Product

Much of the production process is explained in the above section. I will use laser cutting to create the intricate buildings design onto two tan pieces of canvas with the settings at speed 12, power 15, to try to limit the darkness of the burnt edges. Each piece will be the same design, with about 5 inches on each edge of each sheet for seams, and for me to use an X-acto knife to cut in my own portion of the skyline so sewing these panels together will still provide a continuous pattern. The reason I have two pieces is because the Rabbit laser cutter is not wide enough to cut 2 yards of fabric. Also, stretching the image to be 2 yards long will cause lengthwise distortion in the shapes that are cut. 

Through http://www.wikihow.com/Whipstitch, I learned how to whip stitch the tops of the pleats onto the separate waistband. This also made it clear how the cartridge pleats allows for such defined, round folds in the clothing: we do not have to press the pleats into creases, or flatten the pleats for easy attachment to the waist band. The roundness is preserved by the whip stitch. 

I will use hand sewing for the circuitry component of layer two, and also likely hand sew the tan to the black layer to make sure the shape is consistent. 

My waist's circumference is 28 inches, and my hips are 38 inches around. The skirt will extend about 2 feet from the waist. The pleats are made with 1.5 inch wide running stitches. If the fabric is loosely gathered, I would need about 2 yards of fabric (with about 1 yard width)  for each layer, so 4 yards total lengthwise. Extra fabric can be sewn together in long strips to be about 3 inches width-wise, and a few feet lengthwise for the wrap tie. 

 To give a clearer idea of the "layering" occurring, the skirt will be assembled with the two components shown here:   To the left is layer 1, to the right is layer 2. As you can see in the first image below, the two layers look like they are sew with relatively the same measurements, technique, and shape. 

The screenshot below depicts the process of creating the DXF file for laser cutting using Adobe Illustrator CC, as shown in class.