New week, New project

So this week we were given a new project brief, to respond to a trip to the garden museum. I chose to use the word 'floral' for this project. This project will allow me to really push on the observational drawing element of the project. Especially with spring starting flowers all around are starting to bloom. Already I've drawn a few flowers using a mix of pencils, watercolour and pen. I really want to create a dress inspired by the shape of the flowers rather than making a dress with flowers printed on it. It'll be interesting to see how I can use real flowers to incorporate with my work.

Independent work; Diy loose babydoll dress

How to draft a top pattern 

First fold piece if pattern paper or just a large sheet of paper in half.

Measurements:

A) neck to bust

B) neck to waist (smallest part of your body)

C) neck to hips (largest part of your body)

D) circumference/width of your bust /4

E) circumference/width of waist /4

F)circumference/width of hips /4

G) 2.5cm 

Notes: I use one pattern for the front and back, for the front I cut a lower neckline

I forgot to put to measure from the neck to the top of the shoulder  

I cut out from a big piece of fabric but you would use about 1.5 meters 

To draft a sleeve use this website http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/08/drafting-part-v-drafting-basic-sleeve.html?m=1 

How to put your dress together

1) Make all your paper patterns, alternitavely you can make patterns from an existing top, check out YouTube for tutorials.

2) Fold your fabric in half and lay the pattern ontop, lining up the folded edges.

3) from the point under the arm draw straight down upto your waist, like in the drawing.

4)If you haven't already, draw your 1.5cm seam allowance (or however many you usually use) around the pattern onto the fabric. Do this twice so you end up with a top and front pece (remember to alter the front neckline).

5) Place your sleeve pattern onto the folded piece of fabric and adding your seam allowance if you haven't already draw around the pattern. Drawing straight down if you want loose sleeves similar to on a Tshirt (the image I've drawn is of a sleeve measuring to the elbow, not of the whole length of the sleeve so alter on the pattern).

6) Use your top waist pattern measurement and times it by 2.5/3  so get a rough width of your skirt piece (basically you want a long piece of fabric long enough so I goes around your top with a bit extra so you can gather it and make it flowy).

7) Now hem the pieces that you need to, neckline (I find easier to do first), bottom of skirt piece and bottom of sleeve. If your find it easier you can do this right at the end. 

8) Turn the top pieces facing each other, then sew the top of the shoulders together. Then sew in the sleeve making sure you pin it in place and leave some seam allowance to see down the sleeve and down the dress. (Watch some videos on youtuve if you need help doing this part)

9) Sew down the sides of the top and side of the sleeves. 

10) Turn the top right side out, attach with pins the skirt piece on the top piece. Pin down where half of the skirt is to where half of the front/back is, this will give you even gathered sections.

11) I find it easier to gather as I sew but you can pin down the gathers and then sew. 

12) Considering I haven't left anything out you are done and can just iron it flat and then it's ready to wear. 

This is what you should end up, hopefully my instructions where fairly easy to understand if not leave a comment below and I will try and answer them. Hope you guys like the tutorial, this is the first time I've done this so tell me what you think and have fun sewing.

I have seen this type of dress selling for around £50-£60 which is crazy especially when I know I can make the exact same for less than £10. 

Hannah Hoch exhibition

As part of my distortion project I went to see the Hannah Hoch exhibition at the whitechapel gallery. It was something that was advertised at an underground statio so I looked into it and thought if be nice to go and see this artist. She simply but effectively distorts existing images to create new pieces of art. Her manipulation of people especially females fits in with my response to the idea of distorted beauty.

Hannah Hoch was part of Berlins Dada movement in the 1920's. "She was a driving force in the development of 20th century collage" - Whitechapel museum. The Dada movement was the negative reaction to World War 1 in forms of art, literature, poetry and theatre. She would take images from fashion magazines and illustrated journals to create humorous collages using the technique of photomontage. This is where you create a new piece of artwork by joining pieces of photographs. This is different from collages because instead of piecing images to create a moodboard you are using pieces of images to make one new piece. As well as incorporating embroidery to work she would use techniques such as linocut printing to create abstract patterns.This was her way of expressing herself in a time of social and political change. It can be said that her art what very rebellious. It's clear looking at some of her work that she didn't take life too serious and seemed like a fun person. A quote from one of the information boards said "The purpose of art was not to decorate or to replicate reality but to act on behalf of the spirit and the canning values of a generation", I think this was something she said but either way I love the idea if being just free when it comes to art and not trying to copy exactly what you see. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures from the exhibitions but there are a few that I found online at the bottom. One of her images titled 'Liebe I'm Busch'(love in the bush) was of a white and black person mixed together, this would have created an ambiguous scene. Although I found some images meaningful there was some that looked like they had been created just for the humour, this is somewhat inspiring as she wasn't creating something that already was there but something new out of existing pieces. It was in 1945 that her art took a different route rather than just collaging she started to experiment with cutting out, rotating and inverting elements of images. Although moving from collaging she created beautiful patterns and artwork. Overall I did enjoy this exhibition, I liked the feel of her throughout her pieces. She was someone who wanted to make people laugh as well as to make them admire her pieces. Hannah Hoch manages to select pieces of photographs to create one new piece of artwork, leaving the person looking at it to interpret the new image and the ideas behind it. It's a simple technique but one that can create lovely new images. 

Staatshaupter 'head if state' - 1918/20

   New York - 1920/21

   Flucht 'flight' - 1931

   Kleine Sonne 'little sun' -1969

Evaluation Project : Distortion

So a while ago we were given a new project, to interpret and document our response to a certain word. The choice of words we were given were 'distortion', 'decay' and 'structure' . For me the word that jumped out to me was 'distortion'. The first ideas I got were about shapes being changed, either my breaking or burning them or ripping surfaces like fabrics and other textiles. The first thing I did was scrunched an empty drinks can and then drew it using pencil, pen and then collage. From scrunching the drinks can I was able to distort the shape from a tube to a geometric structure. This reminded me of the health department headquarters in Spain which has a geometric structure. This surface creates a distorted geometric reflection of the outside surroundings. I found an image from which I drew into my sketchbook. This was then developed to make my own distorted, geometric reflection image. Using a few images of London I took myself I cutout pieces and layered them un-lined together to create a broken reflection. To develop this further I took the image to Photoshop editing each segment with filters and effects. Developed into further I drew the new distorted image and like the photoshopped edit I drew each segment using a different media such as pencil, pen, oil pastel and felt tips. Through my research I cam across a graphic deign graduate called 'Ashley Edwards' who collages on top of images using shapes of colour, another image or the image itself. Using an image of Marilyn Monroe I began cutting and puzzling pieces together to create a distorted image but could still tell who the person is. From this I created a textile sample using free hand embroidery and reverse applique to reflect the shapes of colours. Using my version of the collaged image i created a range of fashion designs. I was also inspired by another artist 'Nina Chakrabarti' who decoratively drew on top of photos of women in a non pretty but aboriginal sort of way. I did the same buy taking a page of a woman's face from a magazine and drawing on op of it using decorative lines and shapes. In the same way I found some fashion images from a magazine and drew on top of them, almost re-designing the original garment. I started to like the idea of distorting women but this time look at metal distortion, so the ideas of society and media that harm women mentally. I made a collage of images taken from the internet about beauty and stereotypes. From this I drew my own picture of a girl coloured in standing in a black and white drawn scene making her stand out. This theme inspired a few samples, looking at words. One of the samples looked at the word 'beauty', using a free hand foot on the sewing machine i embroidered the letters to make up beauty leaving the thread uncut to give it that distorted look. The next sample was a print sample of negative words all linked together. Using the idea of distorted beauty I did a range of fashion designs, two looking at a measuring tape being a detail and the other two looking at the idea of revealing true beauty. For last two designs I did a sample of a plain dark fabric being ripped through to reveal a floral beaded fabric underneath. Its this concept that I would like to develop into a garment if I have enough time at the end of the project. Still looking at the distorted image of beauty I looked further into the idea of the perfect body, making a collage of images and campaign posters. Inspired by two photos I drew a girl but with half of her being a skeleton with the caption "Dead Girls Are Skinnier". I liked how modern and eye opening the picture was, showing that to some people there will always be something/someone that looks better. Sticking with my drawing I did another three copies using ink pen and the other two using felt-tips, playing with different colours. Once again developed even further I scanned them into Photoshop and manipulated them by adding colour and pattern to the skeleton  section to make it look quirky. Using the same drawing I did a textile sample using applique, beading and pen to draw onto the fabric. Finally with the Photoshop images I designed three garments that I could see people wearing. Overall this has been a fun project to do, I like how I went from physical distortion to mental distortion and the ideas surrounding beauty. I'm really pleased with how my ideas have developed into samples and the garments. If I could go back I would look at more distortion of objects and trying to change the shape of them by breaking or melting them. This project has given me a chance to look at not just designs and making something that looks good but to have a message behind it. The ideology of beauty is something that currently is being explored in todays society, thats why this project for me has become so meaningful.