Degree Show

Denim Jacket - Finally Complete!!!

After going back to the jacket in between other garments, I finally finished it. I added more embroidery and embellishments along the side of the garment and around to the back, more cluster to the neckline and creating separate feather sequins to overlay the denim wings. I was finally happy and satisfied that the jacket was complete.

 After cutting the pocket off the left side of the garment I decided to sew it back on to the collar. I really like this idea and feel that it works really well because it is quite unusual.

I ordered sequin roll from Josy Rose and punched my needle through it to create a hammered effect and the couched down the discs on to the jacket. I feel it gives a metal plate effect.

I started adding raised satin stitch, safety pins and hanging chain from them.

Final Few Days

I can not believe how much embroidery I managed to do in the last few days of my final major project, I even managed to do some dresses in just one day, but staying up till 4am! So I have not really had much time to update my blog and get the rest of my designs up, so I am going to start doing that now!

I mentioned before about struggling with embellishments on my digital fabrics, I felt a bit like that with this design too. The original design was created from mirror imaging one of my detailed drawings of flowers. I then changed the hue and saturation around on Photoshop till I was happy with the colours. I extended one part of the image to look like an abstract spine, so it would fit in more with my bone and fossil theme.

This was the drawing I manipulated on Photoshop.

After testing and sampling different colours I decided to go for a lime/neon green colour with hints of pinks and oranges as the colours worked really well together and fit the design. To pick out detail in the print I sampled sewing turquoise embroidery floss over lines in the petals. It worked quite nicely in the sample but when I came to do it on the final piece it did not work well and I found it too distracting.

What did work well with stitch was picking out the more luminous tones on the darker areas of the design.

 I felt quite lost on what to do with my fabric, but remembered seeing at Indigo trade show in Paris a fashion digital print length that had just been covered in clear sequins and it worked really well from a distance and looked like the sequins were printed or coloured. I started to layer over clear sequins keeping it symmetrical and decided to pick out the middle of the design. I also added tiny holographic purple sequins to bring out the purple dye splats and green crystals around the neckline of where the design would sit.

The design now has over 1000 clear sequins on it!

One Week Left!

Finished another final today! Which means so far I have 5 totally finished and another 4 that are nearly finished, a few of them just need a few sequins stringing on so hopefully I can get everything done! Out of all my designs, this was my least favourite... until I pinned on to this mannequin, having it pinned around the shape has totally transformed the look of the design as the shapes on it really fit the body well I am really happy with this design even though I struggled with it at first. With it being digital print, adding embroidery to it made me feel like I was just filling in parts and not really adding anything to the design. I ordered more sequins from Josy Rose (http://www.josyrose.com/) picking amazon green and metallic reds as I knew that they would really stand out on the design with out making it look to halloweeny.

Sequin close ups,

Continued..

I started to embroider and embellish into the bone, sewing around the edges so it was permanently fixed on using contrasting neon threads. I used contrasting colour to the nudes like greens and blues and then tried to use more neutral colours on the neon pink such as pale pink washers which i sprayed and light beads and sequins. I used chain and embellishments to parts of the bone. I am so happy with the finished design, the washers add a weight to the fabric and the tiny cogs give a quirky twist. Once the garment has been made up I plan to scatter more washers and clock parts around the fabric with french knots, stitches, negative shapes of sequin fabric and home made printed acetate sequins. I'm really excited to continue with this! Also used the super macro setting on my new camera to take these close up shots of the embroidery, I am well impressed with the detail and colour!

Sequin Wednesday

Yesterday I spent ALL day sewing sequins on to my length, I want to try and finish it so I don't have to keep coming back to it. The past few weeks while I have been digitally printing I have been sewing on large black sequins to the 'eyes' on the length. I machined in sketchy lines and then started building up texture using clear, matte, flat, cup and crumpled sequins together, I am so happy with how it looks, I love the colours and different textures together!

Changes...

I decided to cut up the denim jacket and removed a pocket so I had space to embroider, this would allow me to add colour and make it more mine.

Embroidery Samples

Taking inspiration from fossil shapes I have been experimenting 'mix match' embroidery, clashing colours, layers of materials and 3d embroidery.

Busy Busy!!

I am starting to wish that Uni was open on a Saturday!! But as you can see I have made my self quite comfortable at home!

I have started sampling over some of my screen printed fabrics too, just trying different materials together and colours.

I have appliqued down some of my tartan screen print too, if I only use it in small amounts I think it could have a nice effect!

Sequins!!!!

I woke up today to a large parcel of sequins! I have been sponsored by http://www.josyrose.com/ and I am very grateful for all their help and I cannot wait to start using these :) I love their sequins!

Embroidery Samples

After a few weeks of designing on photoshop, I have started printing out A3 samples of my designs to see how the colours would print out and how bright they would be after they were steamed. I'm really happy with the colours, they have came out really bright which is what I wanted!
The following images are of my fossil repeat, I want my samples to be heavily embellished and want to use a lot of different threads, sequins, beads and 'found' objects like screws and washers. I love these tiny 3mm sequins I have ordered from http://www.josyrose.com/, they are perfect for building up clusters or just adding small hints.