LBD's at the D & T Show November 17th - 19th


You may remember a few posts back that I was talking about the LBD collection from Portsmouth College. I was so impressed with what Sarah Patterson and her students had achieved using amongst other things, black bin liners, bubble pack and polyester organza that I asked ICHF if we could display them at the Design & Technology Show. The organisers said Yes! and we had a display at the front of the hall. It looked fantastic.
 


Not only were the dresses at the D & T Show but Sarah and her clever students, along with their work will be exhibiting at the Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch Show at the NEC Birmingham in March next year. I am hoping that some of the garments will be featured in the daily fashion shows. Dedicated teachers like Sarah deserve a round of applause now and then. Well Done Sarah!!!!


I had a lovely big stand to play on. I am very lucky to be a part of this show. It is only for educational professionals and it is my job to inspire teachers to include textiles in their teaching. The show is full of big machinery including laser cutters, heat presses and all kinds printers and educational supplies. One of the products I got to play with was HIPS. High Impact Polystyrene Sheet is used for vacuum forming. The bits that are left over after a shape has been formed are then shredded. A young man very kindly gave me a bucket of shredded HIPS.

 a bucket full of lovely coloured HIPS chips!!!

I had seen this young man turning all these coloured chips into sheet form with a heat press and then laser cutting it. As I had my heat press on the stand I thought I would have a go. I discovered my heat press was hot enough to melt the HIPS into a sheet. I added some sequins to the mix - ooohh! Sparkly! As I don't have a laser cutter - YET!!! I thought I would try cutting this sheet with my die cutting machine. This was bit naughty as the dies are not made to cut anything as thick or hard - but it worked! I don't think I should do it too often, but a girl has to try these things.


This is a brooch I made from the HIPS - I  love this stuff and will be playing more.

But for now I need to get on with clearing and cleaning my house ready for the Open House this weekend. My first artists are arriving tomorrow so I had better get a move on . . . . . 

 x

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