Comments on: Zero fabric waste fashion design

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:38:05 +0000

As a weaver, I was already acquainted with “Cut My Cote” as informative on how the problem of fraying has been dealt with as economically (in terms of saving time dealing with it by minimizing cutting). Another major interest of mine is embellishment and hand arts such as smocking, which have also been used to shape while minimizing cutting. These last don’t minimize fabric use, but they do minimize wasted of fabric, I would say, by turning what would have been wasted by cutting into an attractive feature. This entry will be one I mark to inform my design process if I ever make it to the point of having a line. It’s possible. I’m finally writing that novel I always intended to write.

By: Zaz

Zaz — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:27:06 +0000

hello kathleen,
first of all thank you for your kind words about my work. you’re not the only one to think that the “designing knits” and its business is a hard thing. i’ve seen a professional cabinet, but even them have a hard time figuring out if knits are a viable business.
now for the no waste designing in pattern, you strike a very important topic. i immediatly thought of the kimono having seen a page with the fabric and how the pieces of it are layed out and every inch used. i bought an army blanket some time ago and this morning i was laying it on me from both ends to see which would give me more lenghth, a collar (maybe). then i used paper towels from the kitchen to try both options (in width or height) and i had started sewing the second sleeve when i decided to check my emails to take a break. not one inch of the blanket will be left, and i am so happy to have a coat for my new year’s eve travel in alsace.
thanks again, it is so good to see that people are trying not only to save for the money but save because it is “such a waste” to throw anything” because we are too “special” to be bothered with calculations or too lazy to do any, or too busy with frills to think of fabric waste.
i hope i am clear because english is nt my first language.
thank you,
zaz

By: Timo Rissanen

Timo Rissanen — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:49:45 +0000

Wow, Kathleen, and thanks! And thank you everyone for the kind comments! I’ve only skimmed after a less than ideal day at work but will try to post some thoughts within the next 24 hours. I only became aware of ‘Cut My Cote’ relatively recently, in May at a conference (a funny story about stripping off a Westwood shirt for Alexandra Palmer and Juliet Ash… It was Palmer who actually brought the text up.) Another ‘hole’ to patch as the thesis *tears* develops. I’m further embarrassed to admit that I haven’t got Kathleen’s book but am expecting it this week or next. I have, however, read through the archives here extensively, and thoroughly enjoyed the thoughtful and insightful discussions. So thanks everyone. Yesterday I got David Tyler’s ‘Materials Management in Clothing Production’ (please, I have had beyond traumatising experiences with html tags so can’t link) from 1991, and in terms of the fabric waste thing, it makes for a depressing read, at least initially. It’s all very well to design something where everything interlocks beautifully in the marker but if you’ve got massive variation in width in the one roll (and I’ve seen this happen, especially with inexpensive fabrics) then the effort might be wasted. I’m not so convinced any more that most of the time 99% fabric usage is possible in producing multiples, but I do still passionately believe that creatively harnessing patternmaking as a design tool (as opposed to regarding it as some sort of alchemy that follows design…) can get us a much better result.

Being one myself, right from the start I wanted the PhD to benefit primarily other designer/patternmakers as well as people that are one or the other. I’ve a (self-diagnosed) allergy to much academic writing so Kathleen, I take your comment about the readability of the paper as a huge compliment. Of course that doesn’t solve the problem that once the thesis is finished, it will be stored in the thesis mausoleum in the university library and nobody will ever see it again. But in coming months (if anyone is interested) I’d love to provide F-I with some Pattern Puzzles from the menswear collection I’m working on.

And just one final thank you to Kathleen: Thank you for all the experiments that you’ve shared here, including the ones that (you say) ‘failed’. In fact, thank you particularly for sharing the failed ones. It’s from those that more succesful experiments and new knowledge emerge.

By: Penny

Penny — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:25:50 +0000

I can’t agree more. There is an abundance of wasted resources, time, and energy at the design stage. The amount of wasted resources, money, time and manpower on consistently uprooting ideas, directions, samples, color stories…etc…etc…is staggering! This is usually justified as “part of the creative process”, but in reality very little has to do with being creative and has more to do with lack of vision, bad management or a general disrespect for “the design process” and the vast coordination of resources it takes to produce a quality product. There’s no reason why the design process can’t be streamlined more up front to efficiently utilize these resources. This would require the design dept. to THINK thru the big picture, spending more time merchandizing the lines up front instead of waiting until later in the game which often results in numerous styles being dropped or haphazardly redesigned at the last minute. I totally understand when concepts that look great on paper don’t translate well into actual fabrications, but more often than not, it’s the lack of preliminary forethought at the design / concept development stage that accounts for the excessive wasted resources later on.

By: anir

anir — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:01:49 +0000

Christopher Frayling is the other person I was thinking of who has done work on craft theory and tacit knowledge. He teaches at the Royal College of Art in London. I assume others who visit this blog probably knows more about him than I do.

The whole tacit knowledge thing though is not that new. Michael Polanyi has done a lot of work in this area also. And some where I have more info about earlier folks. If I can scare it up I will post it later.

By: Lisa Bloodgood

Lisa Bloodgood — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:13:56 +0000

I’ve always be at least vaguely annoyed that cutting garments etc. left so much scrap behind. I have probably as many containers of scraps in my attic as I have big pieces. (And no one gets the scrap till I move and can go thru it; the attic is to annoying to do that in.)

But I am making a bunch of handbags for a Christmas bazaar that are made almost entirely from some of those scraps (I had to buy a couple small pieces for lining a couple of the bags), so at least I’m recycling some of my stash.

By: anir

anir — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:18:01 +0000

I love David Pye’s work–there’s another Brit whose looks at the theory of workpersonship also–i’ll get his name later.

I like the feather/flower dresses although I can see that they would not appeal to everyone. Still it seems to me that the idea of waste has be more than just not having scraps left over. That is how much more energy might one be using to laser cut those wonderful flower edges–and is that energy renewable? How much longer would it take to construct the flower edge garment? I’m asking the questions to try to look at the whole process of making, though I sure don’t want to discourage innovation in any kind of waste, whether it happens on the design end or somewhere else.

By: J C Sprowls

J C Sprowls — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:00:20 +0000

I have some information to add fuel to the girth situation you allude to. Last weekend, I sewed a 58 Stout Portly jacket. It took an additional 30% of time to do because the sewing table was too narrow to hold the garment. It required folding the jacket in order to control the seams as they passed under the needle.

In short, the epidemic affects all aspects of manufacture, not just spreading and cutting.

By: Vesta

Vesta — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:54:50 +0000

Believe it or not, this is something I’ve thought quite a lot about. And as I’m neither pattern maker nor cutter, it’s been strictly from the design stand-point. One of our products is made to the width it is because I can get exactly two out of a 60″ width fabric (or thereabouts - this product doesn’t need to be precise in the width). I regularly make decisions to standardize pattern parts for reasons of fabric usage. Granted, I’m not making apparel, so there’s a big difference there, but this stuff is definitely on our radar, and fascinating to think about.

By: Kai Jones

Kai Jones — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:31:08 +0000

I think Project Runway did a “zero waste” project last season; the designers mostly did not rise to the challenge (one stuffed the scraps into a purse and called it “merchandising).