Print, make, wear : creative projects for digital textile design

176 Pages·2015·42.533 MB·English

by  Melanie Bowles, The People's Print

Author’s dedication:
To my mother Stella
Published in 2015
by Laurence King Publishing Ltd
361–373 City Road
London EC1V 1LR
Tel [phone]
Fax [phone]
E [email protected]
www.laurenceking.com
Design copyright
©2014 Laurence King Publishing Limited
Text copyright
©2014 Melanie Bowles
www.melaniebowles.co.uk
Melanie Bowles has asserted her right under
the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 to
be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording or any
information storage and retrieval system,
without prior permission in writing from
the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978 178067 470 4
Designed by Jane Chipchase-Bates
Project Editor: Gaynor Sermon
Printed in China
Print, Make,
Print, Make,
Wear
Wear
..........................
..........................
Creative Projects for
DiCgriteaal tTiveex tPilreo jDeecstsig fno r
Digital Textile Design
....................................................
MeMlaenlaien iBe oBwolwesles
anadn Tdh Teh Pee Poepolep’lse ’Psr Pinrtint
1
1 2
CONTENTS
DIGITAL Paintbrush Post-Modern
Floral Play
DESIGN
Melanie Bowles Melanie Bowles
TUTORIALS
Page 10 Page 24
6 7 8
Bargello Dahlia Clara’s
Dress Skirt Patchwork
Melanie Bowles Melanie Bowles Clara Vuletich
00
Page 68 Page 82 Page 94
12 13 14
Stitched Made in Modern
by Jane Brixton Folk
Jane Bates Kathryn Round Dr Emma Neuberg
Page 136 Page 146 Page 158
4
3 4 5
Easy Boy Vintage Floral Hackney

Check Collage Lights
Melanie Bowles Melanie Bowles Ruth Esmé Mitchell
Page 36 Page 46 Page 58
9 10 11
Digital Colour Monotone
Shibori Me In Man
Joanna Fowles Nina Chakrabarti Henry Muller
Page 106 Page 118 Page 128
Digitally printing

your fabric
Page 170
Making
your garment
Page 172
Pattern designers and
digital print bureaus
Page 174
RESOURCES
Acknowledgments
& credits
Page 176
5
FOREWORD
Once upon a time, if you wanted to print There is also a much larger cultural
some fabric to make a new blouse you had implication and big-vision philosophy behind
to look in the telephone directory and cold Print Make Wear that sits silently beneath
call a printer who would tell you that, after a the surface. This is a best-practice ethos with
prohibitive set-up fee, they could offer you a a nod to sustainable development and new
minimum run of 500 metres. And that’s if you ‘maker models’ developed over many years
were lucky! Of course, you didn’t need 500 by the author (and The People’s Print). An
metres, you only needed two. The design you example of one such best practice aspect
had in mind was lovely and original and you relates to DIY culture and consumer-centred
could really picture yourself wearing it, but design. Broadly speaking, this marks a
with no way to print it you gave up and went cultural shift in consumers’ attitudes by
to a high-street store instead. There, you’d end challenging the individual’s relationship with
up buying a printed blouse that thousands of passive consumerism and, in particular, the
other people owned in order to temper your consumption of mass-produced fashion.
disappointment and frustration
By giving the individual tools and know-
At long last, this scenario is a thing of the how to make their own designs, prints and
past. Thanks to contemporary digital printing clothes (in an accessible and professional
technology, there are now dozens of digital way), new ideas and methods of production
printers in many countries who print two are envisaged, new opportunities arise and
metres of fabric at the click of a button and new forms of industry and community are
at an affordable cost. Melanie Bowles and stimulated. This echoes past technological
The People’s Print have created this book to catalysts for spurring localized industry,
allow you to develop inspirational projects for example the Spinning Jenny (the first
and transform these into professional print- mechanized spinning frame) in the eighteenth
ready designs. The tutorials help you to avoid century and the domestic sewing machine
the pitfalls of making generic digitally printed in the nineteenth century, both of which
fabrics using old-fashioned effects such as transformed the textiles industry into entirely
tile repeats and mirror tools. She enables new, never-seen-before industrial enterprises.
you to fast track to sophisticated design,
professional-level skills and new clothes that The DIY design revolution that is at your
you, your friends and family will love. Gone fingertips in Print Make Wear promises a
are the days of hampered creativity! similar revolution – a contemporary catalyst
6
for change, empowerment and enterprise likely to see themselves as just consumers.
– that promises to shift the fashion-making Themes of textiles and sustainability arose
landscape into a new paradigm yet again. through the fast pace of fashion consumption
that increased exponentially over the last
Print Make Wear acts as a bridge between ten years (with retailers promoting dozens
ideas and making, presented in an accessible, of fashion seasons each year). Such speed
easy-to-follow way. As Melanie knows from and its broad anti-sustainable effects were
her role as a senior lecturer in Printed Textiles seen as so grave that even NGO organizations
at Chelsea College of Art and Design, much such as Greenpeace addressed them in
of art college training is about developing ‘Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up’.
a sophisticated vision and aptitude for The media has regularly reported on people
the process of ideation to realization in who were throwing away their clothes after
the students. Such precious knowledge is just one wearing or as soon as they were
distilled in these pages – a boon for amateurs, ‘out of date’…
professionals and graduates alike.
This is the contextual background
From a business point of view, the function from which Print Make Wear rises. Not only
of this book is multilayered. Not only does are the projects beautiful and inspiring, but
it stimulate exciting new opportunities for they also present a new starting point from
the printers, their suppliers, fans and clients, which to empower, enable and invigorate a
it creates new business opportunities for counter-culture, bespoke fashion, new skills
individual makers, supports young companies and exciting new maker communities.
that have limited time to develop new CAD
skills and stimulates the cottage industry Dr Emma Neuberg
businesses that are the backbone of so many www.thepeoplesprint.com
economies. From a cultural point of view,
the tutorials in this book stimulate people’s
skills during an era that at times has been
fearful of losing its local craft, making and
manufacturing skills. The stimulation of
design and production skills is important in
this case as it not only empowers people but
if individuals produce things they are less
7

DIGITAL
DESIGN
TUTORIALS
10