Presentation

This morning we presented our shirts and sketchbooks to Glenda. Although mine was unfinished it was nice to see how everyone else is going and how they work out their design process. I found that I haven't adapted the design very much in comparison to others. Some have changed the sleeves and collar etc. If I was to do a similar project in the future I would like to experiment more with adapting a pattern instead of playing it safe. The more comfortable I get with the making process the more I will be keen to changing things and adding things to a pattern.
I also thought that after the presentation we would get some feedback from the tutors on how they think we are getting on and if we need to work on anything in particular but I didn't get any feedback at all.

Samples Samples Samples

I have created some samples for my shirt. The one that I thought was the most affective was the fabric paint used with a handmade template, however the paint did run a little so I will have to look at how to correct this. I will also try it on my bleached fabric as it may seep through due to the fabric being thinner.

Final Designs

Now that my shirt is all put together other than the cuffs and collar. I have drawn up some final designs for my shirt. I want to create some floral patterns just around the neckline, collar and cuffs. I'm not yet sure how to achieve this, I thought about freehand embroidery or painting it with fabric paint. I am going to do some samples and see what works best.

Another day of sewing

I have been going into uni each day to work on my shirt. I have found that I worked better than I do at home. Today I have almost finished the shirt, I just have some hand sewing around the neck and cuffs. I also want to paint my shirt around the neck line. I've also been working out my designs for the shirt and think that I would like to go with a floral pattern. I've noticed that I have been unnecessarily stressing about this unit. I thought we needed a completely finished shirt as well as a finished sketchbook and samples etc by the end of term but it turns out, after speaking with Glenda,  it is a summative assessment where we will be presenting where we are at with our shirts at that point but can still work on them over easter.

Sketchbook

My sketchbook is coming along. I have been looking at Art Nouveau as well as some 17th century embroidery. I would like to create a design around the cuffs an neckline instead of a print that will cover the entire shirt.
I feel that I am finding the sketchbook process much more engaging than the previous project, I think that each unit that we start becomes easier to get going with and I think my current sketchbook is wayyyy better than my first sketchbook for personification.

Shirts and Samples

Yesterday I had worked on some samples for the hobbit shirt, I found the sleeve and flat felding the sleeve quite challenging so I decided to make a few samples so that when it came to making the final shirt it would be easier and hopefully neater.
Today I have started my shirt. I have started with the neck and the sleeves as I had created samples of them previously. I found that my fabric was slightly thinner to work with than the natural calico I had been using for my samples, before it had been bleached. I think in the future if I was to bleach calico I would buy a heavy weight product instead as I know it will thin due to the bleaching process.

Bleaching

For the hobbit shirts that we are making, we were advised that we will be using calico. I wasn't keen on keeping the colour of my calico but also didn't want a overly bright colour as I wanted to create a colourful print. Therefore I decided to bleach my fabric.
I used thin bleach and followed the pack instructions thinking that I could have it washed and ready for the following day to start printing and making. However, the bleach ended up taking almost 20 hours to lighten to a nice white colour. This did set me back slightly as I was hoping to start making the following day but couldn't be helped. I have since spoken to some others and they said they used thick bleach for just 20 mins, so in the future I should do more research on dying and bleaching before I start. Regardless I was happy with the results of the colour!

Adobe Photoshop

I haven't previously used photoshop much in the past so was excited to learn a new skill that I could potentially use while designing. I found the session quite helpful although I feel that I would have liked to learn a little more on how we could use photoshop to benefit our design process. I will do some independent study into photoshop however, and watch some tutorials that will help me with what I want to achieve from it.