece.

Hmmmm…I have lots of designing to do…..