Object Pattern Making.

The Object Pattern making Workshop.

The  group ready to start the object pattern making workshop. We needed cartridge paper, masking tape, scissors, craft knife, ruler/square/pattern master, pencil, black felt tip pen and a camera. As you can see I have bought a glass bottle to cover.

Cut the masking tape into strips and place onto a cutting board.

Cut the strips in half using the ruler.

 Mark one of the narrow strips the black line along the centre
and place onto the object to be covered.

 Take the next strip and place it alongside the marked strip as in the picture
above.

 Keep wrapping object from top to bottom until fully wrapped.
Then start wrapping the masking tape around the object as
in the photograph above.

 When the object is fully wrapped ( two layers) as above.
Then mark where you're going to cut the tape off. See picture
above.

 Mark from the bottom of the object first with pencil and then
with the fine black felt pen.

 Mark the object with lines as shown in the photograph above.
 

 Mark lines with numbers so you can rejoin
the pieces together after they have been cut.

 Now with a craft knife you start cutting along the lines
through the masking tape which can be quite difficult
because it's quite thick in places so you need a sharp
craft knife.

 When you finish cutting out the shapes flatten them as much
as you can. Then place them onto a piece of paper and
cut them out. To finish the process you need to place the
cut out paper shapes onto pattern paper, making an allowance
all around the seams. To recreate the object in fabric you then cut
 the pattern shapes out in fabric, sew the seams and hey presto, a cover
for your object !!!

Pattern Cutting Zero Waste.

  This lecture was about developing patterns and losing the 15/20% of cutting waste of the fashion industry as this waste goes into landfill sites. Designers are looking at ways to reuse the waste, creating new garments or using the scraps as a form of embellishment.
Designers are now looking at the historical patterns/styles where they would wrap the fabric round the body using a geometric shape. By using geometric block patterns this reduces seams and the amount of sewing causing the fabric to drape on the body.
These are a few designers who are using this technique.
Holly McQuillan. She uses several patterns drawn into a piece of fabric.
Julia Lumsden.  A student of Holly McQuillan above. She designs menswear and I quote  "through the pattern comes the design" and uses the scraps of fabric as a form of embellishment.
David Telfer. He uses minimal seam cutting so there's less seams to sew and again block cutting.
Joe O'Neill. He is a high Street designer who also is into zero waste, again uses block cutting.
Most of the designers are now looking at zero waste when designing fashion and their idea's behind this is, pattern shapes, fabric manipulation, wraparound, so the excess fabric drapes elegantly and the geometric shape fits beautifully on the figure.
Pattern versus design, the pattern shape dictates the design of the garment but in this process it is often the fabric that dictates the design ! The difficulties are, what hangs well, compromising is the key,  fabric manipulation and evaluating the pattern at each stage.
I listened to this lecture with great interest, because in the past I have made my own clothes, so I know about manipulating fabric and design but I feel that even using these block patterns you are driven by the fabric you use. Using a different fabric like linen you would still have waste by having to cut the fabric into a shape and not into blocks. By cutting the linen into blocks you would still have to shape the blocks as the linen would not drape! I'm not sure that this idea really works because you would have to use flowing soft fabric and the amount of fabric that actually goes into the making of the garment to make it drape is more than the fabric you would lose by cutting it into shape! So my final conclusion is, initially you would have less waste in landfills but looking at it long term when the garment comes to the end of it's life, you would end up with more fabric in the landfill because you used more fabric in the first place !!