It's not often I get pictures while working on a project from start to finish since most things are an experiment, however this one was a bit special. While thinking about creating something wearable for my first event this weekend, I tossed around a few ideas before settling on a layered look inspired by a Project Runway "Unconventional Materials" Challenge.
This project is based around ironed plastic, or "Flastic" as we have been tossing around. It starts as a bag with the bottom seam and handles trimmed off, then for this particular project I took off the logo panel of the bag, which in total yielded approximately a 14"x24" piece of usable material. I used 4 layers for this project as it is not weight-bearing but does call for a bit of stiffness. After ironing, I used a round container to trace just over half way around to create the individual scales and the sizing worked out to about 12 scales per sheet. Now that we have a stack of scales to use, on to the next part.
For the base material of this creation, I used some reusable bag/utility type of fabric. I also used an easy fitting T-shirt to loosely draw a pattern on some paper for the back piece and mirrored for the front halves and seamed along the shoulder. After laying it out on the work surface, I started attaching scales at the back center bottom using 3 strands of embroidery thread and three x-stitches to prevent tearing. Continue layering towards the top and working towards the front. On the top visible layer along the collar and front edge, the scales are folded over the material to create a flat finished edge. When its all said and done, I have a capelet with a scale/armor look that is easy-wearing, lightweight, resilient and total took about 20 bags.
This project is based around ironed plastic, or "Flastic" as we have been tossing around. It starts as a bag with the bottom seam and handles trimmed off, then for this particular project I took off the logo panel of the bag, which in total yielded approximately a 14"x24" piece of usable material. I used 4 layers for this project as it is not weight-bearing but does call for a bit of stiffness. After ironing, I used a round container to trace just over half way around to create the individual scales and the sizing worked out to about 12 scales per sheet. Now that we have a stack of scales to use, on to the next part.
For the base material of this creation, I used some reusable bag/utility type of fabric. I also used an easy fitting T-shirt to loosely draw a pattern on some paper for the back piece and mirrored for the front halves and seamed along the shoulder. After laying it out on the work surface, I started attaching scales at the back center bottom using 3 strands of embroidery thread and three x-stitches to prevent tearing. Continue layering towards the top and working towards the front. On the top visible layer along the collar and front edge, the scales are folded over the material to create a flat finished edge. When its all said and done, I have a capelet with a scale/armor look that is easy-wearing, lightweight, resilient and total took about 20 bags.
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