Soft Skills Proposal & Sample Book

Project Proposal

My goal is to investigate the various textiles and non-traditional materials to construct bowties. Part of my inspiration for this project is derived from my construction of a bow while trying to sew a heart pillow during lab. The sketch below is an example what I propose to construct. 

Product Material: Leather, Plastic, Canvas, Thread

Technique and Concepts Used: In order to create the design on the leather, I plan to use a laser cutter to make precise geometric patterns. This would be similar to what is roughly shown in the sketch. I would then use a combination of hand sewing and machine sewing to construct the 'tie' and to sew on the adjustable clasp. 

Sample Book

The above is a practice swatch comprised of various hand stitches. The stitches shown are the running stitch (basting/tiny), the backstitch, the whip stitch, and the blanket stitch. The blanket stitch was used to sew on the purple ice cream cone as well. 

The three images above demonstrate the use of various stitches on the sewing machine as well as control. The samples are indicative of the skill required to maneuver a machine. After a few more hours of practice, I was able to practice writing part of my name. The use of the sewing machine was exponentially faster than hand sewing and will be used in the future for large projects. 

The above images are examples of seams made on the sewing machine. One challenge was creating the knots when beginning and finishing the seam as well as following the reference line (as shown in the second photo). In the second photo, one piece of fabric is used to create seams instead of two separate pieces.

This is an introduction piece for soft circuits. This discussion was particularly interesting for it incorporating soft circuits and electrical components with traditional textiles.  The eyes are small LEDs (the legs are twisted and sewn onto the fabric. Electricity is conducted through the thread in a simple circuit. When the snap, located on the trunk of the elephant is closed, the light illuminates. It would be interesting to apply this concept on a larger scale. 

The stars and hexagons were cut using a laser cutter. The process was fairly simple. The design was drawn on Adobe Illustrator then saved as a DXF (drawing exchange format) file. The file was then uploaded to the scanner and voila! 

Last, but not least I investigated felting.  The process involved the use of a felting needle. This is quite longer and thicker than a traditonal sewing needle. It was used to interlock the wool fibres. 

Reflection

Reflect on the process of making this project. What did you learn? What would you do differently?