Final fabrics

Just a bit of a collage of my final fabrics for my collection.

Petal slv tee dress

Here are a few pictures of the petal sleeve tee dress. I have sewn the felted pocket on which was quite tedious, as it is very thick at the edges. I am happy with the bind around the neck, it is sitting nicely. I decided not to coverstitch the bind on because I think that would have looked to sporty for this design. I am really happy with how the petal sleeve has turned out, especially the raw edge where you see the layers of blue and cream/faun felt. I think that the tone of the grey marle jersey is nice and subtle and sits well against the natural tones of the felted sleeve.

Name for label

I came across this name when I was flicking through a magazine. It was the title of a shoot, and it struck me that "Soft Focus" was the perfect name for my label, as at the core of the label is felting and felt is beautiful and soft. I like this as a name as it makes you think about texture and flow which are both key elements in my design and garments. So Soft Focus is born!

Felted singlet and top stitching detail

Here is a picture of the finished singlet, and also a few pictures of how I sewed it together. I wanted to make the raw edges of the felt a feature of the garment, so rather than doing a regular 1cm seam on the inside of the garment, I laid the two edges over one another, and topstitched in a rectangular or square shape. I also attached a hook and eye at the front of the singlet to fasten. I think that the topstitching worked very well in its application and having the raw edges on the outside of the garment works very effectively as a feature. This felted singlet is part of one of the double layered dresses. It goes over a longer sinlget slip dress that follows the same neck and hemlines.

Felting the singlet

Here are a few pictures of the singlet being felted. To be able to felt the singlet in the shapes of the pattern pieces so I could maintain the raw felted edges, I cut out my pattern pieces in some spare fabric and this is what I used as a guide to lay the wool. Then I wet felted each piece, rubbed and rubbed and rubbed till the pieces were strong enough to wash and dry.

Turkey & crochet

My mum also sent me these pictures. This lady makes hand crocheted sheeps wool washer's and sells them to tourists like my mum who probably bought 10! The crochet stitch is a really interesting shape, they almost look like stars or flowers.

Turkey & felting

My mum and dad are currently in Turkey, and with my craft studio in mind they have been emailing a whole bunch of picures and stories about the crafts people they have come across in their travels. They were in Konya when they came across this felting workshop picured above. My mum got talking to the people working there and apparantly there are 10 RMIT students going to Turkey in Septemebr to do a workshop with Silvia who runs the studio. Maybe from Brunswick, not sure? Silvia and her husband have just opened another workshop in Istanbul as well. Above are some pictures of the work in the studio, including scarves that have been laid and the wool tops supply at the studio.

Dreadlock scarf

These are a few images of the completed deadlock scarf.

Felted yoke dress

A sneak peak at the felted yoke dress, I have completed hand stitching the bias binding around the yoke edges, this proved to be easier than I thought. I thought that because the felt is so thick that it would be really tricky to fold inside the yoke and stitch down, especially in the steep curve on the inside of the bottom of the yoke. But because the felt is so soft it was actually quite malleable, so the bias bind worked very successfully in finishing the edge.

Presentation ideas: look book

For my presentation I am thinking of doing a look book, as part of my report I am planning to sell my range through a sales agent, who would equire a look book as a seeling tool in their showings. Upstairs at my work is Lisa Bell Fashion Marketing, Lisa is a sales agent for labels such as Flamingo Sands, Brigid McLaughlin, Lane Palmer Green and Bridie Marsh. I have asked Lisa if I can use her show room and mannequins to do a photoshoot for my look book. She has fabric mannequins and her space is open, light and all white. I have put some images up of her showroom and mannequins that I will be doing the shoot on.

Solvy vest in progress

So I have made the left front of the solvy vest and so far so very good, having fab results, loving the solvy, here are some pics of the process. My sewing machine at home is behaving itself for the time being, hopefully it holds out, I need it for it's zig zag stitch!

The mistake that turned into a scarf

So when went to Lincraft to buy some wool to felt in the washing machine, I had a bit of a brain lapse and bought wool that was 50% wool and 50% acrylic. Did it felt in the washing machine? No, of course not, silly me! I was determined not to waste my $15 of wool, so I tried it in the washing machine again, this time with some 100% wool mohair, I had some success with this felting onto the acrylic/wool blend. I ended up with this tangle of semi felted strands, so I thought why not make this into a scarf. I threaded a few fake flower petals, sounds a bit weird, looks effective. I cast onto one end of my semi felted mess and will knit this end of the scarf and then cast off, then I will cast on to the other end of the strands and knit the other end of the scarf. I am knitting the scarf with 100% cream mohair, double strands. So scarf is a work in process to be an accessory as part of my final range.

The Felted Vest

I thought I would upload a few pictures of the making of the felted vest, considering I have to do it all at home because it's such a messy process! The first few images show when I have laid the light blue wool tops, I have put up an image which shows how high this lay becomes as you cross hatch the layers. Then there is an image of the left front of the vest which is being scrubbed and rubbed with water, detergent and a scrunched up plastic bag as part of the felting process. Then there are images of the vest on the stand, when I took these images the vest was just pinned together, I have decided that I will overlap the seams and sew them together from the outside and have top stitching detail at the side and shoulder seams. This will mean that the raw edges, which are a feature of the vest will not be hidden in a seam. I am very pleased with the way the edges in particular have turned out, I love how the blue layer has squashed from underneath and is peeking out at the edges of the vest.

Felted jewellery

My lovely mum took these photos of felted jewellery for me when she was in Bendigo recently. Nice to look at other ways felt is being applied, I like the necklace in particular, I have been playing around with some felted jewellery ideas in my 2D folio myself. Some handstitched 3D objects and so on, I must photograph them and put it up on my blog.

Tops

So I am pretty excited, just purchased some of these wool tops from Yarn Barn's online store, very high tech I know! Looking forward to receiving my package in the mail, hopefully the colours on the computer screen will match the actual colours of the tops! Will wait and see. These light blue and cream tops will be used as the base layer underneath the hand dyed beige/brown wool tops that I have from Bustles and Bows. This will give me more thickness and mean that the hand dyed wool tops will be the feature on the top layer of the felt pieces.