FINALISED PRINTS

Once again I am awake thinking about my collection. I find it hard to get to sleep at the best of times so at the moment Im finding it seemingly impossible what with the endless list of tasks i have to complete by the end of this week circulating round and around in my mind. I have however made another step forward with the finalisation of my print choices. After endless nights playing around with colour and scale i now have 6 slightly different variations of my print which will be made up into a dress, pairs of leggings a top and the linings of jackets etc. 

There has been an on going saga at uni the past few weeks with the printing facilities and technicians. Introduced this year was the digital fabric printing machine which is an amazing facitilty to take advantage of, making the cost of printing a hell of a lot cheaper saving some of us a couple of hundred pounds! The disadvantage of it being new is tutors are still yet to learn the ropes properly and problems have occurred, including the print technician telling us a few days ago printing on jersey wasnt going to be an option on the printer as the stretch made it too difficult. Of course almost all of us wanted some sort of jersey so we were not impressed at the delayed announcemnt that this would not be possible as it is too difficult. After a day or two of panicking trying to find a company to print it in time for our deadline, and the money to fund the printing in the first place, lucking a solution was found!

There are two different ways of digital printing onto fabric one is the printer laser printing the ink directly onto the fabric which has to be a specially coated fabric. The second and cheaper option is whats called dye sub, to print using the same machine onto a transfer paper which then goes through a huge heated roller along with a pollyester fabric, once pressed through the heat reacts with the dye on the transfer paper and the fabric soaks up the ink leaving you with a really great quality print. Quite impressive really. Anyway a girl on the course managed to find a lycra that wasn't cheap and shiny and was suitable for the Dye sub which printed really nicely when tested. So with that we sent two people off to go and collect i think 40 meters of this fabric to solve our problem and save us money. So all being well this week i will have my prints. I hope to God i do anyway.

LEATHER

Today I bought some of my final fabrics including my leather! Lots of leather :) I love leather its my favourite. Going to choose which colours and which type to get was the fun part, I went to a place near Whitechapel called Walter Reginald which had so many different types of colours and styles it was amazing! Leather Heaven. A massive warehouse with shelves and shelves full.

Managed to get about 14 skins in all i think. Its all getting delivered on friday I can't wait to have it and start sewing with it! I need to get things moving rapidly time is running out so fast! More stressed than ever today. 

PRINT SAMPLES

So im lying in bed with thoughts of fabric and print going round and round in my head, over and over. Today i spent the day running in between the print room and the dye lab trying to digital print onto fabric tests for my final print. After problems with the machine and freak outs on the technicians i think i have decided on the final ones. I was also dying fabric which i couldn't get in the right colours anywhere so i have to go through the slow process of mixing dyes to match the the right shade. Not a quick job. But they are getting there.

Now i have plenty of samples I am heading back into london tomorrow to purchase some fabrics and my leather skins so i can match it all to the print. Its going to be an expensive day. The thought of buying my final fabrics excites me, but also scares the shit out of me! There is so much riding on this collection it has to go ok! Heres a snap of the fabric printed today. 

I need to start things rolling now my tutor claims to be going grey and panicking for us as the year is so far behind. We are meant to have four outfits sewn up by next week. Most people haven't started sewing the finals yet! God help us. 

LFW JEAN-PIERRE BRAGANZA

Friday saw the beginning of fashion week and it is now well underway, i was lucky enough to get to dress at one of my favourite designers Jean-Pierre Braganza's show. Jean-Pierre used to tutor at my uni but now he just comes very now and again to review our collections progress. It was great to be able to see the clothes up close and take note of the finishing and techniques, they were all so beautifully made. Below are some shots from the catwalk show taken from the london fashion week website. The first model is the one i dressed.

The cutting techniques were so interesting to look at the shapes and structure of the garments really reflected the beautiful prints well. Good job J-P!

Here a few sneaky shots from my iphone apologies for the extremely bad quality the camera on those phones are shit.

It was all really well organised and the prepping for the show went nice and smoothly. The chaos didn't come until we moved the rails backstage two other designers were showing as apart of the same show Felder Felder and Hannah Marshal, whos clothes didn't look too impressive tbh it mainly consisted of black velvet dresses with oversized shoulders and very unflattering leather trousers!

Show was over pretty quickly with one quick change with my model, gotta love a quick change! Then clothes were packed away back into boxes and the shoes (Nicholas Kirkwood ones which were amazing!) were ticked off bagged up and ready to go! Then we were free to leave and finally get some food!

STUDIO FUN

As i mentioned before i didn't want to reveal too much about my collection before the final garments are produced. Im really enjoying the process of making my collection its really what makes me feel most satisfied and happy, although at the same time it induces a large amount of stress, sleepless nights and a few tears every now and then but thats all part of the creative process!

All my six outfits are toiled up, I'll have a final fitting this week and hopefully if all goes to plan I'll have all my fabrics sorted this week so I can cut out my patterns and send them up to leicester to the factory to be made up! Also my prints need to be finalised, had many test ones printed but still need to play around and make a few changes but they are getting there!

Im so excited to see it all come together and seeing all the hard work pay off. I aim to get in the studio everyday between 8 and 8.30am staying to till closing time at 8, so its pretty long 12 hour days but we manage to have lots of fun and keep ourselves entertained! Often this involves cupcakes to help fuel the day and keep us happy! Lola's red velvet ones from Selfridges are the cup cake of choice!

Inappropriate names for materials provide us with a giggle 

When all gets too much calms is our saviour, pro plus keeps us going in times of need and vitamins are needed to accompany the shit we eat in a hurry. 

Steph obviously hadnt been abusing the supplies...

Dont worry we saved her from suffication. 

So theres a brief update in the world of third year fashion design. I'll try to update a bit more regularly again as hand in is in the horizon (this makes me want to throw up). It really breaks my heart to think this could be the last collection i ever get to make, or if i hopefully do get the opportunity to do more it realistically wont be for a very long time. Why can't i be born into a rich and famous family?!