Second year project #2: Final Designs

Here's my final designs for my second year project :)

They're my presentation boards for my portfolio, so I've done the first as a concept board to just sum up the ideas and inspiration behind the clothes and the designs:

This design below consists of a 'Freesize' floaty top to be worn oversized and/or off the shoulder, tucked into the 'paper bag' waist hand knitted trousers, synched in at the waist with a belt. The top is made from fabric recycled from an old maxi skirt found in a charity shop (I always like reusing the fabric on old maxi skirts, cause you get a lot of fabric!), the wool is a chunky mottled brown, knitted with size 8 needles in a cable pattern running down the front and back centre of each leg. They are gathered in at the ankle and can be pushed up the leg if the wearer is shorter or pulled down if they are taller, with an elasticated cuff at the ankle. I also made the leather belt from scraps of dark brown leather, sewn together in a sort of patchwork :)

Having the belt and no set size on the waist of the trousers means that the waist can be adjusted to the wearer purely by loosening or tightening the belt, and gathering the waist to size.

I also included some scans of my knitting samples!

The second outfit is made up of 3 parts, the first being a gathered ballet-style skirt (made adjustable with a ribbon tie at the waist, allowing it to be made bigger or smaller depending on the wearer), an adjustable top with ribbon tie straps (with ribbon threaded through the front and back neckline to allow it to be loosened or tightened to accommodate any chest/bust size) and finally an overlay decorative top made from recycled vintage crochet doilies, fastened with ribbon ties at the side, again to allow it to fit the size of the wearer:

The last outfit is made up of a slouchy jersey t-shirt, also worn oversize and/or off the shoulder, and tucked into the trousers. The trousers/'cigarette pants' are meant to have a smart, tailored finish to balance out the slouchy fit of the top, and are made from a rusty orange colour wool.

The trousers have two long tabs that fold over each other at the front of the waist, with a series of 5 wooden buttons that run in a line underneath. This allows the wearer to wear the buttons on any setting they like to fit their waist size, either on the tightest/loosest setting or even in between.

This outfit also includes the slouchy loose knit cardigan made from recycled string (shown in the previous post!) with key-hole button holes and tiny little brass keys for the buttons!

Pictures of the photo shoot for this little collection will follow soon!

:)

x