End of year show

I didn't know how much space I would be allowed for my end of year show, but I had a rough idea of how I wanted to present my products and brought along some props to help set the scene. Using the mannequin helped to show people the scale of the big bag as well as showing it off as a feature piece. It also showed how to wear the scarves and how well they went together. I kept my colour palette to blues to enforce my theme of the beach, my products also showed up well against it.

The small section in the middle was for my purses and I used my props here to get them noticed. Surrounding my smaller products with shells, driftwood, sea pebbles and seaweed made my stand look more interesting and added some different colours and textures. It was also a good place to put my business cards (I put them inside a large shell) which I printed onto brown card to keep to the natural theme and also because I thought they would be different to everyone elses.

I think my end of year show was successful as people gave good feedback such as they were products you would buy in a shop. After completing this project, I feel that I know which direction I am going in and it has given me a lot of confidence in my products. I would like to continue making bags and purses using a mixture of fabrics and my designs and try selling them online and at craft fairs.

One last idea

For my final digital print I wanted to make a statement bag with my print all over. I found this picture of a large bag on the website WGSN, and wanted to make something similar.

My first idea was to make a bottom separately that had a strip around it connecting to the fabric of the bag. I made all my measurements, created a pattern and tried it out in calico. It didn't work! I tried a few times but had trouble with the size, connecting the two handles, connecting the base to the top...

Basically I didn't have time to keep trying with a pattern that I couldn't get to work. So I decided to create a completely new pattern which would give me a similarly looking bag. This one worked! My digital fabric was blue so I chose the beige leather coat I had found and used that as a base as I thought the two colours would look good together.

The lining of the coat was a really nice silky gold which I thought would match the base and contrast with the outer. It also make the bag look a bit more luxurious. Finally I finished it with a pocket on the inside and a business label.

I really like this bag and I would like to make it out of other materials in different colours. I also think it would be easy to re-size to have a range of smaller versions.

A tote bag

I decided to make a tote bag as I thought it would be a good way of showing off my digital print and also I had made one before, so I had a good idea of the process. However, I made a prototype out of calico and included the lining this time, to make sure I knew what I was doing and that my pattern worked.

To make the bag a bit more special, I decided to add sides and a bottom, long handle and a back panel all made from black leather. I also added a black lining made from the same coat the leather came from.

To make my bags look more professional, I made some label with my company name on them. This was done by printing the name onto T-shirt transfer paper and then ironing onto a ribbon. I think this worked very well and keeps the cost of having labels printed down, while I am starting my business.

scarves and ruffles!

I made a prototype scarf at the start of the project, but it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted. Despite that I decided to have another go and dyed two lots of fabric a bright blue colour. The first bit of fabric I wanted to make into a large wrap style scarf. I started by adding some splashes of batik dye to it, to make it look a bit like a watery rock pool (this is what I tried for the prototype but it didn't really work)

I then frayed the edges to give a tassel look. This took a very long time so I think I would just sew on a tassel trimming next time. Then I hand sewed the hem into a rolled edge. Again this took a long time, but it gives a really neat professional finish.

The second lot of fabric I dyed was thinner, and I wanted to turn this into a few ruffly scarves that would evoke the ruffle on shells and ripples in the sea. To do this I cut the fabric into strips and hemmed it on the machine using a scallop stitch. Then using elastic in the bobbing and blue thread on top, I sewed various straight and wavy lines to create the ruffles. After I had finished the ruffles, I decided that the scarves would look better if they were joined at the ends to create a kind of light snood.

The finished purses

Since I had discovered the secrets of attaching a lining whilst making the square bag, I felt confident about completing my purses. Again they used brown leather as the outer and my printed silk as the lining, finished off with a resin filled zip pull.

The trickiest part was figuring out the order of sewing for the double pocket purse, as this is essentially one purse inside another. I found some good videos on Youtube which suggested securing both piece of fabric with thin strips of double sided tape. This works really well and you can peel it off after you sewn over it.

A little extra

At the start of this project, I bought some sheets of double-sided, washable, printable cotton. (from Crafty Computer Paper) I wasn't really sure what to do with, but tried it out by printing some of the tester patterns I had made using the pen tool in Photoshop. These looked quite good and I started to think about what I could make that would show off both sides of the print. I had some clear PVC left over from my plastic shell clutch and decided to mix the two and make some little bus pass holders.

These were really quick and not very expensive to make. I also like how you can mix prints and produce them at home.

Square embroidered purses

One of the coats I bought had a lot of zips on it and I thought it would be good to try and make some purses where I didn't have to insert the zip myself!

To add some decoration and interest I used the free embroidery foot on the sewing machine and stitched shells and seaweed in a contrasting turquoise thread.

This way of making a purse was so much simpler and I'm going to start looking out for garments with zips that I can easily incorporate into my products.