Okay team, i have finally bitten the bullet and am posting about my Intermediate Fashion Studies Class. Basically all i do in it, is plan and execute a small line of three outfits and there is a show in December. these are from my sketchbook (i have almost a whole one at this point). I spontaneously became a better drawer after my fashion drawing class, yay! 

I should post inspiration as well, shouldn't I?

The style of my line is inspired by the movie (and books) A Series Of Unfortunate Events. The style of the movie is a mix of a modern application of historical silouettes and textiles. It gives a strange feel of not knowing exactly when the movie takes place. 

I have also been having fantastic dreams about birds. I wanted to take the feel of the above photos and incorperate feathers and birds.

Okay, so here are my drawings that span over nearly two months of planning. this is a fraction of them!

 roughing out colours

 historical dresses copied from a book

 natural dye samples to decide what colours i should dye my fabrics

 To Do list from last week. I am one of the PR people for the show. Time to call some shoe stores!

 some thumbnails of my final capes. I will also have shirts and high waisted double button pants, that aren't in my sketchbook but on my mood board in the studio!

Have a good day!

More Weaving

More Weaving! i made a scarf, and i'm very excited about it. i managed to tackle plaid. I really need to put up pictures from intermediate fashion studies!

Introduction to Weaving

Hello friends! its been such a long summer not doing projects! well, i am back after a lame four months of occasional posts of outfits i did on polyvore.

 I am only taking nine credits this semester, so i am taking introduction to weaving and a six credit intermediate fashion class (which i will post some stuff about soon). I have been waitlisted to weaving TWICE and finally got in this semester! these are my first three samples.

in case you cool kids didn't notice, my photos now have watermarks! itty bitty teenie tiny ones. so, please don't crop them off!

 ps: i usually leave my photos at their full resolution in case my computer crashes so that i still have my portfolio of work so that you guys can see details, so if you actually want to see something well, click and it will get HUGE

 This is the first thing i have ever made, ever.  its a moderately ugly wool scarf. we were supposed to experiment, and i found sparkle yarns... 

 more sparkle yarns, and ZIG ZAGS

and even more sparkle yarns. oh katrina. 

this is a stripe sample! its so much less ugly! attractive, even. it took me seven hours of effort to thread this loom and i nearly took a baseball bat to it, the cotton threads (all 240 of them) were tangled into a ball

 detail. no sparkly yarns :( 

 another detail. you can see my little boo boo in this one. 

 This one is the second part of the one above. they have the same warp (the part you thread on that is orange in both of them.

 we were asked to change the distance of the strings, so it made vertical stripes.

another detail! there is a rouge string hanging out here, but that's okay!

i'll have some fashion studies photos soon! my whole semester is planning a line, and there will be a FASHION SHOW!

SORRY

sorry to anyone (all three of you) that read my blog!

things have been super hectic as of lately. I was offered a full time (part time when i go back to school) job in production sewing tote bags, skull caps (like what surgeon's wear) and other things like that. It's methodical but the people are nice, and its sewing. I am getting REALLY fast.

so i haven't had a lot of time to do things because i am moving in a week, and my computer broke, and all of this other crap has happened!

JEBUS!

my computer is in the shop, and this is a loaner. i'll be starting class in two weeks, so you'll have projects to look at.  here, i'll give you a picture to show the excitement of my summer.

august in canada, still wearing a light coat at night! hahaha!

I LOVE PUSHING DAISIES

this show is fantastic, and the fashion is unbelievable. its old fashioned and modern, monochromatic, bright, fun, and sometimes has the dress pattern match the wallpaper!!!! it only lasted two seasons, but this show is witty and whimsical, smart and romantic. i highly suggest you watch it some time!

Alice's Closet: Pushing Daisies - Pies,frocks and daisies (clipped to polyvore.com)

Meeting

I had a meeting with Laura Chenoweth today. She has a self named line of natural dyed organic cotton clothing based out of the north end of Halifax. A few places in Halifax carry her work and she has a shop/studio. She was telling me how she has people in India hand block print, screen print or dye her clothing with natural pigments and dyes and are produced there, and she sells them here. If anyone is interested, her website is laurachenoweth.com.

Some of Laura's designs, a natural dyed hand block printed organic cotton dress. Find it Here

Some organic and natural dye facts for all you cool kids out there

-a teacup of pesticides is being used for every tshirt you own
-24% of insecticides are used on cotton crops
-the water table in India is being very contaminated by the switch from natural plant based dyes to synthetic dyes from consumer demand
-you can get nearly any colour with a natural dye that you can with a synthetic dye, with the exception of hilighter neons. to show this, here are some silk samples i've done in various natural dyes. I try to do as much dye work as i can in natural dyes.

purple madder and vinegar, curry and alum, madder and curry and alum, cochineal, 

onion skins and vinegar, curry and black tea and alum, madder and alum, purple logwood and alum,

 some of my natural dye work from NSCAD University's annual wearable Art Show

As consumers of fashion, educating yourself about what you are buying is very important. A lot of people are unaware that the textiles industry is one of the largest pollutants in the world. If the consumer demands change in process, change may happen. Here are some links for more information about sustainable textiles.

Wikipedia article about sustainable fashion

Ecotextiles is a magazine about sustainable textile issues 

An article of the most sustainable fabrics

This is one of my own posts about dying a dress grey with pomegranate skins