So I have not posted on here for a while due to work so I decided to  set myself a small project and made some suffolk puff hair clips with vintage buttons

http://businessboombolton.com/2012/07/24/bolton-university-textile-and-surface-design-graduate-amy-tomlinson/

I would like to thank business boom bolton who have placed my work on there website please feel free to have a nosey

This week I have been making the wellington boot socks that you can see on the photograph I have taken. This pattern on the top of the sock’s was generated by taking a motif that I found in a church. I changed the motif to fit my colour way  and style of my work . I have also been researching Manish Arora who uses a lot of print pattern and creates beautiful dresses . I have also been looking at a designer named Etro they design clothes with lots of print pattern .
I created these wellington boot socks out of fleece connecting the pieces together using the over locker machine. I created the pattern section by digitally printing the pattern onto coated cotton satin.  I encountered a few problems creating these cuffs  as connecting them to the fleece was difficult. Eventually after sewing the sock in a different way I managed to create  the Wellington boot sock. I had to pin the cuff section onto the inside of the fleece sock sew those sections together and then invisible stitch the grey section underneath to create the wellington boot cuff. I decided to create these wellington boots for summer as you can never tell what the British weather will do.

This week after digitally printing my design’s for the tops onto fabric I constructed the garment’s.

I am happy with the way the garments have been printed, the repeated triangle top design did however shrink by 7 cm when it was washed and dried which made the triangles smaller. But this  has not affected the design in fact it makes it better. I like the feel of the coated silk cotton Diana white as it is very light weight which makes the tops ideal for summer beach wear. As they can be worn over swimwear  or as a light weight top for those hot summer days.

I have had to purchase a much thinner plastic. After testing the plastic on the  sewing machine on the free hand foot I have found that the plastic tears far to easily. So to overcome this problem I have decided to hand stitch the design on to the back of the raincoat as you can see on the image below.

I used mainly  chain stitch on the raincoat as I found that this did not rip the plastic . I also used invisible thread to sew the blue, red and gold beads on. I encountered a few problems with the beading as if I pulled the needle and thread to fast or to hard the plastic tore and I therefore had to start again.

 I am very happy with my the way the raincoat has turned out  and using the thinner plastic has made it a lot more flexible and light weight.

Over the last two weeks I have been making a toile of  a raincoat out of thick clear plastic completed with a ¼ inch black bias binding. Making this jacket became a miniature challenge as  the plastic was a hard to work with. I had to hand sew the pieces of the pattern together as they would often get slide whilst putting the plastic through the sewing machine if they was not tacked. The plastic was also hard to put pins into as it would often rip so it was difficult to cover the edges with bias binding. Overall I am extremely happy with my raincoat toile and the way that it looks

I have recently been on a trip to London to The British Museum to see an exhibition

called  Treasures of Heaven saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe. This was

a wonderful exhibition that contained painting’s, drawing’s,Jewellery pieces, marble,

 gold and glass pieces or art and  history. I found this Exhibition very interesting as

many of the piece’s in the collection had intricate details and very small drawings.

This week I went on a trip to Edinburgh to see St Giles Cathedral. Whilst in Edinburgh I

took a wide selection of photographs . I enjoyed learning about the history of the city

and looking at the variety of stained glass windows. Statues and  benches in the cathedral, The attention to detail  was amazing especially in the windows which  were all stained glass. The photograph on the left hand side is of a statue which is in the centre of a park I found this  interesting as it has a gothic feel towards it. I also found the way that the stone has aged interesting  as it has done this on the Cathedral walls,

 

This week I have been on a trip to York. Whilst in York I have explored the Cathedrals and

churches  I find the architecture fascinating as each Church has its own unique style.

Below are a few photographs which I took.Whilst in York I also visited the York Art Gallery and I looked around the exhibitions that they had in one of the rooms  I looked around have a lot of religious painting’s  from the 14th- 19th century most of these are from Italy. Whilst walking round I noticed that other religions had less imagery and art work in museums.