Starting in the sketch book

I always find it quite daunting starting a new sketch book.

At the beginning of a new project, although my head is always fizzing with ideas and inspiration, they are generally all ideas of how I can do stuff with fabric rather than paper. It's like I miss a step in the way that my ideas are supposed to progress, and then it's almost like I have to start working backwards. I do like to draw and paint, but it's not something that I am very confident in doing, so I end up taking a long time over it and then feel frustrated at the small amount of work I have produced. I suppose that as time goes on throughout my degree I will become more confident in my abilities and things will get easier.

So, using pictures that I took up at the allotments last week I have been doing some painting.

I really love this photo I took of a bumble bee on a dandelion. I used acrylics to paint this and although I am really happy with the finished painting, I can't see me using this sort of realistic style in my garment in this project as we are not at the stage of using digital printing yet mostly due to expense.

I would however like to include maybe some bee or butterfly motifs in my garment, as pollination is an integral part of plants growing, both naturally in the hedgerows and in cultivation on farms and allotments. The work of the bees and butterflies was just as important to growing Britain's produce in wartime, as was the work of the land girls.

In my photos you can see a strong theme of grids. I found them in netting, fencing and chicken wire; plastic, metal and wood. I like the juxtaposition of the rigidity of this black chain-link fence with the yellow blooms of forsythia haphazardly weaving it's way through. After painting the top half of the page with a paint brush. I used the edge of piece of cardboard dipped in black paint to recreate the grid in a printed form.

Inspired by the past

I have been a collector of vintage hand embroidered linens for at least 4 years now. It all started when I found a large embroidered table cloth at the bottom of a box in a charity shop. I was in awe of the beautiful florals hand embroidered around the edges - it must have taken hours to stitch, but was horribly stained in the middle. For only £2 I couldn't leave it languishing at the bottom of that old cardboard box, so I decided I would make it into cushions. As cushions they could be admired everyday without the risk from a drippy teapot! You can see the results on my old blog here.

The hand embroideries I collect would have been stitched by ordinary women between around the 1940-60s. They where the sort of thing that women did in the evenings as a hobby to make pretty things for their homes. Today we are used to mass produce products that are cheaper to buy than make ourselves but back then, making your own clothes and things to decorate your home made financial sense. This would have been a craft that the war time land girls would be doing in their free time and so I really want to include hand embroidery in my final outcome.

A few years ago, after my mum had been having a sort out at home she handed me this box along with some other bits and pieces. Inside, to my delight, were hundreds of old embroidery transfers that had belonged to my great grandmother. Embroidery transfers are ironed onto the fabric you wish to embroider to provide a guide for stitching onto. Traditionally, the picture that is left by the transfer will be completely covered by the embroidery when it is finished, but I think it would be interesting to create a outline style print using the florals.

Whilst look through my collection of embroideries I discovered a few vintage pinnys I've picked up from various car boots. They remind me how, in the 40s and 50s, women liked to combine the pretty with the practical.

Research map

Allotment Photos

Yesterday, whilst the sun came out for the briefest of moments I took the opportunity to take some snaps of my allotment and the rest of the sight. As well as vegetables, I was looking for some interesting textures and some of the flowers growing in and around the plots. Click on the link below to view the complete set on flickr.

allotment photos, a set on Flickr.

Cinderellas of the Soil Pinterest Board

I have been collating a Pinterest board for my new project which can be viewed here.

Fashion & Textiles Specialist Project - Cinderellas of the Soil

Since this is my specialist project, I want to create a garment that reflects my own personal interests. My main inspiration has stemmed from my allotment, which I took ownership of last year. It is a place that I love to be - surrounded by nature, and growing tiny seeds into a delicious crop that tastes even sweeter for the hard work you put into nurturing it.

Allotments were first introduced by the Victorians to encourage a healthy diet and lifestyle for factory workers, who didn’t have the space at home to grow their own. Over the years, the rise and fall of the allotment has stayed in-sync with Britain’s economic wellbeing. During times of trouble our nation turns to the soil – most notably during WWII when millions became vegetable gardeners in the Dig For Victory campaign. With so many of Britain’s men sent off to fight for their country, the women stepped in to help keep the country running smoothly back at home. In 1939 the Women’s Land Army formed to provide a mobile workforce for the farms and market gardens of England and Wales, which proved vital in helping produce food for the nation. With this in mind I want to draw inspiration from the khaki and green utility uniforms of the wartime Land Girls.

As well as growing fruit and vegetables on my plot I have a started to sow a bed of flowers in order to attract pollinating bees and to cut for kitchen table. Also, the hedgerows that surround the allotments are bursting into blossom. Floral prints were very popular in the 1940s and the land girls would often mix these dainty ditsy prints with their darker, rugged work-wear in the form of blouses and headscarves. I really love the juxtaposition of the practical and the pretty and I want to recreate this in my final outcome.

My final outcome will be a practical utilitarian garment with a twist. I like the idea of creating an apron or overall style garment, but making it very decorative, with print and embroidery.

As well as pattern cutting, I will be exploring dyeing (both man-made and plant based dyes), hand-embroidery, machine embroidery, applique, screen-printing and machine knit.

I will aim to use natural fabrics in my garment such as cotton and linen as they can be dyed with procion and natural dyes and are often used in the construction of work-wear when woven as a heavyweight fabric like a heavy calico or cotton drill. The embroidery threads and yarn I will be using for embellishment may have to be synthetic due to availability of colours and cost.

My colour palette will be quite muted, with different shades of greens from the fresh green of new shoots, to the darker green and khaki of the Land Girl uniforms. I will use a dark earthy brown in smaller quantities and will inject pops of colour in pale pinks, blues and yellows and cream as the floral elements.

Illustration Inspiration

During some online research I found this post featuring fashion illustrations by Michael Roberts.

I really love the movement of them, I would like to use these figures in my own illustrations, as I think they will fit in well with the Dynamic Nomadic theme.

Finalising Samples

Today I finalised my samples with Charlie, Then I spent the day sewing all the trims onto them and cutting them down to mount them up.

I also spent some time looking through so books to inspire me for my fashion illustrations. I think I will go down the collage route, as I don't feel confident enough to paint them.

Using Natural Dyes

In my statement I said that I wanted to explore using natural dyes, as this is what nomadic tribes would have traditional used to dye their fabrics. After some research online, I discovered that a lot of the vegetable dyes only create muted colours, and my colour palette is quite vibrant. If I want to create a vibrant pink I would have to buy cochineal (made from a beetle) and cobalt blue is made from an mineral which I would have to buy especially as well. But I did discover that you can make a really vibrant yellow from turmeric -the spice, so using this video to help me, I tried it.

I am really pleased with the results. The dye takes really well onto the cotton scraps I used, even after just being in the mixture for 5 minutes, and being rinsed and squeezed out.

Since this is a natural dye that has been successful, I think I should incorporate it into my final samples in some way.

Monoprint, Flock & Foil

Today Charlie set up a couple of workshops, to help us to add to the range of processes we include in this project.

The Monoprint was particularly messy - think sticky printing inks and rollers. I managed to create a few prints that I liked, and I tried printing with a knit and printing onto it. But the ink on the knit still hasn't dried *UPDATE* (several days later still not dry) So I'm not sure if I will use this technique in my final work.

Next up was flocking and foiling onto fabric. First you have to paint on a thinnish layer of adhesive in you chosen design (or pull through a screen). You need to use a particular adhesive if using flock, and a particular adhesive if using foil. Then you need to wait for the adhesive to dry (or speed it up with a hairdryer) Once the glue is dry you need to put your flock paper (face down) or foil (face up) onto your design and put in the heat press for 20 secs at 160 degrees. Take it out carefully (it will be HoT!) and peel back the paper or film to reveal your finished design!

I decided to use a gold foil in one of my final samples, I foiled onto a piece of blue wool-like fabric from an old dress I got from the charity shop. I like the juxtaposition of the different textures - shiny foil and soft fabric.