Fabric Shopping

I have been to local shops in Bournemouth and Shepherd's Bush in London to do fabric sourcing and I have found some really excellent fabrics that have great potential to lend themselves to my designs.  I tried hard to look for fabrics that were all natural and avoided nylons and polyesters as much as possible, I mainly looked for silks, wool, linen, and velvet; this way I could also dye the fabrics to make the colours I wanted.  I found some truly beautiful fabrics and it was an interesting experience shopping for fabrics that are actually going to be used.  In my previous projects they have all been hypothetical so the pressure to really consider fabrics and whether they would really work as the designs was less, so this was a challenge.  I had to consider the drape and weight of the fabrics as to how they would sit on the figure and hang as depicted by my designs, this was a really interesting experience and it was very exciting seeing the potential the fabrics could offer me.  Now I have my fabrics I can finish my designs and accurately show what I want the costumes to look like, both in colour and style.  I am satisfied that my fabric choices will work well and they stay relatively true to the medieval period while working with my colour palette to create the visual effects that I wanted.