Hanna Designs a Dress

Programme 9 Outline

Hanna hunts through the charity shops for clothes she can use. She chooses a top and some jeans and takes them home. Hanna spends some time looking at the clothes she’s bought. How can she alter the shapes and use the materials in a new way? She makes some drawings to sort out her ideas.

She cuts up the jeans into strips of denim. She cuts off the collar of the blouse and re-shapes the neckline. Using a sewing machine, she stitches zigzag seams into the body of the blouse to change its shape and make it tighter fitting.

In the kitchen, she makes pink dye. She mashes up some cooked beetroot and boils it with a little water. When the dye has cooled, she paints it onto the blouse in broad brushstrokes.

The outfit is ready. Hanna gets a friend to model it for her. The strips of denim are used to make leggings and arm bands. Hanna shoots some photos of her design. It’s now hard to believe that her fashion statement started as some unwanted clothes in a charity shop.