Machine knitting class

Today I went to a machine knitting class. For those of you who do not know what a knitting machine looks like, I have included a few photos from today to give you a feel for them. Household knitting machines became really popular in the 1960’s, as an ‘easy’ way to knit jumpers etc. Unfortunately for the people who bought them, knitting machines proved much more difficult to master than regular hand knitting and they were soon abandoned in storerooms and cupboards by the dozen. But someone’s trash is another treasure, and now you can buy 2^nd hand, (as new) ones relatively cheaply on ebay and the like. Learning how to use them is another challenge altogether, which brings me to this class in the hope of gaining knowledge from those more experienced in the field.

Toileing: Developing a new design from a basic pattern

I use a t-shirt that I like to create a basic t-shirt pattern by tracing around the garment onto pattern paper. Then I cut out a new t-shirt using this pattern and sew it up to create a mock-up of the original garment. Once that is completed I put the t-shirt on a mannequin and draw on new design lines using my dds sketch as a reference. For this particular design, I also drape a cowl collar over the t-shirt to get the look I am after. When I am happy with the design, I mark centre back, centre front and the side seams on all the pieces, and cut along the design lines to create new pattern pieces. I then need to trace these out onto pattern paper and add seam allowance along the design lines. The final step is to create a toile of this pattern and check the fit and design on a person to see if any further changes need to be made (and further changes always need to be made!)

Dying

A common way to add a unique element to bought fabric is through dying, either commercially or by hand. At the moment I am trying different techniques to produce a stripe on wool jersey. I don’t want a graphic, clear-cut look so I am not using screen printing, but instead am trying to apply the dye directly using different brushes and a wet or dry base cloth. The use of bleach to pull out the colour is also adding interesting effects to my experiments.

Portfolio

These pages are from my digital portfolio and are a taste of the range of projects that I have completed and also give a sense of my design style. Enjoy!

Collection Update

Wow, June already- its amazing how quickly this year has gone. I am beginning to illustrate my collection at the moment- in preparation for the crits in two weeks. Its great to see how the colours work together across the collection and how the garments have developed over the course of this first semester.

Screen Printing and Repeats

Digital printing as explained in my last post- is great- for some applications, but sometimes you need the texture and graphic definition that only screen-printing will allow. I have included some examples of the print I am developing for the collection. At the moment there is alot of playing around with colour combinations and scale (very important). It’s amazing how a chance colour combination can produce a surprise stripe or direction. I am aiming for more of a textural creation with these prints rather than a defined image, to add interest and depth to the fabrics that I have already purchased.

Digital Printing

Digital printing on fabric is very similar to regular inkjet printing, where the fabric is fed through a large printer, with dye cartridges that are used in combination to produce the image. As a designer it gives you loads of flexibility because your print can be as wide as your fabric and any length so you don’t have to worry about repeating the pattern. Digital printing can also produce an infinite array of colours so there are no limitations in that respect either, though getting the right colours can be a trial. There is often a big difference between the image produced on the screen, and the colours created by the printer so trialling is hugely necessary to get your colours right. I hope to use some digital printing within my collection to add another layer of interest within the clothing.