Arts Challenge

For my arts challenge I wanted to do something that would tie in with what I've been doing a lot of recently both for a hobby of mine, cosplay, and at college, which is printing or painting on material to create an image or pattern. Repeat or no. It's something that I really enjoy and inadvertently end up doing a lot.

There are a number of parts to this, the main part being that I plan to create a steel boned underbust corset for myself using skills that I picked up at the V&A workshop that I did on couture dressmaking (which happens to be one of the arts events that I chose to review). I've made a corset before for a costume that I wore back in September, but that one was overbust and I've had to alter the pattern accordingly.

Here's a picture of that one in action.

I want the corset that I'm making for the arts award to have a steampunk-y feel since that's a style that I really adore so I chose warm rusty colours for the materials. The back half where it laces up will be burgundy silk and it will be lined with brown twill. The printing comes in when we get to the four front sections which will be patchwork, created from sections of scrap fabric that I've got lying around from previous projects upon which I have printed using collagraphs, it will do up at the front via a busk bone with silver clasps attached.

I was inspired to use collagraphs because of a recently finished college project where we created collagraphs and brought in materials from home to print on. I was the only one who thought of bringing in fabric. Unfortunately I can't use the orignal fabric that I printed because I didn't use textile medium and the paint hasn't dried properly upon the fabric. I have though applied the techniques I learned from doing that to my own -less abstract- collagraphs, which have printed beautifully!

The second part is to create three shirts with prints on the front. Years ago I went through a whole faze of making personalized shirts as presents for people, I've always loved the thought of being able to customize and alter your clothes however you want so this is pretty perfect for me.
Back in the summer I created a series of screen prints, one that was inspired by one of my favorite singer Emilie Autumn and another that was inspired by one of my favorite TV shows 'Firefly'. Unfortunately I can't afford to screen print straight onto the fabric because that would require an inordinate amount of fabric paint which is expensive and not strong/thick enough to be worth it. Instead I scanned in and flipped the original prints plus one Emilie Autumn one which I had embellished with ribbons, buttons, safety pins and beads with the intention to print them onto transfer paper and iron them onto t-shirts.

The third and final part is one that I have already completed, back in July I made a series of five panels and a giant bow for a costume that I wore on stage at small convention in London. Not only did I make the panels I also designed them since there were no existing designs for this version of the character. 
This is just another example of applying patterns to textiles, it's far less controlled since I did all six things free hand (over a two day period consisting of lots of cartoons, tea and late nights).

Timeline

I finished my bronze arts award in July and started one element of the arts challenge (the freehand silk panels) then put the rest off for ages due to wanting to focus on costuming and college. College though, happened to be my inspiration to start the silver. We made collagraphs in class and I wanted to take it further and that's when I thought of doing a silver arts award orientated around pattern for textiles which I hadn't been sure about before, not knowing what direction I wanted to take the panels in.

It should take me around a week to create the collagraphs, create the pattern for the corset and cut the fabric for the back half and lining. Then maybe another week to print and pin the scraps for the patchwork front of the corset, then another week to sew and bone it. The eyelets and lacing will go in in not time at all and then I'll get some pictures of it on, leaving time for adjustments.
It took me about two and a half days working for about five to eight hours to pull the silk panels together and I estimate it should take about a day of work to get the t-shirts finished.

I can't possible time all the events that I'm going to include, because I might decide to add more as I go along and they'll be so spread out and things like that have a tendency to over run anyway.

It takes me ages to focus enough to plan things, so it might take me a while to plan the leadership challenge and maybe around a day, half a day to film it (I've got a vague idea what I want to do). Then a few hours to edit.
All this including the writing up of everything I've done.

My strengths and weaknesses

My strengths consist of an affinity for material, patterns (the paper kind that you make clothes from), sewing, writing, and converting the 2D to 3D by bringing it to life via cosplay. In these specific areas my weaknesses are drafting patterns too generously (thus always ending up with too large clothing), rushing when I'm sewing and making some kind of dumb mistake and writing too late at night, which gives birth to armies of typos. But overall my weaknesses consist of a lack of patience, unhealthy and semi-fleeting obsessions in things which result in a complete disregard for everything else that's going on at the same time (including sleep) and laziness.

Skills to develop

During this project I hope to develop skills in drafting patterns (the paper kind) and the creation of patterned fabric. I think these two skills are incredibly important and key to what I want to do in the future since drafting a good pattern is the foundation of any costume, without it you would have something that is unstructured and ill fitting and patterned cloth is used all the time.