I then looked at balloons as an enclosure of air, and then moved on to hot air balloons because I have always been fascinated by their shape and colours and just the magical notion of floating up into the sky.

Psychiatric Hospital -An enclosure for psychiatric patients. I looked at types of restraints and enclosure used in these facilities.In Alexander McQueen's SS01 collection he used mirrorred glass, head bands and nurse's wear to evoke the troubled setting of a psychiatric hospital.

I then started to look at other fabrics associated with bondage and fetish- PVC and Plastic. I would really like to work with these fabrics because I love the shininess, translucency and and aggressive nature of them. These are also great materials because they hold and create volume brilliantly which I love!

Una Burke - Created beautiful bondage designs based on the oppression of women. I really like how the nude colour of the leather contradicts the tough and aggressive characteristics of leather as a fabric.

I then looked at bondage in fashion and how it is an enclosure of the body.

The Burkha- A religious enclosure for Muslim women. I looked at the Burkha and the different types of Burkha associated with the Muslim religion. I was surprised to learn that there are actually 3 types of Burkha, from full facial exposure to complete head to toe coverage of the womans's body.

THEMES... Although I enjoyed researching each of the themes,I found I was most drawn to the theme of 'enclosure'.

Sandra Backlund is a German knitwear designer - I really admire her work because before I had seen it, I thought of knitwear as a really boring craft for grannies. I love how she creates volume and symmetry in her designs.

Knit stitch used in a garment...

Knit Techniques- Knit and purl

Boning of fabric- Boning is designed to keep a garment rigid without bunching the fabric.It can be made from a wide variety of materials, including whale bone, plastic or steel.

Twisting- Alters the materials shape by turning the ends in opposite directions so that parts previously in the same straight line and pland are located in a spiral curve. More than one material can be twisted together.

Gathering- Consists of small folds or ruffles made by pulling tight a thread in a line of stitching. I really like this technique because it creates volume really easily.

Pleating- A fold in material made by doubling the material upon itself and then pressing or stitching it into place.

Folding/ Origami- Is the traditional Japanese art of folding paper. The goal of this art is to transform a flat piece of paper/material into a finished sculpture through folding techniques. I really like this technique because it produces a clean and stuctured finish.

Quilting -Is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker, padded material.

Fashion Elective : 'The Natural World'-Birds

I spent the last 2 weeks doing the fashion elective. We were given a brief in which we had to choose a theme, I chose 'The Natural World' .We had to explore shapes of an aspect of our choice which fit into our theme.  I chose to explore birds and their shapes because I find birds extremely interesting terms of shape.I found this project really enjoyable because we did a lot of designing and draping on the mannequins, intro to the sewing machine was fun and even more so when I attempted to sew a straight line and failed completely!! :)

Iv'e been trying for the last 40minutes to upload some photos onto this thing but it just doesnt seem to be working for me!! I shall keep trying......