Fashion Design - a scary prospect for me!!

Evening Bloggers,
I started a GCSE Textiles course at my school in September 2012. In the build up to this, while students were taking their options, there were various open evenings. Many of the students asked me 'Miss, if I take Textiles,will you teach me how to make clothes'. My response was 'I cannot promise you that I can teach you to make clothes. My training is in soft furnishings and children's play rooms, not fashion and dressmaking. I probably will not be able to teach you to make a garment from scratch but I can show you how to customise a garment'. I thought it was best to be honest.

Having said this, it has always been my plan to learn more about fashion design and making clothes, for my own interests but mainly to enrich the students experience of their Textiles course. I did quite a lot of 'customising garments' during my teenage years but was never really happy with the results. I guess my confidence was and still is lacking in this area. As you know, I have been making lots of different types of textile panels using lots of different materials but these are mainly decorative pieces to hang on the wall. Following a 'pep talk' from my friend and talented SEO Carolyn Clayton www.seofreelanceuk.co.uk last weekend where she reminded me just how much I used to work with clothing, I thought it was time to sort out my dressmakers dummy and get over my 'issues' with fashion design!! Also, I found this amazing lady on Facebook. Her advice to me was 'go for it! sewing is really fun off the beaten path.you just have to keep stitching and it will turn into something interesting, I promise! ♡  In time, I aspire to create something similar to her most amazingly funky garments but it could take a while!!!!!http://www.gibbousfashions.com

Here are the results of my customised vest top with hand and machine embroidered panel with angelina fibres, ribbons and lace

This turquoise crushed velvet top is a garment I have owned for approximately 10 years!!! I have loved it in the past but have not worn it for at least 2 years. Partly because It is/was a size 18 and having lost 4 stone over the last year and a half, I am now a size 14. It was in my bag for the boot fair!! If I had planned to 'take it in' now is the time to do it I figured!!! The main feature is the patterned textile panel which was my first attempt at using water soluble fabric. This panel has been sat in my sewing room since last September. I finally found a use for it!! I also added some organza ribbons and colourful lace (purchased in Turkey last year). I am pretty pleased with my customised top, I know for sure noone will have one the same anyway!!! It is now a snug size 14 and I hope to be brave enough to wear it!!

I have also started making a garment from scratch today. Watch this space................

Taj Mahal Textiles

Good evening readers,
It has taken me a while to get around to creating this next post. I feel like there has been a bit of a 'creative lull' recently. Having said that, I have created a few new textile piecec over the last few weeks. I think that I have not written about them because I have felt they were not quite finished and ready to publicise. Having said this, I am going to upload some images tonight but I still plan to work on these pieces a little more so they are effectively works in progress.

This one 'Sacred Spirits of the Taj Mahal' is a combination of ideas. I love India, I love the people and their attitude to life and in some cases, poverty. In my experience, the poorest Indian people still have a smile on their face, have little and would happily give whatever they have. Their faith, family and motivation to survive inspire them to get on with life and make the best of what they have. The Taj Mahal is one of those inspiring places where one may 'feel' superior forces are at work. I have included a small fabric 'Sacred Spirit' label from one of my latest 'Joe Browns' garments. Many of these garments are made in India and I suppose the price we pay in England for something made so cheaply in India is a direct reflection of the economic differences we may or may not be aware of. We all have our 'Sacred Spirits' though which may be places, people, memories and we tap into these when we need them.

 

I created this piece using transfer dyes on silk/polyester fabric. The drawing is waterproof pen and I have machine embroidered in the details (I still plan to add more). Please let me know what you think. I will post another image when it is finally finished!!!

Fabrics, fibres and fibre optic!!!!

I intend for this to be a short blog tonight. Having said this, by the time I have waffled on for 10 minutes, I suspect it will be the usual ramblings!!

Fibre optic first - I am so fed up with my broadband failing hundreds of times each week and failing to load pages for what seems like hours on end. Fed up with typing words which don't appear on screen for ages and then when they do, half of them are missing!! Fibre optic broadband signing up was my first port of call today, yes even before I loaded up Facebook!!

Fibres next - well I finally finished what is currently named 'Abstract No4'. It is a silk painting on silk which is intricately machine embroidered and contains many silk fibres. It is advertised for sale at http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/Claire-Barrett-Smith/artwork/30921?return=art-for-sale

The finished piece 'Abstract No 4'

 

Last but not least 'Fabrics'. Today, I have continued to explore the different ways I can combine fabrics with print, photocopied images, drawings and patterned papers. This is following on from the Cas Holmes workshop last week. Here is the beginnings of my mixed media piece, a work in progress with lost more machine embroidery to follow!!

Moving on - feeling more confident

Today, I made my best effort to remember all I learned from the brilliant Cas Holmes last week. Pulling all the pieces of the composition together and having a good feeling about how they work together is a skill. One that I don't always feel that I have if I am honest!!

Getting all my bits and pieces together (well strewn across the table) was the easy part. Photocopies, prints, drawings, off cuts of fabrics etc etc hmmmm a lovely big mess. I then had to force myself to make some decisions - 'Come on Claire, which are the principal pieces, put them down first, forget the itty bitty pieces'' (I remembered what Cas had told me). A colour scheme started to make itself known.

Purple and green with a hint of yellow

 

I glued all the pieces down, I was happy. Until.............................. my Aunt popped round and when I showed her my collage she said 'I like the piece at the bottom right corner (incidentally this is a piece Cas gave me). If it was the other way up, it could be a landscape with a Cathedral and skyline'. I could certainly see this now and wondered why I had not noticed before. A little later, I started thinking. Hmmm shall I change it round. After much debate, I started peeling back the sopping wet layers. A few tears occured in the thinner papers but I managed to turn the image round and rejig a few other pieces. 'Voila' - it was done mmmmm, I think I liked it better the other way round Grrrrrr!!! What do you think??

 

 

 

 

A busy weekend tying up all the loose ends!!

I couldn't wait to start sewing over the textile collage piece I made at +Cas Holmes Textiles  workshop last Thursday. Finally this Saturday I had a little free time with hubby out on his bike and my little boy playing with his cars, the sewing machine was whipped out in a flash and coloured cottons were soon strewn across the dining table!!

I used my embroidery foot to free machine some natural forms into the work. I tried to repeat forms I had already used in the collage, e.g photocopies and drawings of witch hazel and cow slip plants. I tried sewing with two different coloured threads in the needle for the first time and it worked a treat!!

Details of 'Lee'

Finally after much sewing, I decided the piece was complete. As this is a very personal piece for me, having a photo of my brother in as a baby, I framed it and hung it in my bedroom. It looks fantastic. I am very pleased with the final result and I have plenty of ideas for the next one including what I need to do to improve next time!!

A wonderful workshop with Cas Holmes

24.01.13 - Wow whee, where do I start today. I have had such an amazing day, the ideas I have flying around in my head right now are going to take some taming over the coming weekend!! Do I really have the time to go to work tomorrow? NO, I need to work on my sewing machine. Hmmmm, I wish.....

I had a chat with Cas Holmes last October at The Knitting & Stitching show at Ally Pally. I asked her about the possibility of attending one of her workshops not really thinking it would ever happen. I am soooo glad it did!!. I purchased her book and read through it a few times. I tried out many of the techniques she described and created lots of printed, dyed and painted pieces. All was fine until I attempted to put these pieces together in some coherent way. I was stuck, I gave up. This was October..........

Now, January 24th 2013, I am feeling so much more confident in my ability to create some kind of a coherent composition bringing together shapes, colours, patterns, drawings, prints, scraps etc etc. I learned so much today. What did I learn?? Hmmm, it is really hard to describe.... I learned to be less precious and to dive into the work. Not to worry so much, each layer can be changed, altered, built up, stripped back and added to. I also realise that sometimes working smaller is good. It allows me to fill the space more effectively with the beautiful pieces, rather than big spaces with bits that may be better left behind (for next time).

My workstation (messy of course!!!)

 

                                                                          My prints

 

Seeing Cas's work all around the house was amazing. I was stunned to see how much more beautiful it is in the flesh than the images in the book. Of course, photos just cannot convey the transluscent layers in quite the way the eye really sees them.

 

My work from today - I need to stitch into the layers next

 

The only problem I have with today is the realisation of how far I have to go still to be able to create anything even close to the beauty I saw today. The way I am consoling myself is that I will never, can never create a Cas Holmes. I am me and I will create a Barrett-Smith with hints of Cas Holmes!!!

Sounds good to me.

Thank-you for reading

A day off work and lots of sewing to be done

I am so lucky that I don't have to go to work on Monday's. It is such a nice feeling waking up and knowing that I can spend the whole day with my little boy. Lately though, instead of spending the whole day just playing games, I have something else on my mind............when will I get chance to do some sewing.....??

We spent a lovely morning together baking cakes, making a snowman and making play dough cars. After lunch my little boy wanted to 'chill out' and watch his favourite film Disney Pixar's 'Cars' for the two hundred and seventy sixth time. Finally, I had my chance...........

I continued working with the beautiful silk tops which I started yesterday. I then added organza and sparkly netted fabric pieces layering them over contrasting coloured silk painted areas. I find this layering of translucent fabrics adds a lot of depth and mystery to my work. I free machine embroidered around the fabric pieces and stitched patterns on them in contrasting silk thread.
Just as I started the contemplate the piece visually (for the hundredth time today) and began considering it (almost) finished, my husband walked through the door with a gorgeous set of new silk paints for me. What a lovely man!!

Oh well, work for the next couple of days and a much awaited workshop with the amazing Cas Holmes on my next day off, Thursday will mean plenty of time to look at the piece and make some decisions about how to finish it.
Back soon, Claire