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.

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. 

Fashion & Textiles Instagram Account

I have created a new Instagram account that will highlight some of my fashion and textiles work. It will act as a portfolio for my work that can be instantly accessed online. Below are some preview screenshots of the account featuring a selection of my work.

Sam

                   

Silk Mill Project Samples

I have been working on samples to experiment as part of the 'Live' project. Although I specialise in knitting I wanted to incorporate some embroidery into my samples as I particularly enjoy it and can use silk too. My experimenting has included some silk fabrics, silk threads and free hand embroidery. I really like how the two samples I made have turned out. I would really like to try and use these in my final garment. Below are a series of photos of the samples whilst they were being made.

Sam

The 'Showstopper' Dress Design

The illustration and flat below are my design for the 'Live' project's 'Showstopper' dress. My design wasn't chosen and neither were my supporting designs. As my design wasn't chosen I will be making a dress using one of the chosen supporting designs. The exhibition will have one 'Showstopper' dress made by the successful designer and we will be creating versions of the other supporting designs between us as part of the project.

Sam

Whitchurch Silk Mill

The latest project I have been working on is the 'Live' project. For this project our college has teamed up with a local working silk mill in Whitchurch. At the end of the project the garment that we have created will go on display in an exhibition space at the silk mill. The second year and first year students have teamed up, working in groups of three. The aim of the project is to design a 'showstopper' outfit as well as three more coordinating outfits. 

We visited the Whitchurch silk mill to see the exhibition space and get inspiration for the project. Below are photos I took whilst we were there. 

Latest Project - Blue

Yarn Dyeing

This week was the first week of my new project which focuses on the colour blue. As a knitter, we are required to dye our own yarns which we will come to use later on in the project. This week saw me experimenting with different types of yarn and dye to find a suitable combination to use.

I'm not particularly comfortable with being in the print room and dyeing but it turned out to be much more enjoyable than I initially thought that it would be. It was a good experience and the group shared ideas and I got some interesting results from my experiments.  Below are some photos of the day.

The skeins of yarn I made ready to be dyed.

 All of the skeins the group made to be dyed split up into yarn types - wools, cottons, silks, polyester etc..

On the left I am using navy acid dye and on the right Karen is washing out yarns.

Above is Karen indigo dyeing and on the right is Nicole using procion dye.

I wanted a dip dye effect so here I am using procion dye and dipping half and half into different shades.

Here are some of the different results we all got from this workshop.

 On the right are all my yarns that I bought and dyed.

I am hoping to write some more blog posts in the future to show some of the further steps of this project.

Sam