ilonathetailor

[ilonathetailor]

Westminster Abbey and Edward the First

So for our most recent cut and construction project, we have to make a try on costume for children at Auckland Castle. This is a live project that means that at the end, if it is good, the costume will by our garment.

I was given Edward the First of England. There are not many depictions of Edward, and most seem to be an interpretation of a painting that can been found on Westminster Abbey’s Alter. Normally a photo on the internet would have sufficed, but I could not find a full length photo anywhere, so when i was in London I dropped by.

Normally I wouldn't have been able to take a photo, as i wasn't even able to take a picture of the alter, but I was granted permission as this was for study.

I then later made this toile.

[ilonathetailor]

Embellishment

I have a problem with embellishment, my problem with it is that It has to be well done to be effective, and with my inexperience its disheartening to see the outcome . While I have not had the time to practice these techniques and master them, I still find them to be fun and interesting techniques to have learned.

We started off with stamps and stencilling, one of man kinds oldest forms of embellishment, you need only look at neanderthal cave art.

we made a stencil out of acetate. I was durable and waterproof, so it could used and washed many times. However, It was very tricky to cut out the design.

left page: we made a stencil out of waxed paper, It was really easy to cut the design out. Nevertheless, it was only god for 2 uses as liquid mediums made the paper soggy and curl.

right page: Here I experimented how best to apply paint, I found that sponge was best. I also found that acetate gave better lines.

Left page: I played with spray paint, and worked with gradients 

Right page: Here I used lace instead of the stencil as a resist. It worked reasonably well. The fabric I used was this silvery white synthetic organza, and with dark spray onto created a nice ‘ghost-y’ aesthetic.

left page: Here I worked with application on to a sheer material, I found that the black spray paint looked better than sponge.

top right: foiling using a special adhesive, was semi successful but did not achieve crisp lines

bottom right: using bondaweb and foiling, was a crisper line but foiling was patchy

LP: ink transfer, using printed waxed ink as a resist. Its pretty horrible, doesn't really work, It’s slightly better  on synthetic fabric.

RP: printing on special paper, which then adheres to fabric after heat press. This was very effective.

worked with a father and the special adhesive, the feather turn out better than the fabric. 

Silk painting took some time to work out. Making sure that the gutta (the resist) was evenly applied too some experimentation. You can see in the centre where I used salt to make a speckled effect.

Devoré velvet, It was fun to learn but it definitely a tricky technique to nail. I found that the white velvet did not show the design swell so I incorporated some dyeing techniques.

Devoré satin, these look better, but are harder to do well. but as you can see the colour does well to bring the design out.

Itajime Shibori

LP: I dipped two sides in one dye, and then the other two sides in different colour of dye, it created a tartan-esque look

RP: same colour on each side, worked very well.

left page: Arashi, where you twist it around a pole, I found itworked well enough.

right page: Kanoko, where you twisted it from a central point then binded it.

more Shibori techniques...

even though I learnt batik back in year 8, reacquainting myself with the technique was frustrating. I would need a lot of practise to get somewhere near decent if I had to use this technique for a project.

Left: Cording, worked well, but even better with a specialist machine foot.

right: Quilting, it worked okay but it need some work.

Trapunto......its an effective technique but once you get to any sort of difficult shape it becomes very time consuming.

machine embroidery was okay,definitely less tedious than hand embroidery, but it lacks grace.

[ilonathetailor]

Finished Garment for the Regency Era

This dress was technically made for the character Elizabeth Bennet, though I was really designing with Caroline Bingley in mind. I was visiting the lovely city of Bath for a fashion archive visit already, so, I decided to take my finished work, as I felt the scenery would complement the garment and bring it to life.