In Orbit: Neoprene and prints

I didn't think I could get so excited about a package arriving. When I went to Sydney last week, I received this picture message from my housemates and couldn't wait to get back to Brisbane to get my hands on its contents...

"You've got package love!"

The box contained my fabric order that I had been waiting on to begin sampling: neoprene, mesh and spandex.

It was exciting to get the neoprene in particular as it is pretty much impossible to find a similar fabric to sample in - a thick 4-way stretch fabric (think wetsuit material) is definitely not stocked in Spotlight.

For some reason, the white is significantly thinner than the colours, and the black is the thickest. This will effect the fit of the garment, and I will soon see how and in what way.

These Neoprene colours are what my dreams are made of. My recently developed aversion to black clothes and the fact that the black Neoprene feels to thick and rubbery has helped my decision to avoid black in my final collection. Therefore, I have some 'design development' to do, which I knew would happen anyway as my drawing skills sometimes don't effectively communicate the 2D to 3D.

Prints:

More exciting developments! My fabric prints are done and look amazing! The quality is better than I expected and the colours are true to the photograph.

The beginnings of a circle skirt using the polyester satin fabric.

The printed mesh provoked poetic ideas... 'a window into the night sky' (neoprene cutout over printed stretch mesh)

Now I know of the quality of the prints, I will get many more meters of both the mesh and satin printed. Now the hard part will be choosing and modifying the images for printing. I aim to rework the images to make them more refined and with less colour variance.

I am hoping that the prints will add depth to my collection, giving it a more personal and unique touch than just block colours.

Sydney:

My trip to Sydney last week proved useful for ideas on garment construction using neoprene... unexpected yet useful ideas! The Cynthia Rowley for Roxy stand in David Jones gave me the chance to look at construction using neoprene. This was very helpful, as I have mostly worked with woven fabrics to make garments, and was finding it difficult to understand how I would construct the garments using neoprene and stretch wear sewing techniques.

Apologies for the bad photographs, I was sneaking them with my iphone...