Final year project
Ethereal Woodlands [Read more]
Digitally printed silk skirt, with applique and embroidery details
Autumn’s skeletal leaves and vulnerable branches inspire this skirt. Free-machine embroidery has been used to insert hand-dyed cotton organdie petal shapes into silk. Rebecca created the half-drop repeat digital print by combining photography of leaves and branches trapped in ice.
Digitally embroidered lace bodice
Bare winter tree branches and cold winter skies inspire this piece. The design is digitally embroidered on to hand-dyed cotton organdie. Segments are cut out to allow the light to pass through.
Hand-cut cotton velour branches on cotton organdie
Inspired by bare winter trees, this piece is textural to touch as the cotton velour pile stands up from the base fabric.
Cotton organdie shirt with embroidery, appliqué and fringing details
Rebecca made this shirt from hand-dyed cotton organdie and worked into it with fringing and free-machine embroidery, making it so that there are areas of varied transparency and opacity. Rebecca found that fringing with yarn was effective in translating the moss, algae, and foliage into textiles. The collar also uses free machine embroidery as well as fringing and appliqué with hand-dyed cotton velour, inspired by lichen.
Hand-dyed cotton velour trim embellished with Swarovski crystals
Inspired by lichen and moss, this trim is made from hand-dyed cotton velour, and shaped using a 3D-shibori-style technique of gathering fabric. It is embellished with Swarovski crystals and mounted on a bed of fringing attached to hand-dyed cotton organdie.
Structural princess pleats inspired by fungi
This experimental piece is inspired by the shapes and lines in fungi and mushrooms found in the woods. Rebecca has used hand-dyed cotton voile to create princess pleats and innovatively manipulated them into a 3D organically-shaped structure.
Princess pleats and digitally printed silk inserted into seams
Also inspired by fungi and mushrooms, this piece consists of princess pleats and digitally printed silk shapes inserted into the diagonal seams of navy and black silk.
Final Collection Visualisation
This digital artwork is a visualisation of this collection’s pieces in application for a luxury womens wear collection.
Rebecca McBallantine
Rebecca specialises in multi-media textile design for a fashion application. She draws most of her visual inspiration from the colours and shapes in nature.
Rebecca's final major project ‘Ethereal Woodlands’ is based on untamed woodlands, and has an ethereal aesthetic. Rebecca is drawn to using nature as inspiration for her designs because of her admiration for the natural world and its colours and landscapes. Rebecca began exploring this theme through drawing and photography, which lead to her becoming particularly interested in the lichen, moss, fungi, decaying flowers and leaves, and moody winter skies. She was also particularly drawn to the bare trees and their vulnerable branches because of how they show nature’s delicacy and resilience through the winter. Some of the techniques and processes Rebecca has used in making this collection include digital printing, hand-dyeing, free machine embroidery, digital embroidery, embellishment, fringing, pleating, gathering, along with a variety of fabric manipulation techniques. Her final outcomes for this project are a mixture of textile samples and finished garments.
Final year project
Ethereal Woodlands
Awards
In September 2017 Rebecca was awarded a full scholarship for the 3-year Textiles Innovation and Design BA at Loughborough University. This scholarship was awarded by the Sarabande Foundation, founded by Lee Alexander McQueen. Rebecca was put forward for this award by her tutors on the Art and Design Foundation Studies programme at Loughborough University, based on the high quality of her work. Rebecca went through a portfolio interview process, and was successfully awarded the scholarship by fashion stylist Katy England. Rebecca travels down to London for events and seminars at the Sarabande Foundation held by top designers and industry figures.
Rebecca won two prizes in the Bradford Textiles Society Competition 2020 with samples from her collection 'Fibres of Yellowstone,' which drew visual inspiration from Yellowstone National Park which she visited whilst travelling. Rebecca won 2nd prize in category U1: Multi-Media Construction and New Technologies (a material construction, for either fashion/accessories or interior products, produced by non-conventional processes and/or materials or by new technologies). This work was based on the thermophiles at Yellowstone National Park, and produced through a process of laser cutting and hand-painting with bleach. Rebecca also won 2nd prize in the category C1 Combined Textile Processes (a fabric design for fashion/accessories or interior products which shows an innovative combination of textile processes). This design was based on the landscape of Yellowstone and the patterns in the rocks. It was produced through digital printing, digital embroidery, fabric manipulation, hand painting and embellishment.
In February 2018 some of Rebecca's textiles work from her collection 'Floral Metamorphosis' was selected to go to Premiere Vision Paris as part of the Loughborough University stand. These samples were multimedia textile designs for fashion, made through techniques including free machine embroidery, hand dyeing and embellishment. In February 2019 Rebecca's work was again selected to go to Premiere Vision, this time the work was from her multimedia fashion collection 'Fibres of Yellowstone,' produced through digital print, laser cutting, digital embroidery, fabric manipulation, and hand painting on to fabric with dye and bleach.
In 2018 some of Rebecca's textiles work was selected for an exhibit at Charnwood Arts Museum as part of the Re-Making History collaboration between Charnwood Arts and Loughborough University. This design was based on dendrochronology of trees in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, produced through a combination of fabric manipulation techniques.
Experience
In 2019 Rebecca completed work experience at multinational clothing and home products retailer, Next. Rebecca shadowed members of the design team and learnt about methods of building a commercial fashion collection, trend analysis, design specification and the design development process, garment design and fitting. She was able to apply some of the knowledge and skills gained from her Textiles degree as well as what she has learnt at the Sarabande Foundation, to contribute to design discussions and trend research.