Extended project 2

The background information and research about the queen had to be based on our own choice of subject. I chose to look at the history of the Queen and her horses. I wanted to get more of an understanding about the relationship the Queen has with her horses and her country. I brainstormed and set myself a task with a number of questions I was to answer within my basis of research. I wanted to give myself a guideline of how to start my project and research off. Here are the following questions I was to continually answer in my research.

1- When was the first time the Queen came into contact with a horse?

2- How old was the Queen when she learned to horse ride?

3- Did she instantly have a love for the animal?

4- Has she always rode in a carriage that is horse drawn?

5- How many horses does the Queen own?

6- Where are her horses stabled?

Pattern and Print brief.

As a designer you will encounter the importance and link between culture and printed pattern. Pattern repeat has been used to decorate surfaces throughout the history of art, craft and design. It has been applied in a variety of ways by different cultures and has a range of meanings and purposes. Sometimes pattern is meant to illuminate, to draw attention to an object or person; at other times is it used to disguise. It has been used in ritual, design, decoration, objects of high value and communication. You have been commissioned to develop a fashion fabric that reflects your chosen culture evidencing the impact of the social and art history.

Extended project. The Queen and her Jubilee.

As part of my work and projects for college, I had to produce an extended project. This was a running on going project for 12 months. It was a project with a brief about the queen and her jubilee. As the queen was visiting different towns across the country to celebrate her Jubilee, there was also a 'Giant Queen Parade' taking place across the country as well. This is where a number of giant queens were made to take place in the parade. As a college, we was assigned to make a giant dress for these giant Queens. We was provided with a pattern for the dress and material. We had to create our own designs for the dress and do our own background research on the queen. Once our dress was constructed, it was placed on the giant queen in Warrington town centre, then placed in the parade which later took place in Chester. We was also provided with a booklet which held all the information about the giant queens and the parade that we needed to know about.

TopShop Unique clothing 2012.

It will be hard to beat Topshop as an object lesson in oversell this season. The show notes for its top-of-the-range Unique collection promised "to rewaken the glamour and opulence of ancient Egypt," with Cleopatra gorgeously reincarnated by Elizabeth Taylor on the invitation. The reality of the show itself was exactly the opposite. Smartly designed, cleverly styled Unique has brilliantly mastered the art of the halo effect for the rest of the Topshop brand, but the sophisticated attitude that characterized it in the past was shelved here. Instead, it looked like a budget version of something Vivienne Westwood might have done decades ago. Maybe that's not a bad thing if you've been craving graffiti tops, gold hoodies, bandeau tops, and tube skirts—and the God of Merch only knows that this is one company with its ear to the ground. Still, there was something sorely missing. Unique has always been pitched as standing for more than the fast fashion the Topshop empire is built on, but the new collection was so disposable-teen in its urban urgency that the gilding on the clothes looked as sticky as the gold on the models' heads. Truly faster fashion.

So Dior Exhibition at Harrods.

How amazing is this exhibition. WOW. I'm completely inspired. Hope you like it!

Making and Printing.

Now I've finished my sampling I'm ready to move onto the making of my final piece and garment. Taking all my research and sampling into consideration, I decided to make two items. One being a t-shirt as a casual design, the second being more formal, a shirt. As Im not using my original 'Bow' print, I thought of how I could still add my original observational drawing into my final piece. I decided on making a 'Bow Tie' to add onto my printed shirt.
My first step was to create a pattern to print onto my fabric. I took some transfer paint, I used most of the colours I had sampled with, my original colour pallet, which was bright colours. Pinks, purples, yellows, greens and blues. Using a paint brush I began to splash the paint onto a piece of paper. I created lots of different shapes and patterns, using all of my colour pallet, and kept layering the colours, shapes and patterns over the top of one another. I then placed my piece of fabric on top of the paper, and heat pressed it for 60 seconds. I repeated this process until I had filled my fabric which was if enough to create my Bow tie from.
My next step was to print onto my shirt. I used the same colours and patterns as I used to build up the print on my bow tie. I repeatedly used the same pieces of paper that had the patterns and colours and transfer paint on. I went over the same places a number of times, heat pressed the colours onto my shirt until all the white was coloured, including the collar and sleeves.
I then went onto printing onto my t-shirt. As I was using the same pieces of paper to create the same patterns, the colours began to print lighter and lighter each time I heat pressed them. So my t-shirt looked a lot lighter and the colours looked more faded. More subtle, sugar colours.

I then moved onto constructing my bow. I used the sewing machine to turn my printed fabric into a bow shape. I decided to turn the sleeves up on my t-shirt and stitch them in place. I also rolled the t-shirt up into a crop top. So u could wear the t-shirt both ways and it was versatile. Here's how my final pieces looked.

Heat press sample.

For my final sample before starting to make print onto fabric I wanted to use the heat press again. This time I wanted to use words and letters. As my project is based around the 90's, I chose a product and a word relevant to this timing. My word was Barbie. I chose this word as I've been researching the Barbie brand and clothing. I printed the word 'Barbie' off the computer in reverse. I then took some transfer paint and painted over the letters. I used the colour purple. I then splashed some ink around the word to create more of a 90's pattern. This paper was then placed on top of a fabric piece and heat pressed for 60 seconds.
The sample was great, if there was anything I would change I would have the lettering slightly darker. To do this I would use more transfer paint to make the letters darker. This is how my sample looked.