Experimenting with pattern

I have had the most productive few days and I'm hoping it's going to continue like that! I've been working on a piece for my Textiles A2 coursework for part of this. We're on a section of our work where we're experimenting with pattern and surface design. Our brief was to create a piece which showed pattern from our sketchbook. I decided to create a corset type piece with 4 different panels. If you're wondering why it looks like a complete mess with threads and raw edges, it's because it doesn't need to be neatly finished as it's only a development piece, so please ignore this! The front two panels are both to do with my theme (can you guess what it is...?) and the back two are inspired by some designers I looked at in my work. I hope you like it and if you're interested I've written underneath each photo how I made the section. 

How I made it....I drew out with the outline of the pattern with pen and filled in the sections with black or green paint. I then stitched around the edges. 

How I made it.... I twisted a long piece of green fabric and stitched over the top to create the stems. I then cut out pink circles and stitched randomly over to create the roses. I also sewed and glued book pages into squares. 

 How I made it....I used a mola technique to layer and cut out materials. I created a paper layer with printed red rings and a watercolour background, and used a blue fabric and some purple napkins. 

How I made it... I drew out the pattern onto paper and scanned it onto the computer. I then used a pixlr to fill in sections of the pattern with colour. I printed this out and stitched it onto fabric. 

Fashion Illustration

I hope everyone is enjoying the sun at the moment (It actually feels like summer now!). I've got a bit of a different post today. I recently did an Art critical study on the artist below (Sara Ligari - have a look at her other work, it's incredible!) which inspired me to do a post on fashion illustrations. I've gathered a few of my favourites below to show you. There are no words to explain how incredible these illustrations are and I really wish I could draw and paint as well as them! I hope you like this sort of post - I certainly enjoyed browsing through drawings and even rediscovered one of my favourite websites from when I was younger (Would You Rock This? - basically a site where you can post your illustrations).

Which are your favourites?

Sara Ligari

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 Alicia Malesani

 David Downton

Grant Cowen

  Sunny Gu

New items in my shop now - http://fashiongirlshop.tictail.com

Under the Sea

For the past few weeks and loads over half term, I've been slaving away trying to finish all of my art and textiles coursework (the deadline's Monday!). This included creating my final piece in textiles. The whole course built up from the overall theme of Natural forms (from which I chose 'The Sea'). The idea was then to create a whole sketchbook full of development in order to create a final outcome, which is what you can see below.  The dress was originally only white cotton fabric, so producing it not only involved sewing it all together but dying, batik-ing (using wax to resist the dye), embroidery, mola etc. etc. Overall, the garment was supposed to show about 15 hours of work in total. I'm pleased with how it's turned out (there's always going to be something I'm not happy with though. I won't tell you what!) and fingers crossed I get a good mark for it. 

What have you all been up to this half term? 

The Princess of China...

I’ve never been a huge fan of Rihanna and her music but I absolutely love her style. Every single outfit she wears is cool, fashionable and trendy. What’s so great is she can play it down in a casual outfit but can also look amazing in a sophisticated ball gown.  Unlike many other celebrities out there, Rihanna always wears the right thing whether it’s a dress or a pair of tracksuit bottoms and I’ve never seen her wear something awful.  These are just a few of my favourite outfits. I was feeling artistic so I drew some illustrations to go with these photos.  (You can click on the photos to view them larger)

 This is an Ellie Saab dress. I love the contrast between the opaque and sheer fabrics.

 Rihanna wore this on the Jonathan Ross show. I really like this style and her hair goes really well with the outfit. You can't see it in this photo but she is wearing a full skirt which I really like.

This is a dress by Marchesa. I really like Marchesa's designs because they are so textural and have so much shape to them, therefore it is no wonder I like this dress. I would love to be able to create dresses as amazing and detailed as this one. I love the cut out shapes.

I wouldn't normally put denim with denim but Rihanna manages to pull it off all of the time.

This a Stella McCartney dress worn to the Autumn/Winter 2012 special presentation. This is such an elegant dress and I love the colour of it.

Who could possibly not like these shoes? I love any type of clothing that's slightly unusual and different and these definitley tick the box!

This is by Jean Paul Gaultier. I love the textural vs sheer parts.

I love this! I really want some denim shorts so that I can stud them. Again denim on denim!

This dress is by Stephane Rolland. I really like his evening dresses because they are really well made, such as the one above. I love the different shapes that this dress creates.