Border Reivers Final

Border Reivers Final

Waistcoat of a Reiver

Late-medieval jack, National Museum of Scotland collection: "A leather jacket, reinforced for self-protection by metal plates, of the kind that would have been worn by Border Reivers in the 16th century.

I wanted to create a t-shirt with the print of the reiver's waistcoat.......

But that being so easy I felt it wasn't enough and I wanted to know what texture or thinking went into something!

I decided to look around for textured junk or scraps to use. I found some wire and decide to ask the Electrical dept at Borders College for some copper wire and bits.

using the wire as a template

using myself as a model for size and structure 

I used mod mesh to cover the frame

After about 4 hours of stripping back the wire and bending it into place the framework didn't have the movement I had tried to keep going throughout........I hated where it was going! I was losing my way and my idea........Back to the start.......I had to strip it back

Notice the back is softer wire to aid movement

slots for the arms I left bigger this time

Using an old duvet to cover and add padding

Next I had to pin around the wire to sew the duvet to the wire......I have to cover the duvet now with a brown coloured fabric also... To make the neck and waist pieces I used the wire and mod mesh. I wanted to exaggerate these areas as I felt it would make the final outcome better in-keeping with the outfit............Note Michelangelo and other artist's would do this to get a bigger or better result on the viewers eye or to give a better illusion and perspective.

1 DAY LATER 

After covering the quilt in brown fabric and starting some sewing I decided my design wasnt really going to plan. I gave up and started to work on showing the idea of texture and pattern on the original waistcoat.

I also went to Invision our local printers! To get a quote for the transfer of the waistcoat image onto a T-shirt......unfortunately they didn't have the correct equipment to actually do what I was asking!
He did tell me that an A4 transfer on a T-shirt was around £12.........

I got a children's white T-shirt and started to design the pattern onto it to replicate the design to show what I was trying to create..........

see book firfinal image on this........