SMCC > Collections > Textiles > Student project ideas > Haslemere Museum Design Project

Haslemere Museum design project

Student brief

In the past clothing was not mass produced, garments had to last, not be thrown away to make way for the next new fashion. People spent time personalising their clothes and household items to make them special. Even aprons were beautifully embroidered. People's leisure time was spent differently than in today's society with its huge amount of entertainments. Women would sit sewing in the evenings, in family groups. Nowadays with mass production and technological advances we can produce the same beautiful embroidery on garments but these are not individual, they are one of many, quickly produced and relatively worthless.

To design and make items to be sold in the museum's gift shop, which use ideas from Haslemere Museum's Peasant Art collection.

At the museum

Haslemere Museum has many examples of the beautiful work done in this country and abroad, in their 'Peasant Art' collection.
Select, study, sketch and make notes on a motif or design of your choice from the collection. o Study the garment or object it was made to decorate, considering:

o The materials used.

o How it works with the shape of the garment/object.

o What occasion it would have been worn/used for.

Consider the types of things that are currently sold in the museum gift shop. Are there are any areas that could be identified as gaps in the market, where something new could be sold.

Back at school

Look at the sketches and notes of your chosen motif then modify and develop them to obtain six new design ideas and pattern ways, stemming from the original.
o Use these new ideas to decorate and inspire two or three items, which could be sold in the gift shop at Haslemere Museum to complement the Peasant Art collection. (e.g. fabric covered notebooks, cushion covers, household items, bags, t-shirts or mugs)
Students could use block printing techniques, or lino prints, CAD embroidery or any decorative style they choose on any choice of materials.

Braid from Poland made in the 19th century