Shape and structure

With the theme shape and structure I chose to make a dress using flowers,or the idea of flowers. To start with I went out to garden centres to take my own photos of different flowers, more unusual flowers.

From these pictures I got inspiration for my design ideas or illustrations. I wanted bright and colourful, big and bold was the idead for my dress. I experimented with the shapes of flowers, the colour and the textures. I wanted a very femanine design, because the theme is flowers and they are a very femanine item.  These are a few of my designs.

 

 

The designs lead to samples, samples are basically different materials and ideas, using different tecniques to try and decide what material your going to use in the final garment and how your going to construct the final piece.

Simple batik sample of a leaf.

 

 

This is a felt sample, to do this you must have a bamboo mat and felt balls (they are like different coloured cotton wool balls), also a tub of warm water and baking powder. Lay the bamboo mat out onto a table, rip the pieces of felt and lay vertically then sprinkle some baking powder on top. Do the same again but this time lay the felt horizontally and sprinkle baking powder on top. Do this twice more so you have 4 layers in total.Sprinkle a final layer of baking powder on top and squirt with warm water. Roll it all up tightly in the bamboo mat and place in warm water, constantly turning to soak the whole thing. After 5-10 minutes take out and squeeze out remaining water,unravel and leave to dry.

 

 

Design of my final dress

 

This is my final dress, for the basic dress I used felt for something different, however more difficult to sew. Big, bold flower in the top right corner, gold vines coming down from the flower. I used pale colours because I didn't want to over power the dress with the flower. It is a one-shoulder dress however I was forced to add another strap to the shoulder becasue the flower was so heavy and dragging the dress down.