Thursday, September 6, 2012

Bad Girl...

It has taken me way too long to post about my final garments for my thesis.  I created several garments made to fit me that expressed my own individuality as a person, using natural materials and ancient surface design techniques such as felting and shibori.  Clothing should be comfortable and express who you are as a person.  This was my attempt to test out a way to make unique clothing for people using techniques that I fell in love with throughout my time in graduate school.
All of these garments were created using a seamless felting technique to join fabrics and seams without the use of sewing.

If you have any questions about these garments, or are interested in having a custom garment made for you, please do not hesitate to contact me!  I love hearing from people:)

So without further ado, here they are!

Here they all are in our show space in downtown Portland.
 

I created this dress from two rectangles of fabric, one a silk chiffon, and the other a silk crepe.  This dress was hand felted around the waist and neckline creating a seamlessly felted garment that closes with buttons in the back.  The dress was then garment dyed using the Arashi Shibori technique (which is the process of wrapping the fabric around a pole and scrunching it down and securing it before dyeing) in indigo.  I think this dress is my favorite, if I had to choose one:)

This is the reverse side of the dress
The reverse side of this dress is just as beautiful as the right side.  I created shank buttons for this dress to make it possible to be worn either way.
Button Detail
The buttons have been covered in the same silk fabric and dyed in indigo.  There are also two button closures at the waist.

 
These two photos show the results of the arashi resist technique.  I love how the resist came out on the hemline, and the neckline shows such a clear resist from where I secured the dress to the pole with a cotton cord.

The Park Skirt, detail
This is a detail shot of the grey blouse and skirt ensemble.  The hand embroidery details were added before dyeing and after felting.  Then the skirt was overdyed in grey and the bottom half was dipped in green.  I just love how the transition of green to grey came out.  I spent a lot of time mixing colors to get the perfect grey and green colors, and am happy I did as they turned out exactly as I had envisioned!  I have actually worn this skirt a lot this summer, it has proven to be a great piece that can be dressed up or down.

Grey Blouse, side closure detail
 This is the blouse that was dipped in the same grey color as the skirt and love how well they went together even though they were two very different types of silk. The top has the sheen of the crepe while the skirt has a more matte finish on the silk dobby.

High-Low Dress, hem detail
This is the dress I wore to my graduation, I loved how the color looked with my bright red hair:)  This dress was done in the same fashion as the other, but with some changes in the neckline, waist and hemline.  For this dress I did an all over ombre dye and then pole wrapped just the hemline.

High-Low Dress, closure detail
For this dress I used some vintage glass buttons I had and just love how they look with the softness of this coral color.

I am really excited about how they all came out, and am now getting started on creating some new garments in my new home studio:)


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