Two days of making

I spent the day yesterday printing my fabric.

The codes works which makes me so happy!

Today I made another toile from the cotton I’m using for the final piece… it fits like a glove which also makes me really happy. I am definitely going to be making more clothing once the deadline’s over.

In fact, things are going so well that I feel like something really bad is bound to happen before Friday.

Name/logo

Toile #1

Test garment made using linen – an old tablecloth I think. This was mostly to make sure I actually knew what I was doing with the pattern pieces and it went surprisingly well considering I haven’t made a garment from scratch since GCSE and I don’t think I’ve ever set in sleeves before.

The neckband needs re-adjusting slightly and the sleeves are too small but luckily I know where I went wrong with both of those. I’ll be making a second toile with the jersey cotton fabric that I’m using for the final garment so I’ll actually be able to try that one on.

Work with what you’ve got

The original plan with the pattern was to digitally print it onto the fabric. That’s not happening anymore as Fashion and Textiles are too busy to help me so I’ve had to change plans slightly and go for block printing.

While adding a whole load of extra work onto my workload, it at least has helped me to come to a conclusion with the QR pattern. Block printing by hand rules out anything too complex and fiddly and anything with transparency, and the pattern must be made up of elements that can be easily cut.

So here’s the final pattern I’ve settled on. Colours are yet to be decided.

I spent the morning cutting out lino to make the blocks:

 

The long strips of pattern are cut into three sections, so that they can be rotated and changed up so that it’s not always an exact repeat of the same pattern.

The print:

I had my doubts but I’m actually really pleased with the way it’s come out. The fact that it’s not a crisp, clean print reinforces what this project is about – the combination of physical and digital.

Pattern pieces

Due to the nature of the print (all-over) I’m going to have to print onto fabric and then make it into a t-shirt instead of printing directly onto the shirt as I would if it were just a single print.

Instead of making my own pattern, or trying to alter one to my measurements, I’ve simply dissected a t-shirt that I know fits me and is a similar fabric to the one I’ll be using and copied the pieces to come up with the pattern. (Side note: it costs more to buy the fabric to make the t-shirt than it does to buy a t-shirt. Something’s not right there, surely?)

Having done this, I’m hoping my GCSE Textiles skills will kick in soon and I’ll remember what to do with them!

Playing with pattern

A selection of experiments with QR codes, using elements from the codes and manipulating them to create patterns.