Whitchurch Silk Mill Exhibition

The first and second year degree student's dresses went on display at the Whitchurch Silk Mill for a private viewing before being included as part of an exhibition at the Mill. It was good to see everyone's work on display as I know that we had all put so much effort into creating these special garments. Inside the mill itself are some exhibition spaces where our sketchbooks, samples and photos were on display already. There were some awards given at the viewing too. The exhibition of work will remain at the mill for a couple of months to celebrate the Mill's 200th birthday. Below are some photos taken on the evening of the private viewing.

My dress on display.

All of our dresses on display.

Some of my samples in the exhibition space.

Our groups dresses.

Me with my dress.

Silk Mill dress- catwalk and photoshoot

Below are a few behind-the-scenes photos from a photo shoot of my dress that was made for the Whitchurch Silk Mill exhibition. As well as those from the photo shoot, I've also included pictures of the dress on the catwalk when it featured in the end of year show.

Both at the photo shoot and the show it was great to see the dress being worn and to see that it was a very wearable garment, especially after all the hard work that went into making it. The dress and some of my work as well as some of my fellow student's work is now on display at the Whitchurch Silk Mill as part of an exhibition to celebrate 200 years since it was built.

Live Project - The Making

We worked in groups during the making of our final garments. Below are a series of images that show the progress of the work leading up to my final garment being completed.

The top photo is of my group's samples, with my knit samples being in the centre. The other photos show the making of my embroidered fabric, with the bottom pictures in particular showing the construction of the dress. 

I really enjoyed making such big pieces of freehand embroidered fabric as I have only made small pieces previously. The knitted panels were made quite quickly. In the end I did not use a pattern to make my dress, instead I pinned the pieces of fabric onto the mannequin and sewed it from the measurements taken. It was not as easy as I had thought, sewing the stretchy knit to the silk embroidered panels, however I have learnt a lot from this project especially in terms of making the dress itself. I will definitely be combining embroidery into my future projects. 

Julian Roberts Dress for MOTHS

Here are photos of my final dress made for the Modelling on the Stand (MOTHS). To create this dress I used the Julian Roberts pattern cutting technique. I had previously tried this technique twice so I felt quite confident in making my final dress using it. Using the two fabrics for the dress was not an easy task as they were both light weight and difficult to handle. I tried to recreate the toile that I had made for the dress earlier in the project, however it did not work well with the lighter fabric so I changed and adapted my approach. I played around with different pieces, pinning them in different places, until I was happy with the result. 

Overall I am really happy with how this project has gone and how my final dress has turned out. It was good to try new techniques and to work outside of my comfort zone.

Drawing on the bodice pattern.

Cutting out the dress.

All of the fabric removed.

Me holding the shoulder seams together, before anything was sewn. 

The back view of my complete dress. 

The front view of my completed dress.

Close up of the hand sewn gather. 

Close up of the invisible zip.

Julian Roberts Toile for MOTHS

For my final garment for the Modelling on the Stand project (MOTHS) I made a toile. Below are a series of photos that show some of the stages of this process.

I used the Julian Roberts pattern cutting technique to construct my garment. I experimented with two fabrics of different weights that were slightly different colours so that I could see how it might work in my final garment. The photos that I have taken during the process will help me to recreate the bottom half of the garment when I come to make the final dress as this section has no set paper pattern.