Yarn Painting

One of my favorite projects from last year's  Fibers and Fabrics class was yarn painting fashion design.  I know that sounds like a strange combination, but let me explain.

Last year, I taught a one semester class entitled Photoshop Fashion which basically consisted of learning the different parts of garments, categories of clothing, fashion terms and designers, and designing various garments using Adobe Photoshop.  The following semester, the same girls were enrolled in a course called Fibers and Fabrics.  In this class, they created projects using mostly fabrics and yarns.  Since they had all just had a semester of dress designing on Photoshop, designing their clothing on fashion figure templates, I took it a step further and taught them how to draw their own fashion figures.  All of these girls had previously taken my graphics classes, and although most of them were pretty good using the computer, none of them had actually taken a drawing course, but they were a creative group, so I had high hopes for them.  They did not disappoint.

After drawing a simple fashion figure on a 12" x16" piece of drawing paper, they sketched out their garment design on their fashion figures and then transferred their drawings onto poster board using graphite paper ( if you don't have graphite paper, the tried and true method of covering the back of the drawing with a thick layer of pencil and then flipping it over with the scribbled side down onto the poster board and tracing over with pencil works just as well).

I showed them some examples of yarn painting which I did in my art history class several years ago.  We were going to adapt that technique and use it to create yarn fashions.

The girls were skeptical at first of this seemingly daunting task that lay ahead of them, but as they began, they realized that it was easier than it looked. 

They could use any type of yarn from my yarn box.   I stressed creating different patterns and colors with the yarn which would make the final outcome much more interesting.  The only trick to doing this project is keeping  the yarn from sticking to your fingers as you glue it down.  (I suggest a toothpick to push the yarn down instead of your fingers.)

If I did this project again, I would have the students do some sort of a minimal background using watercolor or scrapbook paper.  I was pleased with the results, though.  They were all so different depending on their choice of yarn, color, technique and design. Unfortunately, the photos are not that good, but you can get an idea of what they came up with.