scarves and ruffles!

I made a prototype scarf at the start of the project, but it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted. Despite that I decided to have another go and dyed two lots of fabric a bright blue colour. The first bit of fabric I wanted to make into a large wrap style scarf. I started by adding some splashes of batik dye to it, to make it look a bit like a watery rock pool (this is what I tried for the prototype but it didn't really work)

I then frayed the edges to give a tassel look. This took a very long time so I think I would just sew on a tassel trimming next time. Then I hand sewed the hem into a rolled edge. Again this took a long time, but it gives a really neat professional finish.

The second lot of fabric I dyed was thinner, and I wanted to turn this into a few ruffly scarves that would evoke the ruffle on shells and ripples in the sea. To do this I cut the fabric into strips and hemmed it on the machine using a scallop stitch. Then using elastic in the bobbing and blue thread on top, I sewed various straight and wavy lines to create the ruffles. After I had finished the ruffles, I decided that the scarves would look better if they were joined at the ends to create a kind of light snood.

The finished purses

Since I had discovered the secrets of attaching a lining whilst making the square bag, I felt confident about completing my purses. Again they used brown leather as the outer and my printed silk as the lining, finished off with a resin filled zip pull.

The trickiest part was figuring out the order of sewing for the double pocket purse, as this is essentially one purse inside another. I found some good videos on Youtube which suggested securing both piece of fabric with thin strips of double sided tape. This works really well and you can peel it off after you sewn over it.

Second-hand finds!

To start of making my actual finished products, I needed to source some garments to use as fabric. I really wanted to find a brown leather jacket for my main bag and purses, something with lots of zips and then anything that might provide some inspiration.

This is what I found. I was really pleased to find the brown leather coat above which will provide loads of material for my bags and purses. The top coat also has a lot of zips which will be useful for some new purse ideas. The brown suede coat I thought would look good as a base for a bag in contrast to a bright print. The colour also looks like sand which ties into my theme.

Inspirational images

To start my project I gathered some photos and magazine cut outs of products that had a similar theme of shells and stuck them into my PPJ work book.

This page shows how initially I did a simple search for products featuring shells. It proves that it is a versatile theme that can be applied to clothes, accessories and home ware. I like the prints and the use of shells as embellishments and as a shape for 3D objects.

Although these photocopied images don't show my theme directly, to me they invoke the frills and ruffles of shells. I could use these fabric manipulation techniques in my own products to add some surface decoration without having to make a print or drawing.

I love the print image on this dress. It reminds me of a rock pool, and I think it would be quite easy to replicate using batik dyes and randomly dropping it onto fabric so that the colours bleed together. I also like the textures of the group of fabrics on the right. I could use a similar mix of chunky and fine fabrics to add some contrast and interest to my products.