HND Textiles & Fashion Yr 2 – Weeks 30 & 31

It all came together over the last week or so… Here is my organza top complete with three chains of fabric roses:

 

The fabric roses are made of a fair bit of fabric and so have a good weight. This means that I did not have to attach them to the top itself and was able to create three separate necklaces that could then be styled in different ways. For example, with a single strand…

With a long and a short necklace:

And with two longer necklaces:

I made each necklace with a tie closure so that the length could be adjusted as required. Each end of the rouleau loop was then finished with a cover button – tying in with the details on the harem trousers (see below…).

The top itself is light weight and attached with a tie at the back of the neck – inspired by the scarves worn with Salwar Khamis style suits.

The finished trousers are certainly eye catching and not for the faint hearted:

I am really pleased with how the buttons up the calf and outside leg worked out. The printed facing on the outside links in with the printing used for the roses themselves, and works well with the cover buttons and rouleau loops.

We have a fashion show next week in town so hopefully I will get some pics of the full outfit on a living breathing model!

HND Textiles & Fashion Yr 2 – Week 29

I finished my head piece this week. This involved sewing my sinamay strips of different widths into twists and then attaching them firmly to the covered headband using a glue gun.

From the left:

And from the right:

I also spent a while in the dye room this week printing up my fabric using silver and bronze printing inks combined with metal foiling. I then started making up my fabric roses for the top:

Here is a close up including the gold stamen:

Hermes Baby….

Welcome to the newest member of the family. The Hermes Baby…

A quick search on line revealed that when she hit the market she was the Mini Cooper of typewriters, becoming the world’s lightest portable typewriter perfect for students and people on the road – the MacBook Air of her day in fact… According to the Classic Typewriter Store the “totally appealing Hermes Baby gained instance success since its introduction and garnered a loyal following among stylish writers of the day.”

I first laid eyes on her on a Sunday afternoon walking past my local Shelter charity shop in Morningside. On testing all her keys she was mine for £20. Who could resist the large keys…

The vintage, 1940’s compact, slimline casing…

And who says you can only type on paper? Thick calico seems to offer no challenge and offers all sorts of possibilities for creating unique cloth…

Writing with her is a pleasure. The weight of the whole machine, the physicality of punching the keys and of course the fabulous noise. So fantastic in fact that someone has even dedicated a short film to the pleasure:

No wonder perhaps that the Hermes Baby was also reputed to be the prefered typewriter of Ernest Hemingway (reference). She forces me to slow down while typing compared to my computer keyboard. I am also forced to have far greater acceptance of my mistakes, embracing them as part of the process. As I plan to manipulate the resulting text I feel no pressure to type perfectly (which is kind of fortunate)…

Surprisingly (?), but also gratefully, I had no problem sourcing a new typewriter ribbon on ebay – what did we ever do before the web…

HND Textiles & Fashion Yr 2 – Week 28

Screen printing tests on Thursday, starting off with a test of the whole screen (white fabric paint on red satin):

Then experimenting with metallic and pearl inks:

And then lots more fun screenprinting with glue and then foiling:

The photos don’t really do the samples justice (summer seems to have forgotten about Edinburgh and the cloud and rain has descended with a vengence…) however the foiling worked really well. Next week I am going to experiment with some copper and bronze foil.

I also finished off my designs in my sketchbook. Here is a selection starting with some rose embellishment:

Something a bit more sexy and slim line:

Getting a bit more flamboyant:

Harem princess with rose detailing:

Pretty in blue and gold:

Cluster of smaller roses v. one large rose:

HND Textiles & Fashion Yr 2 – Week 27

Harem trousers were on my mind this week in a big way. The pattern is looking pretty mad:

The original pattern was created from a basic trouser block, and then purposely made too large so that I could play around with the shaping. I started by making a toile in jersey to see how it would hang, and then did a fitting pinning up the sides to get the shape I was after.

I then made a toile from the adapted pattern a second time using a non-stretchy fabric which is a closer match to my final cloth. The waist band and pleating at the top worked well however the bottoms of the trousers were just too tight. Bear in mind also that the trousers are intended for someone lots taller than me and wearing high heels….

So I adapted the pattern and toiled half a leg to check that they would fit.

So it looks like I am now well on my way. The next stage is finalising the finishing details including the zip at the back and buttons and button loops down the side of the calf and bottom of the trousers.