Final Major Project - Making

Having designed each 'slide' of my storyboard the obvious next stage of my project was making all of it. Thinking about fabrics for each one I started, taking great care with each one. They took me anywhere between half an hour and four hours each to make. Obviously I knew it would be very difficult and time consuming when I undertook this task, and had been warned by tutors and peers that perhaps I should lessen the number I intended to make to ease up my work load. However, I am very determined and dedicated  to this project and am very happy to have successfully made all 18 components of my final garment:

Thaumatrope: Applique, Sheer Polyester as retained image and solid Cotton on
Cream Cotton and Viscose

Magic Lantern Slide: Fabric Paint on Acetate

Zoetrope Reel: Digital Print on Crepe Polyester

Anaglyph: Digital Print on White Polyester

Flip Book: Machine Embroidery on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Flip Book: Fabric Paint on White Polyester

Phenakistoscope: Digital Print on White Sateen Polyester

Stereoscope: Hand Embroidery on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Camera Obscura: Free- Hand Embroidery on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Flip Book: Hand Embroidery on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Stereoscope: Fabric Paint on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Magic Lantern Slide: Fabric Paint on Acetate

Phenakistoscope: Digital Print on White Polyester 

Making of:

Camera Obscura: Machine Embroidery and Fabric Paint on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Magic Lantern Slide: Fabric Paint on Acetate

Anaglyph: Digital Print on White Sateen Polyester

Making of:

Zoetrope Reel: Free-Hand Embroidery on Cream Cotton and Viscose

Film End Screen: Digital Print on White Sateen Polyester
(also shown heat transfer printer paper used in making)

When making I took into account the different methods and how they would influence the final effect. For example, I did all the magic lantern slides in paint on shiny acetate as I feel it suggests the reflection of the glass that slides made of. The phenakistoscopes are digital prints of pencil drawings to give the effect of aged paper and the thaumatrope design is half done with a sheer fabric to suggest it is the retained afterimage. Alltogether, the 'slides' have turned out better than I expected and I am very pleased with them and even though I ignored the advice to set myself less work am glad I didn't, as with 18 motifs I really feel like I have a complete collection that works as a cohesive narrative. I am also pleased because with this number as it means I have really exhibited a wide range of movement studies and include all the devices I researched.

Making them was obviously not without its difficulties though. Continuity was a big one as working with many different media made it difficult to exactly match up colour shades, and although I did my best there are some discrepancies. Also, drawings are not very effectively made into anaglyphs and so practically they do not work well. However, when seen without 3D glasses I feel they still have a nice effect.

Next I had to decide how to fit them all together into a garment. I visualised this by pinning all the components together on a mannequin in order to visualise it properly:

I did find that I had to move a few out of sequence so that they could all fit together but none so drastically s to mess up the narrative as it was planned. Therefore, when I was happy with the configuration I unpinned it all from the mannequin and laid it out like so:

This layout meant I could take bits out and slowly sew them all together into a patchwork. I encountered several difficulties with this, the worst of which being sewing in the phenakistoscope designs. As they are circular it was nearly impossible but I did the best I could and it turned out well enough. Having sewn all the sections together I then stitched binding around the rough top edges and added straps. However, I decided to leave the bottom edge rough so as to give the 'storyboard' effect a continuous feel. In other words, making it look slightly unfinished so that the viewer can imagine more slides after the ending. One flaw that became apparent after sewing it all together is that the patchwork quality and use of many different fabrics does not result in a good drape. However, the garment fulfils its intended purpose as a wearable storyboard and I feel is an interesting and visually pleasing piece. With it finished I now intend to photograph it appropriately so as to bring my project to it's final conclusion.