New Designers 2012

My trip to New Designers 2012 was, if I'm honest, a bit overwhelming. Although I have been once before (to see my sister's stand a few years back) I didn't really go round the whole thing properly. when I arrived I went round the whole thing once quite quickly and then I sort of tried to go back over it and make a note of some of the graduates work that appealed to me. I didn't take any photos because I wasn't sure if your are allowed to, and I kind of expected them all to have blogs or websites showcasing their work. But that turned out to be a mistake, as surprisingly some of them didn't.


Hannah Simpson - Knitted Textiles @ Buckingham & Chilterns University

Samantha Gardiner - Textile Design @ Somerset College

Kirsty Ridge - Textile Design @ Arts University College at Bournemouth

Anna Piper - Woven Textiles @ Nottingham Trent University

Kayleigh Daft - Textile Design @ University of Derby

Andrea da Costa - Knitted Textiles @ Central St Martins College of Art & Design

Hannah Ffion Alderman - Textile Design @ Central St Martins College of Art & Design

Eleanor Kingdon - Textile Design @ University College Falmouth

Emma Louise Castle - Textile Design @ University College Falmouth

Jennifer Hollidge - Textile Design @ University College Falmouth

Anyway, I've done some detective work and have managed to find at least some link to them. Next time I will be more prepared, and perhaps a bit braver come 2013.

One thing I did take away with me was the amount of competition for jobs, and it has driven home in me the importance of me not going down my usual route of being a 'jack-of-all-trades and a master of none'. It is true that having a understanding of all the different processes that are encompassed in fashion and textiles is important, as it makes you flexible in the workplace, but at the same time I think it is clearly important to be really good in a specialised area and not just mediocre in everything. 

Final Outcome finished - Apron dress

The Sun popped it's hat on briefly this morning, so I hot footed it up to my allotment to take some photos of my finished apron dress...

Patching up

To cover the smudged bee and butterfly that I mentioned earlier, I cut another bee and butterfly from one of my trial screen prints. I then used steam a seam 2 to fuse them to the dress over the smudges and free machine embroidered the outer edges.

It's not perfect but it looks better than it did!

Mounting up boards

Just finished mounting up my supporting boards for my apron dress.

They include my research map

my sample board

and my fashion illustrations

You might have noticed that the sample board is missing a sample on the right hand side compared with the planned layout. When I came to mount up the board and was measuring up where to put every accurately, I felt that the board would look to crowded, so I made an excutive decision and left the bottom one out.