Pretty Little Flowers!

One thing Shabby Chic designs have in common is flowers! So to help me get inspired and designing my fabric for my final show, I went to visit a local Florist... The Florist Ltd in Bristol! They were very kind to let me take photos of well.. nearly all of their lovely flowers! :) I also visited a Garden Centre and did the same. 

I tired to take mostly photos of roses are they are the most common flower seen in shabby chic designs. 

Here are some of my photos. :) 

Research, Research, Research...

So this week I have started my research into the Shabby Chic Style and Shabby Chic Designers...
I plan to look at Rachel Ashwell, Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley and Kirstie Allsopp... Yes I love Kirstie, her most recent TV Show, Kirstie's Vintage Home explored upcycling and vintage things, a perfect link for my project as Shabby Chic is a Vintage Style. 

OOooo... Did you know Kirstie Allsopp is Cath Kidston's cousin?!! 

I also created a Shabby Chic Board on my Pinterest Account, below are some beautiful images I found but there are more on my board... click here!

Also check out... 
Rachel Ashwell's Website
Cath Kidston's Website
Laura Ashley Website 
and... Kirstie's Website

Some examples of Upcycling... So very Clever!!

...and my personal favourite...

... just WOW! ♥

The Start of My Final Project... :)

So as part of our final project we can literally do anything and everything.  Yay! 
...and this is my Proposal:

My project is based on the genre of upcycling and homeware. I particularly like the shabby chic style and so I will look into upcycling methods, designers who use shabby chic and the shabby chic style itself. My target audience will be mainly females, as the shabby chic style uses lots of pastel colours and flowers, both considered feminine.

To start the project I am going to visit second-hand and antique shops as well as car boot sales, to find unique pieces. I particularly want a chair, a large picture frame, a lampshade and either a small side table or a small chest of drawers. I will give myself a budget of max. £40. I will then make mood boards and drawings of different possible ways to upcycle each of my chosen pieces of furniture or accessories. I definitely want to create a repeat pattern, which I will screen-print onto fabric. I will use this to reupholster the chair and to create other homeware accessories such as aprons, bunting, tea towels, table runners etc. I may also print it onto paper. The repeat pattern is important because it will tie in all my pieces of furniture to help make them more of a collection. Another important element of this project will be to photograph each object before and after upcycling. I may place these photos into a small scrapbook.

To produce original ideas I will use a variety of methods; I will use Pinterest as an idea generator, sketches and mood boards of my own ideas, which should be influenced by my research on shabby chic designers. I will also look at books and TV shows based on craft and upcycling.

The materials and techniques I want to use are restoring methods for wooden furniture and so wood filling, sanding, priming, painting with a brush or spray painting, it will depend on what I buy.

For the repeat pattern I will use screen printing onto fabric technique. Therefore I will need to draw and design a pattern, apply it to the screen, mix up fabric paint to create my chosen colours, print it and the iron it to make sure the paint holds. I may also print it onto paper.

Other equipment and techniques I may use include the sewing machine, staple gun and hand embroidery.  

For my final outcome I am going to produce part of a shabby chic interior, consisting of upcycled furniture and accessories as well as handmade pieces.

So you probably didn't read it all... anyway the main thing you need to know is that I will be exploring Shabby Chic & Upcycling. 

Life Drawing

So the life drawing sessions are now over, thought I would post some more of my drawings... 

Using Graphite, in a Cubist Style, Inspiration from
Picasso's Woman Playing the Mandolin (1910).
I used straight lines, tone and repetition of shapes.

Looking at Tone, done with Graphite.

Done with Graphite.

Done with Graphite.

Fine Liner Sketch, Inspiration from Van Gogh's Sorrow.

Oil Pastels on Black Paper - Abstract Style, I sketched in mostly areas of
light with light skin tones and pinks.

Oil Pastels on Black Paper - Realistic Style. I really enjoyed using oil pastels,
 I hadn't really used them before. 

Final Piece!

Final Piece.

Cardigan Detail.

Close up.

So this week I took my chosen photo and enlarged it to A3 Size. Then traced it with a fine line. Then using the traced version I scanned it into Photoshop and rubbed away any mistakes, after that I opened the image into Adobe Illustrated where I used 'Live Trace' to get more bold and defined lines. 

I then photocopied this and pinned it onto my fabric. I used it as a guide to stitch my design onto the fabric with the sewing machine. I used the embroidery foot. 

Live Traced Image. 

Photo of First Stage of Stitching, I edited the levels on Photoshop to give it more of a digital feel. After stitching over the paper I had to pick out the paper carefully, most of it tore away easily.

Close-up.
I hand stitched the eyes, and nostrils. For the eye-liner, I used Satin Stitch.

Photoshop Effects - I used the Hue/Saturation Tool to change the Colours. 

Photo Shoot!

Ok so here are photos of each outfit and some of my favourites. I used Photoshop to edit each one of these.

Outfit 1.

Outfit 2.

Outfit 3.

Outfit 4.

Outfit 5.

Outfit 6.

Outfit 7.

My favourite outfit is number 7. I decided that this is the outfit I would most like to recreate in embroidery and stitch form. The photo above is the one I will use, I like the pose and the thickness of the pattern in the cardigan, the detailed feathers in the top and lastly the glasses. Also there is just enough clothes to not overpower the image for when I recreate the jumper in embroidery.

Some more edited photos ... Hope you like :)

And some crazy colour versions! ;)