Research images
Process pictures
Final pictures
Must chart
Tee Me Project Statement
The theme of this project is to discover the style of nationality, the occupation, the related surface decoration for my self-designed t-shirt matching with the last project, the jeans. The tee shirt has to use the textile of knit, which contains different elasticity.
According to my nationality and my occupation chosen, my t-shirt has to relate to gardeners and China. The first thing reminding me about Chinese and Gardeners was the Chinese national flowers – Poeny. And the most mimicking manipulation on fabric to represent flowers so fas is the smocking I learned from the textile class. So I chose the American smocking which is very like the petal of poeny and decorated them on the edge of sleeves and under the breast to give a shape.
For the silhouette, I created high collar to prevent sand and dirt in the outdoor gardens, and mid-calf sleeves to prevent sun burn. The elasticity I chosen was natural stretch to increase the ease and comfort for the gardeners. But the whole shape was kindly tight for the reason to keep body temperature in a bid windy day. The color I chose was white in order to match the strips on the jeans.
During the process, I found that the cover stitch machine that I touched for the first time was not easy to manipulate, there are several area need to be take care of: cut the thread before stepping on the pedal, make sure all the threads are going through the right holes, keep the desk clean, and do it slowly and carefully. Also, working with the white fabric also needs to take more attention to the ironing board and desk where we worked on. I’d better put on a piece of muslin and check the iron before doing anything on my t-shirt. Because the accidence happened to me twice when I ironing my t-shirt and it got dirty. Also my t-shirt got ruined when I was using the cover stitch when I didn’t cut the thread at the beginning and when I pull it out.
However, doing smocking is really fun for me. I love all the hand-sewing technique that makes my shirt pretty and floral. I learned a lot after this project, especially dealing with knits that have both fun and inconvenience. In the future, I would like to experience more on fabric manipulation and surface decoration on any kind of fabric. I am really appreciated.