Final Major Project – Week 8

This week I focused on making my garment. I began by cutting up the shirt which would make up the back and sides. I started with this as this is the piece that connects to the sleeves, neck piece and trousers. As I wanted the bodice to be very oversized I detached the sides and reattached them upside down. To get the right proportions I used an Asbestos protective suit that builders use, usually made to fit an XL male.

I then attached the front panel cut out from an old pair of tracksuit bottoms (referenced in my recycled materials sketchbook). This will be the piece that opens via buttons on the side. The gap between the tracksuit panel and collar is made from an 100% polyester top that I dyed after experimenting with shabori when the netting released some of its colour.

I originally had pink cotton sleeves created out of old joggers, however after analysing it with my tutor we came to the conclusion that the fabric made the garment look older and more worn which is not the look I want to achieve as I want it to be a desirable wearable. I chose a more lightweight fabric from the lining of the navy tracksuit. The lightweight fabric worked much better, creating more of a puffy silhouette sleeve than the jogger cotton material.

The trousers of the garment are made using 100% organic cotton bodicanycledye which I had found in the materials library during my natural materials research. I reached out to Shinnaigai Textiles Ltd. in Japan who sent the fabric which is dyed with roses to achieve the pink colour. This fabric is more lightweight than the jogger cotton so does not weight down and drop to the floor which I am very happy about. To cinch the joggers in at the waist, instead of using an elastic like the asbestos suit had, I removed string from the pair of darker ink joggers and created a channel for them to be inserted through. This I found quite difficult as I had not done this before but after making a few mistakes and unpicking them I logically worked out what to do so the string would complete its function and pull the trousers in. I finally created the pockets and gathered textiles. This again was new to me and if I could do them again I would have practised on another material first and then used the final fabric so it looked more even.

At the end of the week we had our stdio shoot with the professional models. This was insightful as it was a shock to have such quick turnarounds and only 10 minutes to shoot. For a more in depth evaluation I will do a separate post.