Challenge... fray a shirt
Fabric type... white cotton
Amount to fray... 5cm depth
Tools... Awl
Time... 2 days
Challenge accepted!
How hard can fraying fabric be? Easy? Quick? I thought so to! But with a weak fabric and a specific design line to follow, an hour in and I’d only managed a very small section.
The next shirt design incorporates a unique feature of a significant amount of fray up the front of the shirt. You could say the design line looks like a shark has had a chunk out of the pieces and then you could also say... I’m the shark! Once the main section was cut away, I began the process of fraying the fabric. As this was an urgent sample, needed for approval by Thursday, there was no time to research into a factory or send anything off. Instead I sat myself down, got comfy with some Netflix and began the process by hand.
It was definitely something that I hadn’t expected to be doing on my placement and it is all something that i hope I don’t have to do again. I can’t deny that after the 6/7 hour it took it looked super cool, but I am also happy to say that at the end of the week, I got to research into where we could send the shirt to be frayed by machine. I did learn from the experience too, finding out more about the fibres that make up a fabric, which is stronger, which can be pulled apart more easily, along with it being a good reminder of the warp and the weft.
When Thursday came, it was time for the shirt to be approved. Normally the shirt is put on a fit model and presented infront of the CEO, but with the model being away for the month on other commitments, I was roped in for the job. It was a lot like when having to be a model for critics when in first year. The shirt went on, it was looked at, pulled and altered while I stood there, trying to take a mental note of what as being said ready for going back into the studio the following day. The experience has shown me that just like at uni, you can be pulled in to do anything at any time, so you just have to take it on its head and go with the flow, especially as in the end I got a glass of wine out of it!
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