Inspiration and remembering - M⏃D BUNNY

This is a blog I found in assignment 1. when I went to find the home of one of my concept board images.

Its probably the most beautiful blog ever ! Its full of photographs of landscapes, people, places, things that posses a raw and natural quality. There is a sense of past and silence within each image. I do not want to forget this with my collection so I think I need to remember the staining of fabrics and the degrading look of fabrics.

http://madbunny.tumblr.com/

The staining of my garments is very important with creating a memory within the garments, will look into tea dying tonight. I think tea dyeing or spot dying will give each garments a feeling of warn and past use.

p.s Sorry about the uneven layout of pics, blogging is not my specialty

Beaded Singlet

Making a singlet with bead trim and the tube knit mutton cloth.

Details of the making. Instead of individual beading I threaded a whole line of beads then simple looped around it while rolling the hem. Because I stretched out the knit while hemming it has created a beautiful wave edge.

Back.

Front.

Final. Because there is no seams the garment is very comfortable and the fabric is warm, however the beads are quite cold when first put on. I am thinking of adding more beaded straps.

Quick experiments with finishings

Experimenting with finishing last night  

Thicker muslin cloth with beaded edge, beads sewn individually while hemming (quite time consuming)

Thinner muslin with bound edge (very roughly done) , played with stitcing on the cloth and on the binding.

Knitting Experiement

 Last Night 

 I decided to give dying the cotton yarn a try, I used blue fabric paints and watered it down. I wanted to wind the yarn up to get different shade variations. I found the dye did not absorb readily so i took out the cardboard cylinder and used a wooden chopstick to give pound the yarn which seemed to help the absorbing process.

Drying out the yarn.

Knitting Experiment

I tried to combine all of the yarns I brought (+ black thread) and create a rough fabric with transition of colour. I tried to create holes here and there to coincide with my theme. This is heavily inspired by Rodarte 2008. This is just one technique I could use to replicate the colour variation happening in my previous collection, I could also try drip dying the pre-knitted fabric which would create a smoother transition. I do however like the textural contrast between the yards

Customer Board

I tried to make a rough customer board which also seconds as another mood board. 

my customer is a woman aged roughly 20-30 yrs old, their hair is natural and untouched, their nature is fairly whimsical and imaginative (think Pisces).

There is a sense of freedom, history and flow within the garments which reflects the spirit of the woman.

Fabric Shopping

 Went on a big mission to spotlight and the fabric warehouse. I want to focus on natural fabrics and picked up some natural cotton threads, wools and soft fabrics. I still cant afford silk! perhaps I will just find a fabric that looks and acts like silk to use in my samples. 

There were also some interesting blends in the yarn department. One that was super cheap was a Acrilic and milk blend which I found very unusual (and CHEAP!!) but alas I brought a Wool and Soya blend which I think is more relevent to my all natural theme and the wool is great for winter! I also picked up some fabulous Mohair yarn, some 50%Acrylic 50% Wool yarn and some Organic cotton yarn! I want to experiment with knitting and creating a transition of colour and texture through knit. I think I will dye some of the Organic cotton a light blue to help witht eh colour story.

Natural Cotton thread $2.99

I also brought muslin fabrics and cottons, I got some superfine muslin that im hoping to experiment with light singlets, knicker and bras. I want fabric that feels good to the skin and lets the skin breath, I also brought some mutton cloth which comes in the form of a circluar knit which I think is great! It gave me ideas about singlets and skirts and also means that I dont need side seams ( = less skin irratation), I also though about knitting into it and distressing it.

Light muslin $2.80p/m

Cotton bindings$1.50p/m

Mutton cloth $4.00p/m

Thick muslin $6.00p/m

Little domes (for openings)

Te Papa trip - delicate details

Today we had the opportunity to be taken 'behind the scenes' at Te Papa national museum to where they store all the fabulous fashion and textiles! While there I looked at the little embellishments and design of garments. I found that in older clothing because of the lack of technology there was alot of hand stitching which resulted in alot of care and detail in the garments; hand embroidery, decorative stitches in linings and many other beautiful things. I also noted some styles of undergarments we were shown as I think they offer great inspiration for period inspired pieces.

• Beading
• Pinked edges
• Lace
• Fringing
• Stitch designs
• Ribbon