Textiles

So I've just started the HSC Textiles course, and am finding it very challenging. My teacher has very high expectations, and I find myself turning up 10 minutes early to every class just to avoid the chance of being late and getting a demerit! I feel like such a nerd.

Anyway, we've started work on seams. We've been doing some sample work, and I thought I'd put some pictures up.

Pardon the terrible quality photos, but I couldn't find my camera and had to resort to my computer webcam.


These are my bound seams - very tricky. I was the first person in the class (but certainly not the last) to get a cotton lock over doing this fiddly work. That means that the fabric gets stuck in the bobbin thing and you pretty much have to take apart the whole machine and rip out your fabric. Thanks for using me as a demonstraction, that really made my day (not). At least I learned to be more careful!


These were my first attempts at using an overlocker - what a marvellous invention!! A few seconds of loud noises, and the machine creates a complex stitch and cuts the fabric for you, and it always looks professional.


On this page I sewed some very simple hems, and the bottom three were hand-stitched. Oh yes, I am amazing at handstitching after those hundreds of hours I've spent on cross-stitches!!! It was supposed to take the whole lesson, and I finished in the first 20 minutes :D Browny points for me.


As a reward for fininishing the handstitching so quickly, my teacher showed me this very unusual seam. Hand-stitched again, but I'm not sure if I did it quite right... I think this is called scalloped or something? It's supposed to be a decorative hem for sleeves or something.

So yeah, Textiles is turning out as more challenging than I thought, but lots of fun! Haven't had to do any figure drawings yet though ;)

Drawing, drawing, drawing...

As I am about to begin a textiles class at school, I thought I should put some work into getting better at fashion drawings.

Not that I'm saying any are particularly fashionable.

I was helped along the way though, so you might be able to see the way my original fairly-preportionate manga-ish drawings turn into more stylised, yet realistic drawings.

(Hopefully clicking on them will enlarge them, if they appear too small....)

based on a photo. which i could have created this out of my head...

this one was based on fanart of the Zelda character Midna in human form. Something weird with her feet... O_O

This is a drawing of a childhood figure I created in the first novel I ever wrote, starting at age 10 and finishing age 13.

okay, now we're getting into fashion designing.

random schoolgirl portrait. When i began on the eyes, it was going to be a model... thats why they're scarily 'made-up'

Harry Potter Dobby socks

After much trial and error, I completed my Christmas Harry Potter socks at 10pm on Christmas night!!!

At least I had two hours to wear them on the right occasion :D



Yeah, a lot of pain to do these...

They were my first attempt at making socks!

I can turn a heal!!!! :D

It's actually far easier than I thought...

Thankyou, youtube tutorials!!

Manga Studios

So I got this manga studios present for my birthday... and have only JUST gotten round to using it :P I wanted to trial it, and so picked that random picture which I posted previously of my formal dress, and started fiddling with this program. This drawing took me 2 hours :S it's a bit more complicated than I thought... and I haven't worked out how to do the tails on speech bubbles yet!!!

So yeah, here's my random digital art test:


p.s the face and hair are totally off, but i made them just random. i was mainly focusing on the outfit. How cool is the flower pattern on the dress?? So cool when i found that template :D

Formal and Dobby Socks

Well I had my year 10 formal last week! In the excitement of the week leading up to it, and during a very boring art lesson, I drew an A3 version of my dress:


It's not great, but it's my first sketch in what feels like forever! My 2008 drawing phase which essentially started this blog has seriously died down...

Anywho, this is me and some other friends at the formal - see if you can pick my dress!!

Meanwhile, in getting in the mood for Christmas (and the release of the latest Harry Potter movie) I have been knitting some Dobby christmas socks! For all you non-fans out there, Dobby the house-elf knits Harry some socks for Christmas in book 4, a red one with broomsticks, and a green one with snitches. I am very excited about finishing these socks and wearing them for Christmas - even if it is a bit too hot for them!!

Living Through World War II

'Living Through World War II' - my PIP (personal interest pathway) project for 2010 at my school. I interviewed three lovely ladies from my church who grew up together through the war, and on the side I knitted some Wristlets:


Very simple rib pattern.

Only ever had time to complete one of my Two-Way Mittens, thats how darn complicated they were:



My 10-minute presentation was probably the longest I've stood up and spoken in front of a crowd - a bit daunting, but totally worth it!! In my stall I had world war two music, lollies, books, and even a dress from my sister's WWII musical a few years back...



Shall now work on completing the second mitten - I never thought I'd actually want to wear them, but they're the best bit of knitting I've ever done :) After that, I might be knitting some socks for the first time :D gotta learn how to turn a heal...

Username change!

Hey everyone, this is a notice that my username has changed to Albusowner, which is my usual online name, and since I use blogspot more for my own blogging instead of commenting on my sister's blog, I've changed my name to something more personal!

In case anyone was wondering, I am the owner of my hillarious dog Albus, hense the name ;)


Mass-knitting required to finish my project in three weeks... and I haven't even started to think about creating my presentation movie :S Oops...