On Monday we had a lecture and workshop by David Telfer who works for Suns. He discussed his work with minimal seam development and zero waste fashion from his degree through to his current position. Having always been told the importance of working along the grain of a fabric it was interesting to hear someone talk about working with the space of the fabric and not really considering the direction of it. He worked with developing simple patterns and creating designs with minimal seams to simplify pattern cutting. From that he worked with companies including north face to create a zero waste pattern cut design the final result of which was exhibited as part of an exhibition. He talked about the pros and cons of zero waste and about how although it saves material it makes grading almost impossible so doesn't work for mass production.
Following the lecture we had a workshop looking at creating our own minimal seam patterns and zero waste designs. Using his t-shirt templates we were encouraged to alter the pattern whilst keeping the final shape to see how far you could push a minimal seam pattern. Also from tracing top blocks onto calico and cutting just the neck and sleeve lines we were encouraged to create a design on the stand from cutting excess material and adding it back in details.
Although I'm unsure how much of this I could take into my own project it was a great new way to look at pattern cutting. The most appropriate perhaps was the exercise on the stand as you could manipulate the design through draping and pinning. This is a technique I could use in my final garment giving me the freedom to work with an embellished piece of fabric on the stand and could work better for me than traditional pattern cutting depending on the final design.
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