Paper dress...

Above: trial of mini paper dress

On Thursday I laser cut the patterns from the first prototype. Over the weekend I had a go at constructing the garment. It was tricky to work with something so small and delicate but I was happy with the outcome. I had thought that I would use white paper for my wallpaper in the exhibition but there are problems with the laser leaving a burn mark, similar problems I was having with the fabric. Working in such a small scale proved difficult, but hopefully when it's bigger and I have the correct seam allowance there will be a better way to construct the garment.

I've started to think about the 'campaign' image that will be handed out at the exhibition. At the start of the semester I wanted to try and create one image that captures my concept in one image. Since I'm incorporating the paper knit in the exhibition, I've started to play around with a couple of ideas for the photo shoot. Instead of just having an image of a model wearing the dress, I was thinking I could print out the image and then cut it out like I did with the paper knits, then retake the shot. I trialled the idea with a basic photo of the garment I took a while back. It reminded me of a primary school activity when you cut out strips from magazines and then layered them to create one image. Two of the same photos were printed, then the rows of knit loops were printed on the back of them. It's hard to explain, but because the knit's shrink when they're put together you can't just use one photo, a second photo with alternating rows is needed. Complicated and I'm probably the only person who understands what I mean, but it works! The end result is shown below, creating a paper knit that you can still see the original image of. Hopefully this still gets across my concept instead of just having a regular photoshoot.

Above: Original image

Above: Paper knit